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75-Year-Old Granny Fight to Stop Potash Mine in Northeastern Thailand

75-Year-Old Granny Fight to Prevent Potash Mine in Northeastern Thailand

An Environment Conservation Group in northeastern Thailand is fighting to prevent a potash mine from becoming active. Ms. Manee Boonrod, 75, says she will continue to fight for the environment and the health of her neighbours.

“If you want to mine potash, do it in your area, not ours,” Manee, a key figure in the Udon Thani Environment Conservation Group, stated. She has fought a plan to operate a massive potash mine for over 20 years.

“It’s always been a pleasure to live in our hometown.” But we don’t know what will happen if mining operations begin here,” she explained. 

Asia Pacific Potash Corporation (APPC), in which Italian-Thai Development Plc owns 90%, and the Finance Ministry owns 10%, has been awarded the license to operate a potash mine of 26,446 rai in Udon Thani. 

Locals currently own the majority of this land. The license allows APPC to collect potash as long as mining operations are at least 100 meters below the surface.

Potash mine Thailand

The 25-year license potash mine went into effect on September 23 this year.

APPC will concentrate on the construction required to mine the potash for the first three years. Over the following 21 years, it plans to produce up to two million tons of potash fertilizer annually.

Following the mine’s closure, it must spend a year or two rehabilitating the natural terrain around it, according to the license terms.

After research revealed that Udon Thani is rich in potash, APPC picked this location for its mine.

“Once operational, the mine would drastically reduce Thailand’s reliance on potash imports,” said government deputy spokeswoman Ratchada Thanadirek.

potash imports thailand

Thailand now imports 800,000 tons of potash annually, primarily for fertilizer manufacturing. The annual cost of importing ranges between 7.6 billion and 10 billion baht. Potash prices have skyrocketed since sanctions were placed on potash-producing Russia in response to its February invasion of Ukraine.

According to APPC, the mine will reduce Thailand’s potash imports by seven billion baht and export eighteen billion baht of raw material annually. It goes on to say that the mine will provide more than 29.5 billion baht in revenue for the government over its lifetime.

Locals suspect the government granted APPC the license even though a dispute over its intended operation is pending before the Supreme Administrative Court.

“We can’t believe officials have neglected our two-decade campaign,” said Pikulthong Totuyo, a senior Udon Thani Environment Conservation Group member.

potash mine protest thailand

On May 9, 2013, her organization filed a lawsuit with the Udon Thani Administrative Court seeking intervention concerning a study on land-rights documents to be used in favour of the proposed potash mine.

In 2018, the court decided to favour the group, citing the report’s illegitimacy. Thailand’s Department of Mines and Industry and the Udon Thani Industry Office were both tasked with reviewing APPC’s request for a mining license under the Minerals Act BE 2560, passed in 2017. 

The Supreme Administrative Court is still considering the APPC’s appeal.

“We did not fight this struggle alone,” Pikulthong explained. “Local teenagers, as well as environmentalists from across Thailand, have joined our fight.”

Locals, according to Pikulthong, are especially concerned about the planned potash mine’s potential health and environmental repercussions. Residents have toiled in agriculture for centuries and enjoyed high yields. Despite their lack of wealth, they are content with their way of life.

“What if the mine results in land subsidence, air pollution, and infertile soil?” she wondered.

potash mine

She said the environmental concerns are not unfounded, given the damage done by Thailand’s first potash mine in Nakhon. The Dan Khun Thod mine has produced 100,000 tons of potash annually since receiving a license in 2015.

“We’ve already seen land collapse in Dan Khun Thod,” Pikulthong explained. “Mining operations will produce outcomes over which we have no control.”

The country’s second potash mine, managed by ASEAN Potash Chaiyaphum Plc, is yet to begin production.

APPC has completed an environmental impact assessment in preparation for opening Thailand’s third potash mine (EIA). However, the Udon Thani Environment Conservation Group maintains that the EIA was incorrectly completed, with Suwit Kularbwong, the group’s advisor, claiming that residents were excluded from the assessment process.

“Whenever we bring this up, officials merely respond that this or that step has already been accomplished,” he stated.

He noted that if authorities proceed with the APPC potash mine, they must at least provide assurances that its operations will be safe and fair to communities.

“If you declare in the EIA that you have steps to reduce environmental consequences, you must apply them visibly for us to see,” Suwit said.

potash

According to officials, APPC would ensure that its mining operations do not jeopardize the soil structure, preventing land subsidence. As a result, built structures in the area will be unaffected. Furthermore, the EIA includes strategies to deal with the area’s salt, dust, and salinity.

According to the APPC’s strategic environmental assessment, 63 percent of direct stakeholders support the establishment of a potash mine in their community, subject to certain criteria. 

The prerequisites include the following:

  • Adequate environmental protection.
  • Compensation for affected persons.
  • The provision of a portion of the mine’s income to local community development.

In addition, only 100 of the 2,000 persons who attended public discussions on the potash project opposed the plans.

Suwit, on the other hand, stated that public forums were typically held inside military camps, away from residents living near the proposed mine site.

Sompoch Wongkathum, APPC community relations chief, claimed that just a few families opposed the mining project and that his team was reaching out to explain the benefits they would receive.

“We will also establish 11 funds for communities and the environment.” During the course of the project, these funds will give over 3.5 billion baht for community and environmental care,” he stated.

The Udon Thani Environment Conservation Group aims to oppose the APPC mine to the bitter end, submitting petitions to numerous authorities, including the governor of Udon Thani.

“I’m not sure if the potash mine will ever come here,” Manee remarked. “However, I can assure you that we will fight to the death.”

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

google

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

google

Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

google

Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

trump

Washington — Trump Media,  The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.

The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.

The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.

The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.

trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.

Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.

trump

Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.

The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.

musk trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.

He also welcomed back a vast list of previously banned users, including Trump, and endorsed him for the 2024 presidential election.

SOURCE | AP

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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Could Last-Minute Surprises Derail Kamala Harris’ Campaign? “Nostradamus” Explains the US Poll.

Scientists Awarded MicroRNA The Nobel Prize in Medicine.

US Inflation will Comfort a Fed Focused on Labor Markets.

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