Connect with us

News

Indian Child Marriage Crackdown Causes Distress To Families

Indian child marriage crackdown causes distress to families

(CTN NEWS) – MORIGAON, India – Nureja Khatun, 19, is concerned as she waits outside the neighborhood police station in her hamlet in northeast India. She has been holding her 6-month-old child while she waits to see her husband before the cops take him to court.

She sees her husband Akbar Ali briefly after over an hour has passed before he is bundled into a police vehicle. Before she can get any answers, a cop shuts the door in her face.

“Release my husband, please. Otherwise, please also take me into custody,” she begged.

In a massive crackdown on unlawful child weddings involving girls under 18, Khatun’s husband is one of more than 3,000 men, including Hindu and Muslim priests, who were detained about two weeks ago in the northeastern state of Assam.

Nureja Khatun, 19, holding her 6 months old baby, requests police to release her husband Akbor Ali, sitting in police van as they take him to court, in Morigaon district of Indian northeastern state of Assam, Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

She is devastated by the move, as are hundreds of other women who got married before turning 18 and are similar to her. Many women, who are now adults, claim that the dissolution of their families has left them furious and powerless.

Khatun relied on Ali to look after her; the two eloped in 2021 when she was just 17 years old. Ali, a laborer who made $400 per day ($5), supported his wife and their little daughter, who was born six months ago.

“No one is now feeding us. I’m not sure if my family will make it,” Khatun remarked.

In a state with a population of 35 million people, where many child marriages go undetected, strict procedures are being implemented.

The National Crime Records Bureau reports that just 155 child marriages in Assam were registered in 2021 and 138 in 2020.

In India, men must be 21, and women must be 18 before getting married. In every corner of the nation, child marriages are said to be caused by poverty, a lack of education, and social norms and customs, especially in rural areas.

A girl stands in her shanty home on the outskirts of Guwahati, India, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

According to UNICEF estimates, India is home to the world’s biggest number of child brides, making up a third of the total, with at least 1.5 million girls under 18 getting married there annually.

According to data from India’s National Health Family Survey, the age group is involved in more than 31% of weddings registered in Assam.

The state administration adopted a resolution last month pledging to end child marriage forever by 2026.

According to AVY Krishna, the additional director general of police for Assam, adolescent pregnancies might reach 26% in some districts.

He claimed that the mortality rates have been rather high due to these child weddings, which have turned into a social evil.

The punitive move has come under fire from attorneys and activists, even though the arrests have caused enormous pain among families and led to women sobbing outside police stations around the state.

A girl child plays with a doll sitting under a tree at a roadside, in Guwahati, in the Indian northeastern state of Assam, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

Several males are facing charges under India’s anti-child marriage law, which carries a two-year prison sentence, for allegedly marrying girls between the ages of 14 and 18.

Stricter legislation that guards children against sexual offenses has been utilized to punish other men who are accused of marrying girls who are younger than 14.

With prison penalties ranging from seven years to life, this offense is not subject to bail.

The High Court in Guwahati, the state’s capital, has questioned the arrests, despite the Assam police’s defense that their conduct was allowed under both statutes.

On Tuesday, it stated, “At this time, the court believes that these are not subjects for custodial interrogation.

Others said that the government should use social initiatives and education to increase awareness rather than making arrests. Anshuman Bora, a senior attorney, stated that arrests should only be used as a last resort by Supreme Court rules.

Nureja Khatun, 19, right, brings food for her mother in law in their shanty home, in Morigaon district of Indian northeastern state of Assam, Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023.(AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

“They decide to start making mass arrests to address the issue out of the blue. To stop it, they should instead concentrate on social changes.”

Activists and political rivals in the state have accused the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is now in power in Assam and is led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, of making arrests in districts and locations where many of the state’s Muslims who speak Bengali reside.

Opponents claim that the group, which has migrated over time from the nearby country of Bangladesh, has frequently been ignored by authorities.

They specifically point to the state’s problematic citizenship registry, which they claim discriminated against Muslims.

Hasina Ahmed, an attorney and social activist, stated, “we have found that members of all religions have been implicated in child weddings.” “We cannot pass such quick judgment on communities.

Radha Rani Mondal, 50, shows the photograph of her son, who was arrested by police in Morigaon district of Indian northeastern state of Assam, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023 (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

Caste and religion must not be visible. We must concentrate on the investigations and take legal action to resolve the problems.

Hundreds of Hindu men, according to officials, have also been detained, despite denials of the claims.

Among Assam’s communities, according to Ahmed, the arrests are causing more harm than good.

Most afflicted spouses came from low-income families where their husbands were the only wage earners, illiterate, and unemployed.

“From today, the government might have imposed penalties on those who engaged in the activity. The woman argued that it is inappropriate to punish people now for past child marriages.

Nureja Khatun, 19, holding her 6 months old baby, waits outside a police station to catch the glimpse of her husband Akbor Ali, in Morigaon district of Indian northeastern state of Assam, Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

Although 50-year-old Radha Rani Mondal is adamant about getting her son out of jail, she claims she lacks the resources and legal expertise necessary to do it.

Her 17-year-old daughter-in-law is pregnant, and her 20-year-old son was arrested on February 4. She paid a lawyer she owes an additional 20,000 rupees ($250) with her final 500 rupees ($6).

“I’ve been on an empty stomach to the lawyer’s office and the police station daily.

I need to set aside money for legal fees while still managing my household and to care for my daughter-in-law. It is quite challenging. “I feel powerless,” she sobbed.

RELATED CTN NEWS:

United World Wrestling Launches A Campaign To Benefit Earthquake Victims In Turkey-Syria

Thai Royal Family Donates Relief Supplies to Turkey Earthquake Victims

NM Cattle Growers Oppose Airborne Shooting Of Feral Cows

News

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

Continue Reading

News

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

Continue Reading

News

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

SEE ALSO:

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.

Continue Reading

Trending