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Making The North of Myanmar Safe For China

Kachin community in China blocked by Chinese authorities

KACHIN – China has sent more troops to its side of the border to try and stop the movement of more Kachin refugees fleeting the renewed fighting there. Last month the government began another offensive against Kachin rebels in the north and has been using artillery and air strikes to force the rebels and their families to flee the area. The Myanmar Air Force is using Chinese armed K-8 jet trainers in the north. There are now over 100,000 Kachin refugees from the renewed fighting in the north.

There are now over 100,000 Kachin refugees from the renewed fighting in the north.

The Christian Kachin are quite different from Buddhist Burmese from the south and have never considered themselves part of Myanmar. The Kachin are the only tribal rebels in the north who have not made peace with the government. The Kachin and other tribal rebels have been trying to permanently shut down Chinese hydroelectric dam projects in their territory. The electricity from the dams goes to China, the profits go to the Burmese generals and local Kachin people pay for it all with their land and way-of-life.

The government has halted, but not cancelled, the dam construction because of armed opposition by the Kachin. But the government (still largely controlled by the generals) waited for the media attention to die down so dam construction can resume. The government also tried to starve the Kachin into submission. This process began in June 2011 when the army attacked. First, civilians in rebel areas were driven out of their villages. Then the troops blocked the roads going into rebel territory, preventing food and other air from getting in. The rebels attacked the checkpoints and army patrols, but not enough to break the blockade. The government eventually allowed some UN sponsored aid through, but frequently halted the aid in response to rebel attacks on troops.

The government ordered the army to halt its attacks in December 2011, but the army apparently said it would but didn’t. The army still carries on like it is running the government, feeling free to disobey orders it disagrees with. Part of this has to do with corruption and deals army generals have made with China concerning Chinese economic projects in the north, especially in Kachin territory. The current attacks are apparently taking place in seven different areas, including an advance on the Kachin rebel headquarters near the Chinese border.

For over a year China has paid Burmese soldiers in the north to provide additional security for natural gas and petroleum pipeline construction, as well as hydroelectric dams and copper mines being built in the north.

For over a year China has paid Myanmar soldiers in the north to provide additional security for natural gas and petroleum pipeline construction, as well as hydroelectric dams and copper mines being built in the north. This was not sufficient to force the rebels back. The Kachin tribal rebels up there shut down the $3.6 billion dam project two years ago but the pipelines (going from China to the Bay of Bengal coast) continued to be built. This is partly because the Chinese paid Myanmar soldiers are being particularly brutal with any tribal peoples who get close to the Chinese workers and equipment. Meanwhile, work on Chinese hydroelectric dams is still halted and much construction equipment is still out in the bush, waiting for orders to resume work. That is costing the Chinese a lot of money.

The government tried to negotiate a new peace deal with the Kachin rebels, but that effort failed. The government has screwed the Kachin so many times in the past that it was difficult to generate sufficient trust to make a deal. The Chinese are also unhappy because the renewed fighting in 2011 sent over 10,000 Kachin fleeting into China to avoid the Burmese troops. Myanmar in general are angry about the Chinese hydroelectric dams because all the electricity will go to China. There is a serious shortage of electricity in Myanmar, and the Myanmar people wonder why the Chinese are allowed to build these dams and export all the electricity. In addition, the Kachin have been blowing up electricity transmission lines from the north, in an attempt to get the government’s attention about the Kachin rebellion and the Chinese dam projects. The Kachin attacks make the power shortages in the south worse.

It’s not just pipelines, dams and illegal timber deals. Most any large-scale economic deal in the tribal north is negotiated with the government. The Chinese pay off Myanmar government officials and then move in to start operations. A recent effort to build a copper mine ran into problems when locals, who were not consulted, or compensated, were confronted by police demanding they vacate their property so the Chinese can use it for the mine. The locals, most of them tribal, resisted. This became a political issue down south, as it resonated with corruption and Chinese payoffs that the new democratic government promised to eliminate. But lots of these deals are still in force and that is proving to be an embarrassment for the officials who negotiated the terms and got paid off.

January 11, 2013: In the north a military helicopter crashed in an area where Kachin rebels are active. The rebels claim they shot the chopper down. The three man crew of the helicopter died in the crash. The army uses Russian helicopters for reconnaissance and to attack rebels with machine-guns and rockets.

China announced that it had sent more troops to its side of the Burmese border in response to artillery and air strikes inside Burma that could be heard just across the border in China.

January 9, 2013: Kachin rebels report renewed army artillery attacks on them, more civilians cross into China to avoid the shelling.

January 7, 2013: Kachin rebels report more K-8 and helicopter attacks on military positions and villages.

January 4, 2013: In the far north a tribal militia, the Shan State Army–South (SSA-S) reports that the army has invaded its territory in violation of a December 2011 peace deal. The SSA-S is allied with the neighboring United Wa State Army (UWSA) militia and these two groups are making a lot of money in the drug business. Opium and heroin production have been revived in the past few years. Production of methamphetamine is huge. Called “yaba” (“crazy drug”) locally, most of it is smuggled out via Thailand. Over the last few years, production of yaba tablets has soared. The meth labs are easier to conceal than poppy fields (opium is the sap of poppy plants) and these labs are believed to produce several hundred million tablets a year. The tribal rebels, especially the United Wa State Army use the profits to buy more weapons for their army, and run their own government. The government has been in a weak bargaining position here but always had the option to declare the militias in violation of the 2011 peace deal and renew fighting. The government has made no official announcement about the state of the peace deal with SSA-S and UWSA and this is apparently another case of the army acting on its own. The army says it is merely providing security for a road building project and that the SSA-S has delayed working out details of the peace deal.

January 2, 2013: The U.S. and the UN have called on Myanmar to halt military operations in the north. Officially, theMyanmar government says there are no military operations in the north, just troops defending themselves from Kachin rebel attacks. Unofficially some government officials admit that the army is acting on its own to force the Kachin to make a peace deal and allow the Chinese dam and pipeline projects to proceed unhindered.

December 28, 2012: Kachin rebels in the north refused army demands to stop blocking a road (needed to supply an army base) and the army responded with more artillery and air attacks against Kachin targets throughout the north. The army is seeking to drive Kachin rebels away from Chinese dam construction sites.

December 26, 2012: The government admitted that corruption and inept officials were slowing the pace of reforms in the government and economy. The military group that had ruled Myanmar for decades may have peacefully handed over control of the government and allowed elections two years ago, but many pro-military officials still held senior government jobs and these men are the most corrupt and uncooperative. Removing these officials has to be done carefully, to avoid another military takeover.

December 24, 2012: Kachin rebels report the army is using artillery and air strikes against military and civilian targets. Thousands of Kachin civilians head for the Chinese border to get away from the violence. The government denied that there were air strikes and that aircraft were only being used to help detect Kachin rebels trying to ambush advancing troops. Artillery was only to be used to defend troops against rebel attacks. The army says that the Kachin rebels have been blocking supply convoys trying to reach remote army bases. The rebels believe the supplies include more rocket and artillery munitions to be used against Kachin villages and armed rebels.

December 21, 2012: In the north explosives and gunfire were used to attack a Mandalay-Myitkyina freight train. Myitkyina is the capital of Kachin state in the north and the center of army power in the region.

December 13, 2012: The army began attacking Kachin targets in the north, complaining about rebels blocking the movement of army supply convoys and firing on troops.

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

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’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.

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.

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

(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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Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli, To repay $6.4 Million

Washington — The Supreme Court rejected Martin Shkreli’s appeal on Monday, after he was branded “Pharma Bro” for raising the price of a lifesaving prescription.

Martin appealed a decision to repay $64.6 million in profits he and his former company earned after monopolizing the pharmaceutical market and dramatically raising its price. His lawyers claimed the money went to his company rather than him personally.

The justices did not explain their reasoning, as is customary, and there were no notable dissents.

Prosecutors, conversely, claimed that the firm had promised to pay $40 million in a settlement and that because Martin orchestrated the plan, he should be held accountable for returning profits.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Martin was also forced to forfeit the Wu-Tang Clan’s unreleased album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” which has been dubbed the world’s rarest musical album. The multiplatinum hip-hop group auctioned off a single copy of the record in 2015, stipulating that it not be used commercially.

Shkreli was convicted of lying to investors and defrauding them of millions of dollars in two unsuccessful hedge funds he managed. Shkreli was the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals (later Vyera), which hiked the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill after acquiring exclusive rights to the decades-old medicine in 2015. It cures a rare parasite condition that affects pregnant women, cancer patients, and HIV patients.

shkreli

He defended the choice as an example of capitalism in action, claiming that insurance and other programs ensured that those in need of Daraprim would eventually receive it. However, the move prompted criticism, from the medical community to Congress.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Attorney Thomas Huff said the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling was upsetting, but the high court could still overturn a lower court judgment that allowed the $64 million penalty order even though Shkreli had not personally received the money.

“If and when the Supreme Court does so, Mr. Shkreli will have a strong argument for modifying the order accordingly,” he told reporters.

Shkreli was freed from prison in 2022 after serving most of his seven-year sentence.

SOURCE | AP