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Myanmar Junta Deprives Suu Kyi of Medical Care, Increases Cluster Bombings

Myanmar’s junta is endangering the life of jailed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to her political party, which accused the military on Thursday of denying her medical treatment and food.

Since the generals usurped power in February 2021, putting an end to a decade-long democratic experiment and plunging the country into bloody chaos, the former state counsellor has been detained.

In recent days, local media reported that the 78-year-old Nobel laureate was experiencing vertigo, vomiting, and an inability to consume due to a tooth infection.

The National League of Democracy (NLD) said in a statement, “We are particularly concerned that she is not receiving adequate medical care and that she is not receiving healthy food or adequate housing, with the intent of endangering her life.”

“The military junta is solely responsible if Daw Aung San Aung San Suu Kyi’s health is not only compromised but also her life is in danger,”

During her 19-month trial in a junta court that human rights organisations criticised as a sham, Aung San Suu Kyi frequently missed court hearings on the basis of her health.

Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to a total of 33 years in prison, a sentence that was subsequently reduced by junta leader Min Aung Hlaing.

Kim Aris

Kim Aris, Aung San Suu Kyi’s son based in the United Kingdom, told the BBC last week that the junta is denying his mother treatment for vertigo and gum disease, despite the fact that he is not in direct contact with her.

Last week, a junta spokesperson told RFA that reports of Aung San Suu Kyi’s poor health were “rumours.” Zaw Min Tun stated, “Her doctors are taking care of her health, so she is suffering from nothing.”

The NLD stated that the junta was holding Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains immensely popular in Myanmar, as a “hostage…in secret places.”

The party urged the international community to “intensify efforts and exert pressure” for the liberation of Aung San Suu Kyi and all Myanmar political prisoners.

According to a local monitoring group, the junta has arrested over 24,000 individuals since the coup.

Aung San Suu Kyi was transferred to a prison compound in a different section of the expansive, military-built capital Naypyidaw in June 2022, after spending more than a year under house arrest.

There, she was no longer permitted her domestic staff of approximately ten individuals and was assigned military-selected helpers, according to RFA sources at the time.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s confinement in the isolated capital is a far contrast from the years she spent under house arrest during a previous junta, during which she became a world-renowned democracy leader.

During that time, she resided in the colonial-era lakeside mansion of her Yangon family and frequently addressed audiences from the other side of her garden wall.

Myanmar's NLD Disolved

The NLD has been decimated in the junta’s violent crackdown on dissent, with one former lawmaker executed by the junta in the country’s first use of capital punishment in decades.

In March, the junta dissolved the party for failing to re-register in accordance with a strict new military-drafted electoral law, removing it from the 2025 elections it has indicated it may hold.

Residents, officials from armed ethnic groups, and an international campaign working to eradicate the weapons told RFA that Myanmar’s junta is using cluster munitions to attack rebel forces in ethnic areas of the country.

Cluster bombs, which can be fired from cannons or dropped from aircraft, detonate in midair, scattering and exploding dozens or hundreds of smaller bombs, which frequently murder or maim civilians.

Myanmar and the United States are not among the 123 nations that have signed the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty prohibiting the use of such weapons.

“Myanmar’s production and use of cluster bombs is of considerable concern, as these weapons indiscriminately kill and maim civilians. There is no justification for their use, according to Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, a researcher with the Cluster Munition Monitor, the research and monitoring arm of the Geneva, Switzerland-based International Campaign to Ban Landmines-Cluster Munition Coalition.

“All governments must condemn this use of a prohibited weapon,” he stated.

Cluster Bombs Myanmar

The Cluster Munition Coalition stated in a report released on August 31 that the ruling junta has employed domestically-produced cluster munitions in attacks since 2021, including as recently as early June of this year.

According to the CMC’s report, the junta employed cluster munitions in attacks near the villages of Kon Tha, Nam Mae Kon, and Warisuplia in the Demoso municipality of Kayah state from February 17 to March 7.

The CMC also cited evidence that the Myanmar military used cluster bombs in an airstrike on Pan Pa village in Chin state’s Mindat township on April 16, which resulted in the deaths of three people, including a minor, and the injuries of seven others.

Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the pro-military Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, denied the use of cluster munitions by the military.

“As far as we know and as far as our research has taken us, we have never heard of the military employing cluster bombs,” he said.

“Does the opposing side have any evidence?” he inquired. “For example, the details of where and how a cluster weapon was dropped, [and] what the ground situation was like when it was dropped. They need these details to make an accusation.”

Radio Free Asia was unable to reach Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment.

Former military captain Kaung Thu Win, who joined the anti-regime civil disobedience movement, stated that unexploded sub-munitions from cluster bombs pose a threat to children and rural residents because they can explode with the contact of a hand.

Banned Cluster Bombs Myanmar

“They will remain unexploded in forests, ditches, and forest valleys,” he declared. “They are concealed for a time and only detonate when children are playing nearby or when civilians enter the forest.”

Salai Htet Ni, spokesman for the Chin National Front, stated that the junta has been dumping cluster bombs in the Chin state of western Myanmar, including on Mount Victoria, where the ethnic Chin nationalist political organisation is based.

He said that when the junta dropped bombs from an aeroplane on the group’s headquarters, the explosions released submunitions that detonated repeatedly within a 61-meter (200-foot) radius.

“And if they strike a forest, all nearby trees and plants are [destroyed] and will not regrow,” he said.

An official from the information department of the Karenni National Defence Force reported seeing junta forces use cluster bombs to attack civilian communities in Kayah state, torching residences in villages and destroying entire neighbourhoods.

“The junta typically employs these highly explosive cluster bombs when attacking nonmilitary targets, civilian areas, and refugee camps,” he said. In 2023, the military began using 500-pound bombs, missiles, and cluster weapons frequently.

The junta’s use of these munitions against civilian targets is a violation of international law and a crime against humanity, said Banyar Khun Aung, executive director of the Karenni Human Rights Group.

“The purpose of these cluster bombs is to intentionally kill and destroy a large number of civilians, causing mass casualties and forcing them to flee to other areas,” he said. Obviously, this is a grave violation of human rights.

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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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Scientists Awarded MicroRNA The Nobel Prize in Medicine.

US Inflation will Comfort a Fed Focused on Labor Markets.

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