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Myanmar’s General Min Purges Generals Over Coup Fears

After taking power in February 2021, Myanmar’s generals announced new elections and unveiled updated election laws that ultimately led to the dissolution of Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD).

Nonetheless, the military has not said when elections will take place, as it faces persistent resistance to its power grab.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) “does not remain silent” whenever there is a serious violation of human rights, such as when civilian leaders or democracy activists are persecuted by the military junta.

In a statement, Wu added, “We always condemn the military junta for violating human rights” and urged the regime to bring back democracy. In response to the regime’s execution of political prisoners and dissolution of the NLD, Taiwan issued a strong condemnation.

Coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s trip to Russia and the numerous sightings of Russian diplomats in Myanmar suggest that Russia has emerged as a key supporter and armourer of the Myanmar generals. Strong economic connections and visits from senior members of the Union Election Commission suggest that relations with Beijing are also improving.

The Myanmar Now website reports that politicians and persons perceived as sympathetic to the junta were in Japan earlier this month pushing Japanese MPs to support the polls.

However, the regime’s strength under army head Min Aung Hlaing has come into question after a significant reorganisation saw some prominent military officers replaced.

Removal of Myanmar Generals

The military overlords, who call themselves the State Administration Council, ousted two high-ranking officials last month: Lieutenant General Soe Htut and Lieutenant General Moe Myint Tun, on suspicion of corruption.

This month has also seen the dismissal of Myanmar Investment Commission chairman Moe Myint Tun, as well as the removal of Foreign Exchange Supervisory Committee chairman Soe Htut, and the dissolution of the Central Committee on Ensuring the Smooth Flow of Trade and Goods chairman Soe Htut.

The most corrupt general is strangely charging his closest colleagues while going to great lengths to shield his own loved ones. Priscilla Clapp, head of mission and permanent charge d’affaires at the United States embassy in Burma from 1999 to 2002, remarked that the corruption claims are essentially a technique of getting rid of possible rivals.

The scale of the reorganisation as a whole, said Clapp, now a senior adviser at the US Institute of Peace, demonstrates the government is struggling to exert its power. She told Al Jazeera, “They don’t seem to be able to hold things together and the army is fraying at the edges.”

General Maung Maung Aye, the chief of general staff of the Myanmar military, and Lieutenant General Nyo Saw, the chair of the military conglomerate Myanmar Economic Corporation, were both appointed to the SAC by the regime. Additionally, it promoted Khin Zaw to replace Bran Shaung as UEC’s top official.

General Mya Tun Oo, who was recently demoted and shifted from defence minister to transport minister, was given some important economic positions.

To consolidate power and streamline centralization across important committees, the military’s top brass reportedly used their most recent round of reshuffles. A Burmese analyst in Yangon who has access to the military but who asked not to be named said, “Corrective purges of this kind have been a constant feature in military-led administrations; the most parallel one was in the late ’90s targeting those affiliated with the commerce portfolio.”

Anti-coup attacks

The analyst told Al Jazeera that the possibility of attacks on election-related infrastructure is worrying, citing the assassination of a UEC deputy director general and anti-coup attacks on the General Administration Department, a civil service body across the country.

After the forced dissolution of political parties, the United Kingdom and Canada have expressed doubts about the legitimacy of the upcoming elections. For not complying with a strict new Political Party Registration Law, the military-run UEC dissolved the NLD and 39 other parties in March. Together, the parties won 89% of the seats up for election in November 2020.

A representative for Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office told Al Jazeera, “Elections held on the military regime’s terms, without the participation of a broad range of Myanmar stakeholders, would not contribute to the democratic aspirations of the Myanmar people.”

They run the risk of growing unrest and violence and damaging long-term peace and security if they do not engage in real, inclusive discourse.

Canadian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Marilyne Guevremont described the dissolution of 40 parties as an effort to stifle opposition in Myanmar and weaken the country’s democratic institutions.

New periods of emergency rule

According to Al Jazeera’s Guevremont, “Regime plans to administer elections are a clear attempt to formalise the military’s illegal seizure of power” and “demonstrates the regime’s contempt for the unwavering democratic aspirations of the Myanmar people.”

Forcing an election is not the way to inclusive peace or democracy, and any election that is not free and fair does not reflect the will of the Myanmar people.

The regime has regularly declared new periods of emergency rule, claiming security concerns as an excuse for the fact that it does not have full jurisdiction over most of the country.

According to the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the military has killed over 4,000 civilians and imprisoned around 25,000 since the coup.

According to the United Nations, the crisis has caused the internal displacement of more than 1.6 million people.

Dr. Sasa, a cabinet minister at the National Unity Government, told Al Jazeera that the junta’s preparations for these sham elections aren’t aimed at advancing peace and democracy but are instead intended to perpetuate the crisis, maintain their grip on power, and continue their disregard for human rights.

The exiled politicians, mostly from the NLD, founded the NUG.

Since 1958, Myanmar has seen a pattern of military generals seizing power and then consolidating their rule through means such as rigged elections and specially drafted constitutions. He also stressed the importance of ending the ongoing trend of fraudulent elections.

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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.

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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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