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[Watch] Pakistan Commandos Rescue 6 Children Trapped From Broken Cable Car

Army commandos rescued eight people from a broken cable car that dangled hundreds of metres over a canyon in a remote, mountainous section of Pakistan, utilising helicopters, a makeshift chairlift, and local knowledge.

A cable snapped while the six children and two adults were crossing a river canyon in the Battagram area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province at 7 a.m. (02:00 GMT).

Residents used mosque loudspeakers to notify local officials of the emergency, and hundreds of people gathered on both sides of the ravine – hours away from any significant town – to witness the drama unfold.

The heroic rescue began with a helicopter lifting two children to safety as daylight waned after nearly 12 hours in the air, but the chopper was forced back to base in the dark.

Pakistan cable car

Rescuers then utilised the cable that kept the gondola from falling into the valley as a zipline to rescue the remaining passengers late Tuesday night.

“Once everyone was rescued, the families started crying and hugging each other,” emergency officer Waqar Ahmad told Aljazeera. “People had been praying all the time because they were afraid the rope would snap.” People continued to pray until the last person was saved.”

Speaking from Islamabad, Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder said the operation needed a “massive effort” and that there was a “sigh of relief across the country.”

“It involved not only the military, but also local expertise and brave volunteers from the area,” he continued.

The military stated in a statement that the rescue mission was sensitive and comprised commandos, army and air force pilots, and the assistance of local authorities.

Some of them who were trapped were communicating with their families via mobile phones. According to Bilal Faizi, a Pakistani emergency service employee, the two adults were the last to be rescued.

A video of the first rescue showed an adolescent in a harness hanging at the bottom of a swinging rope beneath a chopper, while people applauded in relief.

Earlier in the day, when the rescue mission was underway, headmaster Ali Asghar Khan said that the children were teenage lads from his government high school, Battangi Pashto.

“Because the school is in a mountainous area with no safe crossings, it’s common to use the chairlift,” Khan explained.

“The parents have gathered beside the chairlift. What are their options? They are waiting for rescue personnel to bring their children out. We’re all concerned.”

Abid Ur Rehman, a teacher from another nearby school, estimated that 500 people had gathered to see the rescue mission. “Parents and women are crying for the safety of their children,” he said to Aljazeera.

Villagers commonly use cable cars to travel throughout Pakistan’s hilly regions. However, the cars are frequently neglected, and each year, people are killed or injured while travelling in them.

President Arif Alvi has asked officials to conduct a “comprehensive survey” of all cable car lifts in the country as soon as possible.

Pakistan

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (often abbreviated as KP) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, located in the northwestern region of the country. It shares borders with Afghanistan to the west and north, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir to the northeast, Punjab to the southeast, and Balochistan to the southwest. The provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is Peshawar.

The province is known for its diverse culture, rich history, and breathtaking natural beauty. The majority of the population in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa belongs to the ethnic group of Pashtuns, and Pashto is the predominant language spoken in the region. The province has played a significant role in the history of the Indian subcontinent and has been a crossroads for various civilizations and cultures.

Some key points about Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan include:

Geography: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is characterized by its mountainous terrain, with the Hindu Kush and Himalayan mountain ranges extending through the northern parts of the province. The famous Khyber Pass, historically significant for trade and military movements, connects the province to neighboring Afghanistan.

Culture: The province has a rich cultural heritage, with Pashto literature, music, and traditions being an integral part of the local lifestyle. The Pashtunwali code, a traditional set of ethics and customs, is still followed by many Pashtuns in the region.

Economy: The economy of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is primarily based on agriculture, with crops like wheat, maize, sugarcane, and fruits being the main produce. The province also has significant mineral resources, including natural gas, coal, and various minerals.

Tourism: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is home to some of the most beautiful landscapes in Pakistan, including valleys like Swat, Chitral, and Kaghan. These areas attract tourists for their stunning scenery, trekking opportunities, and cultural experiences.

Challenges: The province has faced various challenges, including security issues due to its proximity to the Afghan border, which has resulted in the influx of Afghan refugees and the impact of cross-border tensions. Efforts have been made to address these challenges and promote development and stability in the region.

Education and Health: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has made efforts to improve its education and healthcare systems. Many educational institutions, including universities, contribute to the intellectual and academic development of the province.

Political Significance: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has played a pivotal role in the political history of Pakistan. It has been a center for political movements, including demands for regional autonomy and representation.

Overall, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a province with a rich cultural heritage, natural beauty, and significant potential for economic and social development.

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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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