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Phuket Thailand Aims to Be Safest City in Southeast Asia

Following a number of events involving tourists, efforts are underway to make Phuket the safest city in Southeast Asia. At a meeting with representatives of tour and travel businesses on Friday, Danai Sunantarod, deputy governor of the southern tourist province, stated the goal.
Their conversation on security on the island brought up several recent instances that were cause for alarm.
In May, a speedboat collided with a channel marker in Chalong Bay, injuring 35 persons, the majority of them were Russian tourists. The boat driver was thought to have nodded off.
According to Mr Danai, a Chinese tourist was injured in a knife attack by a travel agency in February following a quarrel over a reimbursement for a day excursion that the visitor missed. Tourists drowning in Phuket create safety concerns, he says.
“We have to learn from these incidents,” added Mr Danai. “We want our visitors to feel safe in our home.” We aspire to be the region’s safest city.”
He stated that the business and public sectors must work together to ensure tourist safety, while police personnel must execute the law.
“We will tighten safety measures because we don’t want to have scammers in Phuket,” he stated, alluding to the situation involving the Chinese visitor.
“We also want tour operators to eliminate the dual pricing system because it makes our guests feel bad,” he said, referring to a practise in which foreign visitors, particularly expats, pay more for services than Thais. (Attractions that practise this are mentioned on 2pricethailand.com.)
Mr Danai stated that Phuket has become a popular tourist destination due to its stunning beaches, diverse cuisine, distinct culture, and kind friendliness. The province has garnered both local and international attention, including the designation of a Unesco Creative City of Gastronomy in 2015.
Last year, Phuket received 5.6 million visitors, bringing in approximately 200 billion baht for the resort island, he said. Approximately 60-70% of them were immigrants. He predicts that more tourists will visit this year in order to meet the province’s aim of 10 million.
According to Ratchadaporn Oin, the head of the Tourism and Sports Ministry office in Phuket, tour guides and operators play a vital role in keeping tourists safe. She stated that they must be aware of the restrictions in order for clients to understand what can and cannot be done.
Ms Ratchadaporn, for example, stated that guides must tell tourists not to touch or feed marine animals while snorkelling or diving.
“We strongly urge you to take good care of tourists in order to make them feel safe,” she stated. “It will help to improve the island’s image.”
Phuket and Safe City Designation
Phuket is a popular tourist destination located in Thailand. Phuket the largest island in Thailand and is situated in the Andaman Sea. Phuket is known for its stunning beaches, crystal-clear waters, and vibrant nightlife, making it a sought-after vacation spot.
“Safe city status” is often given to a city or urban region that has put in place adequate measures to safeguard the safety and security of its citizens and tourists. While particular criteria and definitions vary, a safe city designation typically indicates that the community has taken initiatives to lower crime rates, improve public safety, and create a secure environment for its residents. Here are some of the most prevalent elements evaluated when assessing a city’s safety:
1. Low Crime Rates: A safe city has a low crime rate, which includes both violent and property offences. To dissuade criminal activity, the city may have developed effective law enforcement techniques, community policing programmes, and surveillance technologies.
2. Efficient Emergency Services: A safe city provides emergency response services such as police, fire, and medical services in a timely and efficient manner. To efficiently manage varied circumstances, the city may have well-equipped emergency response teams, accessible helplines, and a network of emergency facilities.
3. Adequate Lighting and Infrastructure: A safe city has well-lit streets, well-maintained roadways, and functional infrastructure. Adequate illumination decreases the possibility of accidents, discourages criminal activity, and improves general security.
4. Public Transportation Safety: A safe city ensures that its public transportation systems, such as buses, trains, and metros, are safe. To reduce the risks associated with public transit, measures such as surveillance cameras, emergency buttons, well-trained workers, and frequent safety inspections are implemented.
5. Active Community Participation: A safe city encourages active community participation in ensuring safety. Neighbourhood watch programmes, community policing initiatives, and public awareness campaigns can all be used to educate locals about safety precautions and encourage cooperation.
6. Effective Disaster Preparedness: A safe city has strong disaster preparedness strategies and infrastructure in place to successfully respond to natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, or hurricanes. Early warning systems, evacuation preparations, and well-coordinated disaster response methods may all be involved.
It’s crucial to remember that gaining safe city status is a continual process, and towns are constantly working to improve safety measures. Furthermore, the particular criteria and standards for safe city designations can differ across countries and regions.

News
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 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.
SOURCE | CNN
News
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.
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
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