News
PM2.5 Air Pollution at Toxic Levels in Northern Thailand

Thailand’s Pollution Control Department on Sunday warned PM2.5 air pollution would at toxic levels in Bangkok and northern provinces from Monday to Saturday are expected to improve due to a strong southerly wind that will blow away the dust.
Except for Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Nan, Phayao, Lampang, Lamphun, Sukhothai, and Tak provinces in the north, overall PM2.5 levels were mostly below the safe limit of 50 microgrammes per cubic meter (g/m3) as of noon on Sunday.
According to air pollution monitoring center reports, PM2.5 levels were 22-89 g/m3 in the North, 14-46 g/m3 in the Northeast, 11-45 g/m3 in the Central and West, 14-33 g/m3 in the East, and 8-18 g/m3 in the South at the time.
PM2.5 dust levels in Bangkok and neighbouring provinces ranged from 14 to 38 g/m3.
From February 6 to 11, Greater Bangkok’s air quality is expected to improve significantly due to improved air circulation and a southerly wind that will blow dust particles away.
However, PM2.5 dust levels in the 17 provinces of the upper and lower North Region should be closely monitored, as they exceed the 50 g/m3 threshold between February 6-7 and 9-11.
Meanwhile, the Thai Meteorological Department said on Sunday that the current moderate high pressure over northern Thailand and the South China Sea would allow a southeasterly wind to bring moisture from the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand to the lower North, lower Northeast, and Central regions, including Bangkok and surrounding provinces.
As a result, rain and morning fog are expected in the upper part of the country during this time.
With easterly and southeasterly winds prevailing over the Gulf of Thailand, the South, and the Andaman Sea, rain and thunderstorms will continue to blanket the South.
Thailand’s Air Quality PM2.5 Air Pollution Index
Thailand as a country has numerous polluted cities, some of which are well-known for their levels of smoke and haze. Chiang Mai, once renowned and hailed as a cleaner and less densely populated version of Bangkok, has recently exploded in terms of pollution, having overtaken Bangkok in 2019, with PM2.5 readings sitting at a yearly average of 32.3 g/m3, as opposed to Bangkok’s 22.8 g/m3.
These increases in dangerous particles and chemicals in the air in all of its major cities raise the AQI rating to potentially hazardous levels.
Thailand’s citizens are well aware of this, but daily life goes on, and cars continue to transport people to and from work while emitting tons of toxic smoke and fumes, with many older vehicles, such as buses and trucks, many of which are in various states of disrepair, sharing the road and emitting their fair share of pollution and toxic fumes.
Despite the government’s efforts to remove such offending vehicles from the road, preventative measures are not always fully implemented, and polluting trucks and buses continue to roam the country, spreading their insidious PM2.5 content wherever they go.
Thailand was ranked 28th out of 98 countries in IQAir’s 2019 World Air Quality Report, with a yearly PM2.5 rating of 24.3 g/m3, placing it at a moderate risk to health according to the US Air Quality Index. While this is not particularly bad in comparison to the world’s worst offenders, it is still twice the WHO’s exposure recommendation for PM2.5 and other dangerous chemicals like nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), and carbon monoxide (CO), to name a few.
While on the ground in cities such as Bangkok, one might be able to say that pollution is extremely palpable and can cause a number of immediate effects that leave a more profound imprint on a person’s memory, as opposed to the hidden long-term effects that we tend to brush under the rug and forget about.
When caught in areas of heavy traffic and during rush hour, these immediate effects can include sore throats, other respiratory ailments, and headaches, with mask usage being extremely prevalent amongst the population of Bangkok and other cities long before the arrival of the 2020 COVID era.
The average citizen or tourist would hardly need to look at an air quality index to realize that the air they are breathing is unclean.
Thailand certainly has pollution problems, as well as cities with high concentrations of haze, smog, and other contaminants in the air; however, unless you belong to the demographic of people who suffer from respiratory issues, the air quality in Thailand is not an immediate danger.
Many improvements could be made and are currently being implemented that will undoubtedly lower its rating in the coming years, but for the time being, Bangkok may simply be known as a moderately polluted city.
Individuals who are sensitive to certain chemicals found in common pollutants should take precautions to keep themselves safe, including using apps like AirVisual by IQAir.
AirVisual displays constantly updated statistics of pollution levels in specific areas, allowing those who are at risk to take appropriate action when levels of PM2.5 are detected to be higher.

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
2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

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.
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 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.
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.
SOURCE | AP
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
SEE ALSO:
Could Last-Minute Surprises Derail Kamala Harris’ Campaign? “Nostradamus” Explains the US Poll.
-
News4 years ago
Let’s Know About Ultra High Net Worth Individual
-
Entertainment2 years ago
Mabelle Prior: The Voice of Hope, Resilience, and Diversity Inspiring Generations
-
News11 years ago
Enviromental Groups Tell Mekong Leaders Lao Dam Evaluation Process Flawed
-
Health4 years ago
How Much Ivermectin Should You Take?
-
Tech2 years ago
Top Forex Brokers of 2023: Reviews and Analysis for Successful Trading
-
Lifestyles3 years ago
Aries Soulmate Signs
-
Entertainment3 years ago
What Should I Do If Disney Plus Keeps Logging Me Out of TV?
-
Health3 years ago
Can I Buy Ivermectin Without A Prescription in the USA?