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Saudi Arabia Hosting Largest Hajj Pilgrimage In 3 Years, Inflation And Economic Crises Rises

(CTN NEWS) – Beginning on Monday, Saudi Arabia will host the largest Hajj pilgrimage in the previous three years.

Global inflation and economic crises, however, made it more difficult for many pilgrims and for many others who couldn’t make it to complete Islam’s once-in-a-lifetime spiritual journey.

The application process for the Hajj is a yearly ritual for Mohammed, a university professor in Cairo, the capital of Egypt. not this time though.

Egypt’s Economic Woes

Most of the time, you can make a sacrifice to pay for the pilgrimage. But this year, he claimed, it was too pricey. The rising cost of a Hajj package made it unaffordable after a number of recent significant family expenses.

Mohammed requested that his last name not be used for fear of retaliation considering the delicate nature of discussing Egypt’s economic problems.

Prices for Hajj have increased considerably as a result of global inflation, with expenditures rising for travel, lodging, and food in and around Mecca’s holy city.

In addition, a number of nations, including several with the largest Muslim populations in the world, are going through economic crises, which have resulted in sharp declines in the value of their national currencies.

This year, some countries struggled to meet their quota of pilgrims due to individuals baulking at the costs, which is surprising given how much more demand there is for pilgrimage locations than there are available.

Every country receives a certain number of seats for the pilgrimage from Saudi Arabia, typically about a tenth of one percent of the country’s Muslim population, in order to manage the numbers and offer a fair chance for everyone.

Saudi Arabia Banned Foreign Pilgrims

Saudi Arabia banned foreign pilgrims in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and last year it drastically decreased the numbers, cutting quotas in half or more. Most quotas are back to their pre-pandemic levels this year.

The overall number of Egyptian pilgrims this year has not yet been disclosed by the Egyptian authorities, but it looks to be less than the almost 80,000 who travelled in 2019 and previous years.

According to official reports in the local media, EgyptAir, the principal airline, indicated it will be transporting 35,000–45,000 Egyptian pilgrims.

4,000 more reportedly traveled by land, according to official media. When the AP asked for information on the number of pilgrims, officials did not respond.

Egypt has had escalating economic issues, including 40% inflation. In an effort to stem the loss of hard currency reserves and address increasing debt, the government has devalued the currency numerous times.

The Egyptian pound has lost 40% of its value relative to the Saudi riyal since the last pilgrimage.

Egypt Hajj Packages

Egypt allocates a portion of its quota through private businesses to sell, similar to many other nations, and a portion of its lower-cost, government-organized trips through a lottery to applicants.

According to official media, one of the less expensive Hajj packages is offered by the Interior Ministry and costs 175,000 Egyptian pounds, or around $5,663.

The same package cost 90,000 pounds, or $4,770 at the time, last year. Although the price has increased by about 20% in dollars, it has nearly doubled in pounds.

In contrast to this year, only 40 enquiries have been made, according to the manager of one Cairo-based travel business where he organised 100 Hajj journeys the previous year.

Due to the sensitivity of the subject, he talked on the condition of anonymity.

The restrictions that the majority of Egyptian banks impose on foreign currency withdrawals cause difficulty for both organisers and pilgrims. One travel agent claimed that because foreign airlines demand dollar payments,

he has been unable to arrange trips with them. For the duration of his weeklong stay, a journalist from the Associated Press can only withdraw 1,000 Saudi riyals, or about $266, due to banking limitations.

Nadia Awaad, a pilgrim, claimed she couldn’t afford to travel by airline therefore she would rather take the more expensive but longer land trip to Mecca. Before boarding a bus from Cairo, she added, “Even if it requires extra work, that’s not an issue.

Pakistan’s Pilgrimage Spots

Pakistan failed to meet its Hajj quota this year as a result of escalating inflation and a declining value of the currency.

A government worker in Rawalpindi named Abdul Majid claimed he had been saving money for the Hajj but that he had since abandoned his goal. I am unable to close the substantial gap between my savings and expenses.

Initially set at 1.175 million rupees, the cost of a government-organized trip represented a 69% increase over the rupee rate from the previous year.

However, at the last minute, officials reduced the price slightly, claiming they had discovered more affordable lodging options in Mecca.

About half of Pakistan’s 179,000 pilgrimage spots were filled by private tour operators.

However, despite a programme urging Pakistanis living overseas to deposit money into Pakistani bank accounts to sponsor a pilgrim at home, few people applied for the government-run vacancies.

In the end, Pakistan took the historically rare action of giving Saudi Arabia back 7,000 unused Hajj tickets.

The reverse issue exists in some nations, where there is a backlog of pilgrims eager to perform the Hajj as a result of the pandemic disruptions over the previous three years.

This year, Indonesia received an extra 8,000 Hajj spots from Saudi Arabia for a total of 229,000, and they were quickly filled. Indonesians may have to wait more than ten years to make the Hajj.

In addition to its quota of 31,600 slots, Malaysia requested an additional 10,000 spots, though Saudi Arabia has not publicly confirmed if it granted it.

India State-Organized Hajj Packages

India, which has 1.4 billion people and 14% of them are Muslims, has reduced the price of the state-organized Hajj packages, which are used by the majority of its pilgrims, by the equivalent of around $606, essentially providing a subsidy.

The entire contingent of more than 175,000 pilgrims from India is travelling.

Costs nevertheless had an effect. Private tour operators in India reported a decline in the number of travellers compared to the years before to the pandemic.

In order to wait for a better deal the next year, some people naturally postpone their plans, according to Hajj agent in New Delhi Mohammad Mukaram.

One of the largest Muslim populations in the world, Nigeria, was able to fill its quota of 95,000 pilgrims at the last minute after many states extended their payment deadlines, according to officials.

Would-be pilgrims who were delayed by the pandemic were sufficient to meet demand despite higher prices.

Adamu Yusuf, a frequent visitor to Mecca, stated that Nigerians would still travel even if the cost reached 10 million naira ($21,630).

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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.

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