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South Korea Hosts Massive K-Pop Concert For Scouts Following Jamboree Disruption By Storm Khanun

South Korea

(CTN NEWS) – Amidst the aftermath of a formidable tropical tempest that inundated numerous residences and transformed thoroughfares into turbid streams.

The realm of South Korea orchestrated an immense K-Pop gala within Seoul’s precincts, an endeavor intended for the assembly of 40,000 Scouts whose worldwide Jamboree had been subject to disturbance courtesy of atmospheric caprice.

Amidst the Veil of Meteorological Turmoil, Emerges a Rain-Soaked Showcase of Talent

The event, transpiring on the day subsequent to the meteorological maelstrom, transpired upon a rain-soaked soccer stadium, boasting an array of performers, most notably the female ensembles NewJeans and Ive.

This impromptu spectacle was meticulously orchestrated by government functionaries, etching its position as the culminating convocation in the panorama of the World Scout Jamboree.

This orchestration found its footing within the juncture wherein the nation commenced the endeavor of restoration and reinstatement, endeavoring to rectify the repercussions of tempestuous Khanun.

An inclement manifestation that unleashed relentless precipitation and gusty zephyrs upon the southern and eastern extremities of the landmass, catalyzing mass evacuations and claiming a solitary life in its wake subsequent to its initial terrestrial encounter on the threshold of Thursday.

As Khanun embarked upon its traverse through the Seoul metropolitan terrain, an agglomeration teeming with human activity, it had attenuated, consequently permeating the ambiance as a tropical low pressure system.

Early Friday, the meteorological semblance ventured into the confines of North Korea, its essence diluted to that of a tropical depression.

The once-proximate coastline, which served as the vantage point for the Jamboree, succumbed to the tempestuous surges precipitated by Khanun, necessitating a grand-scale exodus to transition the Scouts from their initial encampment to the alcoves of university lodging, governmental and corporate edification centers, and lodgings within the expanse of greater Seoul and its environs.

Preceding the storm’s forceful truncation of the Jamboree’s continuum, the organizers found themselves ensnared in a struggle to sustain the event amidst an unforgiving heatwave and dilemmas pertaining to sanitation.

South Korea Setback in Public Relations: Withdrawals Cast Shadow on the Nation’s International Aspirations

These quandaries led to a premature departure of several British and American Scouts from the encampment.

Such withdrawals marked a momentous public relations setback for the nation, ceaselessly yearning for the spotlight that accompanies grand-scale international gatherings.

The Friday concert emerged as a culmination of feverish governmental endeavors, a concerted bid to bestow a fitting denouement upon the Jamboree’s narrative.

“Regretfully, we acknowledge the tribulations the Scouts faced amid an unparalleled heatwave and the tempestuous onslaught borne from the tenets of climate change,” intoned South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo in a prelude to the concert, gracing the expanse of Seoul’s World Cup Stadium with his oratory prowess.

Resplendent Mosaic: Global Scouts Eclipse Prime Minister’s Utterances

Yet, his utterances found themselves somewhat eclipsed by the massive throng of global Scouts, resplendent in their multicolored uniforms and raincoats, a mosaic of vibrancy that filled the stadium’s seats.

In rapturous synchrony, they reverberated with exuberance, engendering a crescendo of euphoria that swelled and surged, mirroring the waves of excitement undulating through the venue, synchronous with the rhythm of Han’s vocal cadence.

In the liminal moment when the vocalists graced the brightly illuminated stage, the precipitation’s delicate drizzle lent an ethereal aura to the tableau.

In harmonious tandem, the Scouts brandished heart-shaped luminous wands, crafting an iridescent tapestry that interwove with the beams of light.

Their devices, instruments of modernity, were employed to capture the ephemeral, rendering the performance an indelible fragment of their recollections.

The gubernatorial apparatus asserted the majority of aerial and rail conveyances had resumed operations, with power largely reinstated to the 46,000 domiciles ensnared in Khanun’s electric embrace.

The urban expanse of Seoul remained devoid of calamitous tempestuous scars, notwithstanding the persisting precipitation that bestowed its aqueous benedictions upon the cityscape.

Incheon’s Resurgence: Laborers Strive to Restore Deluged Abodes and Walls

Conversely, in the proximate harbor city of Incheon, laborers embarked upon a restorative endeavor, a rejoinder to inundated abodes and walls whose structural integrity had succumbed to Khanun’s aqueous deluge.

Within the southern recesses of the inland city of Daegu, a septuagenarian gentleman, ensnared in the embrace of a bloated stream, met his untimely demise.

In parallel, the search persisted for an individual, entrapped in the clutches of a watercourse, while occupying a conveyance of wheels.

In the precincts of Gangwon province, an orographic bastion along the eastern seaboard that bore the brunt of Khanun’s torrential affections, emergency responders embarked upon aquatic odysseys within the coastal towns of Gangneung and Sokcho.

Here, rivers of sepia-hued torrents usurped the thoroughfares, cloaking erstwhile streets in aqueous vestiges.

In a symphonic choreography, nearly 16,000 souls, predominantly inhabitants of the southern demesnes, found themselves coerced into the embrace of evacuation, a temporary egress precipitated by the tempest’s fervor.

As the sun waned upon the horizon, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety reported that approximately 11,400 had retraced their steps homeward.

Khanun’s malevolent touch had marred or razed no less than 64 roadways, while also exacting a toll upon nearly 50 abodes and edifices. The transportation grid was imperiled, with access to nearly 700 motorways circumscribed as the rains perpetuated their descent.

In the enigmatic realm of North Korea, prompt confirmation of the storm’s consequential impact remained elusive.

Albeit, the state-controlled television did proffer acknowledgment of some uprooted arboreal sentinels.

Preceding the tempestuous event, the annals of state media had meticulously delineated nationwide initiatives, marshaling resources to fortify the guardianship of highways, railways, spans, and coastlines.

Simultaneously, machinations had been set in motion to shield factory machinery and cultivate copious crops against the tempest’s capricious whims.

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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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