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Thai and United States Policy Makers Strengthen US-Thai Alliance

Professor Dalpino specializes in Southeast Asian security, international relations and domestic politics.

 

CHIANGRAI TIMES – The US National Bureau of Asian Research has commissioned Professor Catharin Dalpino, a former diplomat who holds the Warburg Chair of International Relations at Simmon College, to explore options on how to modernize and strengthen cooperation between the USA and Thailand.

Thai and United States policy makers are moving to fine tune and renew their collective strategies to reinvigorate the US-Thai Alliance as Washington’s focus turns more to the Asia Pacific region.

Thai Ambassador Chaiyong Satjipanon and Professor Catharin Dalpino

Ms Dalpino outlined her ideas to a Thai audience at a seminar co-hosted by the National Defense Studies Institute and Thammasat University on Wednesday. They included recommendations to intensify high-level exchange visits, establish a bilateral dialogue on the impact of China’s rise, developing U-Tapao airport as a regional hub for humanitarian and disaster relief, expanding membership of the Cobra Gold annual joint military exercise, and liberalizing more bilateral and regional trade.

The proposal was launched during the visit of General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Thailand and just after US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta heralded a shift in the US focus to the Asia-Pacific region last week during security talks in Singapore.

Ms Dalpino said that amid the broader US strategic re-balancing toward the Asia-Pacific region and rapid changes in the Asian security environment, a renewed US-Thai alliance could be a key element of US engagement with the region.

However, the alliance – America’s oldest strategic relationship in Asia – has been slow to adapt to 21st Century challenges. With both sides now committed to its revitalization, there is a historic opportunity to inaugurate a new era of cooperation, the 20-page report “An Old Alliance for the New century: Re-invigorating the US-Thailand Alliance” said.

The US-Thailand alliance’s successful transition out of the Cold War framework of the Vietnam War era to a more flexible arrangement has faced stagnation in recent years due to domestic distractions on both sides, differences in threat perceptions, and the expansion of both countries’ political, economic, and security relations in the region, the report said.

COBRA GOLD 2012 -She suggested that Thailand's hosting of Cobra Gold was a good diplomatic window to bring other regional observers into the process, which has not followed conventional objectives but humanitarian assistance exercises.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have expanded US-Thailand security cooperation beyond the Asia-Pacific region, while the proliferation of nontraditional security threats after the Cold War – including terrorism – has broadened the base of the alliance, Ms Dalpino told the seminar.

Asia, Asean in particular, regionalism has provided a positive US-Thailand alliance towards a more regional orientation, hence requiring more frequent dialogue between both sides to further the course.

Thailand alliance relationship was different from other US partners namely Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the Philippines, as it was not evolved under an agreement that required updating and formalising, and as Thailand no longer had the Cold War rationale during the time the alliance was forged, the US-Thai alliance has become global and traversing in areas of non-traditional security concerns, said Ms Dalpino.

She suggested that Cobra Gold was a good diplomatic window to bring other regional observers into the process, which has not followed conventional objectives but humanitarian assistance exercises.

In addition, how best to link the Cobra Gold to other regional mechanisms such as the Asean Regional Forum and the Asean Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (Asean + dialogue partners) was an open question that should be explored.

In suggesting both sides intensify visits by senior leaders, she said it was unthinkable that US President Barack Obama, who was invited to the summit in Phnom Penh in November, did not also visit Thailand.

The director general of Thailand’s Department of American and Pacific Affairs , Chirachai Pankrasin, said Bangkok welcomed the US rebalancing as it believed it could contribute to the region’s stability.

Next year the two countries will celebrate 180 years of bilateral relations, Mr Chirachai noted, and welcomed stronger trade and investment in the country as well as in the Asean region.

Next year the two countries will celebrate 180 years of bilateral relations

“Thailand’s strategic location, with Dawei depp Seaport development (in Myanmar) to be linked with the Eastern Seaboard (in Thailand), offers a good connectivity for the Asean region,” Mr Chirachai said.

Kavi Chongkittavorn, a senior fellow at the Institute of Security and International Studies, said Thailand should explicitly draw the borderline of its alliance with the US in a similar way Australia has.

Use the navy’s U-Tapao airport must be transparently monitored. “If it is clearly used for humanitarian, it should be okay,” said Mr Kavi.

Maj Gen Surasit Thanadtang, director of the Strategic Studies Centre, said Thailand would like to see the US expand its multilateral role, especially at the Asean Defence Ministers Meeting and humanitarian and disaster relief forums.

Daniel Unger, of Northern Illinois University, said the US is being viewed less sympathetically by the new emerging groups of elites in Thailand.

Mr Unger suggested that the two sides explore ways that both the US and Thailand could work for “the collective good”, for example in counter terrorism and other non-traditional security issues.

But the Bangkok-based independent academic noted that Thailand might not be an influential partner of the US in post-Afghanistan and post-Iraq geopolitics, compared to India, Vietnam and Singapore.

Lastly, Mr Unger was sceptical how Thailand could re-establish its leadership in Asean, “unless they have a shared vision of what domestic politics would be needed”.

“Foreign policy makers, even in the most rule-bound democratic countries, are still having difficulty in preparing or coming up with decisions. So it is certainly true in Thailand, which does not yet have institutions to manage, to channel or break political conflicts,” said Mr Unger. Two key examples of previous set-backs were Thai-Cambodian relations and the US-Thai Free Trade Agreement effort.

Chulacheep Chinwanno, of Thammasat University’s political science faculty, said an alliance as viewed by the US term narrowly defined but Thailand looked at it as in all dimensions.

Mr Chulacheep suggested that Thailand keep nurturing bilateral defence cooperation with both China and the US, while proceeding with regional mechanisms such as the Asean Defence Ministers Meeting and the Asean Regional Forum.

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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.

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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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Could Last-Minute Surprises Derail Kamala Harris’ Campaign? “Nostradamus” Explains the US Poll.

Scientists Awarded MicroRNA The Nobel Prize in Medicine.

US Inflation will Comfort a Fed Focused on Labor Markets.

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