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Thailand Issues Extreme Heat Wave Warning in 5 Locations

Heat wave thailand

On Sunday, Thailand’s Meteorological Department predicted that heat indices would reach dangerous levels in five locations of the country. Scorching hot temperatures that have felt like more than 50°C, combined with humidity, prompted local officials on Friday to warn people not to venture outside during the weekend.

The Meteorological Department had warned about rising temperatures across Thailand. The following are the highest “real feel” apparent regional temperatures forecast on Sunday:

51.2°C in Phetchabun, in the north; 46°C in Kosum Phisai district, Maha Sarakham province, in the northeast; 52.7°C in Bangkok’s Bang Na district, in the centre; 53°C in Sattahip district, Chon Buri province, in the east; and 51.1°C in Phuket, in southern Thailand.

The heat index, also known as the apparent temperature, describes how the temperature feels to the human body when relative humidity and air temperature are combined.

The high temperatures on Sunday led 14 individuals, including voters and poll workers, to faint at Ramkhamhaeng University in the Hua Mak region of Bangkok’s Bang Kapi district, a polling station for advance voting.

Fainting from heat in thailand

Because of the heat, many voters reportedly felt ill and fainted when they arrived at their polling locations for advance voting around midday or in the afternoon, according to Pairat Kasetsin, the Bang Kapi district chief. They were given first-aid care in a neighbouring neighbourhood.

Bangkok Metropolitan Administration dispatched water trucks to the event. Water was splashed into the air to cool it down. More electric fans were installed in the surrounding area.

Three people were reported to have lost consciousness due to the heat at Chan Kasem Rajabhat University, another advance voting polling place in Bangkok.

Soaring Temperatures in Northern Thailand

The northern region of Tak had the highest temperature ever recorded in Thailand since records began, with daytime temperatures reaching 45.4 degrees Celsius. Despite the fact that Thailand has now entered the wet season, the excessive heat shows no signs of abating.

In fact, despite the brief respite provided by summer storms that deluged the kingdom just days after this year’s Songkran festival, average temperatures across many regions remain at an all-time high, putting strain not only on the country’s power grid, but also on its citizens, many of whom have never seen the mercury rise above 45 degrees Celsius in their lifetime.

Heat wave thailand

Prior to this year, Mae Hong Son in Thailand’s upper north held the record for the hottest day ever recorded in Thailand, when the temperature reached 44.6 degrees Celsius in 2016.

Thailand isn’t the only country trying to cope with what scientists have dubbed a “monster heatwave” due to the extent of the heat.

Last month, heat records were being broken on a weekly basis across the Asia-Pacific area, from Pakistan in the west to the Pacific Island of New Caledonia, east of Australia. According to one study, one in every three individuals on the planet is being harmed by the unusual heat, which scientists predict will last for a few more weeks.

Heat Wave Over Southeast Asia

India, for example, was compelled to increase electricity production at numerous facilities that had been operating at reduced capacity due to low demand, as millions of people across the country sought respite from their air conditioners and refrigerators. As the high heat persists over India’s southwestern state of Karnataka, the three main power plants remain on overdrive.

The temperature peaked at 42.9 degrees Celsius in China’s Yunnan province, although over 100 weather monitoring stations across the country reported record high temperatures. While temperatures in Japan remained quite comfortable in the 30-35C range, the average temperature for the month of April soared so dramatically that Tokyo reported the earliest cherry blossoms in 1,200 years.

Extreme heat thailand

Closer to home, many major cities saw record temperatures, with Luang Prabang reaching 42.7 degrees Celsius and Sainyabouli reaching 42.9 degrees Celsius.

Schools in Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines were closed last week as temperatures stayed above the April normal, and instructors and parents expressed concern for the pupils’ well-being. Only two weeks ago, the heat index in Bangkok reached 54 degrees Celsius, leading the authorities to advise residents to stay indoors during the warmest portion of the day.

Some argue that El Nino is to blame for the region’s excessive temperature increase. However, keep in mind that El Nino episodes are well documented, and temperatures have never climbed to this amount previously.

Global costs of heatwaves

This demonstrates that, while El Nino is to responsible for the “monster heatwave,” other factors are driving temperature swings to be more pronounced than ever before. The most serious of these is unregulated deforestation in the name of development.

Tackling climate change is difficult due to the problem’s transboundary character; hence, unless all parties commit to working together to tackle the problem, the only thing an individual government can do is treat the “symptoms.”

extreme heat thailand

But how long can the government compel school closures, issue work-from-home orders, or limit outdoor activities? Unfortunately, as the election campaign nears its conclusion, neither candidate has prioritized inter-governmental cooperation to address the core causes of global warming.

Instead of promising to address pollution at its source, most candidates, especially those who profess to be among the more progressive, are touting irrational vows to boost the economy, with little consideration for the cost of unfettered development on the economy.

This mindset must change, as the global costs of heatwaves since 1990 have surpassed US$16 trillion (513 trillion baht), nearly the same as the economic harm caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This scorching heat should have served as a wake-up call for our leaders, but instead of addressing the issue, they settled for offering temporary discounts on electricity bills, a surefire strategy to garner public support that adds nothing to Thailand’s overall emissions level.

With those in authority blind to the present crisis, it is now time for Thais to recognize the cost of inaction on climate change and express their concerns to their local authorities, for the benefit of future generations.

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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.

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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

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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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