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Thailand Reinstates Proof of Covid-19 Vaccination on Entry

Thailand Reinstates Proof of Covid-19 Vaccination

As not to anger the power of Beijing, Thailand announced Thursday that all visitors must show proof of at least two Covid-19 vaccinations under revised rules that coincide with the resumption of travel from China.

In addition, visitors traveling from Thailand to a country requiring a negative RT-PCR test result must provide proof of insurance. Public Health Anutin Charnvirnvirnkul told reporters that this will ensure that they can afford treatment if their RT-PCR test is positive.

All incoming travelers  to China still required to have a negative PCR test result from no more than 48 hours prior to arrival. India imposed a similar requirement on visitors from Thailand, China (including Hong Kong), South Korea, Japan, and Singapore this week.

In October of last year, Thailand eliminated the requirement for proof of vaccination, antigen test results, and health insurance. However, officials believe that the likelihood of Covid-19 infection in many countries will increase as Chinese citizens resume traveling in large numbers.

Mr. Anutin stated that new non-discriminatory measures are required due to the fact that Thailand is a popular tourist destination for visitors from many countries, including China.

“There will be no discrimination against any country on the basis that Covid-19 is spreading in all countries and the strains are comparable. Therefore, Covid-19 should not be used to discriminate against any nation,” he said.

First Group of Chinese Long Stay Visa Tourists Clear Quarantine

Chinese tourists arrivals

Mr. Anutin made these remarks after a meeting with representatives from the Ministries of Public Health, Transportation, Foreign Affairs, and Tourism and Sports. Representatives from the Insurance Commission Office and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration joined them.

He did not specify when the new measures would go into effect, but officials said they would begin prior to the arrival of Chinese tourists.

China will eliminate entry-level quarantine requirements on Sunday, paving the way for millions of its citizens to travel abroad. In the first few days and weeks, however, limited flight capacity is anticipated to keep the number of visitors low.

The director-general of Thailand’s Civil Aviation Authority, Mr. Suttipong Kongpool, stated that the first scheduled flight from China would arrive at Suvarnabhumi airport on January 12. He added that 15 Chinese airlines would operate 15 daily flights to Suvarnabhumi, Chiang Mai, and Phuket airports during the first three months of this year.

Prior to the pandemic, China was by far the country’s largest tourist source, accounting for over 11 million of the 40 million international arrivals in 2019.

Mr. Anutin advised individuals with respiratory illness to postpone travel until they have made a full recovery in order to reduce the risk of disease transmission.

He added that visitors traveling to countries requiring proof of a negative PCR test should only stay in hotels with standard disease control measures and Covid-19 testing services.

He stated that health authorities would continue to monitor the local Covid situation and could adjust their response to changing risks.

Mr. Anutin added that authorities in tourist provinces should prepare their hospitals and hotels, while tourism and transportation workers should receive at least four doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

10 Pattaya Attractions that You Shouldn't Miss in 2023

Pattaya Thailand Prepares for Chinese Tourists

The resort town of Pattaya expects more Chinese tourists during the Chinese New Year holiday, which falls on January 22, while Phuket has prepared for the return of Chinese tourists after earning more than 6.6 billion baht from tourism during the New Year holiday.

The Chinese policy to ease Covid-19 restrictions, was good news for Pattaya City on Wednesday because Chinese tourists were a major target group said Mr. Sanphet Supbowornsathian, president of the Thai Hotels Association’s Eastern Thailand Chapter.

He stated that tour companies have resumed operations following news that the Chinese government will lift Covid-19 travel restrictions and allow Chinese citizens to travel internationally beginning this Sunday.

Initially, so-called Free Independent Travellers (FIT), or visitors who travel independently rather than with tour groups, will arrive in late January during the Chinese New Year. Those who travel in groups through travel agencies are likely to begin visiting Thailand in March.

He also stated that hotel owners and the tourism industry are ready to welcome Chinese tourists and are outfitted with Covid-19 preventive measures to ensure the comfort and safety of both locals and international visitors.

Mr Sanphet believes tourism will not grow as much this year as it did before the pandemic for a variety of reasons, including the recession, which forces people to cut back on their spending. On the bright side, he believes Thailand still has the potential to attract more visitors from around the world due to its low tourism costs and excellent services.

Meanwhile, according to the Thai Hotels Association, Indian tourists are delaying or canceling their trips to Pattaya because their government now requires them to be tested for Covid-19 before returning home.

Mr Sanphet said that the new requirement imposed by India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on January 1 for travellers from Thailand, China (including Hong Kong), Japan, South Korea, and Singapore to produce negative RT-PCR tests had caused large groups of Indian tourists to cancel or postpone their trips to Thailand.

“Tourists are delaying their visits as a result of the mandatory RT-PCR tests. Only a few small groups (of Indian tourists) are left “Mr. Sanphet stated.

Aside from Pattaya, Phuket is also ecstatic about the influx of Chinese tourists. The Tourism Authority of Thailand’s Phuket Office director, Nanthasiri Ronnasiri, said on Wednesday that the easing in China represents a great opportunity.

TAT will launch a campaign to welcome Chinese tourists, as many of them will be in Phuket for Chinese New Year. She stated that Phuket received 208,750 visitors between December 30 and January 2, 2023.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

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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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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

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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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Scientists Awarded MicroRNA The Nobel Prize in Medicine.

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