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Thailand’s Drug War Targets Meth from Chiang Rai’s Golden Triangle

 

CHIANG RAI – Methamphetamine drug cartels in the lawless jungles of eastern Myanmar are flooding neighboring countries with meth. In Thailand, Buddhist monks have been caught using the drug and the government is trying in vain to stop the flow.

At the “Wat Kathu” temple on the Thai island of Phuket, a bald monk sits in front of the prayer house with a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. Taking up most of the space inside are display cabinets with amulets for sale. The temple abbot blesses Chinese tourists who arrive every half hour in buses. Diligent monks collecting alms in the city are nowhere to be seen.

Even if the monks here don’t seem to be the most pious, they were very surprised when Thai drug police pulled into the temple’s parking lot in December.

“All of the monks had to provide a urine test,” said Dang, a monk responsible for administrative affairs at the temple.

“I was shocked that seven of our clergy tested positive for methamphetamine use,” he said. “They must have secretly consumed the drugs. We didn’t notice anything.”

The drug-using monks had to hand over their saffron robes on the spot and were arrested. They were also expelled from the Buddhist community and have to take part in a government rehabilitation program with other drug offenders.

Eight monks from three temples in Phuket were defrocked after testing positive for methamphetamine’s.

A Growing Drug Epidemic

The defrocked monks of Wat Kathu are only a small part of a growing nationwide drug problem in Thailand. An estimated 70 percent of prison inmates in Thailand are behind bars on drug-related offenses.

At least 300,000 Thais are currently in one of the country’s numerous rehabilitation centers. According to a report by the National Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), 240,000 of them are under the age of 24. In response, Thai authorities have declared a war on drugs.

“The military must take strict measures to stop the flood of drugs,” said Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan at the end of October. Since then, military and police commandos have been on the move throughout the country, hunting both dealers and users. Over 120,000 drug abusers were arrested in November alone.

The Thai military checks for drugs at the Mae Sai border crossing with Myanmar in January 2019

Thailand’s Dubious Drug War

Thailand’s new drug interdiction brings up memories of the 2003 “war against drugs,” started by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. It resulted in more than 2,500 deaths.

At the time, Thaksin told narcotic task forces that “suspects should only go two ways, either to the cemetery or behind bars.” The drug police were essentially given an unofficial license to kill. According to human rights organizations, several hundred people wrongly accused of drug trafficking were killed.

Thailand’s latest war on drugs has already claimed several dozen lives. However, no cartel bosses have been killed. The casualties have mostly been small-time drug smugglers coming from mountain villages in eastern Myanmar.

Thai authorities like to highlight the large quantities of drugs being confiscated. “In November alone we seized goods with a street value of 4.5 billion Baht (€121 million, $137 million),” the military said.

But these tons of drug seizures are only a drop in the ocean compared to the enormous wave of synthetic drugs surging into the Thai kingdom every day.

“Exact figures won’t be available until February, but the quantities of synthetic narcotics currently flooding Southeast Asia are many times higher than last year’s record figures,” said Inshik Sim of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Estimates are that drug investigators confiscate only 10 percent of total production.

“The enormous quantities are due to the massive increase in drug production in the Golden Triangle,” Sim said.

A Myanmar military transport vehicle near Kengtung in the ‘Golden Triangle’ region.

The “Golden Triangle,” a quasi-lawless region in the border area of Myanmar, China, Thailand and Laos, is both a safe haven and a distribution hub for drug cartels.

Myanmar’s Wild- Wild East

A voice shouts from behind a bamboo fence, stopping me before I can cross the border into the mountainous “Special Region 4,” an autonomous zone inside Myanmar’s Shan State. The country’s military cannot access the area, which is controlled by different rebel groups. Foreigners are also often barred entry.

The area has been cordoned off with wooden planks. “Kengtung, Kengtung!” the border guard mumbles, chewing nervously on a betel nut. Behind him, a soldier picks up his assault rifle to emphasize that it would be a good idea to immediately turn back to the city of Kengtung.

Special Zone 4 is spread out behind the checkpoint, with picturesque mountain vistas, lush jungle forests and the notorious casino town of Mong La.

The area is also home to drug cartels and rebel groups, including the dominant National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), a rebel group that emerged from the Communist Party of Burma. The NDAA is allied with the United Wa State Army (UWSA), a 20,000-strong militia of the Wa ethnic group that rules the adjacent “Special Region 2” and has strong ties to Myanmar’s military.

Rulers in the eastern part of Shan State maintain excellent relations with their neighbor China. Chinese is often spoken instead of Burmese, Chinese yuan is widely accepted as currency and calls are made using Chinese networks.

Chemical precursors for drug production are also delivered from China, apparently without problems at the border crossing. The finished product is then cooked up in tented drug labs out in the jungle.

A Perfect Formula?

Back in Kengtung, a representative of the Burmese Immigration Service told DW that Special Zone 4 is a “powder keg” at the moment.

“Drug-related conflicts between militant groups are omnipresent. That’s why we don’t allow foreign visitors to travel to the region. Many areas are even closed to the local population,” the official explained.

However, the official didn’t mention how Myanmar’s army, as well as militias allied with it and rebel groups in Special Zone 4 all benefit a great deal from drug production.

According to a recent report by the International Crisis Group (ICG), such enclaves are under “full territorial control of armed groups that have entered into permanent ceasefires with Myanmar’s military.” This offers ideal conditions for the undisturbed production of crystal meth on an industrial scale.

“Good infrastructure, easy access to necessary chemicals from China, and safe production facilities under the protection of government-affiliated militias and rebels in enclaves make Shan State a major source of high quality crystal meth,” the ICG report continues.

The booming drug industry in Shan State doesn’t look like it will slow down anytime soon.

The recently approved multibillion-euro “China-Myanmar Economic Corridor” (CMEC) project, is set to bring refurbished roads and modern high-speed railways to the region. In the future, the eastern border region of Myanmar could be better connected with China than with western Myanmar.

These improvements could also promote illegal activity. And as long as Myanmar’s autonomous zones continue to exist without any outside pressure, the drug trade looks like it will continue to flourish.

By Deutsche Welle

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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.

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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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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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