Connect with us

News

United States Won’t Support an Independent Taiwan, Biden Pushes One China Policy

United States Won't Support an Independence Taiwan, Biden Backs One China Policy

Voters in Taiwan wept Lai Ching-te, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, into power on Saturday, rejecting China’s warnings not to vote for him in an election that Beijing presented as a choice between war and peace.

In a victory speech, Lai expressed his hope for a return to “healthy and orderly” relations with China, emphasizing his desire for negotiations based on “dignity and parity”.

The DPP, which advocates for Taiwan’s unique identity and opposes China’s territorial claims, was running for a third term, unprecedented in Taiwan’s present electoral system.

Lai, the current vice president under Tsai Ing-wen, who has served a maximum of two terms, was up against two presidential candidates: Hou Yu-ih of the main opposition party Kuomintang (KMT) and former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je of the minor Taiwan People’s Party, which was created in 2019. Both admitted defeat.

In the run-up to the election, China attacked Lai as a dangerous separatist, claiming that any movements toward Taiwan’s formal independence would result in war and rejecting Lai’s demands for discussions.

United States Won't Support an Independence Taiwan, Biden Backs One China Policy

Lai has stated that he is committed to maintaining peace and the status quo across the Taiwan Strait while strengthening the island’s defences.

“We do not want to create enemies with China. “We can become friends,” Lai, known by his English name William, told a Taiwanese television station in July.

However, Beijing sees Lai, 64, as a separatist and a “troublemaker through and through” because of comments he made as premier in 2017 about being a “worker” for Taiwan’s official independence, which Beijing considers a red line.

The next year, he informed parliament he was a “practical worker for Taiwan independence,” prompting one Chinese publication, the widely read Global Times, to request that China issue an international arrest order for Lai and prosecute him under China’s 2005 Anti-Secession Law.

Lai claims he just meant that Taiwan is already an independent country. On the campaign road, he stuck to President Tsai Ing-wen’s statement that the Republic of China — Taiwan’s formal name — and the People’s Republic of China are “not subordinate to each other”.

Over 19.5 million people were eligible to vote in the three-way presidential campaign and legislative elections, both held on Saturday.

Lai cast his ballots in Tainan, a southern city where he previously served as mayor, and told reporters that the people’s vote will demonstrate the strength of Taiwan’s democracy.

Hou voted in New Taipei and stated that all candidates and the people “must unite for Taiwan’s future” during the elections despite the harsh competition and criticism throughout the campaign.

Lai was born in October 1959 in what is now the rural coastal district of Wanli in New Taipei City, the son of a coal miner. Lai’s father perished in an accident while he was an infant.

Taiwan Election

He received a master of public health degree from Harvard University

As the leader of a Tainan physicians’ group, Lai supported a DPP candidate in the 1994 gubernatorial election and was elected to the island’s legislature four years later to represent the southern city. As a legislator, he was part of a group that advocated for Taiwan to join the World Health Organization.

Lai was Tainan’s mayor from 2010 to 2017 before becoming the island’s premier. He then accepted President Tsai Ing-wen’s offer to be her running partner in the 2020 presidential election, helping their united ticket win with a record-breaking 8.17 million votes.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden stated on Saturday that the United States does not support Taiwan’s independence after Taiwanese voters rejected China and elected the ruling party to a third presidential term.

When questioned about his reaction to Saturday’s elections, Biden replied, “We do not support independence…”

Washington said “it would be unacceptable” for “any” country to influence the election hours before the polls opened.

Despite the lack of formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, the United States remains the island’s most important international backer and supplier of armaments.

Blinken Taiwan

“One-China Policy”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken congratulated Lai Ching-te on his victory and stated that the U.S. is “committed to maintaining cross-strait peace and stability, as well as the peaceful resolution of differences free of coercion and pressure.”

“He stated that the United States is looking forward to working with Lai and Taiwanese leaders from all parties to advance their “longstanding unofficial relationship, consistent with the United States’ one-China policy.”

The Biden administration had feared that the election, transition, and incoming government would exacerbate tensions with Beijing.

Biden has attempted to improve relations with China, offering to discuss security disagreements with President Xi Jinping during a California conference in November.

According to two senior officials, Taiwan’s administration expects China to exert pressure on its future president following the vote, including military exercises near the island this spring. China has never renounced the use of force to gain control of Taiwan.

News

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

Continue Reading

News

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

Continue Reading

News

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

SEE ALSO:

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.

Continue Reading

Trending