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Vietnam Grants Clemency to 2 Australians Sentence to Death

Vietnam Grants Clemency to 2 Australians Sentence to Death

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that two Australian citizen sentenced to death in Vietnam had been granted clemency as a result of improved diplomatic ties.

“Just yesterday, there was a significant breakthrough with the granting of clemency… “This is very welcome in Australia,” Albanese told Australia’s ABC News on Monday.

“We advocate on behalf of Australian citizens.” And we are delighted that Vietnam has agreed to the proposal, for which we congratulate them,” the prime minister stated.

He stated that he will not release the identities of those given pardon since they had desired privacy. The decision has been communicated to their families.

Albanese had visited Vietnam over the weekend, when he met with his colleague Pham Minh Chinh, and stated that the trip offered “an impetus for this outcome.”

Australia has also submitted representations on behalf of 73-year-old Chau Van Kham, a Vietnamese-Australian man condemned to 12 years in prison in 2019 by a Vietnamese court on “terrorism” accusations.

“That’s a different situation. We were hoping for an international prisoner transfer, and we’re still hoping. “But we’ll keep working on those issues,” Albanese said.

Capital Punishment in Vietnam

Vietnam is notoriously secretive regarding its use of the death penalty. However, human rights advocates believe it is one of the world’s largest executioners, and the largest in Southeast Asia. Previously classified government data made public and published in Vietnamese state media sources in 2017 revealed 429 executions between 2013 and 2016, putting the country just behind China and Iran in its usage of the death sentence.

According to a research released this week by Amnesty International, global executions have increased by 20% as nations relax Covid-19 rules. However, it did not include China or Vietnam, where executions are considered state secrets, as in prior years.

However, Amnesty International could confirm “partial disclosures” by Vietnamese authorities indicating a nearly 30% increase in the number of death sentences handed down between October 1, 2020 and July 31, 2021. It further stated that 11 execution facilities across the country have been “put to use” this year.

According to the organisation, there are over 1,000 people on death row in the country, including foreigners from Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, and Malaysia, as well as a 73-year-old Australian woman convicted of heroin trafficking.

The ruling Communist Party of Vietnam has long upheld and justified the use of the death sentence. The public security ministry approved deadly injections, according to state papers revealed in 2017.

“Data on the death penalty in Vietnam continues to be classified as a state secret,” said Amnesty International’s death penalty specialist Chiara Sangiorgio.

“[This] secrecy, as well as the fact that the country’s media is tightly overseen or controlled by the state, has undoubtedly contributed to a lack of information and international attention on the subject.”

“We have written to the authorities seeking information, as we do every year in preparation for our report for all countries that still use the death penalty.” We did not receive a reply.”

The great majority of Vietnamese death penalties are for drug offences, which accounted for 93 of the 119 death sentences handed out last year, according to Amnesty International.

Formerly influential business people convicted of corruption, embezzlement, and fraud are among those facing the death penalty. Nguyen Xuan Son, a former high-ranking official who once led a major Vietnamese bank, was condemned to death in 2017 for his role in a loan fraud involving millions of dollars. Others have also been convicted of state corruption.

Other people on death row have been found guilty of murder.

Last year, a Hanoi court affirmed the death sentences of two brothers, Le Dinh Cong and Le Dinh Chuc, both farmers, for their roles in the deaths of three police officers who were burned to death in their hamlet after violent battles.

Villagers blamed the violence on the authorities’ efforts to construct a wall on farmland. Judges defended the death penalties, stating the brothers disobeyed the law and “showed no respect” for security personnel’s lives.

Some may be surprised by Vietnam’s alleged ascension to the top executioner in Southeast Asia, but rights groups warn that executions in the country are set to escalate in the coming years.

“Vietnam continues to execute people at an astonishing rate,” said Ben Swanton, advocacy director of the 88 Project, a non-profit organisation in the nation that advocates for free speech and human rights.

“The Vietnamese Communist Party is aware that its use of the death penalty contradicts its narrative of the country as a peaceful and harmonious society, and that it has the potential to harm the country’s international reputation.”

Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director at Human Rights Watch, labelled Vietnam “one of the worst rights-abusing states” in Southeast Asia.

“In Vietnam, the death penalty is used to intimidate those who would break the law while also demonstrating the power of the ruling party,” Robertson added. “This is a government that persecutes dissidents, tramples civil society, sentences and imprisons people after kangaroo court trials, and, as we now know, executes far more people than anyone else in [the region].”

When compared to neighbouring Singapore and Indonesia, which have made more headlines with their execution cases over the years, Robertson stated, “Vietnam’s horrendous record of executions dwarfs that of any of its neighbours, but it is not surprising that the government has systematically implemented the death penalty and kept executions out of the public eye.”

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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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