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Worldwide Protests Call for End to Genocide of Palestinians

Worldwide Protests Call for End to Genocide of Palestinians

(CTN News) – Late Saturday night, when assistance trucks from the United Nations arrived in northern Gaza, Hamas released a second group of inmates in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Israeli forces reportedly warned Gazans from traveling north, even though there has been a four-day ceasefire, according to Al Jazeera. On Sunday, a Palestinian journalist reported that Israeli forces were killing and arresting Palestinians in northern Gaza.

On Saturday, thirty-three Palestinians, including six females and thirty-three children, were released from Israeli detention facilities and allowed to rejoin their families.

Despite the releases, over 8,000 Palestinians are still held in Israeli custody, according to Al Jazeera. Among them are over 2,200 administrative detainees who have not been charged or tried.

Additionally, Israel has been raiding the occupied West Bank daily, arresting more Palestinians despite releasing others.

Four Thai nationals and thirteen Israelis were among those freed by Hamas. The first ceasefire since Israel’s air and military invasion of Gaza on October 7—following a surprise raid by Hamas that killed 1,200 people and captured roughly 240—will be maintained, according to a Palestinian official well-versed in the diplomatic developments.

Over 14,800 Palestinians, mostly women, children, and the elderly, were killed, injured, or forced to flee their homes in Gaza as a result of Israel’s siege, ceaseless bombardment, and ground offensive.

On Friday, Hamas released 13 Israeli prisoners in exchange for the release of 39 Palestinian girls and women from Israeli jails; on Saturday, the two sides continued their exchange. Meanwhile, Israeli military incursions in the occupied West Bank continued over the weekend, killing at least six Palestinians.

Additionally, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that ambulances and emergency medical personnel were being blocked from reaching wounded people in Jenin by Israeli Occupation Forces. The report went on to say that two local hospitals were under Israeli siege.

According to Al Jazeera, Israeli police have arrested over 3,000 individuals in the occupied West Bank and killed 229 Palestinians, including 52 children, since October 7.

According to the UN, 61 trucks carrying food, water, and medical supplies arrived in northern Gaza, while another 200 trucks were sent from Nitzana, Israel, to the territory.

Out of those, 187 managed to cross the border, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Israeli forces besieged and raided Al-Shifa hospital; eleven ambulances, three coaches, and a flatbed were transported to the facility, according to the OCHA. That these cars would “assist with evacuations” was the official word from the UN organization.

“The longer the pause lasts, the more aid humanitarian agencies will be able to send in and across Gaza,” OCHA noted, expressing gratitude to the Palestinian and Egyptian Red Crescent groups.

The Israeli government is reportedly planning to release 39 Palestinian prisoners from jail today, with another 13 detainees from Gaza also set for release, as reported by Al Jazeera.

With Hamas militants announcing on Saturday that they would postpone releases unless Israel fulfilled all truce conditions—including a promise to allow aid trucks into northern Gaza—the accord appeared destined to fall through.

The arrangement was salvaged after a day of intense negotiation facilitated by Egypt and Qatar. US President Joe Biden was involved in this process, contacting the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

According to Osama Hamdan, a spokeswoman for Hamas, “less than half of what Israel agreed on” (65 out of 340 supply trucks that entered Gaza since Friday) had made it to northern Gaza.

The armed branch of Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades, also claimed that Israel had disregarded the conditions for the release of Palestinian detainees that took their length of captivity into account.

According to Majed Al-Ansari, a spokesman for the Qatari foreign ministry, there has been “a lot of discussion” regarding the criteria for prioritizing release, with the length of time spent in Israeli prisons being a crucial factor for the Palestinian side.

In an interview with CNN, he expressed optimism that they would be able to resolve many of the details on the second or third day of the halt.

According to Israel, the ceasefire might be prolonged, provided Hamas maintained a daily release rate of ten hostages. According to a Palestinian source, as many as one hundred prisoners may be freed.

At the same time, demonstrators from all over the globe demanded an immediate end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and a global cessation of hostilities.

On Sunday, emir Sirajul Haq of the Jamaat-e-Islami movement told a gathering that the gates of paradise will not open for us unless we rescue our Palestinian brethren. He declared his willingness to die for the Palestinian cause.

On Saturday, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in London to march in support of a long-term end to the Israeli-Gaza conflict.

As they made their way through the heart of London to the Houses of Parliament at Westminister, the protesters brandished banners and placards in support of the Palestinian cause and yelled out chants.

It was London’s biggest pro-Palestinian demonstration since October 7.

Palestinian journalist Motaz Azaiza tweeted on X (previously Twitter) that the people of Gaza need a permanent ceasefire. With an additional “we want to live,” he continued.

Images and videos of hundreds of people demonstrating in support of Palestine in Melbourne, Australia, calling for an end to the conflict in Gaza have been making the rounds on social media.

Passive resistance is required now, the protesters demanded. Protesters, including several elected officials from the area, denounced the Israeli assault of the besieged enclave.

It is a call on all of us to support the Palestinian determination to resist 75 years of colonization,” one speaker stated, according to Al Jazeera.

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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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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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Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli, To repay $6.4 Million

shkreli

Washington — The Supreme Court rejected Martin Shkreli’s appeal on Monday, after he was branded “Pharma Bro” for raising the price of a lifesaving prescription.

Martin appealed a decision to repay $64.6 million in profits he and his former company earned after monopolizing the pharmaceutical market and dramatically raising its price. His lawyers claimed the money went to his company rather than him personally.

The justices did not explain their reasoning, as is customary, and there were no notable dissents.

Prosecutors, conversely, claimed that the firm had promised to pay $40 million in a settlement and that because Martin orchestrated the plan, he should be held accountable for returning profits.

shkreli

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Martin was also forced to forfeit the Wu-Tang Clan’s unreleased album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” which has been dubbed the world’s rarest musical album. The multiplatinum hip-hop group auctioned off a single copy of the record in 2015, stipulating that it not be used commercially.

Shkreli was convicted of lying to investors and defrauding them of millions of dollars in two unsuccessful hedge funds he managed. Shkreli was the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals (later Vyera), which hiked the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill after acquiring exclusive rights to the decades-old medicine in 2015. It cures a rare parasite condition that affects pregnant women, cancer patients, and HIV patients.

shkreli

He defended the choice as an example of capitalism in action, claiming that insurance and other programs ensured that those in need of Daraprim would eventually receive it. However, the move prompted criticism, from the medical community to Congress.

shkreli

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Attorney Thomas Huff said the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling was upsetting, but the high court could still overturn a lower court judgment that allowed the $64 million penalty order even though Shkreli had not personally received the money.

“If and when the Supreme Court does so, Mr. Shkreli will have a strong argument for modifying the order accordingly,” he told reporters.

Shkreli was freed from prison in 2022 after serving most of his seven-year sentence.

SOURCE | AP

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