News
Tears Flow Openly at Historic Cremation of King Bhumibol Adulyadej
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BANGKOK – In a national outpouring of grief, Thais across the country turned up late on Thursday night to bid a tearful and final farewell to their beloved King Bhumibol Adulyadej in solemn, centuries-old royal ceremonies.
At 10pm, His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun presided over the royal cremation for the late King at the royal crematorium at the Sanam Luang ceremonial ground.
Smoke rose from the crematorium at 11.30pm Thursday, signifying that the last voyage of the late King had begun.
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His Majesty also presided over a royal cremation ceremony at 5pm. The ceremony at this stage was meant to be symbolic, only involving the laying of cremation flowers at the royal urn.
Following the King, senior monks led by His Holiness Supreme Patriarch, the royal family, foreign royals and foreign dignitaries ascended the royal crematorium to lay cremation flowers.
The melancholic moment resulted in many Thais becoming inconsolable and breaking down in tears.
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His Majesty the King will return to the royal crematorium Friday to perform religious ceremonies and collect the remains of the late King following the emotional royal cremation ceremony Thursday.
The late King’s relics and ashes will be carried in a ceremonial procession to the Grand Palace.
The royal relics will be placed at the Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall while the royal ashes will be transported to the Temple of Emerald Buddha and placed inside the Phra Si Rattana Chedi, a main pagoda in the temple.
On Sunday, the royal relics will be transferred to the Chakri Maha Prasat Throne Hall in the Grand Palace where they will be enshrined permanently.
The royal ashes will be moved to the royal cemetery inside Wat Rajabophit where they will be kept permanently. Some of the royal ashes will also be enshrined at the base of the Phra Buddha Shinnasee statue in the temple of Wat Bowonniwet Vihara.
HISTORY IN THE MAKING
In Thursday’s historic event, the royal funeral urn of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej was conveyed in grand and solemn processions from the Grand Palace to the royal crematorium site at Sanam Luang.
His Majesty the King presided over a merit-making ceremony for the royal funeral urn beforehand.
Millions thronged the site at and around Sanam Luang, and at replica crematoriums around Bangkok and in the provinces.
Virtually every Thai watched the TV Pool’s broadcast on terrestrial, satellite and internet channels.
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The King Rama X performed the ceremony at the Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall inside the Grand Palace where the royal urn lay in state before it was moved from its base and placed upon a three-poled golden palanquin.
The royal urn was moved out of the Grand Place into a royal procession — the first of six scheduled for the royal cremation ceremonies.
The white nine-tiered umbrella of state was then placed atop the royal urn.
His Majesty the King led the royal funeral corteges, accompanied by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and the royal family.
The first royal funeral procession with the royal golden urn borne atop the palanquin headed to Wat Phra Chetuphon, or Wat Pho, where the royal urn was transferred to the Phra Maha Phichai Rajarot, or the Great Victory Chariot, which was waiting in the second royal procession.
This was the main funeral procession with more than 2,400 officials wearing traditional ceremonial costumes and royal guards dressed in full military regalia.
Four court Brahmins also joined the procession. They released their hair which is normally tied in a knot on their heads to express their mourning.
The royal funeral urn was carried on the Great Victory Chariot in the solemn procession which moved slowly to the Phra Meru Mas at Sanam Luang.
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Marching music from a military band in the processions could not disguise the sound of single gun salutes which were fired every minute to honour the late King.
But the spectacular procession could not stem the flood of tears. Amid blazing heat, as the procession approached the ceremonial ground, mourners sobbed and wailed
“I love the late King so much. I am overwhelmed; I don’t know how to put it into words,” said Piyarporn Supaporn, 53, a housewife from Rayong.
“Our hearts and our minds are directed towards our beloved father,” she added.
Malichan Puangchompoo, 69, came from Yasothon.
“This is a historic moment in my life. I never imagined I would be able to get this close to the crematorium. Now I am here,” she said.
After the urn reached the royal cremation site at Sanam Luang, it was loaded onto the Royal Gun Carriage and carried around the crematorium three times in an anti-clockwise direction before being lifted into the royal crematorium at around 3pm.
His Majesty the King returned to the royal crematorium site in the late afternoon to perform the royal cremation rite.
Wanpen Kayata, a 68-year-old retiree from Nonthaburi, said she arrived at the area on Tuesday and spent two nights waiting to pass the screening areas.
She entered the ceremonial grounds Thursday morning, as one of the last groups to enter.
“It saddens me whenever I have to talk about this, but it’s a truly remarkable experience.
“It is so special to me, especially considering there are people who have been waiting since Oct 20 or Oct 21. The parades are definitely fitting to honour the late King.”
She said she would stay until just after 10pm, when the royal cremation ceremony was set to conclude.
“I’m elated, ” she said. “By getting to the ceremonial grounds, it’s as if we are physically and mentally closer to him.”
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Traffic in the capital was smooth on many roads, except near venues set for people to lay funeral flowers where large numbers of black-clad mourners flocked to bid farewell to the late King.
Many people took on the job of volunteers, transporting mourners on their own motorcycles to the venues for laying flowers.
At Wat That Thong, mourners queued up in three lines with the tail of the queue in Soi Ekamai, about a kilometre from the temple.
DISAPPOINTED MOURNERS
The inner area for the mourners surrounding the royal cremation ground was adjusted many times to accommodate as many people as possible.
Officials closed the checkpoints from time to time, during the period when the royal ceremony was going on, or when the areas seemed to be full.
The royal cremation ceremony organising committee announced that 157,778 people had entered the Sanam Luang area as of 1pm to attend the royal cremation ceremony.
They were separated from the invited VIPs and distinguished guests, who were in the inner area, by fences.
About 200,000 others failed to enter the area as it was full, so they stayed in the vicinity.
On Wednesday, the first day people were allowed to enter areas around Sanam Luang through nine checkpoints, the atmosphere was hectic.
Similar scenes were seen again last night, when thousands of mourners who failed to enter the areas surrounding the royal crematorium ground tried to break through the checkpoints after they heard people would be allowed to lay flowers for the late King at the royal crematorium.
Authorities reportedly tried to allow another 8,000 to enter at night to witness Thai classical performances which were set to take place at Sanam Luang from 6pm until 6am this morning, pausing for ceremonies at the royal crematorium.
MOURNING ELSEWHERE
Elsewhere in the country, huge crowds of black-clad mourners headed out from dawn to pay their final tributes to the late King by laying funeral flowers at designated sites in every province.
In Nakhon Ratchasima, large numbers of people flocked to the Thao Suranari statue ground where a replica of the royal crematorium is situated.
Many had to wait for more than eight hours before reaching the place to lay funeral flowers.
In the northeastern province of Chaiyaphum, 10,000 mourners started queuing before 9am to lay flowers at the old city hall. The number of mourners kept swelling.
In Chon Buri, as large numbers of mourners turned up at the province’s main public park for the royal funeral ceremony there, volunteers were seen assisting the elderly, pushing wheelchairs for the disabled and giving refreshments to visitors.
In the northern province of Chiang Rai, highlanders belonging to 17 ethnic minority groups were seen attending a dok mai chan (sandalwood) flower-laying ceremony along with locals early Thursday morning.
Weather was no deterrent to mourners who wanted to bid a final farewell to the late monarch.
At Nakhon Si Thammarat, they braved heavy downpours to place their flowers before a replica of the royal crematorium at Sanam Na Muang Public Park.
Also in the South, 24 Maniq ethnic people joined a throng dressed in black at a royal funeral site in Satun’s Manang district. Khailek Srimanang, leader of the ethnic group, said the whole Maniq community loves the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
In Myanmar’s Shan State, opposite Mae Hong Son’s Pang Ma Pha district, more than 1,000 Shan State Army (SSA) members and their families placed sandalwood flowers in tribute to King Bhumibol.
The ceremony was launched by Gen Yodsuek, commander-in-chief of the army.
In Dawei, oppposite Kanchaburi’s Muang district, high-ranking officials of the Karen National Union (KNU) joined other Karen observed a moment of silence as they placed cremation flowers before a portrait of him.
Many Karen have sought shelter in Thailand in times of difficulty and prospered in the country, a debt many feel they owe to the late King’s compassion and kindness.
In Surin’s Kap Choeng district, which has a shared border with Cambodia, dozens of Cambodian vendors at the Chong Chom checkpoint joined over 30,000 Thais in laying cremation flowers to pay tribute to the late monarch.
Suthiroj Charoenthanasak, the district chief, said the Cambodian people and vendors took an active part in the cremation ceremony.
“They have a deep respect for King Bhumibol Adulyadej and they wanted to pay tribute.”
Meanwhile, a group of 23 Australian army officers placed sandalwood flowers at Wat Pa Saeng Arun in Khon Kaen.
These soldiers are from a Thai-Australian military drill in the northeastern province.
They were accompanied by Thai soldiers from the 3rd infantry battalion under the 8th infantry regiment, according to Lt Col Sanya Yothanant, commander of the 3rd infantry battalion under the 8th infantry regiment.
Meanwhile, a video clip of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, whose face was a mask of tears as he participated in the royal funeral processions, went viral on social media.
The clip was shared by Facebook user “Sakrin Daorai” who wrote: “Needless to say, Uncle Tu loves King Rama IX.”
In Ayutthaya, where almost 6,000 households in 11 tambons were submerged earlier due to heavy flooding, Bang Pa-in District Office was packed with over 50,000 residents who flocked to a sandalwood flower pavilion.
In Prachin Buri, more than 30,000 residents made their way to city hall to place cremation flowers for the late King at a replica royal crematorium at the civic space in front of the provincial hall. The mood was sombre but committed, observers say.
The event was being led by deputy provincial governor Tiwa Watcharakan.
Source: The Bangkok Post
News
Trudeau’s Gun Grab Could Cost Taxpayers a Whopping $7 Billion
A recent report indicates that since Trudeau’s announcement of his gun buyback program four years ago, almost none of the banned firearms have been surrendered.
The federal government plans to purchase 2,063 firearm models from retailers following the enactment of Bill C-21, which amends various Acts and introduces certain consequential changes related to firearms. It was granted royal assent on December 15 of last year.
This ban immediately criminalized the actions of federally-licensed firearms owners regarding the purchase, sale, transportation, importation, exportation, or use of hundreds of thousands of rifles and shotguns that were previously legal.
The gun ban focused on what it termed ‘assault-style weapons,’ which are, in reality, traditional semi-automatic rifles and shotguns that have enjoyed popularity among hunters and sport shooters for over a century.
In May 2020, the federal government enacted an Order-in-Council that prohibited 1,500 types of “assault-style” firearms and outlined specific components of the newly banned firearms. Property owners must adhere to the law by October 2023.
Trudeau’s Buyback Hasn’t Happened
“In the announcement regarding the ban, the prime minister stated that the government would seize the prohibited firearms, assuring that their lawful owners would be ‘grandfathered’ or compensated fairly.” “That hasn’t happened,” criminologist Gary Mauser told Rebel News.
Mauser projected expenses ranging from $2.6 billion to $6.7 billion. The figure reflects the compensation costs amounting to $756 million, as outlined by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).
“The projected expenses for gathering the illegal firearms are estimated to range from $1.6 billion to $7 billion.” “This range estimate increases to between $2.647 billion and $7 billion when compensation costs to owners are factored in,” Mauser stated.
Figures requested by Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs concerning firearms prohibited due to the May 1, 2020 Order In Council reveal that $72 million has been allocated to the firearm “buyback” program, yet not a single firearm has been confiscated to date.
In a recent revelation, Public Safety Canada disclosed that the federal government allocated a staggering $41,094,556, as prompted by an order paper question from Conservative Senator Don Plett last September, yet yielded no tangible outcomes.
An internal memo from late 2019 revealed that the Liberals projected their politically motivated harassment would incur a cost of $1.8 billion.
Enforcement efforts Questioned
By December 2023, estimates from TheGunBlog.ca indicate that the Liberals and RCMP had incurred or were responsible for approximately $30 million in personnel expenses related to the enforcement efforts. The union representing the police service previously stated that the effort to confiscate firearms is a “misdirected effort” aimed at ensuring public safety.
“This action diverts crucial personnel, resources, and funding from tackling the more pressing and escalating issue of criminal use of illegal firearms,” stated the National Police Federation (NPF).
The Canadian Sporting Arms & Ammunition Association (CSAAA), representing firearms retailers, has stated it will have “zero involvement” in the confiscation of these firearms. Even Canada Post held back from providing assistance due to safety concerns.
The consultant previously assessed that retailers are sitting on almost $1 billion worth of inventory that cannot be sold or returned to suppliers because of the Order-In-Council.
“Despite the ongoing confusion surrounding the ban, after four years, we ought to be able to address one crucial question.” Has the prohibition enhanced safety for Canadians? Mauser asks.
Illegally Obtained Firearms are the Problem
Statistics Canada reports a 10% increase in firearm-related violent crime between 2020 and 2022, rising from 12,614 incidents to 13,937 incidents. In that timeframe, the incidence of firearm-related violent crime increased from 33.7 incidents per 100,000 population in 2021 to 36.7 incidents the subsequent year.
“This marks the highest rate documented since the collection of comparable data began in 2009,” the criminologist explains.
Supplementary DataData indicates that firearm homicides have risen since 2020. “The issue lies not with lawfully-held firearms,” Mauser stated.
Firearms that have been banned under the Order-in-Council continue to be securely stored in the safes of their lawful owners. The individuals underwent a thorough vetting process by the RCMP and are subject to nightly monitoring to ensure there are no infractions that could pose a risk to public safety.
“The firearms involved in homicides were seldom legally owned weapons wielded by their rightful owners,” Mauser continues. The number of offenses linked to organized crime has surged from 4,810 in 2016 to a staggering 13,056 in 2020.
“If those in power … aim to diminish crime and enhance public safety, they ought to implement strategies that effectively focus on offenders and utilize our limited tax resources judiciously to reach these objectives,” he stated.
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News
Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue
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’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’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 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.
SOURCE | CNN
News
The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.
(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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