Connect with us

News

Can the International Community Restore Peace to Myanmar

Can the International Community Restore Peace to Myanmar

Geographically, Myanmar’s location is strategically important. After gaining independence from the British in 1948, the country suffered from long military rule. Myanmar has a long history of conflict between the military and the government with various regional ethnic groups, but it has become more widespread recently.

The military coup has plunged the country into a crisis with strained ethnic relations and a resurgence of civil war. According to geopolitical analysts, Myanmar’s governance is divided into three entities. The first is the State Administration Council (SAC), or the body of top officials engaged in the country’s governance; the second is the body of senior military officers and, finally, the Cabinet.

However, Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the armed forces and the coup’s leader, overshadowed these entities and gradually axed power. By issuing martial law, the state has absolute power. The military junta is using torture and killing as a weapon to suppress any dissent against the government following the policy of autocracy.

It has also enacted a series of draconian laws to consolidate its grip on power, threatening the legal protections and fundamental rights of the Myanmar people. In addition, internet access is limited and online newspapers and social media platforms are blocked. Recently, a new law has been issued where liking or sharing an anti-government post on social media is punishable by imprisonment.

myanmar economy

Distressed economy

In February last year, Myanmar’s military government declared a state of emergency for the first time since taking power. In August, the state of emergency was extended for another six months.

The junta’s main priority is to stay in power at any cost. As a result, the country’s economy is in a crisis, and the people have to pay the price. After the imposition of military rule in the post-coup period, the country was subjected to a Western economic embargo. Foreign aid and investment were suspended.

As a result, the country’s reserves have decreased since last April. Due to the internal crisis and the war in Ukraine, the prices of everyday products are increasing. On the other hand, many people are not paying electricity bills, and no one is paying taxes as part of the non-violent movement supported by the NLD government.

The government’s revenue collection has fallen to the bottom.

The country’s economy has shrunk by nearly 20 percent in the past year. According to a report published by the International Labor Organization (ILO) last January, by the end of 2021, half of the country’s population or about two and a half million people, will be below the poverty line, 1.6 million people or about eight percent of the total workforce have lost their jobs, and about 1.3 million people are at risk of food insecurity.

On the other hand, given the global and domestic crisis, the value of the Kyat, the currency continues to fall against the dollar. On February 1, 2021, one dollar was available at 1,395 kyats, which has increased by more than 40 percent to 2,113 kyats.

According to the British magazine Economist, the country’s central bank decided to sell 10 percent of its reserves to prevent the fall of the kyat. In this situation, the junta is trying to retain reserves by imposing currency controls and import bans. As a result, people are deprived of essential services like medicines.

myanmar junta

The declining power of the junta

The military junta is now facing fierce resistance from various ethnic minorities. Moreover, a shadow government called National Unity Government (NUG) was formed to counter the government.

The shadow government has already appealed to the international community for support, to which the United States, the European Union and ASEAN member states have responded. The NUG also formed a guerrilla force called the People’s Defense Force (PDF), which was formed to counter the military’s brutal crackdown on protesters.

As a result, the government has to fight against various ethnic groups in the border provinces, while on the other hand, it has to face pro-democracy PDF forces in various provinces inside the country. Because of this, the government is facing deep problems establishing political control in the country.

On the other hand, the military junta is diplomatically losing acceptance with the rest of the world due to authoritarian tactics and brutal repression. As a result, they were almost defeated on three fronts – diplomatic, political and military.

Ethnic armed insurgent groups operating in the country have become stronger than before. They are now having a lot of success in fighting against the army, and the area they control is also increasing. Armed groups from different ethnic groups have stepped up cooperation among themselves to overthrow the junta.

myanmar

Myanmar’s Special Advisory Council

News website The Irrawaddy reported that members of Myanmar’s top seven-armed ethnic groups met in September in Pangsang, Wa state, amid rising violence. At the same time, the anti-military Myanmar people are fighting against the government by joining the activities of various insurgents and armed groups.

According to a statement by Myanmar’s Special Advisory Council, only 72 of the country’s 330 townships are now under the junta’s control; As a percentage, that is only 17 percent of the total land area; 52 percent is under NUG, and various ethnic groups and no party has absolute control over the rest of the region.

Moreover, the Myanmar army is in a very tight position in Rakhine. More than two-thirds of Rakhine State’s land area is now under the control of the Arakan Army. According to the NUG statement, more than 20,150 soldiers of the army were killed in the clashes from September 7, 2021, to September 2022.

The Bama ethnic group dominates Myanmar’s military. But the recent military operation in Bama-dominated areas has created anti-junta sentiment among them. More than 2,000 soldiers and 5,000 police officers have defected since the coup, according to the People’s Embrace group.

The army lost lives and troops and lost control of several military outposts. In the last 17 months, Myanmar’s military junta has lost control of about 90 military posts to armed groups from various ethnic groups in the country.

After the military coup in 2021, people from all walks of life participated peacefully in the anti-junta movement. But due to the retaliatory brutal repression by the Min Aung Hlaing administration, the peaceful movement turned into armed resistance, which continues to this day.

The conflict is escalating. Added to this are the country’s economic crisis and insurgency by ethnic armed groups in border areas. All in all, an anarchic situation prevails across the country. As the days go by, along with the overall situation in the country, the junta’s position is also weakening.

In this situation, the international community’s intervention is necessary to restore peace in Myanmar.

Author Bio: Tilottama Rani Charulata is an independent researcher and journalist. She is interested in Bangladesh and Rohingya refugee affairs. She is currently living in Canada

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