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Chinese Ships Allegedly Cut Internet Cables On Taiwanese Islands

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Internet Cables

(CTN NEWS) – Bed and breakfast proprietor Chen Yu-lin had to inform his guests the previous month that he could not offer them internet access.

Those living on Matsu, one of Taiwan’s outlying islands closest to neighboring China, struggled with paying utility bills, making a doctor’s appointment or receiving a shipment.

Matsu’s 14,000 inhabitants rely on two submarine internet cables that connect to Taiwan’s main island to access the outside world.

The National Communications Commission attributed the cutting of the wires to two Chinese ships, citing the island’s telecom service.

It stated that the first cable is believed to have been severed by a Chinese fishing boat 50 kilometers (31 miles) out at sea. On February 8, six days later, a Chinese cargo ship reportedly cut the second.

/AP

The Taiwan administration did not call it an intentional action by Beijing.

The Chinese ships were not directly implicated, and Taiwan’s administration refrained from labeling it an intentional action on the side of Beijing.

Meanwhile, the islanders were compelled to use microwave radio transmission, a more established technology, as a backup to connect to a constrained internet.

It implies that sending a text message could take hours. Calls would drop, and watching videos was impossible.

“Due to the lack of internet, many tourists would cancel their reservations. The internet now significantly impacts people’s lives, according to Chen, who resides on Beigan, one of Matsu’s largest residential islands.

The apparent trivial theft of internet cables has significant ramifications for national security in addition to upsetting people’s lives.

As evidenced by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has made destroying internet infrastructure one of its primary goals.

/AP

Internet cables had been cut 27 times over the previous five years

Some observers believe China may have purposefully cut the cables as part of its harassment of the self-governing island it believes to be part of its territory, intending to forcibly unite the two at some point.

As part of a strategy to frighten Taiwan’s democratic government, China frequently sends bombers and navy ships there. Since the conflict in Ukraine, worries about a Chinese invasion and Taiwan’s ability to repel one have grown.

According to statistics from Chunghwa Telecom, the cables had been cut 27 times over the previous five years, although it was not known from which nation the vessels originated.

An official briefed on the incident but not authorized to publicly discuss it said that Taiwan’s coast guard pursued the fishing boat that cut the initial cable on February 2 but that it returned to Chinese waters.

Based on automated identification system data comparable to GPS and revealing a vessel’s location, the authorities discovered two Chinese ships in the region where the wires were severed.

Su Tzu-yun, a defense specialist at the government think tank Institute for National Defense and Security Studies, asserted that “we can’t rule out that China destroyed these on purpose,” citing research showing that only China and Russia had the technical capacity to do so.

/AP

More funds should be allocated to Taiwan’s cable maintenance and safeguarding

Taiwan should devote more funds to maintaining and safeguarding the cables.

In shallow areas more prone to collide with ships, internet cables, which range in size from 20 millimeters to 30 millimeters (0.79 inches to 1.18 inches wide), are protected by steel armor.

Despite the safeguards, ships, anchors, and fishing boats utilizing steel nets can readily sever cables.

Even in the shallow waters of the Taiwan Strait, “this level of breaking is quite exceptional for a cable,” according to Geoff Huston, chief scientist at the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, a non-profit that oversees and distributes Internet resources like IP addresses for the region.

Coffee shop owner Chiu Sih-chi claimed that without reliable internet, taking his toddler son to the doctor for a cold required them to go to the hospital to schedule an appointment.

A breakfast café owner claimed she had lost thousands of dollars recently because she often accepts internet orders.

/AP

When she hadn’t even seen her customers’ messages, they would arrive at her stall expecting the meal to be ready.

When faced with exceptional challenges, the people of Matsu devised various ways to order their lives.

One couple decided to prepare for the upcoming peak season by having one person stay in Taiwan to access their reservation system, then text the other person the information.

When she learned that the internet at home was down, her wife, Lin Hsian-wen extended her vacation in Taiwan during the off-peak season. She will be returning to Matsu later this week.

The Chinese shoreline is barely 10 kilometers (6.21 miles) away at its closest point, yet some enterprising locals crossed across to purchase SIM cards from Chinese telecoms.

Nevertheless, those cards only function well in the areas closest to the Chinese coast.

/AP

Others would go to Chunghwa Telecom’s office to utilize a Wi-Fi hot spot the business had set up for locals to use while waiting, such as the proprietor of the bed and breakfast Tsao Li-yu.

Tsao jokingly said, “I was going to work for (Chunghwa Telecom).

For the residents’ safety, Chunghwa installed a microwave communication system.

They relay transmits the signals to Matsu from Yangmingshan, a mountain just outside Taiwan’s capital Taipei, some 200 kilometers (124 miles) away. Residents said that speeds had significantly increased since Sunday.

When the internet malfunctioned, the Matsu legislator and the head of Lienchiang County, as the Matsu islands are formally known, went to Taipei to seek assistance.

When they arrived, they were told they would be given priority in any future backup plans for the internet, according to Wang Chung Ming.

/AP

Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs openly sought bids from low-Earth orbit satellite operators to offer the internet as a backup plan after observing Russia’s cyberattacks in the invasion of Ukraine, the head of the ministry, Audrey Tang, told The Washington Post last autumn.

But, the idea is still stuck since Taiwanese legislation demands that a domestic shareholder own at least 51% of the providers.

Questions regarding the status of backup plans were forwarded to the National Communications Commission by a representative of the Digital Ministry.

According to NCC, undersea cable surveillance will be installed, with microwave communication as a fallback.

When they began using internet cables, many Pacific island governments relied on satellites as a backup, and some still do today, according to Jonathan Brewer, a telecommunications consultant from New Zealand who works across Asia and the Pacific.

Cost is another consideration. The cost of repairing the cables is high; the work of the ships alone is expected to cost $30 million in New Taiwan Dollars ($1 million).

Wen Lii, the leader of the Matsu branch of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said that the Chinese boats responsible for damaging the wires should be held accountable and made to pay for the prohibitively expensive repairs.

/AP

Without Working Internet, There Were Few Benefits

Wang, the county’s administrator, claimed that he had brought up the wires on a recent trip to China, where he had met a representative from China Mobile.

They offered to dispatch technicians as assistance. He added that you must be able to identify the offender with certainty to receive compensation.

A faxed request for comment received no response from China’s Taiwan Relations Office.

Residents currently have no choice but to wait. There are only a few ships that can perform the task, therefore the earliest cable-laying ships may arrive is April 20.

There are benefits to a month without working internet as well. The bed and breakfast owner, Chen Yu-lin, has felt calmer.

The first week was challenging, but Chen rapidly adopted it.

He said he was spending more time with his son, who typically plays video games online, saying, “From a life standpoint, I think it’s a lot more pleasant since you receive fewer calls.

The result was the same in a web café where soldiers on leave played offline games.

“Our connections have become a bit tighter,” said one soldier who only supplied his first name, Samuel. Since everyone tends to isolate themselves when there is an internet connection, we are now more connected.

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Trudeau’s Gun Grab Could Cost Taxpayers a Whopping $7 Billion

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Trudeau's Gun Grab
Trudeau plans to purchase 2,063 firearm from legal gun owners in Canada - Rebel News Image

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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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

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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

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

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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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