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Myanmar refugees take shelter in Thailand’s Mae Sot
(CTN News) – The bamboo and leaf-thatch shelter in the middle of a sugarcane field hardly resembles a safe house.
But it is where 23-year-old Sanjay (his chosen pseudonym) and eight others have been hiding since evading conscription across the border in war-torn Myanmar.
They are currently fugitives in Mae Sot, near Thailand’s western border. They share their primitive home with ducks, hens, and goats.
“Back home I used to feel afraid every day that they would come to take me into the army,” said Sanjay. “Even though we have very little food here (just rice and vegetables), no one will come to harm me. “I feel free here in Thailand.”
Myanmar and Thailand are separated only by a small, muddy river that is little more than a creek during the dry season.
Since the 2021 military coup, tens of thousands of people have fled to the Thai border town of Mae Sot, seeking protection.
The most recent arrivals are young males evading national conscription, which Myanmar’s military rulers have imposed since February and applies to all men aged 18 to 35. With most of the younger population fiercely opposed to military authority, the law has resulted in an exodus of young males.
Over the years, Mae Sot has become an unsettling haven for Burmese on the run. It reminds me of Cold War Berlin or Casablanca from the iconic film of the same name.
It is a town filled with exiles preparing for revolutions, waiting for refuge offers, frightened of spies and informants, and living in a condition of near-constant dread.
“I used to be a bad boy,” Sanjay admits. “I did whatever I wanted. I never listened to my mother. “I wasn’t interested in politics.
His life and ideas changed following the coup when the military imprisoned his father for aiding the resistance. But he never considered leaving his home until his call-up papers arrived.
“No way was I going to fight for them against other Burmese people.”
The Burmese army recently suffered a devastating setback in Myawaddy, across the river from Mae Sot.
When an insurgent coalition overran its bases, hundreds of troops were forced to surrender. Reinforcements sent to reclaim the town were ambushed and pinned down in the forested slopes to the west of Myawaddy.
A series of comparable losses experienced by the military in recent months – in Shan and Kachin States to the north and in Rakhine State to the west – has left the army desperate for recruits. Thousands of soldiers have been killed, injured, captured, or abandoned.
Sanjay did not wish to be one of them. As a result, his mother assisted him in his escape by accompanying him on the long and risky bus voyage to the border.
With his Myanmar ID card, he obtained a two-week visa to enter Thailand.
That has expired, but he is fortunate to have an uncle in Mae Sot who is helping to sustain him.
He is compelled to hide in the fields, fearing arrest and deportation every time he enters Mae Sot. However, he has no regrets.
Mae Sot is now a maze of safehouses, with entire streets housing primarily undocumented refugees. Some are well-established dorms supported by foreign humanitarian agencies.
Others are improvised: abandoned shophouses in the main market, partitioned inside with plywood and plastic tarps to create chambers just big enough for a family to lie down.
A family of five arrived in one of the better safehouses a week ago, taking only a few clothes and blankets, as well as their five-year-old son’s favorite toy vehicle.
The eldest son is 19, and the family decided to leave their home in Yangon when he received military call-up papers.
“I could not accept my son being forced to fight against other young men,” he added.
They reported a difficult 15-day journey from Yangon via the Karen State hills before crossing the river at night into Thailand. The bribes and fees they had to pay depleted their funds.
That morning, the father, a former railway worker, had been looking for work. Wages in Mae Sot are frequently pitifully low, yet he was unable to find work.
The village serves as both a sanctuary and a prison for those who have left Myanmar.
Thailand is not a member to the United Nations Convention and Protocol on Refugees, and people escaping Myanmar’s turmoil receive no official protection. Most fugitives have little or no documents.
The Thai authorities mostly permit the influx; individuals have crossed the border for decades, and Mae Sot is now almost exclusively Burmese. However, without papers, they cannot travel outside of it.
Money is an ongoing issue; the police charge 300 baht (£7, $9) per month for a card that is supposed to prevent them from being imprisoned at checkpoints, but many Burmese are still apprehended and compelled to pay much bigger sums for their release.
“There are a lot of mental health challenges,” says Nay Chi Win, the co-ordinator of Joy House, an innovative community organization that opened last year to help immigrants deal with the stress and sadness they frequently experience.
“We hear about many suicides or people discussing suicide. They feel worthless. They may have been an engineer or a doctor in Myanmar, but they are now stateless. They cannot further their schooling. They can’t sustain their families. Sometimes people cease caring about their lives and turn to drugs or alcohol.”
Sanjay has decided to follow the lead of many other young guys and return across the border to fight. At the very least, he stated that he would feel helpful.
However, the brutality of fighting is not for everyone. Accepting one of the volunteer People’s Defence Force units necessitates four months of rigorous training by veteran fighters from the Karen National Union. Many people fail to make the grade.
Other young men with technological experience are being deployed in drone squads, assisting in the construction, adaptation, and piloting of drones, which are becoming increasingly essential in the conflict, dropping small explosives with precision and accuracy to weaken army morale.
“I miss my leg,” said the 27-year-old former PDF fighter, speaking on a Mae Sot backstreet.
He is a former IT technician who joined the resistance following the coup and lost his right leg when he stepped on a landmine.
“It was the right thing to do.”
His advice to draft dodgers who wish to contribute to the cause is to consider their abilities: “Joining a strike team and fighting is not the most important thing. We need technical people for our drone squads, as well as people to travel overseas and raise funds.”
Future Uncertainty for Displaced Families
Meanwhile, Thailand, which has for years pretended that any spillover from the border conflict is a localized issue between the two countries’ militaries, has admitted that Myanmar’s military regime may be crumbling and that it must prepare to accommodate tens of thousands more crossing the border.
The fighting in Myawaddy has resulted in a more conspicuous Thai military presence in Mae Sot.
They can be seen standing sentry along the river’s banks, looking across to the casinos and scam centers that have plagued this part of Myanmar in recent years, as well as the now-insurgent-controlled border posts and a handful of defeated Burmese soldiers who have crouched down on the opposite bank for a few days.
Despite the memories of Myanmar’s conflict on their doorstep, many who have recently arrived in Mae Sot are nevertheless feeling relieved.
The father of three is concerned about his son’s schooling. Undocumented Burmese cannot attend Thai schools and the majority of Burmese language schools in Mae Sot charge tuition. He and his wife hope that their eldest son will be able to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor through online studies.
But, he says, they’re delighted they fled Myanmar.
“In the past week I have slept better than at any time since the coup.”
Source: BBC
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 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.
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 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
(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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