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UN Accuses Myanmar’s Junta of Waging War on Civilians
The United Nations warned on Friday that Myanmar’s military rulers now consider civilians as their adversaries and are waging war on the country’s own people, eroding the basic ability to survive.
Two years on from the Feb 1, 2021, coup that deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian administration, the situation is a “festering tragedy”, said UN human rights chief Volker Turk, adding that the military was working with “total impunity”.
The UN Human Rights Office stated in a report investigating the first two years since the takeover that at least 2,940 persons had been verified as dead, with roughly 30 percent dying in captivity.
The true death toll, however, is likely to be substantially higher.
According to James Rodehaver, head of the UN Human Rights Office’s Myanmar mission, the armed forces are now battling on roughly 13 different fronts.
“The military is stretched increasingly thin,” he said at a press conference in Geneva, so he has depended on air power and artillery to clear the way for ground forces, with more than 300 airstrikes in the previous year.
The report detailed the use of lethal air raids on schools and hospitals.
According to the research, armed confrontations have touched over 80% of the country’s 330 townships.
“There has never been a moment and a situation in Myanmar where a crisis has spread this far and broad across the country,” Rodehaver added. “In the past, battles in ethnic states were more isolated. It has now reached the Bamar heartland.”
Myanmar Junta Confiscates Food and Medicine
According to UN statistics, approximately 39,000 houses have been burned or destroyed in military operations across the country since February 2022, a “more than 1,000-fold increase compared to 2021,” according to the UN rights office.
According to the report, the military and its associates arrested 17,572 people in the first two years after the coup.
According to Rodehaver, the junta is employing a “four cuts” tactic in an attempt to cut off its rivals’ food, communications, capacity to recruit, and access to money or a livelihood. “What they’re doing today is treating the people of Burma as their opponent and foe,” he stated.
“You have a military fighting its own people.
“They have truly created a crisis that has resulted in a loss, a retreat in every human right, including the fundamental ability to survive and have an economic future.”
Turk claimed that Myanmar’s generals, emboldened by “constant and full impunity,” had launched a “scorched earth” campaign to eliminate opponents.
“There are reasonable grounds to assume that the military and its linked militias are still accountable for the vast majority of violations, some of which may amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes,” he said.
According to the report, two years of violence had a “tremendous toll” on the population, undermining state institutions and hollowing out the economy. According to UN estimates, over one million people have been newly displaced since February 2021.
Meanwhile, about half of the population lives in poverty, and 17.6 million require humanitarian aid. “By constant use of violence, including killing, arbitrarily arresting, torturing, forcibly vanishing, prosecuting, and punishing anti-coup opponents,” the study concluded.
Notwithstanding the ongoing upheaval, the military has stated that elections will be held this year.
“It is impossible to imagine how such a procedure could represent a free and fair expression appropriately reflecting the popular democratic will,” concluded the UN report.
Myanmar Military Beheaded Teens
Meanwhile, RFA has reported that two teens discovered butchered last week were two of the most heinous victims of an escalating number of violent episodes described by the UN’s special envoy as “associated with patterns of cruelty” by forces affiliated with the military junta.
The adolescents were People’s Defense Force fighters who were attempting to plant a mine while withdrawing from a confrontation with junta forces in the northern Sagaing region, according to the leader of a PDF Force force. They were apprehended near Nyaung Pin Kan village on February 25 and executed the next day in Myinmu township, according to the PDF leader.
“We discovered their bodies on the 27th,” he explained. “The scene suggested that the military soldiers decapitated them alive.”
La Min Sein, 15, also known as Pho Sein, and Pho Ke, 17, were the victims. RFA obtained photographs of the heads, as well as other bloodstained body parts. The two teenagers had no gunshot wounds, according to the PDF commander.
He claimed he went to question nearby people about the incident, but there was no one present due to a military operation.
In a separate incident, another PDF leader informed RFA that two of his fighters were found beheaded during a skirmish with military personnel on February 27.
Due to a lack of ammunition, his soldiers were forced to withdraw from the battle at Kan Taw village. When they returned the next morning, he said, they discovered the bodies of the two warriors, with their heads still hanging from a fence post and a bamboo house.
The two different beheadings occurred in the same general location.
Creating “fear and terror”
According to local villagers, mass executions thought to be carried out by the military have grown considerably in 14 townships in Sagaing since martial law was established in February.
According to Tom Andrews, the United Nations special rapporteur for Myanmar, the junta’s pattern of brutality has included “using extreme violence to engender fear and dread, particularly in places where opposition to the junta is particularly strong.”
“It is necessary to document this and other atrocities,” he stated. “Those who commit war crimes and crimes against humanity must be aware that they will face consequences.”
Earlier last week, junta troops demolished an entire village in the Sagaing district, killing three people and destroying nearly all of the village’s 700 dwellings.
In another Sagaing event, 16 victims were discovered in Nyaung Yin hamlet in Myinmu municipality. Early on March 1, military forces seized 17 residents from the adjacent Tar Taing village.
According to residents, a military force of about 100 soldiers participated in the attack on Tar Taing village.
“The Mu River separates Tar Taing village and Nyaung Yin village in Myinmu,” said a villager who declined to be identified for security reasons. “The Tar Taing villagers did not flee because they believed the military forces would not pursue them.”
Victims were dressed in longyi and other civilian attire.
Seven men’s remains were discovered in Nyaung Yin. Six men and three women were discovered dead in another area. According to the resident, they all appeared to have been shot from behind.
The victims ranged in age from 30 to 50 years. According to the resident, it was unsure whether the final missing person was still alive.
According to local villagers, military personnel allegedly maimed and killed a local defence force leader during the March 1 attack on Tar Taing.
When contacted by RFA, Aye Hlaing, the Junta spokesman for the Sagaing region, stated that he was unaware of the incidents.
On March 1, a combat broke out between military personnel in Sagaing and PDF forces near Tar Taing hamlet, according to a Telegram account controlled by pro-military bloggers. According to the narrative, another battle broke out in Nyaung Yin village on March 2, and 15 PDF members were captured.
According to locals, those arrested and killed were innocent people.
According to video footage and images of the victims that have circulated on social media, the victims’ bodies were dressed in civilian clothes such as normal longyi (sarong) and shirts, and some of the victims had been shot in the head.
According to statistics issued by the Help Society for Political Prisoners on March 1, there have been 3,073 deaths as a result of junta forces’ arrests and killings since the 2021 military coup d’etat.
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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