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North Korea Confirmed Testing Long-Range Cruise Missiles Off Its Eastern Coast
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(CTN NEWS) – SEOUL – North Korea confirmed on Friday that it had tested long-range cruise missiles off its eastern coast the day before, continuing a troubling trend of provocative weapon displays as its adversaries intensify military drills.
The missiles’ dependability and the unit’s capacity for quick action were being tested during the launches, according to North Korean official media, which were later confirmed by the military of South Korea.
The rockets happened as the United States and South Korea practiced responding to nuclear threats from North Korea in Washington.
The four missiles flew for nearly three hours after being launched from the northeastern coast, drawing oval and figure-eight patterns above the water.
And demonstrating their ability to reach targets up to 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) away, according to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.
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A TV screen displayed at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, shows a news program reporting on North Korea’s missile launch Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
North Korea Long-Range Cruise Missiles Tests
The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea stated, without going into further detail, that the North Korean flight information did not match what U.S. and South Korean intelligence assets had detected. It stated that the allies were still reviewing the launches.
Speaking on behalf of Seoul’s Unification Ministry, which oversees inter-Korean relations, Lee Hyojung criticized North Korea for intensifying its testing activities in spite of indications of rising economic isolation and food shortages.
In September 2021, North Korea conducted its first long-range cruise missile test, and it has suggested that nuclear warheads are being built for the missiles.
It also conducted ICBM and short-range missile tests on Saturday and Monday to show that it is capable of carrying out nuclear attacks on both South Korea and the US mainland.
North Korea claimed that its short-range rocket launches on Monday were in retaliation for the United States sending B-1B bombers to the area on Sunday in a show of force after the North conducted an ICBM test.
North Korea promised an “unprecedentedly” harsh response to a series of military drills that Seoul and Washington had scheduled before the ICBM launch.
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A TV screen shows a file image of a North Korean missile launch during a news program broadcast at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
North Korea Working On Solid-fuel ICBMs
Although the allies claim their drills are defensive in nature, North Korea has characterized them as a practice for a prospective invasion.
A rising number of North Korean weapons, including cruise missiles, are made to be agile in flight to get through defenses.
North Korea has been speeding up the development of short-range solid-fuel ballistic missiles that target South Korea, particularly ones that fly on low trajectories that are theoretically more difficult to intercept, since the failure of talks with the United States in 2019.
North Korea is also working on developing solid-fuel ICBMs, which may be more mobile on vehicles and fire more quickly than the North’s current liquid-fuel ICBMs, making it harder for adversaries to track launches and mount defenses against them.
With almost 70 ballistic missiles fired, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, North Korea just finished a record-breaking year for weaponry displays.
Also, it carried out what it called simulated nuclear attacks on targets in South Korea and the United States.
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In this photo provided by South Korea Defense Ministry, U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers fly in formation with South Korea’s Air Force F-35A fighter jets and U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jets over the South Korea Peninsula during a joint air drill in South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023. (South Korea Defense Ministry via AP)
Soth Korea Declared N.Korea As ‘enemy’
With a call for an “exponential rise” in nuclear warheads, mass manufacture of battlefield tactical nuclear weapons aimed at the “enemy” South Korea, and the development of more powerful ICBMs, leader Kim Jong Un stepped up his nuclear offensive for 2023.
The potential of North Korea utilizing nuclear weapons was the topic of a simulation on Wednesday at the Pentagon, according to the U.S. Department of Defense and the Defense Ministry of South Korea.
The allies talked about how to react to any nuclear use by North Korea by displaying their “strong response capabilities and resolve to respond appropriately.”
The American delegation at the meeting emphasized the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review of the Biden administration, which declares that any nuclear strike by North Korea against the US or its allies and partners “would result at the end of that regime.”
It made reference to a legally required document outlining American nuclear policy and strategy for the ensuing five to ten years.
A briefing on the function of Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines was provided to the delegations from the United States and South Korea during their visit to Naval Submarine Station Kings Bay in Georgia.
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A TV screen shows a file image of a North Korean missile launch during a news program broadcast at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
North Korea Increasing Threats
Such forces, according to US officials stationed at the site, are essential for providing prolonged deterrence to allies, which refers to a promise to defend them with all of the nation’s military resources, including nuclear ones.
Kwon Jong Gun, a senior member of the North Korean Foreign Ministry, condemned the simulated exercise and visit by the allies to the submarine facility in Georgia and referred to them as an expansion of anti-Pyongyang hostility.
In his remarks, Kwon also expressed his displeasure with the emergency meeting the U.N. Security Council called this week to examine recent North Korean launches.
The United States and its allies pushed the Security Council to denounce the North’s illegal missile actions during the meeting on Monday, while China and Russia accused Washington of inflaming tensions by speeding up its military drills against Pyongyang.
Kwon used the initials of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, saying,
“The U.S. should bear in mind that if it persists in its hostile and provocative practices against the DPRK despite the latter’s repeated protest and warning, it can be regarded as a declaration of war against the DPRK.”
South Korea has been requesting firmer guarantees from the United States that it will act fast and aggressively to defend its partner from a nuclear assault as a result of the North’s increasing threats.
North Korea Ready For More Tests
“The United States will continue to cooperate with (South Korea) to guarantee an effective combination of assets, concepts, deployments, exercises, and tailored choices to deter and, if necessary, respond to coercion and aggression by (North Korea),” the Department of Defense said in a statement.
The Unification Ministry in Seoul also said that it would resume radiation exposure assessments for North Korean escapees who had resided close to the North’s northern nuclear testing site since its first explosion in 2006.
Nine people were found to have anomalies in earlier examinations on 40 escapees, however, no definitive relationship to radiation exposure was established.
The Transitional Justice Working Group, based in Seoul, had pushed South Korea to resume such tests, claiming that radiation might have been dispersed through groundwater and precipitation.
North Korea is most certainly getting ready to perform its seventh test at the Punggye-ri location, which would be it’s first since 2017. This is according to U.S. and South Korean sources.
The government intends to offer tests to any of the 881 individuals who lived in the North Korean territory after 2006 and request them, according to Lee, the ministry’s spokesperson.
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Trudeau’s Gun Grab Could Cost Taxpayers a Whopping $7 Billion
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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 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.
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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
News
The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.
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(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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