Wednesday, May 03, 2023

George Michael and Kate Bush among Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees

3 May 2023

The Cleveland-based institution has announced the artists and groups entering the hall as the class of 2023.

Missy Elliott, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Chaka Khan and the late George Michael have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Kate Bush also finally reaching the top of that hill.

The Cleveland-based institution on Wednesday announced the artists and groups entering the hall as the class of 2023, including The Spinners, Rage Against the Machine, DJ Kool Herc, Link Wray, Al Kooper, Soul Train creator Don Cornelius and Sir Elton John’s longtime co-songwriter Bernie Taupin.

“When you can go from Link Wray, who was one of the early influencers, to Missy Elliott and Kate Bush and The Spinners and Rage Against the Machine and Willie Nelson, you have a very diverse body of work,” said Joel Peresman, president and chief executive of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation ahead of the unveiling.

MTV Video Music Awards 2019 – Show – New Jersey — Missy Elliott (PA)

“What we are always trying to show is that rock ‘n’ roll is a big tent and a lot of people belong,”

Elliott, the first female rapper inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, an MTV Video Vanguard Award recipient and a four-time Grammy Award winner, is the first female hip-hop artist in the rock hall, which called her “a true pathbreaker in a male-dominated genre”.

Artists must have released their first commercial recording at least 25 years beforehand to be eligible for induction. Eight out of 14 nominees were on the ballot for the first time, including Crow, Elliott, Michael and Nelson. This is the first year of eligibility for Elliott.

Bush was a nominee last year but did not make the final cut. She got in this year due to a new wave of popularity after the show Stranger Things featured her song Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God).

The hall hailed her for “using lush soundscapes, radical experimentation, literary themes, sampling and theatricality to captivate audiences and inspire countless musicians”.

Michael, first as a member of Wham! and then as a solo artist, was cited for “paving the way for a generation of proud LGBTQIA+ artists, from Sam Smith to Lil Nas X to Troye Sivan” and 90-year-old Nelson was simply described as “an American institution”.

Crow was recognised for key 1990s songs like All I Wanna Do and Every Day Is A Winding Road, while Rage Against the Machine “forged brazen protest music for the modern world”.

The hall called DJ Kool Herc “a founding father of hip-hop music” who “helped create the blueprint for hip-hop”, and Chaka Khan was described as “one of the mightiest and most influential voices in music” – a “streetwise but sensual hip-hop-soul diva” who paved the way for women like Mary J Blige, Erykah Badu and Janelle Monae.

Bernie Taupin with Sir Elton John (Jennifer Graylock/PA)

The Spinners became a hit-making machine with four No 1 R&B hits in less than 18 months, including I’ll Be Around and Could It Be I’m Falling In Love. Rock guitarist Wray was said to be ahead of his time, influencing Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Springsteen.

Taupin, who made it into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992 and has a Golden Globe and an Oscar for (I’m Gonna) Love Me Again from the biopic Rocketman, makes it into the rock hall 29 years after writing partner Sir Elton.

Cornelius was celebrated for creating a nationally televised platform for African American music and culture. He “became a visionary entrepreneur who opened the door — and held it open — for many others to follow him through”.

“Does a Willie Nelson fan know anything about Missy Elliott? Probably not, and vice versa,” said Mr Peresman. “But this is an opportunity for someone who is into one of these artists to take a look at it and say, ‘Gee, I love Missy Elliott’ or ‘I love Rage Against the Machine. But The Spinners, who were they? Let me check that out’. If that can open some minds and open some attitudes, then we’ve done our job.”

Nominees Iron Maiden, Cyndi Lauper, A Tribe Called Quest, The White Stripes, Warren Zevon, Joy Division/New Order and Soundgarden did not earn a spot in the hall this time.

The induction ceremony will take place November 3 at the Barclays Centre in New York City.

Nominees were voted on by more than 1,000 artists, historians and music industry professionals. Fans could vote online or in person at the museum, with the top five artists picked by the public making up a “fans’ ballot” that was tallied with the other professional ballots.

By Press Association

Missy Elliott becomes first female hip-hop artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

By Mawunyo Gbogbo

Grammy award-winning artist Missy Elliott has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.(REUTERS/Mike Blake)

Referring to Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott as "a true path breaker in a male-dominated genre", The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation has named Elliott as one of its 2023 inductees.

Key points:

Missy Elliott is the first female hip-hop artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
It was her first year of eligibility
Other inductees include Kate Bush who experienced a resurgence off the back of Stranger Things

It's an honour the celebrated artist doesn't take lightly. She took to social media to acknowledge just how monumental an occasion this is saying it was "huge not for just me but all my sisters in hip hop".

By the time Elliott had released her groundbreaking debut album Supa Dupa Fly in 1997, she was already a force to be reckoned with.

She had long joined Timbaland to co-write and co-produce songs for artists such as Aaliyah and Jodeci and was already a performer and label executive.

Possessing a knack for music production, writing, rapping and singing, Elliott's first album went platinum and was nominated for a Grammy.

Her second album Da Real World was released in 1999 and stayed on the Billboard R&B chart for almost a year.

But it was perhaps with 2001's Miss E… So Addictive and the crossover dance track Get Ur Freak On when the rest of the world came to learn what hip hop heads already knew: Elliott's talent, originality and creativity make her a powerhouse across genres.

With trendsetting music videos featuring, among other things, Elliot with a retractable head and busting out dance moves that others would later adopt, Elliott's place on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is being welcomed by fans and peers.

YOUTUBE Get Ur Freak On by Missy Elliott official music video.

This was the first year of eligibility for Elliott. Artists need to have released their first record 25 years prior to Induction.

Fellow hip-hop royalty and 2021 inductee LL Cool J announced the 2023 inductee class, which also includes, in the Musical Influence Award category, the founding father of hip hop DJ Kool Herc, who planted a potent seed in 1973 that would grow into the enormous global force hip hop is today.

The Chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation John Sykes pointed out that November's induction ceremony coincides with two milestones in music culture: the 90th birthday of Willie Nelson, who was also inducted, and the 50th anniversary of hip hop.

"This year's incredible group of Inductees reflects the diverse artists and sounds that define rock & roll," Sykes said.
Kate Bush inducted after a Stranger Things resurgence, Bernie Taupin writes his way into history

English singer songwriter Kate Bush responded to her induction by expressing surprise.

"I have to admit I'm completely shocked at the news of being inducted into the Hall of Fame!," Bush wrote on her website.

"It's something I just never thought would happen."

Stranger Things introduced Kate Bush to a whole new audience.

(Supplied: katebush.com)

Bush experienced a resurgence after her 1985 hit Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) re-entered the charts after it was featured in the Netflix sci-fi series Stranger Things.

The visionary is said to have inspired countless musicians with her radical experimentation.

Bernie Taupin, whose songwriting partnership with Elton John has produced hit after hit after hit including Rocket Man, Your Song and I'm Still Standing was inducted in the Musical Excellence Award category.

Taupin and John began collaborating in 1967 and the Foundation described their partnership as "one of the most successful in rock & roll history."

George Michael, who died in 2016, was posthumously inducted.

The 38th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place on Friday, November 3 in Brooklyn, NY.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2023 Inductees

Performer Category

Kate Bush
Sheryl Crow
Missy Elliott
George Michael
Willie Nelson
Rage Against the Machine
The Spinners

Musical Influence Award

DJ Kool Herc
Link Wray

Musical Excellence Award

Chaka Khan
Al Kooper
Bernie Taupin

Ahmet Ertegun Award

Don Cornelius

Indigenous leaders demand UK’s King Charles apologize for colonialism

Reuters, Sydney
Published: 04 May ,2023:

Indigenous leaders from a string of former British colonies on Thursday urged King Charles to swiftly apologize for “centuries of racism” and the “legacy of genocide” perpetrated by the crown.

In a staunchly worded letter that could sour the build-up to this weekend’s coronation, Indigenous representatives from 12 Commonwealth nations also called for financial reparations and the return of stolen cultural treasures.

The letter was signed by leaders from Australia -- where Indigenous people were massacred by British colonizers and forced off their lands -- as well as several Caribbean nations once plundered for slaves.

The group said they had banded together to help their people “recover from centuries of racism, oppression, colonialism and slavery”.

Charles has in recent years stepped up efforts to engage with Indigenous leaders, as the monarchy faces a reckoning over its links to the slave trade and the British Empire’s legacy of violence.

Although he has conceded the crown must “acknowledge the wrongs which have shaped our past”, the letter implores him to go further by offering a formal, royal apology.

Former Olympian Nova Peris, the first Aboriginal woman elected to Australia’s federal parliament, was one of the leaders to sign the letter.

A staunch critic of Australia’s ties to the royal family, Peris said it was time to “acknowledge the horrific and enduring impacts” of colonization and the “legacy of genocide” felt by many Indigenous populations.

“It’s vital for us to discuss and educate people on the truth behind colonization, during the week of the coronation,” she said.

“Conversations start with listening.”

The letter said Charles should start discussions about compensating Indigenous people, who watched as British colonizers pilfered their treasures and trashed their cultures.

Human rights expert Hannah McGlade, an Aboriginal woman from Western Australia, said reparations remained a key sticking point for many.

“We are increasingly seeing Indigenous people call for reparations from the royal family,” she told AFP.

“They really do have that history that they haven’t tackled. Genocide happened on their watch.”

The letter was also signed by representatives from Canada, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

Baby delivered, Thai PM candidate set to resume campaigning

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS May 4, 2023

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, right, a leading Thai politician and youngest daughter of exiled former deposed Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra, stands behind an incubator with her new born son, along with, left, her husband Pidok Sooksawas during press conference in Bangkok, Thailand, May 3. (AP Photo)

BANGKOK--A popular candidate for prime minister of Thailand said Wednesday she’s eager to get back on the campaign trail, just two days after giving birth.

Speaking at a news conference at the hospital in Bangkok where she gave birth, Paetongtarn Shinawatra said her new baby boy wouldn’t affect her ability to rally support for her Pheu Thai party with just under two weeks to go before the polls.

“I believe good things come along with children,” she said, sitting beside her husband, Pidok Sooksawas. “I believe that children are my secret power to work, and to lead everyday life.”

The newborn, Prutthasin Sooksawas, was brought into the room in a rolling incubator and displayed briefly to the media before being moved out again.

Paetongtarn is the youngest daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra, the popular but divisive former prime minister who was ousted by a military coup in 2006. She’s also the niece of Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government met a similar fate eight years later.

Thaksin, who has been in self-exile since the 2006 coup, tweeted Monday after the birth that he would like permission to come home to see his grandchildren, ending the tweet with “See you soon.” He lives abroad to escape a prison term for abuse of power, a conviction he has decried as politically motivated.

Paetongtarn played down the significance of the message, saying it was just a natural expression of a grandfather who was “very happy and excited.”

Thaksin is a popular but divisive figure of Thai politics, and there has been concern that his return could be destabilizing.

“Of course, the things he said would have a political effect,” she said. “However, as a family, I think there’s nothing wrong to hope for that, especially when there’s a good thing happening to the family.”

Paetongtarn campaigned throughout her pregnancy. She and the Pheu Thai Party have consistently topped the opinion polls as Thailand’s favored prime minister candidate and next government. She took the opportunity Wednesday to underline that she was 100% confident of a landslide victory.

“I’d like to ask the Thai people to remain firm, because this vote is not like any other,” she said. “Thailand cannot just hope for the best anymore. Thailand needs change, and only the Pheu Thai Party is the best answer for the Thai people now.”

Analysts have complimented Paetongtarn on her confident public performances, though the residual popularity of her father remains a factor behind her popularity, especially among poor and working-class Thais. Thaksin, a populist billionaire, championed poor people during his years in power and reaped the benefits at election time.

Even if the Pheu Thai Party secures a big win at the May 14 general election, there is no guarantee Paetongtarn will become prime minister. The top post is selected in a vote involving both houses of Parliament. That includes the Senate, which was appointed by the junta led by current prime minister and candidate Prayuth Chan-ocha, rather than by the public. Prayuth won all the senators’ votes after the 2019 election.

‘Time for a new way’: Thais look for change as election nears

Analysts warn failure to honour the outcome could leave the country weak, divided and at risk of crisis.

The Thai election is scheduled for May 14 with early voting this Sunday [File: Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP]

By Thompson Chau

Bangkok, Thailand – As Thais celebrated the Songkran festival last month by soaking each other in a barrage of water fights, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha was hoping the occasion would help rescue his lacklustre campaign for re-election.

Donning a bright Hawaiian shirt and armed with a massive blue water gun Prayuth, the army chief-turned-politician who overthrew Yingluck Shinawatra’s government in a 2014 coup, made a surprise appearance at Bangkok’s Khao San Road, joining startled revellers in the traditional water fights that mark the festival.

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Thailand’s May 14 elections will determine the Southeast Asian country’s political and foreign policy over the next few years, as the quasi-military government faces growing domestic discontent, security pressures from neighbouring Myanmar and increasing rivalry between the United States and China.

Under Prayuth, Thailand has moved closer to China, abstained on the United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and embraced Myanmar’s coup leaders. But all could change if he is replaced.

Opinion polls show Prayuth, 69, trailing far behind his younger rivals – Pheu Thai (PTP) party leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 36, and Move Forward (MFP) leader Pita Limjaroenrat, 42. Paetongtarn, who this week gave birth to a baby boy, is Yingluck’s niece and the daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was also removed in a coup.

Despite continued crackdowns on opposition parties, Pheu Thai and Move Forward, have proved remarkably resilient and analysts are anxious about a big political showdown.

Prayuth Chan-ocha in a blue Hawaiian shirt at Songkran festivities in Bangkok. He has a large blue water gun, Others are spraying him with water and his hair is wet. He is not smiling. — Prayuth Chan-ocha, the army chief-turned-politician, hoped some water fights at Songkran would help refresh his sagging campaign for reelection [United Nation Thai Party/Handout via Reuters]

But reports that PTP, which grew out of previous Thaksin-linked parties, might be prepared to do a deal with the military parties has caused alarm among some young, progressive voters.

“I’ll vote for the MFP because they stand firm with democracy and won’t collude with those involved in coup d’états. They have a proper policy manifesto that seeks to address many problems in Thai society,” Sirikanda Jariyanukoon, a 26-year-old public relations consultant from the southern Thai city of Nakhon Si Thammarat, told Al Jazeera.

Jariyanukoon, who is going to cast the second vote of her life, said she would not vote for PTP because “it’s time to have new people, new parties, and a new way of conducting politics,” adding that “the old style no longer fits”.

That thirst for change was clear in the 2019 election when the Future Forward Party, founded by charismatic entrepreneur Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, stunned Thailand’s ruling elite by coming third.

Following the elections, the authorities moved to ban Thanathorn from politics and break up the party, which eventually led to the creation of MFP with a similar reform plan.

Meanwhile, young people continued to agitate for change, leading large-scale protests in Bangkok that challenged the traditional elite and confronted once-taboo issues such as reform of the monarchy.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, is leading the opinion polls. But there are concerns the military will work to ensure she is sidelined [File: Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters]

Rawipa, a Bangkok resident in her mid-20s, also said she would be backing the MFP.

“I’m rooting for MFP and support Pita as PM. I used to support the PTP but their policies and communications are too desperate. MFP has taken over as the bearer of progressivism,” Rawipa told Al Jazeera.

“Thai people have been more active in politics over the past few years. I doubt Prayuth and his comrades could deny the will of the people forever,” she said, adding that there was widespread resentment against his governance.

Rawipa also wants to reform the political system to guard against future coups and populist leaders.

“This is also why I switched to back MFP. Thailand doesn’t need personality-driven politics,” she said, referring to the dynastic politics of Thaksin and his family.

‘Dangerous for Thailand’

With PTP and MFP campaigning energetically for votes, it is easy to forget that Thailand’s military is a crucial element in the country’s parliamentary arithmetic.

The outcome of the poll will be decided not only by the 500 people elected to the House of Representatives but also by the 250 military-appointed Senators. That means the two main pro-democracy parties and their allies may need more than 75 percent of the seats (376) to be in a position to form a government.

That is based on the premise that opposition politicians and parties will not be dissolved or barred from taking their seats by the authorities post-election.

Prayuth is chief of the royalist United Thai Nation Party, while Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, also a former army commander-in-chief, is leading the Palang Pracharath (PPRP), the military party that Prayuth set up as a vehicle for his 2019 campaign. Both men have denied rumours of a rift.

Speaking in an interview with Thai PBS last month, Prayuth said, “I am confident that we will win at least 25 seats”, referring to the minimum number of seats required for a party to nominate a candidate for the top job.

Thai Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan is the prime minister candidate for the Palang Pracharath Party, which was formed as a vehicle for Prayuth at the last election in 2019 [File: Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo]

Earlier, the prime minister said his next administration would continue the work of its predecessors.

“The most important thing is to defend the country and protect the nation’s main institution. Please trust me as you’ve always done,” Prayuth said.

Prawit, meanwhile, has touted his party’s commitment to eradicating poverty and resolving land and water problems.

“People will face no droughts. They will have land where they can make a living… We’ll do everything to eradicate poverty. If the PPRP wins, we’ll lift 20 million people out of poverty,” he was quoted as saying by the Bangkok Post at a policy launch in February.

The vote will determine if the kind of military-royalist conservative rule epitomised by Prayuth is deepened or whether a compromise can be reached between democratic forces and the military establishment to usher in much-needed governance reforms, warned Thitinan Pongsudhirak from Chulalongkorn University.

“If this election is subverted again and Thailand ends up with a similar military-backed administration – in a fashion like the 2019 polls – there will be further erosion of public trust in the political leadership,” Thitinan, an influential expert on Thai and regional politics, explained.

“Look at the crisis in neighbouring Myanmar. It’s not inconceivable that a similar crisis can take place in Thailand,” he added, referring to the February 2021 coup in the neighbouring country.

Many worry a divided Thailand, at risk of another military power grab, will struggle to deal with the issues facing the country and the region.

Thailand has accumulated a rising public debt of more than 5 trillion baht ($148bn) during Prayuth’s administration, which will run on as the nation focuses on slow, labour-intensive growth, Thitinan said.

Pita Limjaroenrat, Move Forward Party's leader, at a party campaign event. He has an orange garland around his neck and is waving and smiling, There is a crowd behind him. — MFP, led by Pita Limjaroenrat, has enthused supporters with its campaign for reform [File: Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters]

If the election leads to Prayuth’s departure, there could be a shift in Thailand’s international relations, former Thai foreign minister and ambassador Kasit Piromya told Al Jazeera.

“There will be changes because the policy will no longer be based on a personal relationship like the one between Prayuth and Min Aung Hlaing,” he said, referring to Myanmar’s coup leader and army chief. He added that foreign policies were currently defined by the “avoidance of [a] foreign policy stand and commitment or doing nothing in order to not rock the boat domestically and internationally”.

With the campaign now in its final stages, the reformist parties look set to win the most votes.

Zach Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, DC, said it was likely the Senate would vote en bloc to prevent Paetongtarn and the Pheu Thai from forming a government.

“The military hand-picked the senators for one purpose only: to exorcise the Thaksins from Thai politics,” he said.

But analysts say the military will need to accept the outcome to help heal the rifts that have plagued the country for so many years.

“Denying the winning parties the right to govern will exacerbate the already-deep divisions. Young people in particular will feel more and more disillusioned with the establishment. This is dangerous for Thailand,” Michael Ng, the former deputy head of the Hong Kong government’s office in Bangkok, told Al Jazeera.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

No alternative: Afghan farmers lament Taliban poppy ban

By AFP
Published May 3, 2023

A Taliban security force member slashes at a field of poppies, used in the production of heroin, which have been banned by the government - Copyright AFP Sanaullah SEIAM
Estelle EMONET and Abdullah HASRAT

In a secluded compound in south Afghanistan, Bibi Hazrato cries in dismay as a group of men hack down her poppy crop, enforcing a Taliban government order to wean the nation off the narcotic plant.

“If you were working for God, you would not have crushed this little field,” the frail sexagenarian hectors the turbaned men flaying her plants.

“God says crush this,” one of them bluntly answers.

The lucrative trade of poppy tar — the psychoactive substance in heroin — has been one of the few constants over decades of war and chaos in Afghanistan.

But, last April, Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada declared poppy cultivation “strictly prohibited”.

On a trip to the opium-producing areas of Afghanistan, AFP saw fields of wheat where poppy flowers once bloomed, as the first harvest season under the ban got underway.

In Hazrato’s spartan home with tarpaulin sheet windows in Sher Surkh village of Kandahar province, Afghanistan’s dilemma plays out in brief as an illicit-yet-vital source of revenue is extinguished in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.

“God also says to help the poor like me,” she says, her head covered in a trailing black shawl.

“No one has ever helped me.”

– ‘Strictly implemented’ –

The Taliban were largely successful in eradicating poppy agriculture at the tail-end of their first rule from 1996 to 2001, analysts say.

But their veto faded when they were ousted by the US-led invasion in 2001 — and started funding their fightback with a tax on the crop.

Opium production provided about half of the Taliban insurgents’ revenues in 2016, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

By 2020, the last full year of rule by the Western-backed government, 85 percent of the world’s opium was flowing out of Afghanistan, the UN body said.

The following year it estimated the opiate economy accounted for between nine and 14 percent of Afghanistan’s GDP.

Production has always been focused in the arid southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand that seeded the Taliban movement three decades ago.

Last year’s ban was announced as the harvest was underway, so a grace period was agreed.

Immediately enforcing the ban would have risked “widespread dissent”, analyst David Mansfield said in an October report.

Razing fields as labourers prepared to slash poppy bulbs and collect the precious sap would “destroy the crop at the very moment when farmers were about to realise the returns on their labour”, he wrote.

But this year, “there is an indication that the poppy ban has been strictly implemented,” senior UNODC official Anubha Sood told AFP.

Nonetheless, she said “small fields” remained in “private houses and gardens, vineyards, non-visible and remote areas”.

News of the ban sent local per-kilogram prices nearly doubling to about $200 last year.

– ‘One-man rule’ –

In his village outside Helmand’s provincial capital Lashkar Gah, Ghulam Rasool had hoped to skirt the ban and continue farming poppies as he has for most of his 60 years.

Last year, he grew five hectares, earning 1.5 million Afghani ($17,000) — a small fortune in Afghanistan.

This year, he downsized to a small patch in his private compound, giving over his publicly visible fields to wheat and cotton.

But just days before he was ready to harvest, three men came to enforce the supreme leader’s ban.

“It’s a one-man rule and no other people have any say. Whatever they instruct, you have to obey, you don’t have any other choice,” he told AFP on a visit to his home escorted by Taliban government security forces.

“They should give us help and alternatives,” he said with incredulity. “They haven’t given us anything so far.”

– Supreme authority –

Deputy counter-narcotics minister Abdul Haq Akhund Hamkar told AFP nearly three thousand hectares of poppy had been destroyed since the start of the season.

That figure is a fraction of the 233,000 hectares the UNODC estimated were harvested in 2022.

But Helmand counter-narcotics chief Haji Qazi said the ban “has been implemented to a great extent [without force]”, because far less poppy was sown this season.

“When the decree of the supreme leader was announced, most of the people accepted it,” he said.

While opium farming was illegal under the ousted government, the authorities never had a secure grip on power in rural Afghanistan.

In exile and in government, the Taliban have always had a reputation for fiercely enforcing law and order — extending to public corporal punishments and even executions during their first rule.

When 37-year-old Mir Ahmad heard of the ban over the radio at his village in Nad-e-Ali district of Helmand province, his first thought was he would “lose a lot of money”.

Nonetheless, he converted his nine hectares of poppies into wheat for the first time in 20 years.

“This year, we are financially in bad shape,” Ahmad said. “Last year, we had so much money we couldn’t even spend it all.”

South Korea community doctors launch strike in protest over nursing law

MAY 03, 2023

Doctors and nursing assistants in South Korea go on a partial strike to protest against the Nursing Act, calling for a presidential veto of the bill on May 3.

Screengrab/YouTube

SEOUL - More than 10,000 South Korean community doctors and certified nursing assistants went on strike on Wednesday (May 3), protesting a nursing bill they fear would hurt their jobs even as it improves nurses' pay and working conditions.

The bill, passed in parliament last week, was primarily designed to help nurses, who have been suffering from burn-out and a shrinking talent pool while fighting on the frontlines against Covid-19.

But doctors see the bill as opening the door for nurses to provide treatment without a medical license, while nursing assistants say it would expand jobs for registered nurses at the expense of theirs. They urged President Yoon Suk-yeol to veto the bill and lawmakers to rewrite it.

An official at Yoon's office said it would decide after discussions with medical groups and the ruling party.

More than a dozen groups staged the strike, including the Korean Medical Association, which represents all doctors in South Korea but did not specify the number of participants. The Korean Licensed Practical Nurses Association, the largest grouping of nursing assistants, said about 10,000 members joined.

The impact of the strike was seen as limited, as most protesters used their holidays or shortened business hours in the afternoon, and major hospitals were operating normally.

But the groups said they would go on a general strike nationwide on May 17 if their demands were not met, which would most likely cause disruptions in a medical system already hit hard by the protracted battle against Covid-19.

"The law should be fair and sensible," Lee Pil-soo, president of the Korean Medical Association, told a news conference on Tuesday, asking the government to make a "fair, reasonable" decision.

The Korean Nurses Association, which has pushed for the legislation, says nurses had long been exposed to hostile work environments and abuses, and the bill would help provide better health care without damaging the interests of doctors and assistants.

The health ministry, which had played a mediating role between doctors and nursing groups, blamed the main opposition Democratic Party for using its majority in parliament to pass the bill.

Officials expressed concerns that the divide among medical workers could derail their cooperation and undercut the health system.

The ministry said on Wednesday it has asked larger hospitals and clinics to extend business hours and maintain 24-hour emergency care services.

The pendant is 20,000 years old. Ancient DNA shows who wore it

MAY 03, 2023

A top view of the pierced elk tooth discovered in the Denisova Cave in southern Siberia is seen in this undated handout picture. Scientists have recovered the DNA of a woman from the tooth, which was used as a pendant 19,000 to 25,000 years ago.

Reuters

WASHINGTON - Inside a Siberian cave that has been an archeological treasure trove, an elk's canine tooth - pierced to become a pendant - was unearthed by scientists with care to avoid contaminating this intriguing artefact made roughly 20,000 years ago.

The pristine collection of the pendant from Denisova Cave paid dividends. Scientists on Wednesday (May 3) said a new method for extracting ancient DNA identified the object's long-ago owner — a Stone Age woman closely related to a population of hunter-gatherers known to have lived in a part of Siberia east of the cave site in the foothills of the Altai Mountains in Russia.

The method can isolate DNA that was present in skin cells, sweat or other bodily fluids and was absorbed by certain types of porous material including bones, teeth and tusks when handled by someone thousands of years ago.

Objects used as tools or for personal adornment - pendants, necklaces, bracelets, rings and the like - can offer insight into past behaviour and culture, though our understanding has been limited by an inability to tie a particular object to a particular person.

"I find these objects made in the deep past extremely fascinating since they allow us to open a small window to travel back and have a glance into these people's lives," said molecular biologist Elena Essel of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.

The researchers who found the pendant, which was determined to be 19,000 to 25,000 years old, used gloves and face masks when excavating and handling it, avoiding contamination with modern DNA. It became the first prehistoric artefact linked by genetic sleuthing to a specific person. It is unknown whether the woman made or merely wore it.

Essel said in holding such an artefact in her own gloved hands, she felt "transported back in time, imagining the human hands that had created and used it thousands of years ago".

"As I looked at the object, a flood of questions came to mind. Who was the person who made it? Was this tool passed down from one generation to the next, from a mother to a daughter or from a father to a son? That we can start addressing these questions using genetic tools is still absolutely incredible to me," Essel added.

The pendant's maker drilled a hole in the tooth to allow for some sort of now-lost cordage. The tooth alternatively could have been part of a head band or bracelet.

Scientist Elena Essel of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology works in the institute’s clean laboratory in Leipzig, Germany on the pierced elk tooth discovered in the Denisova Cave in southern Siberia in this undated handout picture. PHOTO: Reuters

Our species Homo sapiens first arose more than 300,000 years ago in Africa, later spreading worldwide. The oldest-known objects used as personal adornments date to about 100,000 years ago from Africa, according to the University of Leiden's Marie Soressi, the study's senior archeologist.

Denisova Cave long ago was inhabited at different times by the extinct human species called Denisovans, Neanderthals and our species. The cave over the years has yielded remarkable finds, including the first-known remains of Denisovans and various tools and other artefacts.

The new nondestructive research technique, used at a "clean room" laboratory in Leipzig, works much like a washing machine. In this case, an artefact is immersed in a liquid that works to release DNA from it much as a washing machine lifts dirt from a blouse.

By linking objects with particular people, the technique could shed light on prehistoric social roles and division of labor between the sexes or clarify whether or not an object was even made by our species. Some artefacts have been found in places known to have been inhabited, for instance, by Homo sapiens and Neanderthals simultaneously.

"This study opens huge opportunities to better reconstruct the role of individuals in the past according to their sex and ancestry," Soressi said.

Go First gone: Engine troubles, Covid-19 bring down India's third-largest airline

MAY 03, 2023

People wait to claim refunds after their flights were cancelled, from the Go First airline ticketing counter at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, India on May 3.

Reuters

NEW DELHI - Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Go Airlines (India) Ltd said it was one of the few profitable airlines in a country that is known for its staunchly price-conscious customers, a market where two big players have collapsed in the last 11 years.

The company's ultra-low-cost model and near-total reliance on one aircraft type helped it make money, until engine issues that began about five years ago worsened and it reported heavy losses in the last three fiscal years.

The cash-strapped carrier, India's third-biggest and best known as Go First, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday (May 2), blaming "faulty" Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines for the grounding of about half its fleet.

It owes financial creditors 65.21 billion rupees (S$1.1 billion), and has now "exhausted all financial resources", according to its filing with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) seeking insolvency proceedings.

The move comes as its bigger domestic rival IndiGo is pitting Boeing BA.N against Airbus in record jet order talks to meet surging post-Covid demand. Go First's plight is also a blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal of turning India into a global aviation hub like Dubai or Singapore.

A Go First airline, formerly known as GoAir, Airbus A320-271N passenger aircraft prepares to take off from Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, India on May 2. PHOTO: Reuters

IndiGo has also had to ground planes because its P&W engines faced problems, but its bigger fleet with diverse engines, and its deeper pockets, meant it could overcome the troubles better than Go First.

Grounded

By April, Go First had to ground more than 50 per cent of its 54 Airbus 320neos fitted with P&W engines, up from 31 per cent in 2020, according to the filing seen by Reuters. Engine failures have cost Go First 108 billion rupees in lost revenue and expenses, it said.

The airline cancelled 4,118 flights in the past month, affecting 77,500 passengers, and it warned of more cancellations "if urgent actions are not taken for its survival and resolution", according to the filing.

"The deterioration in the company's financial performance was also accentuated by the outbreak of Covid-19 which resulted in crippling restrictions on air travel and use of public transport," the filing said.

P&W, which is owned by Raytheon, said in a statement late on Tuesday it was committed to the success of its customers and that "we continue to prioritize delivery schedules for all customers".

The airline started operations in 2005 and is owned by bed sheets-to-biscuits Wadia Group, one of India's oldest conglomerates.