RIP

Japanese dog of 'Doge' meme fame dies

Tokyo (AFP) – The Japanese dog whose photo inspired a generation of oddball online jokes and the $23-billion Dogecoin cryptocurrency beloved by Elon Musk died on Friday, her owner said.


Issued on: 24/05/2024 -

Japanese shiba inu Kabosu became the star of the 'Doge' meme that inspired Dogecoin © Philip FONG / AFP

"She quietly passed away as if asleep while I caressed her," Atsuko Sato wrote on her blog, thanking the fans of her shiba inu called Kabosu -- the face of the "Doge" meme.

"I think Kabo-chan was the happiest dog in the world. And I was the happiest owner," Sato wrote.

As a rescue dog, Kabosu's real birthday was unknown but Sato estimated her age at 18, past the average lifespan for a shiba inu, with her birthday celebrated in November.

In 2010, two years after adopting Kabosu from a puppy mill where she would otherwise have been put down, Sato took a picture of her pet crossing her paws on the sofa.

She posted that image -- with the fluffy shiba inu giving the camera a beguiling look -- on her blog, from where it spread to online forum Reddit and became a meme that bounced from college bedrooms to office e-mail chains.

The memes typically used goofy broken English to reveal the inner thoughts of Kabosu and other shiba inu "doge" -- pronounced like pizza "dough" but with a "j" at the end.

As a rescue dog, Kabosu's real birthday was unknown, but Sato estimated her age at 18 

© Philip FONG / AFP

The picture also later became an NFT digital artwork that sold for $4 million and inspired Dogecoin, which was started as a joke by two software engineers and is now the eighth-most valuable cryptocurrency with a market capitalisation of $23 billion.

- 'Unbelievable' events -

Dogecoin has been backed by hip-hop star Snoop Dogg, "Shark Tank" entrepreneur Mark Cuban and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons.

But its most keen supporter is probably the billionaire Musk, who jokes about the currency on X -- sending its value soaring -- and hails it as "the people's crypto".

The famous picture of Kabosu later became an NFT digital artwork that sold for $4 million © Philip FONG / AFP

Dogecoin has also inspired a plethora of other cheap and highly volatile "memecoins", including spin-off Shiba Inu and others based on dogs, cats or Donald Trump.

Kabosu fell ill with leukaemia and liver disease in late 2022, and Sato said in a recent interview with AFP in her home of Sakura, east of Tokyo, that the "invisible power" of prayers from fans worldwide helped her pull through.

The 62-year-old Sato said she had become so used to "unbelievable" events that, when Tesla boss Musk changed the icon for Twitter, now X, to Kabosu's face last year, she "wasn't even that surprised".

"In the last few years I've been able to connect the online version of Kabosu, all these unexpected things seen from a distance, with our real lives," she told AFP.

A $100,000 statue of Kabosu and her sofa crowdfunded by Own The Doge, a crypto organisation dedicated to the meme, was unveiled in a park in Sakura in November last year.

Last year a $100,000 statue of Kabosu and her sofa was unveiled in a park in Sakura © Philip FONG / AFP

Sato and Own The Doge have also donated large sums to international charities, including more than $1 million to Save the Children. The NGO says it is "the single largest crypto contribution" it has ever received.

"The Doge is the most popular dog of the modern era," said Tridog, a pseudonymous member of Own The Doge, describing Kabosu as "the Mona Lisa of the internet".

© 2024 AFP

Colorado State University's stinky corpse flower preparing to bloom


Colorado State University is preparing for the first blooming of its corpse flower, a plant famous for its rotting flesh odor. 

Photo courtesy of Colorado State University

May 21 (UPI) -- Colorado State University is inviting members of the public to come experience a uniquely smelly spectacle: the first blooming of its corpse flower.

The university said Plant Growth Facilities Manager Tammy Brenner brought the pungent plant, named Cosmo, to the school in 2016, and after seven years of careful rearing in the College of Agricultural Sciences' Conservatory, Cosmo is preparing to bloom for the first time.

"Cosmo came out of dormancy around three weeks ago, and we didn't expect anything exciting," Brenner said in a news release. "But then two weeks ago, it started looking a little bit more full, a little bit more plump. It started growing and shooting out stalks, and we realized something really big was about to happen."

Amorphophallus titanum are commonly known as "corpse flowers" due to the unique rotting smell they emit during blooming.

The flower is expected to begin its bloom on Saturday, but Brenner cautioned that the exact date won't be known until the bloom begins. The bloom is only expected to last for 2-3 days, and Cosmo won't bloom again for another 3-5 years.

"This is a rare occasion and a big deal because it will be the first bloom for the corpse flower here at CSU," Brenner said.




The Conservancy will be open to the public for corpse flower viewings -- and smellings -- from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day of the bloom.

Norway struggles to keep ultra-rich tempted by exile

Oslo (AFP) – You can check out -- but you still have to pay! Norway is looking for ways to hang onto its ultra-rich who are increasingly moving abroad to escape one of the rare European countries to impose a wealth tax.

Issued on: 24/05/2024 -

Former Olympic champion Bjorn Daehlie is one of many Norwegians who have left their country to avoid paying a wealth tax 

© BORIS HORVAT / AFP

Industrialist Kjell Inge Rokke, former cross-country ski legend Bjorn Daehlie, and the father of football star Erling Haaland are among the dozens of super-wealthy who have packed up and left in recent years.

The reason? The centre-left government in power since 2021 has hiked the wealth tax from 0.85 percent to one percent -- and to 1.1 percent for the very wealthiest -- and raised the dividend tax.

Norway, Spain and Switzerland are the only European countries that have a tax on net wealth. In Norway it also applies to unrealised capital gains (gains not yet realised through the sale of shares, for example).

Owners of companies are among those hit hardest, often drawing a modest salary even though their company has a high value.

"If your salary is one million and you have to pay three million in (wealth) tax, it's clear that it's untenable," said Tord Ueland Kolstad, a real estate magnate who "grudgingly" moved to Lucerne, Switzerland in 2022.

"The system is designed so that it confiscates more than what you can produce," he said.

To pay a wealth tax which can exceed their yearly income, entrepreneurs often need to take out dividends, hampering their company's capacity to invest.

And those dividends are also subject to a tax rate of 37.84 percent.

Mmany of Norway's richest people, including businessman Kjell Inge Rokke, left, have quit Norway to avoid a wealth tax

 © JENS BUETTNER / POOL/AFP

"So basically you have two options: either leave Norway, or sell your company," said Kolstad.

Between 2021 and 2023, more than 100 of Norway's wealthiest people went into exile, with the large majority relocating to Switzerland.

Others transferred their wealth to heirs already residing abroad, as Norway does not have inheritance tax.

Labour Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store has criticised the mini-exodus, stressing that taxes are what pay for Norway's generous welfare system.

"When you've made your wealth in Norway, put your kids in school, benefitted from the health care system, driven on the roads and reaped the rewards of its research, it's a breach of the social contract," he said in a speech in parliament.

The government is now working to tighten the country's "exit tax".

People who move abroad would have 12 years to pay the exit tax -- also 37.84 percent of gains made in Norway from shares and other sources over many years -- that has until now been easy to circumvent or defer.

"The aim is that gains made in Norway be taxed in Norway," explained Erlend Grimstad, a state secretary in the finance ministry.

"Our nurses and teachers have to hand over a large share of their earnings to society in the form of taxes," he said.

"If they see that the most well-off can simply avoid contributing their share by leaving the country, that undermines the legitimacy of the tax system."
'Don't come to Norway'

That does little to quell the anger of the ultra-rich.

Christer Dalsboe, who started his own company, made buzz on social media recently singing a little ditty discouraging other entrepreneurs from starting businesses in the country.

"Don't come to Norway, We will tax you till you're poor. And when you have nothing left, We will tax you a little more," he sang, sitting at a piano.

The liberal think tank Civita said the government's plans to tighten the "exit tax" were in reality aimed at setting up roadblocks for millionaires and billionaires.

"Instead of attacking the reasons that push them into exile, meaning easing the tax burden on Norwegian shareholders, they seem to prefer to set up regulatory obstacles," said Civita economist Mathilde Fasting.

In Lucerne, Tord Ueland Kolstad said he can receive "several calls a week" from other Norwegians considering moving to Switzerland.

"The flow has not stopped. Maybe it is just beginning."

© 2024 AFP

DOJ sues two anti-abortion organizations, seven members over FACE Act violations


Federal prosecutors on Monday filed a lawsuit against two anti-abortion groups and seven of their members for violating the FACE Act. 

File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

May 21 (UPI) -- The Justice Department is suing two Christian anti-abortion organizations and seven of its members on allegations of blocking access to two northeast Ohio reproductive health clinics in June 2021.

Citizens for a Pro Life Society and Red Rose Rescue are accused of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, and federal prosecutors are seeking compensatory damages, monetary penalties and injunctive relief

"Obstructing people from accessing reproductive healthcare and physically obstructing providers from offering it are unlawful," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in a statement Monday.

Federal prosecutors said the defendants prevented two Ohio reproductive healthcare facilities from providing their patients with reproductive healthcare services because of the defendants.

The two-count complaint filed Monday in the Northern District of Ohio accuses the defendants of planning and participating in two coordinated Red Rose Rescue events targeting Ohio reproductive healthcare facilities -- one on June 4, 2021, and the other the next day.

Federal prosecutors said the June 4 incident targeted the Northeast Ohio Women's Center in Cuyahoga Falls.

The document states defendants Laura Gies and Clara McDonald gained access to the facility's waiting room via a back door at about 11:26 a.m. and lied that they were seeking reproductive healthcare.

Minuets later, defendants Christopher Moscinski and Audrey Whipple entered the facility's front entrance and the four of them began handing out roses to patients in the waiting room whom they instructed to not have abortions, the document states.

When the defendants refused to leave, staff escorted the patients into a secured area of the facility, prosecutors said, adding that McDonald then "forcefully grabbed a patient's body and told her not to go through with the abortion."

The defendants continued to refuse to leave even after Cuyahoga Falls police arrived on the scene, with Gies proclaiming to the staff that "your paychecks are from blood money of the children you're ripping to sheds," according to federal prosecutors.

"Please stop killing babies," Gies said, the complaint states. "Please stop dismembering children!"

Outside the facility was defendant Monica Miller, who said in an interview posted to Facebook that their tactic was to "stall as long as possible," as in her experience no abortions are performed as long as they remain on the premises.

They were arrested and physically removed from the facility by police at about noon, the complaint states, adding that Gies, McDonald, Moscinski and Whipple were convicted of trespassing on the premises in August of 2021.

On June 5, 2021, Miller, Lauren Handy and Jay Smith are accused of entering the Planned Parenthood facility and forcing its closure for the day.

According to the document, Handy and Miller entered the facility's private fenced-in parking lot shortly before 9 a.m. and approached patients waiting in their cars, then followed some as they exited their vehicles, trying to force roses and anti-abortion brochures into their hands.

At around the same time, Smith entered the facility's full waiting room and handed out brochures to the patients, the complaint said.

"When a patient asked Smith to leave the facility, Smith used physical force against the patient by pushing him with his shoulder," the complaint said.

According to federal prosecutors, staff was able to move patients to a secured area of the facility and get Smith to exit into the parking lot.

When police arrived, Smith allegedly told officers that he entered the facility "because they're killing babies in there."

After the officers instructed the defendants to leave, Handy knelt in front of the facility's door while Miller approached patients in their cars. Miller then used her body to prevent a patient from exiting their vehicle, and Handy "sprawled her body out on the ground in front of BHSC's entrance and refused to move."

Then an unnamed RRR member in a mask entered the parking lot, followed by a second unnamed RRR member.

A supervisor then asked the facility's management to close the facility for the day as there was only three officers on duty, including two who had arrested Handy and Miller and were transporting them to jail.

The closure affected 24 patients, nine who had scheduled surgeries and 15 with consultation appointments, the document said.

According to court records, several of the defendants have been arrested before for violating the FACE Act, including Handy, who was sentenced May 14 to 57 months in prison and three years' supervised release for being involved in a blockade of a Washington, D.C., reproductive healthcare clinic.

"Individuals have the right to access facilities in Ohio to make decisions about their own bodies, health and futures, in consultation with health care providers, free from force, threats of force, intimidation or physical obstruction," U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lutzko for the Northern District of Ohio said.

"We encourage anyone with information about potential FACE Act violations to contact our office."

SPAGYRIC HERBALISM

Study: Matcha may inhibit bacteria that causes gum disease

By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News


Lab experiments show that matcha can inhibit the growth of Porphyromonas gingivalis, one of the main bacterial culprits behind gum disease. 

Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News


Matcha green tea has the potential to keep gum disease at bay, a new study finds.

Lab experiments show that matcha can inhibit the growth of Porphyromonas gingivalis, one of the main bacterial culprits behind gum disease.

Among a small group of 45 people with gum disease, those who used matcha mouthwash wound up with significantly lower levels of P. gingivalis, results show.

"Matcha may have clinical applicability for prevention and treatment of periodontitis [gum disease]," researchers from the Nihon University School of Dentistry at Matsudo in Japan noted in their paper published May 21 in the journal Microbiology Spectrum.

Matcha is a highly concentrated and vibrantly green tea that is also available in a powdered form. It's used in traditional tea ceremonies, and for flavoring in beverages and sweets, researchers said.

The green tea plant has long been studied for its potential to fight bacteria, fungi and viruses, researchers noted.

To test matcha's potential, researchers applied a matcha solution to 16 mouth bacteria species in the lab, including three strains of P. gingivalis.

Within two hours, nearly all the P. gingivalis cells had been killed by the matcha extract, and after four hours all the cells were dead, researchers found.

Researchers then proceeded to a small human trial, randomly assigning patients with gum disease into one of three groups.

One group received matcha mouthwash, another barley tea mouthwash, and a third a mouthwash containing an anti-inflammatory chemical. Patients were instructed to rinse twice daily with the mouthwash they were provided.

The group using matcha mouthwash had a significant reduction in levels of gum disease-causing bacteria, based on saliva tests. The other two groups did not see the same results.

Gum disease can lead to people losing teeth, and it has also been associated with diabetes, preterm birth, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer, researchers noted.

More information

The Cleveland Clinic has more on the health benefits of matcha.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Everest claims fourth climber this week during busy ascent season


Four climbers have died on Everest this week, including a Kenyan man, who was trying to be the first African to summit the mountain with no supplemental oxygen. 

Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA-EFE

May 24 (UPI) -- A Kenyan mountain climber who had been missing near the summit of Mount Everest was found dead, fellow climbers reported Thursday.

Joshua Cheruiyot Kirui, 44, and his Nepali guide Nawang Sherpa, also 44, disappeared on Wednesday during Kirui's attempt to become the first African to summit Mt. Everest without supplemental oxygen.

Sherpa told people at base camp that Kirui had been showing signs of altitude sickness and other "abnormal behavior" and "refused to return and even consume bottled oxygen," the BBC reported.

Kirui, a banker with one of Kenya's biggest lenders, said on social media posts and in a message to the BBC that he had undergone extensive physical preparations for the Everest climb.

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"The major/specific preparation was climbing Manaslu, the eighth highest mountain in the world in 2023 September," he wrote in an email to the BBC.

"However, I've been climbing locally in Kenya, many stair climbs, gym workouts and running as specific preparation. Also for 10 years I've climbed, ran marathons and ultra marathons which adds to the general preparations".

Kirui said he had planned to descend on Wednesday and had expressed confidence that he could achieve the summit of the world's tallest peak and descend it without bottled oxygen. Doing so is very uncommon among climbers, even experienced ones, but Kiriu said Sherpa would have supplemental oxygen and emergency supplies on hand in case he needed them. Kiriu was trying to be the first African to summit Everest without aid of additional oxygen.

Sherpa's body still has not been located.

While it has become commercialized and littered in recent years, Everest, the world's tallest peak at 29,040 feet, remains among the most sought after by both high-profile mountaineers with experience and some climbers with little to no idea about the sport and who rely on professional guides to help them reach the summit using courses fixed with ropes, but which require crossing huge crevasses on metal ladders strung together to create a makeshift bridge.

Nepalese newspaper the Himalayan Times quoted Mr Sherpa informing the base camp that Kirui had shown "abnormal behavior" and "refused to return and even consume bottled oxygen".

Contact with the duo was lost shortly after the message, base camp officials told the newspaper.

Kirui's close friend and fellow climber, Kipkemoi Limo, told the BBC that he died from a fall.

Kirui's family and friends are enquiring whether he gave consent to be buried on Everest, or whether he would have wanted his body to be returned to Kenya, which will cost $190,000.

Fellow Everest climbers are in dismay and shock about the death, although it is not the first of the season and may not be the last. May is the busiest month of the year for attempted ascents.

"Our brother now rests on the mountain. It's been a long night," fellow Kenyan mountaineer James Muhia, who had been sharing regular updates about Kirui's attempt, said on X.

Kirui's death was the fourth reported on Everest this week. A Romanian climber and a British climber and his Nepalese guide were also found dead on Tuesday, the Himalayan Times reported.

Iran’s hardline Paydari Front eyes a political vacuum after Raisi’s death

As Iran heads for a snap presidential poll following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, the Paydari Front, a little-known but influential ultra-conservative party, is seeking to extend its hold on state institutions. That could spell bad news for Iranians who want more liberties and for a region roiled by the fallout of the Israel-Hamas war.


Issued on: 21/05/2024 -

A portrait of the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is placed on his seat at the Assembly of Experts in Tehran, Iran, May 21, 2024. © Vahid Salemi, AP

By: Leela JACINTO

The sudden death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has plunged the Islamic Republic into a political fog as thick as that enveloping the mountainous Varzeqan region of northern Iran, where Raisi’s helicopter went down on Sunday.

The crash came a week after the country held run-off parliamentary elections, with the influential position of speaker in the unicameral Majlis still to be decided. While the executive and legislative branches of the government are currently leaderless, the most powerful man in the land, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, turned 85 in April and is believed to be in frail health.

In accordance with the Iranian constitution, the country’s first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, was appointed transitional president on Monday and called for a presidential election in 50 days.

The focus now shifts to the June 28 election, with Iran monitors both inside and outside the country keeping an eye on the presidential hopefuls who get the green light from the Guardians Council, the constitutional watchdog charged with approving candidates.

The next few weeks are likely to see a period of intense political jockeying, much of it behind closed doors. Backroom politics has characterised Iran’s nezam, or political system, since the 1979 revolution, with factionalism and informal decision-making filling the gap created by the absence of transparent political institutions.

During his 35 years as supreme leader, Khamenei has overseen a rise in factionalism with competing camps sometimes splintering and bickering for power.

As the Islamic Republic heads for its 14th presidential election, supporters and students of a hardline cleric dubbed “Ayatollah Crocodile” threaten to turn the Iranian political parlour game into a blood sport.

The Paydari Front, called the Jebhe Paydari in Iran and sometimes translated as the “Steadfastness” or “Endurance” Front, are a faction of ideological diehards who consider the late Ayatollah Mohammad Mesbah-Yazdi – the crocodile ayatollah – as their spiritual mentor.

Controversial and reviled by Iranian moderates and reformists, the Paydari Front rose in prominence during Raisi’s term. Since the late president was a Khamenei loyalist, experts say the Paydari’s ascendance could not have happened without the consent or acquiescence of Iran’s supreme leader.

But as an ageing Khamenei leads a country plagued with high levels of domestic discontent and confronting serious international challenges to a snap poll, many analysts are wary of the Paydari Front’s stranglehold on power and what that could mean for Iran’s future.

‘Pumping ideology into the veins of the regime’

The Paydari Front in its current form was founded as a political party in 2011 under hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It was not a coincidence. The party’s ideology of strictly following the principles of the Islamic Revolution matched Ahmadinejad’s hardline conservatism.

The ideology was shaped by Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, a deeply conservative cleric who taught most of the party’s founding members in Iranian seminaries and religious institutions.

“He argued against elections in Iran, which he believed should simply be a religious dictatorship. He had extremely anti-American, very conservative, social values – women must wear the hijab, a very repressive, heavy use of the death penalty, that sort of thing,” explained Barbara Slavin, distinguished fellow at the Washington, DC-based Stimson Center and director of the Middle East Perspective project. “He died in 2021, but his ideas live on.”

But Mesbah-Yazdi’s ideas did not always find favour with Iran’s presidents. When moderate Hassan Rouhani came to power in 2013, he tried to marginalise the party, according to Saeid Golkar, an expert on Iran at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. “But around 2019, 2020, they came out again. They took the parliament in the 2020 legislative elections and supported Raisi in the 2021 presidential election. Raisi was not an official member of the party, but he was strongly supported by the Paydari. They were very close allies. Under Raisi, the Paydari expanded its influence in the state bureaucracy,” explained Golkar.

Over the years, the Paydari Front infiltrated Iran’s state institutions, including the military and the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in what experts liken to state capture, in which a faction takes control of state institutions. “These people usually go to the military or the IRGC or the state bureaucracy as ideological indoctrinators. They go in and they teach. They have a very strong influence over the IRGC in indoctrination and political training,” said Golkar, explaining the workings of the Paydari as an “ideological pump to raise the level of ideology in the state, the military and the administration. They are pumping ideology into the veins of the regime.”

This state capture was on display during the crackdown on the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian-Kurdish woman, in September 2022. As anti-veil protests spread across the country, the regime doubled down, with Paydari parliamentarians playing a critical role in pushing through a draconian “Hijab and Chastity” law. The 2023 law increased prison sentences for “inappropriately” dressed women and introduced punishments for employers, as well as cinema and shopping mall owners, who did not enforce the dress codes on their premises.

Read moreIran’s regime crushes protests ahead of Mahsa Amini's death anniversary

Conservative pragmatists give way to diehard ideologues

The Iranian political landscape has been marked by a binary Reformist-Conservative configuration for decades. But the US pullout from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal effectively crushed the reformist camp, as the conservatives opposed to any deals with the “Great Satan” emerged to put a stranglehold on power. Under the hardline Raisi, Iran’s conservatives moved further right.

Within the conservative camp, the ascendance of the ultra-conservative Paydari Front caught the attention of British weekly The Economist after the first round of the parliamentary election in March, which the party swept.

Differentiating between the old school “gruff conservative pragmatists” and a rising “group of ideological diehards”, The Economist noted that Paydari Front members “are to Iran what the religious hard right are to Israel”.

Traditional conservatives are keenly aware of Iran’s military weaknesses compared to arch foes Israel and the United States. In the past, IRGC commanders were “ready to work with the West if they thought that doing so bolstered the regime”, The Economist noted.

“But the Paydari Front sees their earthly battle in divine terms,” the weekly observed. A messianic Shiite vision of a fight against an anti-Muslim tyrant increases the security risks in a tinderbox region reeling from the fallout of the Israel-Hamas war.

As supreme leader, Khamenei has the ultimate say in major military decisions. His inherent caution was evident on April 13, when Iran retaliated for the April 1 Israeli bombing of its embassy compound in Damascus. Iran's missile and drone attack came after Tehran gave Israel and its allies three days of notice to protect their airspace, resulting in relatively minor injuries and damage to infrastructure.

‘The catfights at the top’

But Khamenei is ageing, and the hardline takeover effort that began more than a decade ago could upset the fine balance that has kept Iran and Israel from waging a major, conventional war.

While Khamenei might be cautious on the regional front, his support for domestic hardliners have seen hawkish factions such as the Paydari Front gain disproportionate power in the nezum.

“They're kind of the last man standing. The system has gotten nasty and all the other factions, the pragmatists, even some of the traditional conservative factions, have been sidelined,” said Slavin. “They appear to be the last survivors of the long political game in Iran, particularly under Khamenei.”

Golkar believes it’s all gone according to plan. “Ayatollah Khamenei put a plan in action in order to have a smooth succession. And the plan he put in action since 2019 was to make sure the state, the government, the administration is aligned ideologically with Ayatollah Khamenei. He wants his ideas, his regime to outlive himself,” he explained.

For Khamenei, Iran’s late president was the ideal successor to take on the supreme leader position, according to Golkar. “Khamenei wants to have somebody with the same mentality, the same ideology, the same political view,” he said. Raisi’s sudden death in a helicopter crash on Sunday was “a hiccup in the Ayatollah Khamenei plan. But he will find somebody that has the same political view and ideology as Raisi.”

As the country gears up for a presidential election and the appointment of a parliamentary speaker, experts believe the Paydari Front is particularly well placed to handle the backroom machinations between the political factions. “Think about the Islamic Republic as a patron-client network system. There are a lot of patrons. The Paydari is one patron with its own clients,” explained Golkar. “They are the most cohesive group and the most ideological. Because of the ideology and because of the cohesiveness, they are much more difficult to defeat compared to the other groups that are much more opportunistic.”

For most Iranians chafing under a system that has ignored their aspirations, suppressed their demand for civil liberties, and failed to provide economic prosperity or development, the political wranglings hardly matter.

“I think the young people of Iran, in particular, couldn’t care less about the political machinations at the top. They've rejected the whole system. Anyone who's ever pledged loyalty to the Islamic Republic is largely alien now to a lot of Iran's younger population. So this is an inside game, it’s played by insiders. Most young Iranians are just trying to make a living, in many cases, to leave the country if they have the requisite credentials. They will ignore the catfights at the top,” said Slavin.

But as the ideological gap between the rulers and the people widens, experts warn that a Paydari domination is unlikely to benefit the country or its long-suffering populace. “I guess the most ruthless win out, particularly in a system like Iran’s,” said Slavin. “They just managed to climb the greasy pole and that's where they are. But of course, this makes the whole system even more fragile. So while they may have a triumph now, you have to question the legitimate longevity of the system when its base is so narrow.”

Cannes relives infamous rape in 'Last Tango in Paris'

Cannes (France) (AFP) – As France reels from a renewed #MeToo reckoning, a new film transports audiences back to the early 1970s when directors were all-powerful and the consent of their actresses was the last thing on their mind.


Issued on: 22/05/2024 

Matt Dillon stars as Marlon Brando in 'Being Maria' © Valery HACHE / AFP

"Being Maria", which premiered out of competition in Cannes, revisits one of the most infamous rape scenes in cinema -- Marlon Brando's butter-based sexual assault in the 1972 film "Last Tango in Paris".

French director Jessica Palud said her own experience decades later inspired her to make the film.

"I worked as an assistant on several films, I saw things on sets -- humiliated actors, ways of working that struck me," Palud, 42, told AFP.

"Being Maria" follows Maria Schneider's rise to fame after Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci cast her in "Last Tango in Paris", and its impact on her life and career.

In the notorious "butter scene", Schneider, who was 19 at the start of shooting, is depicted as being anally raped by the middle-aged Brando on a Paris apartment floor with the aid of a lump of butter.

"Being Maria" stars Matt Dillon as Brando, while Anamaria Vartolomei -- who broke out in the abortion drama "Happening" -- plays Schneider as an aspiring actress not fully briefed about how the scene will play out.

'Humiliated'

"What I wanted to understand was what she felt," said Palud, who herself started out as a 19-year-old crew member on the set of another racy Bertolucci film, "The Dreamers", in 2003.

She said she tracked down the original script for "Last Tango in Paris", which was banned in several countries and sparked a popular myth that the scene was real.

"The scene wasn't written," said Palud.

While the sex was simulated, it later emerged that Schneider had been kept in the dark about what was to happen by Brando and Bertolucci, who were both nominated for Oscars.

"Even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears," Schneider later said.

"I felt humiliated and to be honest I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn't console me or apologise. Thankfully, there was just one take."

Despite a career of some 50 films, she remained traumatised by "Last Tango in Paris", and attempted suicide.

'Men my age'

In 2016, Bertolucci told Elle magazine he did not tell Schneider about the infamous scene because he "wanted her reaction as a girl not as an actress", sparking outrage.

"To all the people that love this film -- you're watching a 19yr old get raped by a 48yr old man," Jessica Chastain wrote on Twitter.

In a 1976 documentary titled "Be Pretty and Shut Up", 23-year-old Schneider recounted working in a male-dominated industry.

"The producers are men, the technicians are men, the directors are men... The agents are men and I feel they have subjects for men," she said.

The actor, who had just filmed "The Passenger" with Jack Nicholson, said she wanted to avoid playing "crazy women, lesbians or murderers", and it would be nice to play opposite men "my age".

"I mean even Nicholson is better than Brando. But it's not great. He's 40, or almost," she said.

Palud said she had been struck by the footage.

"What moved me was this woman in the 1970s who was talking, saying things that no one seemed to be hearing, whereas... what she was saying was very modern," the director said.

© 2024 AFP

Embryo activist: baby's lawsuit takes on S. Korea climate inaction

Seoul (AFP) – When he was a 20-week-old embryo -- before he even had a real name -- Choi Hee-woo became one of the world's youngest-ever plaintiffs by joining a groundbreaking climate lawsuit against South Korea.

Issued on: 22/05/2024 - 

Choi Hee-woo (L) became one the world's youngest plaintiffs when his mother Lee Dong-hyun (R) signed him up to a climate lawsuit while he was still in utero 

© Jung Yeon-je / AFP


His case, known as "Woodpecker et al. v. South Korea" after Choi's in utero nickname, seeks to prove Seoul's modest climate goals -- reducing carbon emissions by 40 percent of 2018 levels by 2030 -- are a violation of their constitutionally guaranteed human rights.

In Asia's first such climate case -- a similar youth-led effort recently succeeded in the US state of Montana, another is ongoing at the European Higher Court -- the plaintiffs claim South Korea's legally binding climate commitments are insufficient and unmet.

"I had no idea an embryo could participate," Choi's mother, Lee Dong-hyun, told AFP, adding that she'd been planning to sign up Choi's older sibling before realising her unborn child could also become a plaintiff.

Choi or "Woodpecker" -- his parents heard the bird's call after learning they were pregnant, Lee said -- is the youngest of the 62 children involved, although most were under five when the suit was first filed in 2022.

Lee is confident the court will rule with the children -- which could force revisions to Seoul's climate laws, although the scale of any potential changes is not clear.

"Considering the future of humanity, it's obvious the government should make more active efforts to ensure our survival amid the climate crisis," she said.

"I would be so sorry if my children never experienced a beautiful spring day," she said ahead of the final hearing this week of four climate cases, which for procedural reasons were merged into one, at South Korea's Constitutional Court.
'Climate crisis'

Youth climate activist Kim Seo-gyeong, 21, was part of the group that filed the first of the cases in 2020. She said it was taking too long for the government to address young people's demands, as their legal challenge makes its way through the courts.

Kim Seo-gyeong, now 21, was part of the first case filed against the government in 2020 © Anthony WALLACE / AFP

"Four years might not seem too long for a constitutional appeal, but it is too significant for a climate crisis," she said.

"For the decision makers, it still isn't enough of a crisis to compel action."

In 2021, South Korea made a legally binding commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 290 million tons by 2030 -- and to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

In order to meet this goal, the country needs to reduce emissions by 5.4 percent every year from 2023 -- a target they have so far failed to meet.

It's highly unlikely Seoul will meet its official climate goals, said Noh Dong-woon, a professor at Hanyang University in Seoul.

"With the current administration's industrial-friendly policies and South Korea's heavy industry structure, we should have done something much sooner," he told AFP.

Climate activists gather outside the Constitutional Court in Seoul ahead of Tuesday's final hearing © Anthony WALLACE / AFP

In 2022, South Korea generated just 5.4 percent of its energy from wind and solar, less than half the global average of 12 percent, and far behind neighbouring Japan and China, energy think tank Ember said, adding the country is also the G20's second-highest carbon emitter per capita.

"If South Korea doesn't look to renewable electricity to power manufacturing, it risks losing market share" as more blocs like the European Union move to penalise imports from heavy polluters, Helen Clarkson, CEO of Climate Group, told AFP.
'Desperation for change'

Similar climate litigations globally have found success, for example, in Germany in 2021, where climate targets were ruled insufficient and unconstitutional.

But a child-led suit in California over alleged government failures to curb pollution was thrown out earlier this month.

For 12-year-old plaintiff Han Jeah, who loves K-pop idols, dancing and climate activism, adults are not taking the climate crisis seriously enough, because it won't ultimately affect them.

Han Jeah, 12, believes adults aren't taking climate change seriously enough 

© Anthony WALLACE / AFP

"When the Earth's temperature rises two degrees Celsius more, none of the adults who are talking about this right now will still be around -- even President (Yoon Suk Yeol)," she told AFP.

"The children left behind will be responsible for reducing carbon emissions and suffer the consequences."

Jeah, who said she would like to be a professional gamer, soldier or a farmer when she grows up, delivered a statement during the final hearing Tuesday.

"It is absolutely not fair to ask us to solve the problem. If the future is worse than it is now, we may have to give up everything we dream of," she told the court.

Her lawyer Youn Se-jong told AFP the youthful nature of the plaintiffs helped hammer home people's "desperation for change".

"And I am hopeful we will win," he added.

© 2024 AFP

Louisiana poised to reclassify abortion pills as controlled substances

Republican lawmakers in the southern US state of Louisiana gave final approval Thursday to a bill that would criminalise possession of abortion pills without a prescription.


Issued on: 23/05/2024 

Packages of mifepristone on display at a family planning clinic in Rockville, Maryland. 

© Anna Moneymaker, Getty Images, AFP

The legislation, passed 29-7 by the state senate and 64-29 in the state house, is the first in the country to classify the drugs as controlled and dangerous substances.

It is expected to be signed by Republican Governor Jeff Landry.

The bill, which comes as abortion rights are being hotly debated ahead of November's presidential election, reclassifies mifepristone and misoprostol, commonly used for abortions, as Schedule IV drugs – putting them on a par with Valium and Xanax.

Possession of the medication without a prescription would be punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Read moreUS abortion rights: New laws highlight election battleground

Authorised medical practitioners would be exempt from prosecution, as would pregnant women if they had the medication for their own use.

Medication abortion accounted for 63 percent of the abortions in the United States last year, up from 53 percent in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Vice President Kamala Harris criticised the Louisiana law in a post on X on Tuesday after it was passed by the state House, calling it "absolutely unconscionable."


"Let's be clear: Donald Trump did this," added Harris, who has previously criticised Trump for boasting of his role in appointing the Supreme Court justices who reversed Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that enshrined the constitutional right to abortion for half a century.

Some 20 states have banned or restricted abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

Abortion is banned in conservative Louisiana with only very limited exceptions in cases of risk to the mother's life or fetuses with fatal abnormalities.

Democrats believe abortion rights could be a key campaign issue in November's election, which is expected to pit President Joe Biden against Trump.

Trump told Time magazine in April he had "pretty strong views" on women's access to mifepristone and would share his opinions within a week of the interview, but never did so.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court heard an abortion pill case in March and appeared poised to reject restrictions imposed by a lower court on the drug.

A ruling in the case is expected by the end of June.

(AFP)