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| Pterosaurs originated well over 200 million years ago during the Triassic Period and were the first vertebrates to take to the skies. |
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| A pterosaur named Balaenognathus maeuseri was probably a filter feeder similar to modern flamingos. |
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| Giraffe-sized Quetzalcoatlus northropi, the largest flying creature that ever lived, may have foraged in meadows and shallow waters like modern herons and storks do. |
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| Pterosaurs may have evolved from small ground-dwelling reptiles similar to Scleromochlus taylori, which was about as long as a dinner fork, during the late Triassic Period. |
New discoveries are bringing the world of pterosaurs to life:
The latest clues hint at where the flying reptiles came from, how they
evolved, what they ate and more
n an eat-or-be-eaten world, flight conveys a bevy of benefits. A creature
that takes to the third dimension can more easily escape earthbound predators,
dine off a much broader menu or drop down on unsuspecting victims from above.
Flying also allows an animal to cover distance more quickly, forage more
efficiently and find mates more easily.
So it’s perhaps surprising that only three groups of vertebrates have ever evolved sustained, muscle-powered flight. Pterosaurs, Greek for “wing lizards,” arrived on the scene in the Triassic Period, perhaps as early as around 237 million years ago. These original vertebrate fliers preceded birds by at least 70 million years and bats by more than twice that.
What caused pterosaurs’ demise is clear: The same asteroid that wiped out
the non-avian dinosaurs about 66 million years ago also took them out — along
with more than 75 percent of all life on Earth (SN: 7/4/20 & 7/18/20, p.
10). But how pterosaurs took to the air in the first place remains a big
mystery. “We don’t have any properly transitional fossils for pterosaurs, or at
least ones that we recognize,” says Matthew Baron, a freelance vertebrate
paleontologist.
Despite the gap in the early fossil record, recent research offers clues to who pterosaurs’ earliest cousins were and what they looked like, and how pterosaurs evolved from small, flitting creatures into an incredibly varied group. They eventually occupied ecosystems worldwide and consumed a wide variety of prey — getting bigger and spreading farther earlier than previously thought, recent studies reveal. Some grew bizarre crests atop their heads, while others sported mouths full of teeth that projected threateningly at various angles.
Some pterosaurs looked like creatures from your nightmares,” says Brian Andres, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Sheffield in England.
During their lengthy reign of the skies, pterosaurs ranged in size from creatures that could sit in the palm of your hand to soaring behemoths with wingspans that rivaled those of an F-16 fighter jet. In fact, the largest animal that ever took flight — an iconic species discovered more than half a century ago but only recently described in great detail — was a pterosaur.
Where did pterosaurs come from?
Pterosaur fossils were first unearthed in the late 1700s — coincidentally, from the same limestone formation in Germany that later yielded the earliest known bird, Archaeopteryx. Scientists didn’t quite know what to make of the fossils. One scientist proposed they belonged to a weird sea creature, and another thought they represented a transitional form between birds and bats. But soon, experts settled on the fact that pterosaurs were flying reptiles, distinct from dinosaurs.
The first discovered species was named Pterodactylus antiquus, the genus name stemming from the Greek words for “wing finger.” (Although this species and many discovered soon after were commonly referred to as pterodactyls, that term officially applies only to this species and a small group of related species within the broader pterosaur lineage.) Unlike in bats, whose wing membranes are stretched between four elongated fingers of the hand, a pterosaur’s wing is supported by only one hyperelongated finger, a hallmark that helps distinguish pterosaurs from other creatures.
The oldest known pterosaur fossils date to about 219 million years ago,
though paleontologists suspect pterosaurs originated as early as 237 million
years ago, Baron notes. That’s when the oldest and closest relatives of
pterosaurs lived, and thus probably around the time that pterosaurs would have
split off and formed their own lineage. The gap in the fossil record is in part
due to the fact that rocks from this period are scarce worldwide. And many
pterosaur bones were hollow, so they were vulnerable to being crushed soon
after death or during fossilization. “Often, pterosaur remains are just a
jumble of bones,” Baron says.
But there are indirect clues to what a proto-pterosaur might have looked like and whether pterosaur flight evolved from the ground up — in terrestrial creatures that flapped and leaped into the air — or from the trees down — in tree-living animals that glided.
Those clues come from studies of pterosaurs and their relatives. In 2020, researchers published a paper in Nature comparing the anatomy of 157 species of early pterosaurs, primitive dinosaurs and a variety of reptiles that lived at the same time or earlier. A group known as lagerpetids — from the Greek for “rabbit reptiles,” so named because of the general proportions of the bones in the limbs — was most closely related to pterosaurs.
A separate analysis, reported last year in Nature, showed that a fast-running, roughly 20-centimeter-long reptile that lived about 230 million years ago was a close relative of both lagerpetids and pterosaurs. Given that close relationship, this creature, called Scleromochlus taylori, may serve as a good stand-in for the kind of animal that pterosaurs evolved from (SN: 11/5/22, p. 15).
S. taylori had slender limbs, small hands and straight claws, all of which point to a ground-dwelling creature, says Davide Foffa, a vertebrate paleontologist at National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh. Because a critter like S. taylori presumably didn’t spend a lot of time in trees, that argues against the idea that pterosaur flight evolved out of gliding. But a small pelvic girdle suggests that S. taylori wasn’t a leaper, Foffa says. That would seem to argue against the standard idea for how a ground dweller would take to the skies. However, he says, “it’s not necessary to be a leaper to evolve flight.”
The largest animal ever to fly
Of all the pterosaurs ever found, none has captured imaginations as much as
Quetzalcoatlus northropi, the largest creature to ever take flight. Besides
cameos in Jurassic Park: Dominion and the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, the
species has appeared on the postage stamps of more than two dozen nations and
on two coins struck by the Royal Canadian Mint.
Scientists are enamored of the species too. The 1975 paper that initially described it has been cited more than 500 times, despite its brevity, Andres says. In late 2021, Andres and colleagues built on that paper’s description with a number of papers that, for the first time, delved deeply into the iconic species’ size, appearance, movements and the habitat where it lived.
Only a handful of Q. northropi fossils have been found, most in the Big Bend area of southwestern Texas, Andres says. Most of the identifiable remains come from a handful of creatures and together comprise a partial wing and a few leg bones. They, and several hundred other poorly preserved pterosaur bone fragments, were unearthed from rocks formed from sediments that accumulated in stream channels between 69 million and about 66 million years ago, says Tom Lehman, a vertebrate paleontologist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. That means some of these pterosaurs could have been alive when or just before an asteroid struck Earth and brought on a long-lasting and worldwide climate catastrophe.
Much of what scientists suspect about Q. northropi stems from the more common fossils of a related species, Q. lawsoni. Andres and his colleagues have unearthed fossils of more than 200 of these individuals, offering enough bones to reconstruct the majority of the pterosaur. The team estimates that this smaller relative had a wingspan of about 4.5 meters and lived in the same area around the same time as Q. northropi, Lehman says. He and colleagues estimate that Q. northropi had a wingspan of about 10 meters.
If these two species did live simultaneously, Lehman says, they evidently
divvied up the ecosystem and foraged separately. When they died, their
carcasses ended up in different types of sedimentary rocks, suggesting
different parts of the environment. Q. lawsoni apparently spent a lot of time
in oxbow lakes. Q. northropi, on the other hand, seems to have foraged along
the edges of the river itself. Plenty of water snails and other creatures lived
in these bodies of water and would have provided ample food for hungry
pterosaurs and other predators, Lehman says.
Based on their measurements, the researchers made life-size models of Q. northropi’s bones to see how the creatures would have moved and to reconstruct the range of motion of their joints. “First of all, their back is so short and their legs are so long that they couldn’t walk like other quadrupeds,” says Kevin Padian, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley. “And their forelimbs are so long, they couldn’t avoid touching the ground.” Yet pterosaur footprints suggest that those forelimbs weren’t helping propel the creature forward when it walked, he says. Instead, they appear to have been used for support only, like walking sticks.
It appears that Quetzalcoatlus could reach down to the ground with its long, toothless beak — and even lower, into bodies of water. Once it grabbed its prey, it could tilt its beak to the sky and swallow its victims whole. So Padian and colleagues suggest that this pterosaur patrolled through meadows or waded in shallow waters as modern-day storks or herons do, plucking up fish, mammals or even small dinosaurs using a beak that acted like chopsticks.
The sight of a giraffe-sized predator stalking through swamps would have undoubtedly been impressive. “The worst thing about pterosaurs,” Andres says, “is that they’re no longer around.”
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| Hallmarks of the early days of the COVID-19 global health emergency included drive-through testing and lots of personal protective equipment |
WHO declares an end to the global COVID-19 public health emergency
It marks a shift to long-term measures to handle the coronavirus
By McKenzie Prillaman
COVID-19 is no longer a global public health emergency, the World Health Organization announced May 5.
The organization pointed to two factors: Dropping COVID-19-related deaths and hospitalizations, and high levels of immunity to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, from vaccination or prior infection. While the pandemic is not over, those trends signal that it’s time to transition to more long-term prevention and control of the disease, WHO said in a statement.
“It’s reasonable, it makes sense,” says infectious disease specialist Peter Chin-Hong of the University of California, San Francisco, noting that “it follows on the heels of many countries” doing the same thing. The U.S. public health emergency is officially set to end May 11 (SN: 5/4/23).But, Chin-Hong adds, “this doesn’t mean that it’s not still a global health threat.”
Worldwide, more than 750 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported to the WHO as of May 3. And nearly 7 million people have died from the disease, including more than 1.1 million people in the United States alone.
WHO declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC, on January 30, 2020. It’s the highest level of alarm under international law. Two months later, the organization also named the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak a pandemic, indicating it was not containable (SN: 3/11/20).
These declarations came at a scary and chaotic time: Countries initiated lockdown measures to prevent spread of the disease; there were way more questions than answers about the deadly disease, and no treatments or vaccines.
WHO’s designations prompted nations to work together, collaboratively collecting and sharing COVID-19 data including confirmed cases, hospital admissions, deaths and research. Since then, tests, vaccines and treatments have been developed. More than 13 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide.
Even as the global public health emergency ends, the WHO noted remaining challenges to keeping the disease in check, including global inequities in accessing care and vaccines, an evolving virus and “pandemic fatigue” (SN: 1/13/23).
What long-term management of the disease will look like remains to be seen;
WHO plans to form a committee to examine that question. The agency will also
continue monitoring the disease, but it will be integrated into a system that’s
used to survey global influenza data.
But the end of the PHEIC may also mean that COVID-19 tracking data — already incomplete for a variety of reasons including the proliferation of at-home testing — will decline even more, Chin-Hong says. And researchers might have less available funding, which could slow the development of new vaccines and treatments. “There are repercussions both from a research perspective and a clinical care perspective,” he says.
In a May 5 news conference, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to keep their COVID-19 systems in place and remind people that SARS-CoV-2 is still dangerous.
“This virus is here to stay,” he said. “It’s still killing, and it’s still changing.
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| Scientists recovered a Stone Age female’s DNA from this pierced deer tooth, which may have been worn as a pendant, using a new technique that doesn’t harm the artifact. |
Ancient human DNA was extracted from a 20,000-year-old deer tooth pendant
A new technique provides a nondestructive way to study the lives of Stone
Age people
A new, nondestructive way to recover ancient DNA has shown its potential
for illuminating Stone Age people’s lives.
Genetic material extracted from a pierced deer tooth, possibly worn as a pendant, identifies its maker or wearer as a female Homo sapiens who lived roughly 20,000 years ago in Siberia, researchers report May 3 in Nature. Comparisons of DNA indicate that the female who handled the artifact was closely related to people who lived farther east in Siberia around the same time (SN: 8/28/14).
When applied to other finds, the technique could help clarify whether males
and females alike made and used personal ornaments. And it could reveal whether
H. sapiens or Neandertals made certain types of tools and ornaments in parts of
Eurasia once occupied by both species at the same time.
By extracting DNA from tools and ornaments directly, we can now begin to study the division of labor and the role of individuals [from different Homo species] in Pleistocene societies,” says molecular biologist Elena Essel of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
Researchers usually extract ancient DNA from small amounts of powder drilled out of bones and teeth. Evolutionary geneticist Svante Pääbo, also at Max Planck, won the 2022 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for developing that method (SN: 10/3/22). But there is understandable reticence to drill into and disfigure, or potentially destroy, rare and delicate finds such as pendants and other ornaments. H. sapiens and Neandertal DNA can also be isolated from artifact-bearing sediment (SN: 4/15/21). But that DNA cannot identify the sex or species of who handled specific tools or ornaments.
In the new study, Essel, Pääbo and colleagues describe their method for ancient DNA extraction, which involves submerging bone and tooth artifacts in a sodium phosphate solution for three 30-minute periods at each of four temperatures. Objects are first placed in a room temperature solution, followed by three increasingly hotter solutions, ending at 90° Celsius.
Treatment at the highest temperature released human DNA that had penetrated deeply into the tooth artifact via extensive contact when it was made or used, the researchers say. Milder solution temperatures yielded ancient DNA closer to the pendant’s surface that originated from surrounding sediment, including that of an elk species.
Analyses of recovered human and elk mitochondrial DNA, usually inherited from mothers, generated an age estimate for the pendant of roughly 18,500 to 24,700 years old. That’s consistent with radiocarbon dates for burned wood that the researchers unearthed near the pendant. Radiocarbon dates are more precise than those generated from ancient DNA but cannot always be obtained from fragile or small artifacts, Essel says.
Two coauthors of the new study — archaeologists Maxim Kozlikin and Michael
Shunkov of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Siberian Branch of
the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk — directed a 2019 excavation
that produced the newly analyzed pierced tooth at Siberia’s Denisova Cave (SN:
1/30/19).
Neandertals and other Stone Age hominids called Denisovans periodically
occupied this site from nearly 300,000 years ago until around 55,000 years ago.
Bone tools and personal ornaments found in previous digs indicated that H.
sapiens visited Denisova Cave as early as around 30,000 years ago. Excavators
in 2019 wore gloves and face masks to minimize contamination of unearthed
objects with their own DNA.
In future work, archaeologists will need to use those anticontamination measures and more, including refrigeration of freshly excavated artifacts, to boost the ability of the new technique to ferret out ancient DNA, Essel says.
In tests her group conducted with 11 nonhuman animal bones previously excavated at a 35,000- to 45,000-year-old French site, the nondestructive DNA technique largely identified genetic material from people who had handled the finds without gloves during or after the dig.
The new technique could help determine whether H. sapiens or Neandertals made bone pendants and stone tools dating to as early as around 45,000 years ago at several sites in southwestern Europe, says evolutionary geneticist Carles Lalueza-Fox of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona who did not participate in the new study. Scientists disagree whether distinctive stone tools found with those ornaments were products of H. sapiens or Neandertals (SN: 5/9/06).
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| Brij-Bhushan |
On pretext of checking breath, Brij Bhushan touched breast, stomach: 2
wrestlers to police
8 incidents of sexual harassment listed: at restaurant, in office, a
tournament and at a warm-up Multiple incidents of sexual harassment and
misconduct that include groping, inappropriate touching and physical contact —
during tournaments, warm-ups and even in the office of the Wrestling Federation
of India (WFI) in New Delhi. These have been put on record in complaints filed
by two of the seven women wrestlers — both adults — against the federation’s
president and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, The Indian Express has learnt.
The two separate complaints, filed on April 21, at New Delhi’s Connaught Place police station, list at least eight incidents. Both the complainants have put on record how Singh allegedly used the pretext of checking their breathing patterns to touch them inappropriately and sexually,
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| Wrestler Sakshi Malik during the wrestlers' protest at Jantar Mantar, in New Delhi. |
Wrestlers Protest Live Updates: PM Modi’s silence questioned, protesting
voices reach IPL
Wrestlers Protest in Delhi Live Updates: Protesting wrestlers on Friday
formed two committees to advice them on the future course of action in their
fight.
The protesting wrestlers on Friday
formed two committees to advice them on the future course of action in their
fight against outgoing Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brijbhushan
Sharan Singh. The aggrieved wrestlers started the day contemplating their next
move after the Supreme Court closed proceedings on their plea even as Sports
Minister Anurag Thakur requested them to have faith in the system, saying the
investigation will make everything crystal clear.
“Vinesh is discussing it with the legal team. We will inform tomorrow. Today we made two committee — one is a 31-member committee and the second is a nine-member one. Khap panchayat, farmers and women organisations are there in 31 member committee. The nine-member committee will decide on the wrestling part,” said Bajrang Punia.
On Thursday, after the Supreme Court closed proceedings on a plea that sought an FIR against Brij Bhushan Singh, protesting wrestlers said their stir would continue at Jantar Mantar until the WFI chief was arrested. The protesting grapplers, however, welcomed the apex court’s decision to close the proceedings on the plea by three women wrestlers, who have levelled sexual harassment allegations against WFI chief Singh. The court noted that the Delhi Police have registered two FIRs against the BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
Wrestlers' Protest: This fight is not restricted to three wrestlers, says
Bajrang Punia
tanding in support of the protesting wrestlers, Dronacharya award-winning
coach Mahavir Singh Phogat on Friday threatened to return his medals if justice
is not delivered, demanding the arrest of WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
The wrestlers, including Olympic medallist duo of Sakshi Malik and Bajrang
Punia and World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat, have been sitting on a
protest in the national capital since April 23, demanding the arrest of the
Wrestling Federation of India Chief and BJP MP Singh for alleged sexual
harassment of seven wrestlers, including a minor
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| PM Modi is expected to cover 19 of the 28 Assembly constituencies falling within Bengaluru over the two roadshows |
Karnataka elections 2023: The incumbent Bhartiya Janata Party may have made
tall claims regarding its performance in the upcoming assembly elections in
Karnataka, but several pre-poll surveys and opinion polls have indicated the
possibility of a hung assembly. Meanwhile, two networks have given BJP an edge
over Congress, while two other networks have predicted a win for Congress.
Pre-poll survey results
The pre-election survey by TV9 and C-Voter predicts that the Congress will
win 106–116 seats and the BJP between 79 and 89. The JD(S) is expected to
emerge victorious in 24-34 constituencies. ‘Mood of Karnataka’ by Public TV
also gave Congress the edge on 98-108 seats, which is below the majority mark
of 113. As per the poll, BJP will win 85-95 seats in the state while JD(S) will
win 28–33 seats.
The Asianet Survarna News Jan Ki Baat poll gives the BJP an edge over
Congress, with the saffron party taking 98-109 seats against the Congress’s
89-97 seats.
The NewsFirst-Matrize poll predicted that the BJP would win 96–106 seats,
while the Congress was predicted to win 84–94 and JD(S) to win 29–34.
A hung mandate is shown by Vistara News as it gave 88-93 seats to BJP,
84-90 to Congress, and 23-26 to JD(S). According to the survey, there are 27–30
seats where the outcome is uncertain. The pre-election survey by South
First-People's Pulse gave Congress 98 seats, with a range of 95 to 105 seats.
The BJP is predicted to win 92 seats (90-100 seat range) and the JD(S) 27 seats
(25-30 seat range).
roadshow split over 2 days
He was earlier expected to cover 36 km on Sunday through the city; last
roadshow of the PM had seen bus route curbs, traffic jams, drawing angry
response.
After adverse reactions on social media over traffic restrictions in
Bengaluru on account of plans for a 36-km roadshow through the city on Sunday
by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP announced that it would hold it over
two days.
Now, Modi will cover the constituencies of Bengaluru Central on Saturday,
between 10 am and 1 pm, and Bengaluru South on Sunday, from 10:30 pm to 2:30 pm.
Shobha Karandlaje, the convenor of the BJP’s State Election Management Committee, said they had taken the decision to split the roadshow after reports of “inconvenience to public” if Modi planned to cover the whole 36 km in one day.
Speaking to reporters here Thursday, Karandlaje said: “People said it will be a problem if the roadshow is held for the entire day. We respected their feelings.”
Some BJP leaders, however, said that the decision was taken to avoid the roadshow in the evening hours, due to rainfall prediction. During Modi’s last roadshow on April 29, bus services had been suspended for the day in the Bengaluru North Lok Sabha constituency he covered, leaving many commuters inconvenienced. People put up posts about having to walk nearly 6 km to catch a vehicle.
After the restrictions were lifted, the Sumanahalli junction reported a massive traffic jam, as BJP supporters and others hit the road. An official said, “It took over three hours to clear the traffic after the roadshow finished around 7:30 pm.” While the PM’s roadshow will now spend lesser hours on the road both on Saturday and Sunday, authorities are bracing up to ensure there are no problems for students appearing for the NEET examination scheduled on Sunday between 2 pm and 5.30 pm. Several examination centres are located in the parts of Bengaluru South from where the roadshow will be passing.
A Traffic Department official said they were not expecting any major
logjams. “If so, we will make alternative arrangements. However, the main roads
will not be impacted as a result of the roadshow.” Modi is expected to cover 19
of the 28 Assembly constituencies falling within Bengaluru over the two
roadshows.
After commando's murder, CRPF asks Manipur-origin personnel on leave in
state to report to nearest base
Violence broke out in Manipur on May 3 after Naga and Kuki tribals
organised a 'Tribal Solidarity March' to protest moves to give scheduled tribe
status to the majority Metei community. Internet services, including mobile
internet, were suspended across the state and Section 144 was imposed in
several violence-hit areas of the state. Army and paramilitary troops were
rushed to Manipur and as many as 9,000 people have been rescued with the
situation now under control. The Indian Air Force (IAF) used C17 Globemaster
and AN 32 aircraft for sorties to violence-hit Manipur from Assam airfields.
Urging people to maintain peace, Chief Minister N Biren Singh said,
"Precious lives have been lost, besides damage to properties, which is
very unfortunate", without giving any details of the number of dead or
injured. Multiple sources said the fighting between communities had left more
than a score of people dead and several scores more injured. However, the
police were unwilling to confirm this. Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah
has cancelled his Karnataka tour in the backdrop of the violence to review the
security arrangements in Manipur.
Violence in Manipur result of govt policy of dividing the people: CPI"The ongoing violence in Manipur is a result of a government policy of dividing the people", said the Communist Party of India on Friday. The Left party also urged the Centre to initiate dialogue in Manipur, alleging that the violence that has broken out in the state is the result of the policy of "dividing the people".
"The ongoing turmoil in Manipur is a direct result of the policy of dividing the people pursued by the so-called 'double-engine' government of the BJP. Divide and strife between people were encouraged for electoral gains and has resulted in a strategically located state like Manipur being engulfed by all-encompassing violence.
This violence has a background of divisions and it cannot be controlled enduringly by using force. This is testimony to the failure of the Manipur policy pursued by the Union Home Ministry and the state government," it said.
It said a solution to the crisis should be reached by taking all opinions and people into confidence and restoring normalcy and peace in Manipur.
The commando of the Central Reserve Police Force's CoBRA, who was on leave,
was shot dead by armed assailants in his village in Manipur's Churachandpur
The CRPF on Friday directed its personnel hailing from Manipur and on leave
in their home state to "immediately" report to their nearest security
base with family members in the wake of a CoBRA commando being killed in the
ongoing violence in the state.
The commando of the Central Reserve Police Force's CoBRA, who was on leave,
was shot dead by armed assailants in his village in Manipur's Churachandpur
district on Friday noon, officials said.
The headquarters of the 3.25-lakh personnel strong force in Delhi asked all
its field commanders to "promptly" contact their off-duty personnel
hailing from Manipur and convey them the message.
The directive, accessed by PTI, asks all personnel hailing from Manipur and
on leave in their home state to "report immediately" to their nearest
security force base along with their family if they feel "unsafe or
insecure".
It has asked its Manipur and Nagaland Sector Office, headquartered in Imphal, to extend "all possible assistance to such personnel promptly".
In three days, the 82-year-old had shown why he is a survivor of over 50
years in politics: the Ajit Pawar potential rebellion now has an even bigger
mountain to climb, the road to Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule ascension
is clearer, and naysayers have been shown
RESIGNATION is a ploy political leaders in India have used before to quell
rebellions. But never as neatly as this.On Tuesday, Sharad Govindrao Pawar
announced he was resigning as the president of the Nationalist Congress Party
(NCP), sending shock and awe running down party and rival ranks. On Wednesday
and Thursday, the NCP went through the usual sequence of emotions – other
resignations, an immolation attempt, tears, appeals to stay. On Friday, a party
panel met to decide Pawar’s “successor”; it concluded by rejecting his
resignation. Minutes later, Pawar, displaying just a tad emotion, declared
that, all things considered, he would stay on after all.
In three days, the 82-year-old had shown why he is a survivor of over 50
years in politics: the Ajit Pawar potential rebellion now has an even bigger
mountain to climb, the road to Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule ascension
is clearer, and naysayers have been shown – again – who is the boss in the NCP
Having been outsmarted one too many times by his uncle and mentor, Ajit
might find fewer NCP MLAs willing to bet on him in the coming days. The seniors
in the party, long-time loyalists of Pawar, are anyway – to a person — more
comfortable with Sule.
Since Pawar Senior is not a man easily given to emotions – rather the opposite – clearly he knew exactly how the script would play out when he made his surprise resignation announcement. An insider in the NCP said, “Pawar chose to put out everything in the public domain, to defuse growing talk of unrest within the NCP and of ugly differences between the party and his parivar. The Ajit Pawar versus Jayant Patil tussle is well-known, but the larger concern was Ajit Pawar’s ambition to take control of the organisation.”
Clearly tired of waiting in the wings, Ajit has been working his way to the
centre trying several tactics since the 2019 Assembly election results showed a
window. What was different this time was persistent talk from his camp that he
also had the needed MLA numbers with him.
A former NCP minister close to Pawar said, “His biggest concern is to keep the party united, and hence he will never hand over the leadership reins to Ajit, because he knows it will unsettle senior leaders.” According to the ex-minister, “These senior leaders who have closely worked with Pawar for three decades have always made Sule their rallying point to check Ajit.”
Ahead of 2024, when the Opposition is banking on Pawar to play a major role as a glue plus elder statesman, he needed to first have his own house in order, a senior observer pointed out.
As per the ex-minister, Sule could be pushed now as party president and
even as Chief Minister should the NCP be in that position. She is also more
agreeable to NCP allies Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Congress, unlike Ajit, whose
dalliance with the BJP post-2019 results still weighs heavy on them.
This is quite a blow for Ajit as the NCP’s unsaid understanding all along has been that Sule is its Delhi face and, maybe, next national chief, but the state belonged firmly to the nephew.
In the recent season of political upheavals in Maharashtra, Ajit’s one “friend” is said to have been BJP leader and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis. Publicly though, the BJP maintained it had nothing to do with the NCP goings-on. On Friday, Fadnavis said: “It is the internal matter of NCP. The script and players enacting the roles both belong to the NCP… As with any film, we are waiting for the climax, which is still awaited.”
The finale could play out when the organisational changes Pawar has promised are carried out. In the 2019 episode of this long-running opera, which was as full of dramatic U-turns, Ajit had overnight gone to Fadnavis’s side to be sworn in as Deputy CM and CM, respectively, before returning in no time to the NCP ranks as it became clear that he could not break the party, to help the BJP form the government.
The uncle, who may or may not have written that script too (the jury is out on that one), had accepted Ajit back. On Tuesday, when Pawar announced his resignation, Ajit was the one person who seemed unflustered, even susshing some NCP leaders and snubbing others who suggested that the veteran should stay. He was caught telling one partyman to shut up, and snatching the mic from another.
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| Badminton players Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy pose for photos after winning the gold medal in men's doubles at Badminton Asia Championships 2023, |
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| Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy pose after the medals felicitation ceremony at the Badminton Asian Championships |
‘We are not the Satwik-Chirag from Tokyo, there’s more maturity in us’:
Indian doubles pair opens up on their rise and rise:
Asian Champions speak to The Indian Express on their golden run, Sudirman
Cup hopes and Paris Olympics dreams.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty made yet another final and won it
too at the Badminton Asia Championships last week. The young pairing talk about
the triumph at Dubai, the rising expectations and on handling pressure.
What was the pathway to finals like at the Asian Championship?
Chirag: First round was OK, just getting used to the conditions. We had a solid pre-quarters against the Koreans where we broke no sweat. I wasn’t expecting the easy game against the Daddies. But we beat them at their game – keeping the shuttle low, trying to open up the court. After first 2-3 strokes, we were catching them off-guard. Semis was a good match, but unfortunately opponents had to retire. We were not at our best in the finals, but could turn it around at 13-7 by fighting back. We were not getting a streak of 3-4 good points till then. But at 13-11 we thought now it’s possible and we can come back into the match. We were confident after things became score-all. When we got couple of points on our serve, opponents began to panic. Deep inside I had the belief that one streak here and there and humaara game hai (it’ll be our game). When we scored 1-2 points on our serve, we could see them begin to crumble under pressure. We said let’s not make any mistakes. When we entered the court, I thought first game was ours but within a minute we were 18-13 down so we started real bad. But once we found rhythm, it was our match.
We don’t try to do anything crazy just because it’s the final, we stick to
what we have been doing whole week. We don’t think of it as a ‘Final-Final’.
The crowd pumped us up a lot especially when we were down. But essentially in
finals, we play to our strengths.
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| Neeraj Chopra reacts after a throw at the Doha Diamond League on Friday. |
Doha Diamond League: Neeraj Chopra opens season with world-leading throw in
tough conditions, but fails to breach 90m-mark
Ahead of the Doha Diamond League, Neeraj Chopra had made his intentions
clear of going after the elusive 90m, but the conditions in Doha weren’t ideal
and he settled for an 88.67m throw that not only earned him first place but
also put him atop the world season leaders’ list.
Czech thrower Jakub Vadlejch finished second with a best attempt that was just 4cm short of Neeraj’s mark as two-time world champion Anderson Peters managed only 85.88m to take third spot in the season-opening leg of the elite Diamond League.
With the wind blowing in his face, Chopra started off with an attempt of
88.67m but seemed disappointed to see where the javelin landed. It was a clear
indicator that he meant business and wouldn’t settle for anything less than
90m. His second throw dipped to 86.04m and was followed by an 84.57m hurl in
the third round. After a foul in the fourth round, he registered an 84.37m
throw as the performance slumped across the rest of the field.
With the wind blowing in his face, Chopra started off with an attempt of
88.67m but seemed disappointed to see where the javelin landed. It was a clear
indicator that he meant business and wouldn’t settle for anything less than
90m. His second throw dipped to 86.04m and was followed by an 84.57m hurl in the
third round. After a foul in the fourth round, he registered an 84.37m throw as
the performance slumped across the rest of the field.
2 arrested from Lonavala bungalow for betting on IPL cricket matches
The Pune rural police have arrested two bookies for allegedly betting on
the ongoing Indian Premier League cricket matches.
Police identified the accused as Rajivan Singh (28) and Maskinsingh Rajendrasingh Arora (30), both residents of Mumbai, who were arrested during a raid at a bungalow in Tungarli village in Lonavala on Thursday. Police said they were acting on a tip-off and recovered seven cell phones, a laptop and other items worth Rs 1.5 lakh from them. Ankir Goyal, superintendent of the Pune rural police, said the investigation into the case revealed that the accused had been using online applications like Khai Lagai on their laptop and the Diamond Exchange app on cell phones for accepting bets. Police said the accused had rented the bungalow for betting.A probe is on to know whether there are more persons involved, who were giving instructions to the two for running the betting racket. It is also being investigated whether the arrested accused shared what they earned with others. We are also investigating the online applications used by the accused for betting,” Goyal said.
ED arrests bookie Anil Jaisinghani in money laundering case linked to IPL
betting
The Enforcement Directorate has arrested suspected bookie Anil Jaisinghani
in a money laundering case linked to an under probe Indian Premier League (IPL)
'betting racket', officials said Saturday. Jaisinghani and his daughter Aniksha
were recently arrested by the Mumbai Police for allegedly hatching a conspiracy
to bribe and blackmail Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's
wife Amruta Fadnavis and using private messages, purportedly hers, to extort
money from her when she refused ..
The agency is understood to be recording Jaisinghani's statement in this
case having obtained his custody on Friday.
Jaisinghani was recently also taken into custody by the Madhya Pradesh Police in a case of alleged bootlegging.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Star Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley
Cooper, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Will Poulter, Chukwudi Iwuji & Sean
Gunn
Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) is heartbroken and is drinking himself to escape
the reality of Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) being alive with no memory of ever being in
love with him. Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) scoots in from space to ‘Knowhere’,
a place where our beloved Guardians of the Galaxy reside with other celestial
beings. In an attempt to take Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper and played in
motion capture by Sean Gunn) back to his master, The High Evolutionary
(Chukwudi Iwuji), Warlock seriously injures him so much so that Guardians only
have 48 hours to save him.
For that, they need a source code from the High Evolutionary, who on his
quest to make the world a ‘perfect place’, crosses all the limits of animal
& human experimentation. How Star-Lord, Gamora, along with Drax the
Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel)
& Mantis (Pom Klementieff) manage to save Rocket The Raccoon shattering the
utopian philosophy of the baddie is the main crux of the film.
The Kerala Story :
Star Cast: Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani, Sonia Balani, Pranay
Pachauri, Pranav Misshra, and ensemble. A naive girl Shalini (Adah) from
Kerala, is pushed towards converting to Islam. She is not aware that she is
falling into a trap that leads to becoming a terrorist. Soon she is forced to
join the ISIS, and when she manages to escape, she finds herself arrested. She
begins telling her story, and The Kerala Story unfolds.
Cinema has forever been a tool for manipulation. Be it the powerful using it
as a tool to tell their stories with a whitewashed effect, or the cunning using
it to earn even more than they already own. Between all of these are the two
sides selling their agenda, trying to counter each other. One, as claimed,
subtly, the other not so subtly. The Kerala Story sits right beyond both sides
and sits somewhere in the lands where it fails to fit in reality with its idea
of only black and white.
With no single word does this piece of in any way try to claim that everything said and claimed in this movie is wrong and there is no one who has been through this trauma. Terrorism is real; the worldwide syndicate of human trafficking for dubious means is an even more haunting reality. But when you make a movie about the same topic and shape it like fiction with no connection to the real world you and I live in, how are we supposed to take anything about this product as the hard truth?
Written by Sudipto Sen with Suryapal Singh, and Amrutlal Shah, The Kerala Story is a film that claims a lot but also forgets to substantiate what it says. Just like The Kashmir Files. Also, one must remember how Sen was on the jury at the International Film Festival Of India (IFFI), where chairperson Nadav Lapid called Vivek Agnihotri’s directorial a propoganda, and Sen was the first to distance himself from Lapid’s comments. Which means the ideology is somewhere similar. So when The Kerala Story decides to show you violence like it comes handy to one community, and innocence is the treasure of one, you must not be surprised with the Deja Vu. An entire act is laid out where the girls are humiliated in public so they can opt for hijab. With no scope for any subtlety, this scene only makes me curious how no one is alarmed in the public place if this has anything to do with the real incidents.
The writing here only writes two people, either pitch black or pristine white. The black have no greys; the white can not even get a stain. If you are Muslim, you belong to the former; if Hindu, to the latter. Catholics and Communists can talk about them in one line and choose sides as per their convenience. When it says that the movie is based on ‘Many True Stories,’ but it never mentions a timeline, only throws geographical locations which you lose track of after a point, and then introduces you to anonymous real-life people who are named as related to the movie’s character or the characters themselves, who is exactly confused? The audience? The maker who first claimed something only to conclude with something entirely different?
We are even getting into the brutality, and the manipulative dialogue writing that tries to provoke hate and one that might make you go out and create a ruckus. Because we have already had a movie that did the same, and we have seen the aimless dissonance it managed to create last year. Hope no such hate brigade is born with this one.
Terrorism and youth being brainwashed into it is a serious subject and one that needs to discussed. But if your aim is to only target a religion by disguising yourself as a healthy conversation, your facade ousts itself and is visible in the broad daylight. Also, while trying to show made a Hindus as people who have no evil in them through Adah, the movie shapes her as a naive woman who knows no good or has no brain.
MARY BETH KEANE
When his boss retires, longtime bartender Malcolm jumps at the chance to
buy The Half Moon. But Malcolm quickly learns that turning a profit is harder
than he anticipated. Meanwhile, his wife Jess’s long battle with infertility
has her reassessing her life dreams. Three months after Jess walked out,
Malcolm learns a secret about her, a bar patron goes missing, and a blizzard
strikes in this tale of a marriage in crisis.
Having loved Keane’s last novel, Ask Again, Yes, I found myself disappointed while reading The Half Moon. Keane’s novel takes place over a week, but the excess of long flashbacks of their complicated marriage interrupted the flow of the story. The emotional draw just wasn’t there; I didn’t really feel for any of the characters. I’m not even sure what message the book was trying to convey.
Warrior Girl Unearthed
ANGELINE BOULLEY
Perry Firekeeper-Birch’s laid-back summer hits a snag when she crashes her
car and is forced to work at her indigenous tribe’s summer internship program.
Soon, Perry becomes fascinated with the federal law about the return of
ancestral remains and sacred items but is caught between the glacially slow
pace of diplomacy and working within the law and the desperate desire to take
action into her own hands. When Native women start disappearing and her family
is caught in the middle of a high-profile murder investigation, Perry plans a
heist to save her ancestors and her tribe members before all is lost.
Warrior Girl Unearthed is not exactly a sequel to Firekeeper’s Daughter.
Set 10 years later, it can be read as a standalone, but reading Firekeeper’s
Daughter first will help you understand the side characters better. Like her
previous book, Warrior Girl Unearthed is a fun Young Adult novel, conveying a
deeper message along with its high-action plot. Although I felt like I learned
a lot, the story felt a bit forced and over-the-top.
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