Author: Reporter

Takeshi Kitano’s new film, premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in May, is a samurai story without heroes, mercilessly portraying human greed, betrayal and cruelty. Kitano, awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his “Hana-Bi” in 1997, wanted to make a different kind of period piece in “Kubi,” or “neck,” a reference to traditional Japanese beheadings. “Most samurai films portray famous people and don’t focus on the dirty side of human existence or show how evil people don’t care a hoot about slaughtering regular people,” Kitano told reporters recently. The story features a 16th-century feud centered...

India will surpass China’s population this month. Or maybe in July. Or, perhaps it has happened already? Demographers are unsure exactly when India will take the title as the most populous nation in the world because they’re relying on estimates to make their best guess. But they know it’s going to happen soon, if it hasn’t occurred by now. China has had the most people in the world since at least 1950, the year United Nations population data began. Both China and India have more than 1.4 billion people, and combined they make up more than a third of...

Ukraine’s prime minister said he asked Pope Francis during a private Vatican audience on April 27 to help facilitate the return of Ukrainian children who were forcibly taken to Russia. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, briefing reporters on his half-hour audience with the pontiff, said he also invited Francis to come to Ukraine. “I asked His Holiness to help us return home Ukrainians, Ukrainian children who are detained, arrested, and criminally deported to Russia,” Shmyhal said. The Vatican’s brief statement on the audience did not go into particular points of the talks. It noted that Shmyhal met with the Holy...

Beijing on April 15 protested U.S. sanctions against additional Chinese companies over their alleged attempts to evade U.S. export controls on Russia, calling it an illegal move that endangers global supply chains. The U.S. Commerce Department on April 12 put five firms based in mainland China and Hong Kong on its “entity list,” barring them from trading with any U.S. firms without gaining a nearly unobtainable special license. Washington has been tightening up enforcement of sanctions against foreign firms it sees as providing assistance to Russia in its war against Ukraine, forcing them to choose between trading with Moscow...

Chinese leader Xi Jinping faces daunting obstacles if he is serious about trying to help end the 14-month-old war. The biggest: Neither Ukraine nor Russia is ready to stop fighting. Xi’s plan to send an envoy to Ukraine allows his government to deflect criticism of its support for Moscow and pursue a bigger role as a diplomatic force. His announcement on April 26 in a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prompted optimism Beijing might use its warm relations with Russia’s Vladimir Putin to push for peace. That was followed by skeptical questions about whether Beijing is more...

A Chinese hacking group that is likely state-sponsored and has been linked previously to attacks on U.S. state government computers is still “highly active” and is focusing on a broad range of targets that may be of strategic interest to China’s government and security services, a private American cybersecurity firm said in a new report on March 30. The hacking group, which the report calls RedGolf, shares such close overlap with groups tracked by other security companies under the names APT41 and BARIUM that it is thought they are either the same or very closely affiliated, said Jon Condra,...