movies
Neil Marshall’s Hellboy is all set to open in theaters in a matter of weeks. In casting Hellboy’s adoptive father prickly Professor Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm, the producers swung to acclaimed British actor Ian McShane who is best known for his Golden Globe -winning role as boomtown saloon owner Al Swearengen in the HBO series “Deadwood”. In a career that spans more than five decades, McShane has appeared in hundreds of films and televisions episodes.
“Casting Ian McShane allowed us, with Mike Mignola’s help, to approach Professor Broom with a bit more complexity than in the comic books,” says Levin. “Ian added his own incredible presence: He’s vigorous and strong, sharp and humorous, and knows well what works for him. He and David had great chemistry, which gave them a lot to mine creatively.”
The movie also features Nimue the Blood Queen (Milla Jovovich), Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim), and Alice Monaghan (Sasha Lane) amongst others from the sprawling Hellboy mythos.
Hellboy opens in theaters on April 12.
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US officials are “not satisfied yet” about all the issues standing in the way of a deal to end the US-China trade war but made progress in talks with China last week, a top White House official said on Monday.
The United States and China have been embroiled in a tit-for-tat tariff battle since July 2018, roiling global financial markets and supply chains and costing both of the world’s two largest economies billions of dollars.
US officials are pressing China to make changes to address longstanding concerns over industrial subsidies, technology transfer and intellectual property rights.
The two sides wrapped up the latest round of talks in Washington late last week and will be resuming discussions this week remotely.
“We’re making progress on a range of things, and there’s some stuff where we’re not satisfied yet,” Clete Willems, a top White House trade official, told Reuters on the sidelines of a US Chamber of Commerce event on Monday.
He declined to get into specifics on which issues remained unsettled. Last week, President Donald Trump said a deal could be reached in about four weeks.
Willems also declined to specify a timeline for the pact, noting: “It should be a good sign for people that we’re not rushing into this we want to get it right and we need to nail down specifics.”
Willems said that the two sides were still trying to settle on how to handle existing tariffs. The United States has slapped tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods, and the Trump administration sees those as leverage to ensure Beijing keeps any promises made in the deal. Chinese officials want the levies removed.
The United States and China have agreed on an enforcement structure that would give Washington the right to retaliate if Beijing was not honouring the terms of the agreement, Willems said.
European Union leaders did not take issues with Chinese trade policy as seriously as they should have in the past, but the United States and the EU are now “working hand in hand” at the World Trade Organization on China’s non-market economic policies, Willems said earlier in remarks at the Chamber of Commerce.
The United States and the EU want to work together on joint projects that provide market-based alternatives to state-led initiatives “that can come with strings attached,” he said.
This month China is hosting its second summit for its Belt and Road initiative, which envisions connecting China with Asia, Europe and beyond with massive infrastructure spending, but the United States will not be sending high-level officials to the event.
Washington views Beijing as a major strategic rival. The United States has said it views the initiative as a way of spreading Chinese influence overseas and saddling low-income countries with unsustainable debt using opaque projects.
Willems, who has been a key figure in negotiations with China, said last month he will be leaving the White House in the coming weeks to spend more time with his family after the birth of a new baby.
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Nirmohi Akhara, one of the litigants in the Ayodhya case, Tuesday moved the Supreme Court opposing the Centre’s plea seeking return of 67.390 acre of “non-disputed” acquired land around the disputed Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid site to original owners.
The Allahabad High Court in 2010 had decided that 2.77-acre disputed land at Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid site would be divided into three equal parts and will be handed over to — Nirmohi Akhara, Sunni Waqf Board, and Ram Lalla.
The Nirmohi Akhara, in its fresh plea, has opposed the Centre’s application by which it had sought modification of the Supreme Court’s 2003 order to allow it to return to original owners the 67.390 acre of “non-disputed” acquired land around the disputed Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya.
The application has said that the Centre has proposed returning of acquired land to Ram Janambhoomi Nyas and that there are many temples on the acquired land and their rights would be affected if the land is returned to one party.
The apex court had recently appointed mediators to find an amicable solution to the vexatious land dispute.
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A US federal judge on Monday blocked President Donald Trump’s policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico to wait out the processing of their cases, saying the Department of Homeland Security had overstepped its authority.
The ruling by US District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco marked a rebuke for the Trump administration’s efforts to stop the flow of migrants seeking asylum through the US border with Mexico.
The decision, which goes into effect on Friday, also comes just days after outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen had vowed to expand the controversial program.
Several hundred people seeking asylum have been returned to Mexico to await the outcome of their request under the policy first implemented in January at the San Ysidro port of entry in California and later extended to Calexico, a second California border point, and El Paso, Texas.
Rights groups welcomed the ruling on Monday, saying the return policy known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) failed to provide adequate safeguards to protect asylum seekers from persecution.
“The court strongly rejected the Trump administration’s unprecedented and illegal policy of forcing asylum seekers to return to Mexico without hearing their claims,” said Judy Rabinovitz, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.
“Try as it may, the Trump administration cannot simply ignore our laws in order to accomplish its goal of preventing people from seeking asylum in the United States.
The ACLU and several other groups, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, had sought an injunction against the policy on behalf of 11 asylum seekers from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala who were returned to Mexico after seeking asylum at the US border.
In his 27-page ruling, Seeborg said at issue was not whether the MPP is “a wise, intelligent, or humane policy” but rather whether it exposes aliens to “unduly dangerous circumstances.”
He noted that the plaintiffs in the case were not challenging the “system” of expedited removal.
“Indeed, in essence, plaintiffs are arguing that because they are subject to expedited removal, they should at a minimum have the protections they would enjoy under that regime, either by being exempt from contiguous territorial return, and/or by having additional procedural and substantive protections against being sent to places in which they would not be safe from persectuion,” the judge wrote.
There was no immediate reaction from the Department of Homeland Security or Trump on the ruling, which can be appealed.
Trump, who originally dubbed the measure the “Remain in Mexico” policy, unveiled it last year as a series of caravans with thousands of Central American migrants made their way to the US-Mexican border.
He called the caravans an “invasion” by “thugs” and “criminals,” and regularly pointed to them as evidence in support of his declaration of a national emergency on the southern border and plans to build a wall there.
Mexico said it was cooperating with US authorities concerning the migrants being sent back, but only for humanitarian reasons.
Migrants who reach US soil have a legal right to seek asylum and are usually held in detention facilities while their application is processed or released into the United States.
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Ahead of a marathon election – the world’s largest – that starts on April 11 and runs nearly six weeks, here are some key facts about the 2019 Lok Sabha election:
Population Giant
With 1.3 billion inhabitants, according to the United Nations, India is the world’s second most populous country behind China, which has 1.4 billion.
Around 65 per cent of Indians are under 35, according to government data, and the UN says India’s population will surpass that of China by 2024.
New Delhi and Mumbai are both home to over 20 million people.
Around 900 million citizens are eligible to vote in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, making the vote the world’s largest democratic exercise.
Economic Powerhouse
India became the sixth-largest economy in the world in 2017, according to the World Bank, and is projected to overtake Britain as the fifth-largest this year.
While the IMF projects economic growth at 7.5 per cent for 2019, this is down from previous levels and below the eight percent seen as essential to create enough jobs for the people.
A government report leaked in February showed unemployment at a 45-year-high of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18. It has never been officially released.
Agriculture employs half the workforce but jobs are shifting to manufacturing and services, with IT outsourcing a flagship industry.
Millions Still Poor
Extreme poverty remains widespread in India, though it has made significant progress.
According to World Bank estimates, 176 million Indians were in extreme poverty in 2015, living on USD 1.90 per person per day.
Half the population in total were below the poverty line.
India still tops international lists of the world’s most polluted cities.
According to UN figures, 14 of the world’s 15 most polluted cities are in India and New Delhi is the world’s most polluted capital.
An Arch-Enemy
Two centuries of British colonial rule ended in 1947 with the wrenching partition of India, thereby creating Pakistan.
India and Pakistan have been in conflict since 1947 and have fought multiple wars. They went to war in 1971 over the struggle for independence of Bangladesh, then part of Pakistan.
Both India and Pakistan became nuclear-armed powers in 1998.
Film and Cricket Crazy
Movie-mad India has the largest film industry in the world in terms of number of films produced — between 1,500 and 2,000 every year in more than 20 languages, according to industry data.
Based in Mumbai, Bollywood has created megastars such as Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Aishwarya Rai and Deepika Pakukone.
Cricket is another passion — and an expression of the country’s rivalry with Pakistan — with India a favourite for the World Cup beginning May 30.
The Indian Premier League is one of the wealthiest leagues in any sport, generating an estimated USD 6.3 billion last year.
