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Tag: ENTS

  • Vietnam bans ‘Barbie’ movie over South China Sea map

    Vietnam bans ‘Barbie’ movie over South China Sea map

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    HANOI, July 3 (Reuters) – Vietnam has banned Warner Bros’ highly-anticipated film “Barbie” from domestic distribution over a scene featuring a map that shows China’s unilaterally claimed territory in the South China Sea, state media reported on Monday.

    The U-shaped “nine-dash line” is used on Chinese maps to illustrate its claims over vast areas of the South China Sea, including swathes of what Vietnam considers its continental shelf, where it has awarded oil concessions.

    “Barbie” is the latest movie to be banned in Vietnam for depicting China’s controversial nine-dash line, which was repudiated in an international arbitration ruling by a court in The Hague in 2016. China refuses to recognise the ruling.

    In 2019 the Vietnamese government pulled DreamWorks’ animated film “Abominable” and last year it banned Sony’s action movie “Unchartered” for the same reason. Netflix also removed an Australian spy drama “Pine Gap” in 2021.

    [1/2]Actor Margot Robbie is photographed during a photocall for the upcoming Warner Bros. film “Barbie” in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 25, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake

    “Barbie”, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was originally slated to open in Vietnam on July 21, the same date as in the United States, according to state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper.

    “We do not grant license for the American movie ‘Barbie’ to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line,” the paper reported, citing Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, a government body in charge of licensing and censoring foreign films.

    Warner Bros did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Vietnam and China have long had overlapping territorial claims to a potentially energy-rich stretch in the South China Sea. The Southeast Asian country has repeatedly accused Chinese vessels of violating its sovereignty.

    Reporting by Phuong Nguyen; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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  • Ron DeSantis joins White House race, tripped up by chaotic Twitter launch

    Ron DeSantis joins White House race, tripped up by chaotic Twitter launch

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    WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suffered a chaotic start to his 2024 presidential election race on Wednesday when glitches marred an online forum hosted by Twitter owner Elon Musk that was meant to showcase DeSantis’ fitness for the job.

    The Twitter broadcast of the hour-long interview , which had been intended as the formal launch for the DeSantis campaign, lost sound for extended stretches and thousands of users were either unable to join or were dropped.

    It was an inauspicious start for a campaign predicated on the governor’s executive competence.

    “We must end the culture of losing that has infected the Republican Party in recent years,” DeSantis said in the event with Musk once the problems were largely resolved. The hashtag #DeSaster was trending on Twitter.

    DeSantis’ entrance in the Republican contest sets up a showdown with his one-time ally, former President Donald Trump, who lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.

    The Florida governor framed himself as a get-it-done executive who stood up to the federal government over COVID policies and who has put an indelibly conservative stamp on his home state.

    He defended his efforts in Florida to prohibit the teaching of concepts such as gender identity and systemic racism as protecting young children and pushing back against progressive ideology.

    With a rising national profile and what are expected to be deep financial resources, DeSantis, 44, immediately became Trump’s biggest rival for the Republican nomination.

    “Government is not about entertainment, not about building a brand,” DeSantis said, taking a veiled swipe at Trump. Notably he never mentioned Trump by name during the event.

    Trump, 76, didn’t hesitate to mock DeSantis on his social media platform, Truth Social, over the stumbling start to his campaign.

    “My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!)” Trump posted, “Yours does not.”

    Musk conceded there had been “technical issues because of the sheer scale” of the event, but added that “it’s just really great for the people to hear directly from presidential candidates.”

    [1/6] Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks as he announces he is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in this screen grab from a social media video posted May 24, 2023. Twitter @RonDeSantis/Handout via REUTERS

    At one point, the Twitter event drew more than 600,000 listeners. By its conclusion, there were fewer than 300,000.

    DeSantis’ campaign spokesman Bryan Griffin said on Twitter that enthusiasm for DeSantis had “literally busted up the internet.”

    The campaign raised $1 million in an hour, Griffin said.

    TRUMP AHEAD IN POLLS

    Polls show Trump with more than a 2-to-1 edge over the Florida governor, who has long been considered a Republican rising star and the herald of a new generation of leaders in the party. Trump, who announced in November, also has a head start in organizing his campaign in key early voting states.

    DeSantis’ central argument for his candidacy likely will be that he is the only Republican who can defeat Biden.

    “Our president, while he lacks vigor, flounders in the face of our nation’s challenges and he takes cues from the woke mob,” DeSantis said.

    Mainstream Republicans will be watching DeSantis carefully to see if he can recover from his missteps on foreign policy, such as his initial reluctance to express support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

    In the weeks leading up to his presidential bid, DeSantis toured the country, visiting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire that will hold early nominating contests. He has boasted of his record as Florida’s governor, including his battles with the federal government over pandemic policies.

    DeSantis and his advisers were determined to wait to enter the race until the Florida Legislature could hand him a series of policy victories – and lawmakers have done just that.

    He signed measures that severely restricted abortions in the state, made it easier for residents to carry concealed weapons, expanded a voucher program to allow students to attend private schools and eliminated funding for diversity programs at public universities, among other things.

    DeSantis remains in a pitched battle with Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) over the company’s criticism of laws prohibiting the teaching of gender identity concepts in public schools. The company has filed a federal lawsuit accusing DeSantis of weaponizing state government to punish its operations.

    Other declared Republican candidates include Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and Tim Scott, a U.S. senator from South Carolina.

    Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Doina Chiacu

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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  • Animal bones, ancient Romans’ snack food found in Colosseum

    Animal bones, ancient Romans’ snack food found in Colosseum

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    ROME, Nov 24 (Reuters) – A year-long study of the drainage system under the Colosseum has unearthed fragments of the bones of bears and big cats that were probably used to fight or as prey in hunting games in the ancient Roman arena, archaeologists said on Thursday.

    Other discoveries include more than 50 bronze coins from the late Roman period as well as a silver coin from around 170-171 AD to commemorate 10 years of rule of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, they added in a statement.

    Seeds from fruits such as figs, grapes and melons as well as traces of olives and nuts — thought to indicate what spectators snacked on during shows — were also recovered from the 2,000-year-old stone amphitheatre.

    The study, which began in January, involved the clearance of around 70 metres of drains and sewers under the Colosseum and is seen as shedding light on its later years before it fell into disuse around 523 AD.

    Alfonsina Russo, Director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, said the discoveries “deepen our understanding of the experience and habits of those who came to this place during the long days dedicated to the performances”.

    Writing by Keith Weir
    Editing by Alvise Armellini and Gareth Jones

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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  • In Mexico, Aztec dig sets new records as royal mystery deepens

    In Mexico, Aztec dig sets new records as royal mystery deepens

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    MEXICO CITY, Nov 24 (Reuters) – An extensive cache of Aztec ritual offerings found underneath downtown Mexico City, off the steps of what would have been the empire’s holiest shrine, provides new insight into pre-Hispanic religious rites and political propaganda.

    Sealed in stone boxes five centuries ago at the foot of the temple, the contents of one box found in the exact center of what was a ceremonial circular stage has shattered records for the number of sea offerings from both the Pacific Ocean and off Mexico’s Gulf Coast, including more than 165 once-bright-red starfish and upwards of 180 complete corral branches.

    Archeologists believe Aztec priests carefully layered these offerings in the box within the elevated platform for a ceremony likely attended by thousands of rapt spectators amid the thunder-clap of drums.

    “Pure imperial propaganda,” Leonardo Lopez Lujan, lead archeologist at the Proyecto Templo Mayor of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), which is overseeing the dig, said of the likely spectacle.

    In the same box, archeologists previously found a sacrificed jaguar dressed like a warrior associated with the Aztec patron Huitzilopochtli, the war and sun god, before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a more than two-year pause on excavations.

    Previously unreported details include last month’s discovery of a sacrificed eagle held in the clutches of the jaguar, along with miniature wooden spears and a reed shield found next to the west-facing feline, which had copper bells tied around its ankles.

    The half-excavated rectangular box, dating to the reign of the Aztec’s greatest emperor Ahuitzotl who ruled from 1486 to 1502, now shows a mysterious bulge in the middle under the jaguar’s skeleton, indicating something solid below.

    “Whatever is underneath the jaguar is something enormously important,” said Lopez Lujan.

    “We’re expecting a great discovery.”

    Lopez Lujan, who heads excavations at what is today known as the Templo Mayor, thinks the box could contain an urn holding the cremated remains of Ahuitzotl, the emperor whose military campaigns expanded the empire to modern-day Guatemala while linking Mexico’s Pacific and Gulf coasts. But he says at least another year of digging is needed to settle the question.

    [1/10] A general view of the Templo Mayor where several ritual offerings have recently been found just off the steps of the Templo Mayor, the Aztec empire’s most sacred temple, in Mexico City, Mexico November 15 , 2022. REUTERS/Henry Romero.

    AZTEC WORLDVIEW

    To date, no Aztec royal tomb has ever been found despite more than 40 years of digging around the Templo Mayor, where more than 200 offerings boxes have been found.

    The temple towered as high as a 15-story building before it was razed in the years after the 1521 Spanish conquest of Mexico, the rubble serving to obscure many of the latest finds.

    Besides the central offering containing the jaguar, two additional boxes were recently identified adjacent to it, with both set to be opened in the next few weeks.

    More ferocious animals dressed as warriors, perhaps adorned with jade, turquoise and gold, are likely.

    The aquatic offerings covering the jaguar may represent the watery underworld where the Aztecs believed the sun sank each night, or possibly part of a king’s journey after death.

    Joyce Marcus, an archeologist specializing in ancient Mexico at the University of Michigan, says the recently unearthed offerings illuminate the Aztec “worldview, ritual economy, and the obvious links between imperial expansion, warfare, military prowess and the ruler’s role” in ceremonies that sanctified conquests and allowed tribute to flow into the capital.

    “Each offering box adds another piece of the puzzle,” she said.

    Lastly, the skulls of a dozen sacrificed children between one to six years old were also discovered in a nearby pit, dating back decades earlier but also linked to Huitzilopochtli.

    The information obtained from the excavations goes far beyond incomplete colonial-era accounts that were also colored by the European invaders’ own justifications for conquest, according to Diana Moreiras, Aztec scholar at the University of British Colombia.

    “We’re really getting to know the Aztecs on their own terms,” she said, “because we’re actually looking at what they did, not what the Spaniards thought about them.”

    Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Josie Kao

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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