Why is China loaning pandas to the D.C. zoo? A brief history of panda diplomacy
Friday’s debut of new pandas at the National Zoo in D.C. is the latest chapter in a long tale of “panda diplomacy” between China and the rest of the world.
World
Trump pardons anti-abortion activists ahead of rally
The president will address the anti-abortion March for Life in Washington DC by videolink.
News24 | ‘I was very close to having a deal’: Trump to reach out to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un again
US President Donald Trump will reach out to Kim Jong Un again, he said in an interview, calling the North Korean leader with whom he previously met three times a “smart guy”.
News24 | Firefighters stop California fire expansion despite strong winds and smaller fires
Firefighters stopped the expansion of a new wildfire north of Los Angeles after it spread rapidly, as California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a $2.5 billion relief package.
Man jailed for 30 years for Charlie Hebdo meat cleaver attack
Zaheer Mahmood, from Pakistan, seriously injured two people outside magazine’s former offices after republication of Muhammad cartoons.
Ukraine claims drone strike on Russian oil refinery
Russia says it shot down more than 120 drones overnight, in what would be one of the largest attacks of the war.
New fires erupt in southern California ahead of Trump visit
The blazes – named Laguna, Sepulveda, Gibbel, Gilman and Border 2 – flared up on Thursday in Los Angeles, San Diego, Ventura and Riverside.
News24 | North Korea suspected of sending ‘additional dispatch of troops’ to Russia, says South Korea
South Korea’s military said that it suspects North Korea is preparing to send more troops to Russia to fight Ukrainian forces, even after suffering losses and seeing some of its soldiers captured.
The U.S. is trying to unravel a hacking plot that targeted climate activists
The U.S. claims the hacking was commissioned by a lobbying firm working on behalf of one of the world’s biggest oil companies.
As Syria rebuilds, hope collides with painful memories in one Damascus neighborhood
After the fall of Syria’s despotic Assad regime, life is slowly returning to one Damascus neighborhood, where the violence and painful memories of the past are still literally being unearthed.
News24 | ‘My fear is that I will be arrested’: US migrants worry about deportation as Trump policy kicks in
US President Donald Trump began his second term with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling immigration into the US.
News24 | ‘Making the Palestinian people pay the price’: Israel uses gates to lock commuters in the West Bank
Father Bashar Basiel moved freely in and out of his parish in the occupied West Bank until Israeli troops installed gates at the entrance of his village Taybeh overnight, just hours after a ceasefire began in Gaza.
IDF said bombed apartments were Hezbollah base – but most of dead were civilians
An IDF attack on a Lebanese apartment block targeting Hezbollah killed mostly civilians, BBC finds.
Abductions spark fears of a return to Kenya’s dark past
“I was scared he had come to beat me or finish me off,” a government critic tells the BBC about his ordeal.
Fighting between rival factions in Syria threatens its fragile stability
Fighting between Syrian Kurds -who a decade ago clawed out an autonomous territory in the country’s northeast- and Turkish-backed militias is posing a serious threat to the current stability.
‘A performance and a sham’: Belarusian opposition denounces election
Since the protests in 2020 the Lukashenko government has brutally repressed political opponents.
Even before the LA fires, Californians fled for ‘climate havens’
Some are moving to so-called “climate havens” in the Great Lakes region to avoid climate disasters.
Afghan refugees feel ‘betrayed’ by Trump order blocking move to US
Several Afghans tell the BBC the US has “turned its back” on them, despite years of working alongside Americans in Afghanistan.
Latin America’s Innovative Orchestra Conductor
Columbian conductor Andres Orozco-Estrada exuberantly connects with concert-goers at a time when classical music is struggling to maintain its audience.
Purdue and Sackler family agree $7.4bn opioid settlement
Under the terms, the opioid maker agreed to pay $900m, and the family behind it agreed to pay up to $6.5bn.
In Syria’s Golan Heights buffer zone, residents fear Israel is making a land grab
After the ouster of Syria’s longtime leader Bashar al-Assad last month, Israel’s military has taken up a new post in the demilitarized buffer zone created in Syria after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.