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Panda Diplomacy: The departure of DC’s beloved pandas may signal a wider Chinese pullback

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wearing a “I Love Pandas” t-shirt and clutching a panda-covered diary, Kelsey Lambert bubbled with excitement as she glimpsed the real thing. She and her mother, Alison, had made a special trip from San Antonio, Texas, just to watch the National Zoo’s furry rock stars casually munching bamboo and rolling around on the grass. “It felt completely amazing,” Kelsey, age 10, said Friday. “My mom has always promised she would take me one day. So we had to do it now that they’re going away.”The National Zoo’s three giant pandas — Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji — are set to return to China in early December with no public signs that the 50-year old exchange agreement struck by former President Richard Nixon will continue. National Zoo officials have remained tight-lipped about the prospects of renewing or extending the agreement, and repeated attempts to gain comment on the state of the negotiations did not receive a response. However, the ...

Things to know about the Vatican’s big meeting on the future of the Catholic Church

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Wednesday is opening a global gathering of bishops and laypeople to discuss the future of the Catholic Church, including some hot-button issues that have previously been considered off-limits for discussion.For the first time, women and laypeople can vote on specific proposals alongside bishops, a radical change that is evidence of Francis’ belief that the church is more about its flock than its shepherds.Here is some background on the Oct. 4-29 Synod of Bishops, which will be followed by a second session this time next year. That session is expected to put forward specific proposals for Francis to consider in a future document.WHAT’S ON THE AGENDA?The working document for the meeting was compiled by a committee after an unprecedented two-year canvassing of rank-and-file Catholics around the globe.The final product is meant to stimulate debate and poses agenda items in the form of questions. But some of the questions also make clear a certai...

Court reviews gun-carry restrictions under health order in New Mexico, as states explore options

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Restrictions on carrying guns in public that are tied to an emergency public health order are going under the legal microscope Tuesday in New Mexico, where the Democratic governor is testing the boundaries of her authority and constitutional law in response to violent crime in the state’s largest metro area.The standoff is one of many in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision last year expanding gun rights, as leaders in politically liberal-leaning states explore new avenues for restrictions.A court hearing is scheduled for the morning on legal challenges to the public health order from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham that suspends the right to carry firearms in most public parks and playgrounds in and around Albuquerque. Advocates for gun rights have filed a barrage of challenges to the 30-day health order, which originally included broad restrictions on carrying guns in public. The governor will reissue orders on gun violence and drug abuse for an additio...

Columbia Journalism Review editor leaving to encourage news outlets to devote more time to climate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Saying that journalism isn’t showing enough urgency in covering climate change, the editor of the Columbia Journalism Review is leaving his job to devote his time to try and change that.Kyle Pope, who has been editor and publisher of the magazine and website for journalists since 2016, said Tuesday that he is leaving to join Covering Climate Now, an organization he helped launch with Mark Hertsgaard, environment correspondent for The Nation.Covering Climate Now works with newsrooms to prioritize coverage and train reporters, and is trying to convince more meteorologists to make the connection between climate change and their weather reports.Pope said journalists need to bring the same focus to covering climate that they did to COVID-19 in the early days of that pandemic — perhaps not in the volume of stories but the sense that reporters on various beats need to be mindful of how climate change affects what they’re following.“Journalism still isn’t d...

China Evergrande soars after property developer’s stocks resume trading

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Shares of debt-laden property developer China Evergrande Group soared Tuesday after they resumed trading in Hong Kong following a suspension last week. By midday, Evergrande’s shares were up nearly 16% after jumping more than 60% early in the session. Evergrande is the world’s most heavily indebted real estate developer and is at the center of a property market crisis that is dragging on China’s economic growth.The company’s stock was suspended from trading last week as it confirmed Chinese police were investigating its chairman, Hui Ka Yan, on “suspicion of illegal crimes.”An affiliate, Evergrande Property Services, also resumed trading Tuesday, according to a notice on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.However, trading of shares in China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group remained suspended “pending the release of an announcement in relation to inside information” of the firm, a notice to the Hong Kong exchange said. Both units halted trading last week.China Evergrand...

Jury selection to begin in trial of fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Sam Bankman-Fried, a tech wunderkind who once promoted his FTX digital coin exchange as a safe way for regular people to get into cryptocurrency, faces the start of a criminal trial over allegations that he cheated thousands of customers.Jury selection begins Tuesday in New York in a case in which the 31-year-old crypto mogul, once a billionaire, faces the possibility of a long prison term.Prosecutors say he defrauded thousands of people who deposited cryptocurrency on the FTX exchange by illegally diverting massive sums of their money for his personal use, including making risky trades at his cryptocurrency hedge fund, Alameda Research. He’s also accused of using customer money to buy real estate and make big political contributions as he tried to influence government regulation of cryptocurrency.U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who is overseeing the prosecution, has called it one of the biggest frauds in the country’s history.In interviews and social medi...

DeSantis said he would support a 15-week abortion ban, after avoiding a direct answer for months

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

When Ron DeSantis seemed to say during last week’s Republican presidential debate that he would support a federal ban on abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy, some anti-abortion activists called it the news they had been waiting months to hear. The president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a leading anti-abortion advocacy group, issued a statement thanking DeSantis “for his commitment to support minimum federal protections for babies.”But DeSantis’ campaign insisted his comment, which was the candidate’s most direct answer regarding an abortion ban, wasn’t anything new. And millions of voters probably missed the moment entirely. DeSantis’ pledge came during one of many chaotic exchanges on the debate stage, when Sen. Tim Scott — who has made a nationwide ban on abortion at 15 weeks a central focus of his campaign — shouted a question, asking if the Florida governor also would support it. In a bit of barely audible crosstalk, DeSantis responded: “Yes, I wi...

Florida man who murdered women he met in bars set to die by lethal injection

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man is scheduled to die by lethal injection over 25 years after he killed women het met in north Florida bars during a dayslong spate of crimes.Michael Zack III is set to die at 6 p.m. Tuesday for the murder of Ravonne Smith, a bar employee he befriended and later beat and stabbed with an oyster knife in June 1996. He was also convicted and separately sentenced to life in prison for murdering Laura Rosillo, who he met at a bar in a nearby county. Zack’s nine-day crime run began in Tallahassee, where he was a regular at a bar. When Zack’s girlfriend called and said he was being evicted, the bartender offered to loan him her pickup truck. Zack left with it and never returned, according to court records.Zack drove to a Niceville bar in the Florida Panhandle, where he befriended a construction company owner. The man learned Zack was living in the pickup truck and offered to let him stay at his home. Zack later stole two guns and $42. He pawned the guns,...

Opening statements to begin in Washington officers’ trial in deadly arrest of Black man Manuel Ellis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Opening statements are set to begin Tuesday in the trial of three police officers in Tacoma, Washington, accused in the death of Manny Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man who was punched, shocked with a Taser, put in a chokehold and held face down on the sidewalk as he pleaded, “can’t breathe, sir.”Officers Matthew Collins and Christopher Burbank, both white, are charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. Officer Timothy Rankine, who is Asian American, is charged with manslaughter for kneeling on Ellis’ back as the man struggled to breathe with his face on the ground. It’s the first trial under a 5-year-old Washington state law designed to make it easier to prosecute police who wrongfully use deadly force. All three officers have pleaded not guilty. The court completed two weeks of jury selection on Monday.The Pierce County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide and said it was caused by a lack of oxygen during the physical restraint.Lawyers for t...

Which students get into advanced math? Texas is using test scores to limit bias

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:25 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — When Tha Cung looked over his sixth-grade class schedule, he took notice of the math block. He had been placed in an advanced class. “I didn’t know ‘honors’ even existed,” he said.Tha was little when his family immigrated from Myanmar and, for much of his time in Dallas schools, he took courses designed for children who are learning English. In fifth grade, his standardized test scores showed he was a strong math student — someone who should be challenged with honors classes in middle school.Under the Dallas school system’s policy, Tha’s parents didn’t need to sign him up for advanced math. A teacher or counselor didn’t have to recommend him, either. In many schools, those are the hoops a student must get through to join honors classes. But Tha was automatically placed in the advanced course because of his scores on Texas’ STAAR test.A version of this approach will soon be replicated statewide as part of an effort to remove barriers that can stand between bright ...