WASHINGTON: The “cake” was made from frozen fruit juice, sweet potatoes, carrots and sugar cane and it lasted about 15 minutes once giant panda mama Mei Xiang and her cub Xiao Qi Ji got hold of it.
The National Zoo’s most famous tenants had an enthusiastic breakfast Saturday in front of adoring crowds as the zoo celebrated 50 years of its iconic panda exchange agreement with the Chinese government.
Xiao Qi Ji’s father Tian Tian largely sat out the morning festivities, munching bamboo in a neighboring enclosure with the sounds of his chomping clearly audible during a statement by Chinese ambassador Qin Gang.
The ambassador praised the bears as “a symbol of the friendship” between the nations.
Pandas are almost entirely solitary by nature, and in the wild Tian Tian would probably never even meet his child. He received a similar cake for lunch.
In addition to hailing the 1972 agreement sparked by President Richard Nixon’s landmark visit to China, Saturday’s celebration also highlighted the success of the global giant panda breeding program, which has helped bring the bears back from the brink of extinction.
Xiao Qi Ji’s birth in August 2020 was hailed as a near miracle, due to Mei Xiang’s advanced age and the fact that zoo staff performed the artificial insemination procedure under tight restrictions shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic shut the entire zoo. At age 22, Mei Xiang was the oldest giant panda to successfully give birth in the United States.
Normally they would have used a combination of frozen sperm and fresh semen extracted from Tian Tian. But in order to minimize the number of close-quarters medical procedures, zoo officials used only frozen semen.
“It was definitely a long-shot pregnancy,” said Bryan Amaral, the zoo’s senior curator for mammals.
In honor of that long shot, the now 20-month-old cub was given a name that translates as “little miracle.” His birth in mid-pandemic sparked a fresh wave of panda-mania, with viewership on the zoo’s panda-cam livestream spiking by 1,200 percent.
“I know how passionate people are about pandas,” Amaral said. “I’m not surprised by that passion at all.”
Sure enough, crowds started streaming straight for the panda section at 8 a.m. when the zoo opened. Sisters Lorelai and Everley Greenwell, age 6 and 5, ran toward the enclosure chanting “Pandas! Pandas!”
They watched the cub tumble around, try to wrestle his mom and tear the zero off the giant 50 emblazoned on the ice cake.
“They knew this was coming,” said their mother Kayleigh Greenwell of Mount Ranier, Maryland, said of her girls. “We’ve been talking about it all week.”
The zoo’s original 1972 panda pair, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, were star attractions at the zoo for decades, but panda pregnancies are notoriously tricky and none of their cubs survived.
Mei Xiang and Tian Tian arrived in 2000, and the pair has successfully birthed three other cubs: Tai Shan, Bao Bao and Bei Bei — also by artificial insemination. All were transported to China at age 4, under terms of the zoo’s agreement with the Chinese government.
Similar agreements with zoos around the world have helped revitalize the giant panda population. Down to just over 1000 bears in the 1980s, the species has since been removed from the lists of animals in danger of extinction.
Pandas devour ice cake to celebrate 50 years at National Zoo
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Pandas devour ice cake to celebrate 50 years at National Zoo
- The National Zoo celebrated 50 years of its iconic panda exchange agreement with the Chinese government
- The Chinese ambassador praised the bears as “a symbol of the friendship” between the nations
Starbucks earnings disappoint as CEO Niccol’s strategy faces US hurdles
- Starbucks is paring down promotions and discounts, and relying less on its loyalty program as it invests in broader marketing
Starbucks faces challenges in reviving its business, CEO Brian Niccol said on Tuesday, after the coffee giant posted disappointing global comparable sales and profit with inflation and economic uncertainty driving up costs and dampening US demand.
Investors have placed their bets on Niccol’s turnaround strategy for the brand, whose sales have fallen for four straight quarters, by reducing production and service times and investing in stores to improve customer experience.
“Our financial results don’t yet reflect our progress, but we have real momentum with our ‘Back to Starbucks’ plan,” Niccol said in a statement.
Starbucks paused rolling out its Siren System store revamp program, launched under former CEO Laxman Narasimhan, because it was capital heavy, said Niccol, who had helped revive Chipotle Mexican Grill as CEO of the burrito chain.
The company will focus on investing in improving front-end delivery instead of kitchen equipment, Niccol said on a post-earnings call. “The equipment doesn’t solve the customer experience that we need to provide.”
Niccol said Starbucks was improving service speed with the right staffing and deployment, and that its refreshed marketing was resonating with customers.
Starbucks will also review its US store portfolio as it rolls out labor-focused technological changes including a pilot program that allows customers to schedule their mobile orders, he said.
However, consumers are growing more cautious as US President Donald Trump’s erratic trade tariffs have created economic uncertainty and threaten to fuel inflation. US restaurant visits and spending weakened in February and March.
Starbucks’ shares fell 6.5 percent in extended trading. The stock, which had surged in the months following Niccol’s appointment as CEO, is down about 7 percent so far this year.
North American same-store sales fell 1 percent for the fiscal second quarter ended March 30, worse than the 0.24 percent drop estimated by analysts in an LSEG poll. The company said sales in Canada returned to growth in the quarter.
TURNAROUND TIMELINE
It may take time for traffic to reaccelerate because changes in stores and reinstating its coffee house roots could take at least another three to six months, said Bernstein analyst Danilo Gargiulo.
Starbucks is paring down promotions and discounts, and relying less on its loyalty program as it invests in broader marketing.
The average ticket, or amount spent by customers per visit, was up 3 percent in the second quarter.
The company said it will localize and move production as needed to mitigate the impact of US tariffs on imports from China.
The company’s international business improved slightly, with sales unchanged in China, its second-largest market, after four straight quarters of decline. Starbucks said it was committed to growing business in China long-term.
International comparable sales rose 2 percent, compared with estimates of a 1.13 percent drop.
Gross margin fell 590 basis points in the quarter and the company reported adjusted earnings per share of 41 cents, missing estimates of 49 cents.
Total same-store sales declined 1 percent in the second quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of a 0.26 percent fall. Comparable sales had declined 4 percent in the preceding three-month period.
Arab cities rank among top 10 friendliest in the world for expats
- Emirati city of Ras Al-Khaimah in 5th place, Oman’s capital Muscat ranks 10th
- Saudi capital among ‘the biggest winners in 2024,’ jumping 10 places to rank 12th: Index
LONDON: The Emirati city of Ras Al-Khaimah and Oman’s capital Muscat have been ranked among the top 10 friendliest destinations in the world for expats.
The Ease of Settling In Index 2024 by InterNations, which describes itself as “the largest global expat network” with 5.6 million members, includes 53 cities and comprises three subcategories: culture and welcome, local friendliness and finding friends.
Ras Al-Khaimah ranked fifth overall while Muscat ranked 10th, closely followed by the Emirati city of Dubai (11th), the Saudi capital Riyadh (12th), the UAE capital Abu Dhabi (14th) and Qatar’s capital Doha (15th).
Ras Al-Khaimah and Muscat “perform well across the index but stand out especially for how easy expats find it to get used to the local culture … as well as for the general friendliness of the population,” according to the index.
InterNations described Riyadh as one of “the biggest winners in 2024,” jumping 10 places from the 2023 rankings and improving “across all factors of the index.”
Riyadh’s biggest gains were in the culture and welcome subcategory, rising from 30th in 2023 to 14th last year.
Injured seals get care and sanctuary at a new center in the Netherlands
- A 4-month-old gray seal named Witje swims gracefully through one of nine new tanks at the World Heritage Center, a recently opened rescue facility in the north of the Netherlands
- The new center can treat around 70 seals at a time and has 12 intensive care units for animals with serious injuries
LAUWERSOOG: Gliding gracefully through the waters at his new home, Witje pauses briefly to peer through a large window at the curious and admiring visitors.
The 4-month-old gray seal is a lucky survivor able to swim in one of nine new tanks at the World Heritage Center, or WEC, a recently opened seal rescue facility in Lauwersoog, in the north of the Netherlands.
He was brought in after being orphaned and was suffering from a swollen flipper and a damaged eye.
“On a yearly basis, we roughly treat about 200 seals,” Sander van Dijk, the curator of the center, told The Associated Press. In 2024, researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands counted around 24,000 seals across the Wadden Sea.
Most are pups who get separated from their mother, known as howlers for their plaintive wailing. Others are injured by floating debris or are struck by passing vessels.
“If we look at our own data over the past 15 years, we just see every year more seals that somehow get entangled in waste in the sea, mostly fishing nets,” Van Dijk said.
The WEC, which officially opened to the public Saturday, replaces the Pieterburen Seal Center, a rescue facility set up in 1971 to treat injured seals found in and around the nearby Wadden Sea, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Witje’s tank is an upgrade from his previous quarters. He gets to swim in water directly from the sea, rather than tap water, in order to maintain a habitat as close as possible to the seals’ natural environment.
“They are adapted to living in seawater. It’s good for their fur. But also seawater, through its salt, has some properties that makes wounds heal faster,” Van Dijk said.
The WEC can treat around 70 seals at a time and has 12 intensive-care units for animals with serious injuries who are able to recover in special enclosures which offer a calm environment. They are prevented from swimming in order to rest and the space is cleaned frequently to prevent infections from waste.
The new building, which cost over 40 million euros ($45 million), with financing provided by local and regional governments as well as charitable organizations, tells more than just the story of the seas. It’s an educational space which teaches visitors about the Wadden Sea, the largest continuous system of intertidal flats in the world, extending along the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.
The new facility is significantly closer to the sea than the previous location. The tanks for the 10 seals currently residing at WEC look out over the water. Caregivers at the center are optimistic that Witje will soon recover enough to be released back into the waves.
Man rescued from Mount Fuji twice in one week: reports
- Chinese university student, who lives in Japan, was found Saturday by another off-season hiker on a trail more than 3,000 meters above sea level
- People are dissuaded from hiking outside of the summer season because conditions can be treacherous
TOKYO: A man in his 20s was airlifted from Japan’s Mount Fuji then rescued again from its steep slopes just days later because he returned to find his phone, according to media reports.
Police said the Chinese university student, who lives in Japan, was found Saturday by another off-season hiker on a trail more than 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) above sea level.
“He was suspected of having altitude sickness and was taken to hospital,” a police spokesman in Shizuoka region said on Monday.
Later, officers discovered that the man was the same one who had been rescued on Mount Fuji four days previously, private broadcaster TBS and other media outlets reported.
Police could not immediately confirm the reports, which said the man – having been rescued by helicopter on Tuesday – returned on Friday to retrieve his mobile phone, which he forgot to bring with him during the first rescue.
It was not known whether he was able to find his phone in the end, said the reports, citing unnamed sources.
Mount Fuji, an active volcano and Japan’s highest peak, is covered in snow for most of the year.
Its hiking trails are open from early July to early September, a period when crowds trudge up the steep, rocky slopes through the night to see the sunrise.
People are dissuaded from hiking outside of the summer season because conditions can be treacherous.
The symmetrical 3,776-meter mountain has been immortalized in countless artworks, including Hokusai’s “Great Wave.” It last erupted around 300 years ago.
In a bid to prevent overcrowding on Mount Fuji, authorities last year brought in an entry fee and cap on numbers for the most popular Yoshida Trail.
Starting this summer, hikers on any of Mount Fuji’s four main trails will be charged an entry fee of 4,000 yen ($27).
Napoleon letter denying he ordered pope kidnapping sold at auction
- The letter, signed 'Napole,' went on sale the day after the funeral of Pope Francis, who died on Monday
- The sale price was way above the estimate of 12,000-15,000 euros, according to the Osenat auction house
PARIS: A hand-written letter from Napoleon denying his role in the kidnapping of Pope Pius VII in 1809 was sold at auction on Sunday outside Paris for 26,360 euros ($30,000), the auctioneer said.
The letter, signed “Napole,” went on sale the day after the funeral of Pope Francis, who died on Monday.
The sale price was way above the estimate of 12,000-15,000 euros, according to the Osenat auction house.
The auction’s location in Fontainebleau, south of Paris, was highly symbolic as the town was where the head of the Catholic Church was imprisoned after being initially held in Savona in Italy.
“This arrest is one of the events that will define Napoleon’s reign, at a political and religious level,” Jean-Christophe Chataignier, an expert in the Napoleonic era at Osenat, told AFP.
“Napoleon knows this letter will be made public and that it’s intended for authorities everywhere,” he added.
French forces kidnapped Pope Pius VII in his private apartments in the Quirinal Palace in Rome.
He remained a prisoner of Napoleon for five years.
The pontiff had sought to maintain the Vatican’s sway over the French Catholic Church and resisted Napoleon’s desire to exert control over the clergy.
'Without my orders'
In the letter addressed to French nobleman and ally Jean-Jacques-Regis de Cambaceres, Napoleon feigns ignorance of Pius VII’s detention.
“It was without my orders and against my will that the pope was taken out of Rome; it is again without my orders and against my will that he is being brought into France,” he wrote.
“But I was only informed of this 10 or 12 days after it had already been carried out. From the moment I learn that the pope is staying in a fixed location, and that my intentions can be made known in time and carried out, I will consider what measures I must take...,” he added.
Napoleon memorabilia regularly comes up for sale at auction in a flourishing trade marked by intense interest from collectors.
Two pistols that he once intended to use to kill himself were sold in France last July for 1.7 million euros, while one of his trademark “bicorne” hats set a record price for his possessions when it was acquired for 1.9 million euros in November 2023.
A sword that belonged to Napoleon and was specially ordered for the personal use of the French emperor is to be auctioned in Paris next month, with an estimated price of 700,000 to one million euros.
