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The Twins are Here! A Second Set of Giant Panda Cubs Has Been Born in Berlin

This handout photo taken on August 22, 2024 and released by the Berlin Zoological Garden on August 23, 2024 shows veterinarians measuring the head circumference of a newborn panda cub in an incubator after female Giant Panda Meng Meng, 11-years-old, gave birth to two cubs that day at the zoo in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Handout / BERLIN ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN / AFP)
This handout photo taken on August 22, 2024 and released by the Berlin Zoological Garden on August 23, 2024 shows veterinarians measuring the head circumference of a newborn panda cub in an incubator after female Giant Panda Meng Meng, 11-years-old, gave birth to two cubs that day at the zoo in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Handout / BERLIN ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN / AFP)
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The Twins are Here! A Second Set of Giant Panda Cubs Has Been Born in Berlin

This handout photo taken on August 22, 2024 and released by the Berlin Zoological Garden on August 23, 2024 shows veterinarians measuring the head circumference of a newborn panda cub in an incubator after female Giant Panda Meng Meng, 11-years-old, gave birth to two cubs that day at the zoo in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Handout / BERLIN ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN / AFP)
This handout photo taken on August 22, 2024 and released by the Berlin Zoological Garden on August 23, 2024 shows veterinarians measuring the head circumference of a newborn panda cub in an incubator after female Giant Panda Meng Meng, 11-years-old, gave birth to two cubs that day at the zoo in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Handout / BERLIN ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN / AFP)

The Berlin Zoo announced Friday that longtime resident giant panda Meng Meng has given birth to twins — for a second time.
The cubs were born on Thursday, the zoo said in a statement. They were born only 11 days after ultrasound scans showed that Meng Meng, 11, was pregnant. Their sex has not yet been determined “with certainty”, The Associated Press said.
“Now it’s time to keep your fingers crossed for the critical first few days,” the zoo said. The cubs are tiny, weighing just 169 grams and 136 grams (about 6 ounces and 4.8 ounces) respectively, and are about 14 centimeters (5.5 inches) long.
As with other large bears, giant pandas are born deaf, blind and pink. Their black-and-white panda markings only develop later.
“I am relieved that the two were born healthy," zoo director Andreas Knieriem said. "The little ones make a lively impression and mom Meng Meng takes great care of her offspring."
The zoo said that giant pandas usually only raise one cub when they give birth to twins, so it will “actively support” Meng Meng's child care in cooperation with two experts from China's Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding who are in the German capital.
“With around 20 births a year, they have much more experience and are better able to assess development,” panda curator Florian Sicks said.
The cubs will alternate being with their mother every two to three hours to drink milk and are otherwise being cared for in an incubator donated by a Berlin hospital.
Meng Meng and male panda Jiao Qing arrived in Berlin in 2017. In August 2019, Meng Meng gave birth to male twins Pit and Paule, also known by the Chinese names Meng Xiang and Meng Yuan, the first giant pandas born in Germany.
The twins were a star attraction in Berlin, but they were flown to China in December — a trip that was contractually agreed from the start but delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. China gifted friendly nations with its unofficial mascot for decades as part of a “panda diplomacy″ policy. The country now loans pandas to zoos on commercial terms.
Giant pandas have difficulty breeding and births are particularly welcomed. There are about 1,800 pandas living in the wild in China and a few hundred in captivity worldwide.
Meng Meng was artificially inseminated on March 26. Female pandas are fertile only for a few days per year at the most.
The new arrivals and their mother won't be on show to the public for the time being — but visitors can still see Jiao Qing, 14, as male pandas don't get involved in rearing cubs.

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Varieties

Greenpeace Warns of Potential ‘Catastrophic’ Chernobyl Collapse

Representatives of Greenpeace and media stand in front of the sarcophagus covering the destroyed fourth reactor under the New Safe Confinement (NSC), at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 9, 2026. (AFP)
Representatives of Greenpeace and media stand in front of the sarcophagus covering the destroyed fourth reactor under the New Safe Confinement (NSC), at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 9, 2026. (AFP)
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Greenpeace Warns of Potential ‘Catastrophic’ Chernobyl Collapse

Representatives of Greenpeace and media stand in front of the sarcophagus covering the destroyed fourth reactor under the New Safe Confinement (NSC), at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 9, 2026. (AFP)
Representatives of Greenpeace and media stand in front of the sarcophagus covering the destroyed fourth reactor under the New Safe Confinement (NSC), at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 9, 2026. (AFP)

An uncontrolled collapse of the internal radiation shell at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine could increase the risk of radioactivity release in the environment, Greenpeace warned on Tuesday.

In 1986, while Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, a reactor at Chernobyl exploded, sending clouds of radiation across much of Europe and forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate.

The remnants of the plant are covered by an inner steel-and-concrete radiation shell -- known as the sarcophagus and built hastily after the disaster -- and a modern, high-tech outer shell, called the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure.

Kyiv has accused Russia of repeatedly targeting the site since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, including of a strike last year that pierced the outer shell.

In a report released Tuesday, days before the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, Greenpeace warned that despite some repair works, the confinement function of the NSC "could not be fully restored".

"This increases the risk of radioactivity release in the environment, especially in the case of a collapse" of the internal shelter, Greenpeace said.

"That would be catastrophic because... there's four tons of dust, highly radioactive dust, fuel pellets, enormous amounts of radioactivity inside the sarcophagus," Shaun Burnie, a senior nuclear specialist for Greenpeace Ukraine, told AFP earlier this month.

"And because the New Safe Confinement cannot be repaired at the moment, it cannot function as it was designed, there's a possibility of radioactive releases," Burnie added.

Greenpeace said deconstruction of unstable elements of the internal shell was necessary to prevent their uncontrolled collapse.

But any works at the site were impeded by the war raging on as "there's missiles from the Russians still being fired across Chernobyl," Burnie said.

"Here we are 40 years on, and Russia is still conducting effectively a nuclear war against the people of Ukraine and Europe."

Plant director Sergiy Tarakanov said the situation around the site was "very dangerous".

"If a rocket will drop, not directly into the safe confinement, but just in 200 meters, it will create an external impact like an earthquake," increasing the risk of the inner shell collapsing.

"And what actually 1986 accident showed to us... that the radioactive particles, they do not recognize borders," Tarakanov added.

Last month, France said that the Chernobyl protective dome would require almost 500 million euros of repairs after the Russian strike in 2025.

Varieties

Prince Harry and Meghan Arrive in Australia to a Muted Welcome

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, arrive at the Australian National Veterans Arts Museum (Anvam) in Southbank, Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (Jonathan Brady/Pool Photo via AP)
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, arrive at the Australian National Veterans Arts Museum (Anvam) in Southbank, Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (Jonathan Brady/Pool Photo via AP)
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Prince Harry and Meghan Arrive in Australia to a Muted Welcome

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, arrive at the Australian National Veterans Arts Museum (Anvam) in Southbank, Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (Jonathan Brady/Pool Photo via AP)
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, arrive at the Australian National Veterans Arts Museum (Anvam) in Southbank, Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (Jonathan Brady/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Prince Harry and wife Meghan landed in Australia on Tuesday for a four-day visit with engagements covering sport, mental health and veterans' affairs.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex began their trip at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, where they took part in an activity in the hospital's therapeutic garden spaces.

"It was a genuinely meaningful visit for our staff and for the young people receiving care," said Dr. Peter Steer, the hospital's CEO.

Harry, ‌wearing a navy ‌suit and white shirt, spoke to children and posed ‌for ⁠photographs with patients ⁠in the foyer of the hospital, calling one of the handmade signs welcoming the couple "beautiful".

Meghan, who wore a matching A$1,250 ($885) navy dress by Sydney-based designer Karen Gee, later helped serve food at a women's domestic violence shelter in the city.

The Sussexes stepped down as working members of the British royal family and moved to the US in 2020, citing a desire to be financially independent and ⁠to escape what they characterized as media intrusion into ‌their private lives.

They last visited Australia in ‌2018 while still working royals, announcing Meghan's first pregnancy hours after arriving in Sydney.

Their latest visit has captured public attention in Australia, where ‌Britain's King Charles is the head of state, though a sizeable minority supports becoming a republic. But there was little sign of the ecstatic reception that greeted them on the 2018 trip. Television networks aired footage that they said showed the couple arriving ‌in Melbourne on a commercial flight from Los Angeles, before being taken from the tarmac in a vehicle convoy.

The ⁠couple's travel is ⁠being privately funded, though local media reported some policing costs associated with the visit would be paid by Australian taxpayers, sparking a protest petition signed by more than 45,000 people.

The couple will travel to the capital, Canberra, on Wednesday to meet military veterans, attend a mental health summit in Melbourne on Thursday and round off the joint leg of their trip with sailing and rugby events in Sydney on Friday.

In contrast to their previous visit, the Sussexes will also undertake commercial activities while in Australia, with Meghan remaining in the country to host a wellness retreat at a luxury beachside hotel in Sydney over the weekend.

Tickets for the event, which includes yoga, manifestation and sound healing, start at A$2,699 ($1,912) per person.

Varieties

Colombia Approves Plan to Cull Roaming Hippos Linked to Pablo Escobar

FILE - Hippos float in the lagoon at Hacienda Napoles Park, once the private estate of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar who imported three female hippos and one male decades ago in Puerto Triunfo, Colombia, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
FILE - Hippos float in the lagoon at Hacienda Napoles Park, once the private estate of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar who imported three female hippos and one male decades ago in Puerto Triunfo, Colombia, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
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Colombia Approves Plan to Cull Roaming Hippos Linked to Pablo Escobar

FILE - Hippos float in the lagoon at Hacienda Napoles Park, once the private estate of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar who imported three female hippos and one male decades ago in Puerto Triunfo, Colombia, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)
FILE - Hippos float in the lagoon at Hacienda Napoles Park, once the private estate of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar who imported three female hippos and one male decades ago in Puerto Triunfo, Colombia, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)

Colombian officials on Monday authorized a plan to cull dozens of hippos roaming freely through a region in the center of the country, where they threaten villagers and displace native species years after notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar brought in the first ones.

Environment Minister Irene Vélez said previous methods to control their population have been expensive and unsuccessful, including neutering some of the animals or moving them to zoos. Vélez said up to 80 hippos would be affected by the measure. She did not say when hunting would begin.

“If we don’t do this we will not be able to control the population,” Vélez said. “We have to take this action to preserve our ecosystems.”

Colombia is the only country outside of Africa with a wild hippo population.

The hippos are the descendants of four brought to the country in the 1980s by Escobar as he built a private zoo in Hacienda Nápoles, a gigantic ranch in the Magdalena River valley with a private landing strip that served as his rural abode.

A study published by Colombia’s National University estimated that around 170 hippos were roaming freely in the country in 2022.

Recently, hippos have been spotted in areas that are more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the ranch, The Associated Press reported.

Environmental authorities in Colombia say the mammals pose a threat to villagers who have encountered them in farms and rivers. They also compete for food and space against local species such as river manatees.

Despite the challenges, the hippos have also become a tourist attraction, with residents of villages surrounding Hacienda Nápoles offering hippo spotting tours and selling hippo-themed souvenirs.

The hippos are also one of the main attractions at the Nápoles ranch, which was confiscated by Colombia’s government as it seized Escobar’s properties. It now functions as a theme park, featuring swimming spools, water slides and a zoo that includes several other African species.

Animal welfare activists in Colombia have long opposed proposals to kill the hippos, arguing they deserve to live. They say that addressing the problem through violence sets a poor example for a country that has gone through decades of internal conflict.

Andrea Padilla, a senator and animal rights activist who helped draft a law against bullfights in Colombia, described the plan to cull the hippos as a “cruel” decision, and accused government officials of trying to take the easy way out.

“Killings and massacres will never be acceptable,” Padilla wrote on X. “These are healthy creatures who are victims of the negligence” of government entities.

Over the past 12 years, spanning three presidential administrations, Colombia has tried to neuter some of the hippos in a bid to reduce their population. But the initiatives have had limited scope due to high costs that come with capturing the dangerous animals and performing surgeries on them.

Because Colombia’s hippos come from a limited gene pool and could carry diseases, taking them back to their natural habitat in Africa has been considered unfeasible.