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Bidens Host Final Halloween Trick-or-treat Event. First Lady Comes as Giant Panda

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden in a giant panda costume, host the annual Halloween celebration at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden in a giant panda costume, host the annual Halloween celebration at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
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Bidens Host Final Halloween Trick-or-treat Event. First Lady Comes as Giant Panda

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden in a giant panda costume, host the annual Halloween celebration at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden in a giant panda costume, host the annual Halloween celebration at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

US President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, who dressed as a giant panda, hosted trick-or-treaters on the White House South Lawn on Wednesday for the last time.
The first lady had participated in the National Zoo's announcement earlier this year that pandas would be returning to Washington. They arrived in the nation's capital in mid-October and Jill Biden donned the panda suit Wednesday as a “welcoming gesture,” the White House said.
Jill Biden added an educational theme to the event and named it “Hallo-Read” to help encourage reading. She has been a teacher for 40 years. Earlier Wednesday, she read a short story about spooky pumpkins to a group of costumed children gathered on the lawn, The Associated Press reported.
She and the president later ventured outside at sunset and spent about an hour handing out treats. Biden, in a suit and tie, dropped boxes of White House Hershey's Kisses chocolates in the kids' tote bags while the first lady handed out copies of “10 Spooky Pumpkins.”
Up to 8,000 people, including students and children tied to the military, were expected to pass through the White House gates during the day.
A large orange moon and a sign that said “Hallow-Read at the White House” decorated the south face of the executive mansion. The decorations also included cardboard representations of Willow, the family cat who is rarely seen in public, and stacks of books. Giant pumpkin decorations flanked the door.
Biden dropped his bid for reelection in July. He leaves office in January.

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Air Pollution from Fires Linked to 1.5 Million Deaths a Year

The study was released a week after Ecuador declared a national emergency due to forest fires. Galo Paguay / AFP/File
The study was released a week after Ecuador declared a national emergency due to forest fires. Galo Paguay / AFP/File
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Air Pollution from Fires Linked to 1.5 Million Deaths a Year

The study was released a week after Ecuador declared a national emergency due to forest fires. Galo Paguay / AFP/File
The study was released a week after Ecuador declared a national emergency due to forest fires. Galo Paguay / AFP/File

Air pollution caused by fires is linked to more than 1.5 million deaths a year worldwide, the vast majority occurring in developing countries, a major new study said on Thursday.
This death toll is expected to rise in the coming years as climate change makes wildfires more frequent and intense, according to the study in The Lancet journal.
The international team of researchers looked at existing data on "landscape fires", which include both wildfires that rage through nature and planned fires such as controlled burns on farming land.
Around 450,000 deaths a year from heart disease were linked to fire-related air pollution between 2000 and 2019, the researchers said.
A further 220,000 deaths from respiratory disease were attributed to the smoke and particulates spewed into the air by fire, AFP said.
From all causes around the world, a total of 1.53 million annual deaths were associated with air pollution from landscape fires, according to the study.
More than 90 percent of these deaths were in low and middle-income countries, it added, with nearly 40 percent in sub-Saharan Africa alone.
The countries with the highest death tolls were China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Indonesia, and Nigeria.
A record amount of illegal burning of farm fields in northern India has been partly blamed for noxious smog that has recently been choking the capital New Delhi.
The authors of the Lancet study called for "urgent action" to address the huge death toll from landscape fires.
The disparity between rich and poor nations further highlights "climate injustice", in which those who have contributed the least to global warming suffer from it the most, they added.
Some of the ways people can avoid smoke from fires -- such as moving away from the area, using air purifiers and masks, or staying indoors -- are not available to people in poorer countries, the researchers pointed out.
So they called for more financial and technological support for people in the hardest-hit countries.
The study was released a week after UN climate talks where delegates agreed to a boost in climate funding that developing countries slammed as insufficient.
It also came after Ecuador declared a national emergency over forest fires that have razed more than 10,000 hectares in the country's south.
The world has also been battered by hurricanes, droughts, floods and other extreme weather events during what is expected to be the hottest year in recorded history.