Month: August 2021

Huan Huan, a giant panda on loan to France, gave birth to twin cubs very early Monday, according to the Beauval zoo.  The twins, born around 1 a.m., are Huan Huan and her partner Yuan Zi’s second and third cubs, after the first panda ever born in France, Yuan Meng, in 2017. “The two babies are pink. They are perfectly healthy. They look big enough. They are magnificent,” said Rodolphe Delord, president of ZooParc de Beauval in Saint-Aignan, central France. WATCH: Using Pandas for DiplomacySorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can download this video to view …

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Every day sees more Afghan refugees reach Turkey after a grueling trek across Iran. As far as they’re concerned their journey is far from over — they want to get to the countries of the European Union — for them the Promised Land. But it is a land that is unwilling to accept them and is making plans to deter them from arriving. Around 2,000 Afghans a day are entering Turkey, and migration experts expect the numbers to surge as the Taliban seizes control of more of Afghanistan. The Taliban is currently besieging three major cities in south and west …

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A record number of migrants has crossed the English Channel from France to the United Kingdom this year in small boats. The British government is seeking to deter the migrants by making irregular migration a criminal offense.The migrants come from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. Most are fleeing conflict or poverty.At its narrowest point, the English Channel is 30 kilometers wide. The migrants usually travel in overloaded inflatable dinghies across the busiest shipping lane in the world. British and French intelligence services say the crossings are coordinated by networks of people smugglers, who charge about $3,000 per person.French …

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London’s Heathrow Airport welcomed fully vaccinated travelers arriving from the United States and most parts of the European Union Monday, the first day they could do so without going into quarantine.Heathrow Chief Executive John Holland-Kaye called lifting quarantine rules “a milestone,” saying it has allowed families to reunite that have been kept apart by the COVID-19 restrictions for as long as 18 months. Video from the airport Monday showed several emotional family reunions.New arrivals must still be tested before boarding their flights and take genetic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) COVID-19 tests within two days of arrival.Holland-Kaye has urged the government …

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A record-breaking heat wave across southeastern Europe has fueled deadly wildfires in Turkey as well Greece and Italy and threatened the national power grid in Greece.Firefighters from the European Union arrived in Turkey on Monday where they joined local volunteers in fighting deadly wildfires along its coastline for a sixth day, The fires have been blamed for the deaths of eight people in recent days. There were no reports of additional deaths Monday.Opposition politicians in the country are criticizing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for what they deemed his sluggish and out-of-touch response to the fires.Italian firefighters are using helicopters to …

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