Hong Kong’s first locally born giant pandas have finally been named and introduced as Jia Jia and De De.

The names of the cubs, affectionately known as “Elder Sister” and “Little Brother,” were announced Tuesday in a ceremony at Ocean Park, the theme park housing them, their parents and two other giant pandas that arrived from mainland China last year.

The names were the winning suggestions from residents in a naming contest that drew more than 35,700 entries.

The Chinese character “Jia,” from the female cub’s name “Jia Jia,” carries a message of support and features an element of family and a sense of auspicious grace. The name embodies the prosperity of families and the nation and the happiness of the people, the park said.

The Chinese character “De,” from the male cub’s name, means to succeed, carrying the connotation that Hong Kong is successful in everything. De also has the same pronunciation as the Chinese character for virtue, the park said, suggesting giant pandas possess virtues cherished by Chinese people.

Ocean Park chairman Paulo Pong said they followed tradition by using Mandarin pronunciation for the pandas’ English names. He said “Jia” sounds like a word in the Cantonese term for elder sister, while “De De” sounds a bit like the Cantonese phrase for little brother. Cantonese is the mother language of many Hong Kongers.

“It’s a very positive pair of names,” he said. “We have to be a bit creative here with the names.”

The twins’ birth in August made their mother, Ying Ying, the world’s oldest first-time panda mom. Their popularity among residents, visitors and on social media raised hopes for a tourism boost in the city, where politicians touted the commercial opportunities as the “panda economy.”

Observers are watching whether housing six pandas helps the park revive its business, especially when caring for the animals in captivity is expensive. Ocean Park recorded a deficit of 71.6 million Hong Kong dollars ($9.2 million) last financial year.

The park recorded a nearly 40% growth in visitor flow and 40% increase in overall income during a five-day holiday beginning May 1 in mainland China, said Pong, who hopes the growth momentum will continue through summer, Halloween and Christmas seasons.

Pandas are considered China’s unofficial national mascot. The country’s giant panda loan program with overseas zoos has long been seen as a tool of Beijing’s soft-power diplomacy.

Germany and other Ukrainian allies have lifted restrictions on Kyiv firing long-range missiles into Russia for the first time, the German chancellor said Monday, after days of Russia bombarding the capital and other regions with massive aerial attacks.

It marks a significant change in approach from key allies, which until now had largely resisted Ukraine’s requests to use Western-supplied weapons deep inside Russia.

“There are no longer any range restrictions on weapons supplied to Ukraine,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at a European forum in Berlin on Monday. “Neither from the British, nor from the French, nor from us. Nor by the Americans.”

“In other words, Ukraine can now also defend itself by attacking military positions in Russia, for example,” he added.

The announcement comes in the wake of record-breaking drone and missile attacks on Ukraine over the weekend. Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing international pressure to accept a ceasefire deal, including from US President Donald Trump, who has grown increasingly frustrated by the slow progress.

Merz was appointed chancellor several weeks ago – and his declaration stands in stark contrast with his predecessor Olaf Scholz, who had repeatedly rejected Ukraine’s calls to lift the restrictions.

However, Merz did not say whether Germany would supply Ukraine with its powerful long-range Taurus missiles – something he had supported when Scholz was still in power, Reuters reported.

The United States lifted its restrictions last November, with former President Joe Biden authorizing Ukraine to use the US-supplied long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, inside Russia.

But that, too, was a controversial decision that took months of discussion to reach. The US refused to even provide ATACMS to Ukraine for the first two years of the war, only delivering the missiles for the first time in April 2024. Some American officials worried about escalating the war, now in its fourth year, while others worried about the Pentagon’s dwindling weapons stockpiles.

Russia has openly threatened that any lifting of restrictions on long-range weapons would mean war with NATO. Putin has warned the West that Moscow would consider any assault supported by a nuclear power to be a joint attack – and that Russia could use nuclear weapons if it was struck with conventional missiles.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov slammed Merz’s announcement on Monday, saying the lifting of restrictions was “rather dangerous,” according to Russia’s state-owned news agency TASS.

“If such decisions are made, they will absolutely go against our aspirations to reach a political settlement and the efforts being made within the framework of the settlement,” he said, according to TASS.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to visit Berlin on Wednesday, Reuters reported, citing several sources.

Russia’s attacks over the weekend killed more than two dozen people, including children, as Ukraine urged Western allies to continue pressuring Moscow to end the war.

“Without really strong pressure on the Russian leadership, this brutality cannot be stopped,” Zelensky said on Sunday.

Trump on Monday voiced increasing frustration with Putin, saying the Russian leader had “gone absolutely crazy” – while also criticizing Zelensky’s statements as causing “problems.”

Pressure is also building from within Trump’s Republican base, with a number of congressmen – including Sens. Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham, and Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Don Bacon – urging the president to impose stringent sanctions on Russia.

“It is a time for honesty. Peace talks are having zero effect on Putin,” Bacon wrote on X. “The US and allies must arm Ukraine to the teeth.”

India’s defense minister has approved a framework for building the country’s most advanced stealth fighter jet, the defense ministry said on Tuesday, amid a new arms race with Pakistan weeks after a military conflict between the neighbors.

Indian state-run Aeronautical Development Agency, which is executing the program, will shortly invite initial interest from defense firms for developing a prototype of the warplane, envisaged as a twin-engine 5th generation fighter, the ministry said.

The project is crucial for the Indian Air Force, whose squadrons of mainly Russian and ex-Soviet aircraft have fallen to 31 from an approved strength of 42 at a time when rival China is expanding its air force rapidly. Pakistan has one of China’s most advanced warplanes, the J-10, in its arsenal.

Militaries of nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan faced-off in four days of fighting this month, which saw use of fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery by both sides before a ceasefire was announced by US President Donald Trump.

It was the first time both sides utilized drones at scale and the South Asian powers are now locked in a drones arms race, according to Reuters’ interviews with 15 people, including security officials, industry executives and analysts in the two countries.

India will partner with a domestic firm for the stealth fighter program, and companies can bid independently or as a joint venture, the defense ministry said in a statement, adding that the bids would be open for both private and state-owned firms.

In March, an Indian defense committee had recommended including the private sector in military aircraft manufacturing to shore up the capabilities of the Indian Air Force and reduce the burden on state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, which makes most of India’s military aircraft.

Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh has previously criticized Hindustan Aeronautics for slow delivery of light combat Tejas aircraft, a 4.5 generation fighter, which the firm blamed on slow delivery of engines from General Electric GE.N due to supply chain issues faced by the US firm.

India’s financial capital and one of its largest cities has experienced its wettest May in more than a century, with the unusually early arrival of the monsoon season causing a ferocious weekend downpour that turned roads into rivers and flooded a newly inaugurated underground train station.

Mumbai, a city of more than 12 million, has recorded more than 400 millimeters of rainfall this month so far, according to data from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), with much of the downpour arriving late last weekend.

The deluge caused chaos and delays across transport networks, including at the newly inaugurated Worli Metro Station.

Video published by local media outlets showed travelers wading knee-deep in flood water, water gushing down a station staircase, and water leaking heavily from the ceiling onto a train platform.

India’s $4 trillion economy is heavily dependent on the monsoon, which brings rains that farmers depend on to support the country’s agricultural sector, which employs nearly half of the country’s 1.4 billion people.

The rains, which usually arrive in June and last through September, are needed to grow crops, irrigate farmland and replenish India’s reservoirs. But this year’s early arrival has caused havoc across Mumbai, India’s finance capital and home to its vaunted Bollywood film industry, flooding roads and submerging cars.

Some experts say that global warming is increasing the variability of India’s monsoon rains faster than previously projected.

The onset of the southwest monsoon in Mumbai on May 26 is the earliest advancement over the city since 1950, Nair said.

Each year the monsoon causes chaos across Mumbai, particularly for commuters travelling on its hectic, overcrowded public transport system.

Last year in May, heavy rains caused a huge billboard to collapse, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens more.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Worli Metro station just earlier this month, part of his ambitious plan to modernize India’s aging transport network and transform the country’s infrastructure to achieve his goal of turning it into a developed nation by 2047.

Further rains are forecast for the region this week, the IMD said, potentially causing further flooding.

The southern state of Kerala over the weekend also saw an unusually early arrival of the monsoon, bringing some respite after experiencing days of an unrelenting heatwave.

Indian capital New Delhi last week also experienced widespread rain, lightning, and thunderstorms, causing a canopy at the city’s airport to collapse from waterlogging.

The bodies of five skiers have been found on a glacier near the Swiss mountain of Rimpfischhorn, police announced on Sunday.

The bodies were found after two other skiers raised the alarm, saying that they had seen skis at the foot of the summit of the mountain, but had not come across the owners of them, the police statement said.

A rescue helicopter with medical professionals on board immediately flew over the area and the five bodies were “quickly discovered,” the statement continued.

Three of the bodies were found some 500 meters (roughly 1640 ft) from where the skis were located, Swiss broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) reported. The two other bodies were found nearly 200 meters (roughly 656 ft) higher, on a small, snow-covered area, it added.

Formal identification of the victims is ongoing. The Attorney General has opened an investigation to determine the exact circumstances of the accident, police said.

Venezuelans on Sunday for the first time elected a governor and other lawmakers for Essequibo, an oil-rich region that Venezuela has laid claim to even though it is widely recognized as being part of neighboring Guyana.

Essequibo’s 125,000 inhabitants, who account for more than 15% of the English-speaking country’s population, did not take part in Sunday’s election.

The vote, which was widely criticized by Guyanese officials, instead saw Venezuelans pick a new governor, six deputies to the National Assembly of Venezuela, and seven to a regional legislative assembly. It is unclear how the officials, once elected, plan on running the territory, which Guyana governs.

The election is the latest provocation in a long-running territory dispute between Venezuela and Guyana.

It comes more than a year after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered the creation of a new state within the territory, which is roughly the size of Florida, called “Guayana Esequiba,” following a referendum that saw Venezuelan voters approving the move.

Guyana had called Venezuela’s actions a step towards annexation and an “existential” threat as the specter of armed conflict loomed over the region.

Maduro first announced in January that a vote would be held for the region as part of a larger election for governors and lawmakers across the country. “I call for freedom of conscience for the people and for the people to elect the best for the governorships of the 24 states,” Maduro said on Telegram ahead of Sunday’s election, referring to Essequibo as the nation’s 24th state.

The vote has put Guyana on high alert, with its President Irfaan Ali on Saturday calling the poll “scandalous, false, propagandistic (and) opportunistic.”

Guyana is home to vast oil reserves and is on track to become the world’s highest per capita oil producer. It, however, has an army estimated to be less than 5,000 soldiers, and lacks the hardware or manpower to face possible Venezuelan aggression.

The country in the meantime has sought closer military cooperation with the United States amid the threats from Venezuela.

On Sunday, the US State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs called the election a “sham” on X. “The United States rejects all attempts by Nicolas Maduro and his illegitimate regime to undermine Guyana’s territorial integrity, including this latest sham election in the Essequibo region,” it wrote.

Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López pushed back against the criticism on Sunday, saying, “We are supported by historical, legal, and moral grounds regarding that territory.”

Decades-long claim

Venezuela has claimed Essequibo as its own for decades, arguing that it was within its borders during the Spanish colonial period. It has dismissed an 1899 ruling by international arbitrators that set the current boundaries when Guyana was still a British colony.

Guyana has controlled the region since gaining independence in 1966. The recent discovery of vast offshore oil fields in the area has heightened the stakes in the dispute.

In 2018, Guyana filed an application with the International Court of Justice to try to validate the 1899 decision. The case is still under review. Pending a final decision, the court ordered earlier this month that Venezuela refrain from holding elections in the territory. But Caracas has rejected the court’s jurisdiction over the matter.

On Saturday, the night before Venezuela’s election and two days ahead of Guyana’s Independence Day, Guyanese officials held a National Patriotic Concert in Essequibo to affirm their sovereignty over the land.

The event drew thousands of people who were seen waving the Guyanese flag and wearing shirts that read: “Essequibo is Guyana’s.”

“Essequibo belongs to Guyana and we are going to do everything to ensure that Essequibo will forever be part of our 83,000 square miles,” President Ali told crowds of cheering supporters.

Pope Leo XIV asked Sunday for prayers for China’s Catholics to be in communion with the Holy See, as he made his first public remarks about one of the thorniest foreign policy issues facing his new pontificate.

History’s first American pope recalled that on Saturday the Catholic Church marked a special feast day to pray for the church in China. Pope Benedict XVI had initiated the feast day as part of his efforts to unify China’s estimated 12 million Catholics who were divided between an official, state-controlled church that didn’t recognize papal authority, and an underground church that remained loyal to Rome through decades of persecution.

Leo noted that on the feast day “in the churches and shrines in China and throughout the world, prayers have been raised to God as a sign of the solicitude and affection for Chinese Catholics and their communion with the universal church.”

Speaking from his studio window during his noontime blessing, Leo prayed that Catholics in China and elsewhere “obtain the grace to be strong and joyful witnesses of the Gospel, even in the midst of trials, to always promote peace and harmony.”

Pope Francis took Benedict’s unifying efforts further by approving a controversial deal in 2018 over bishop nominations. The details of the deal were never released, but it affords the state-controlled church a say in its church leaders, though Francis insisted he retained veto power over the ultimate choice.

The deal has been criticized by some, especially on the Catholic right, for having caved to Beijing’s demands and sold out the underground faithful in China. The Vatican has said it was the best deal it could get and it has been renewed periodically since then.

Leo will have to decide whether to continue renewing the accord. There have been some apparent violations on the Beijing side with some unilateral appointments that occurred without papal consent. The issue came to a head just before the conclave that elected Leo pope, when the Chinese church proceeded with the preliminary election of two bishops, a step that comes before official consecration.

Leo told the archbishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Stephen Chow, that he had “visited China several times and got to know the Chinese culture and reality,” according to the Fides missionary news agency, citing comments Chow made in his diocesan weekly newsletter after the conclave.

Chow added that he expected Leo would follow Francis’ direction for the church in China. He said he had given Leo a small statue of Our Lady of Sheshan, a statue of the Madonna that is particularly venerated by Chinese faithful and is celebrated on the feast day, May 24.

Chow, a Jesuit, said he had implored Leo “to not forget the church in China and the Chinese people,” according to the newsletter. “He nodded his head to indicate that he will not forget,” according to Fides.

The Vatican has been working for years to try to improve relations with China that were officially severed over seven decades ago when the Communists came to power. Relations had long been stymied over China’s insistence on its exclusive right to name bishops as a matter of national sovereignty, while the Vatican insisted on the pope’s exclusive right to name the successors of the original Apostles.

The 2018 deal was aimed at uniting the flock, regularizing the status of seven bishops who weren’t recognized by Rome and thawing decades of estrangement between China and the Vatican.