A male named Ping Ping and a female named Fu Shuang landed on Sunday, days after China’s leader said he would dispatch “envoys of friendship” to the United States.

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Kirill Nguyen, the founder of Gaga Daily, said he had been imprisoned in Belarus for participating in pro-democracy protests. He resurfaced this week after an absence of more than two years.

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The president has often reached for statues of the national bird on diplomatic occasions in his second term. (Ronald Reagan favored them, too.)

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Balendra Shah wore them as a rapper, as Kathmandu’s mayor and on his way to becoming prime minister. Now he has taken the look to the United Nations.

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The activist, Daniel Thomas on Thursday denied causing criminal damage when he filmed himself slashing an inflatable dinghy in the English Channel that had an emergency responder on board.

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