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Vue lecture

Why China Is Requiring Ninth Graders to Read ‘Jane Eyre’

The Victorian heroine has long been celebrated in China for her independence and insistence on equality.

© Zhu Zhenqiang/VCG, via Getty Images

A woman reads at a bookstore in Beijing in August. “Jane Eyre” has found generations of readers in China since it was first translated into Chinese a century ago.
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Giant Pandas, Icons of China’s Soft Diplomacy, Arrive in Atlanta

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.

© Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times

Yun Chuan, a 5-year-old male panda, at the San Diego Zoo in 2024. Two pandas were sent on Sunday to Zoo Atlanta, bringing the total number of giant pandas in the United States to six.
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He Ran a Top Lady Gaga Fan Page. Then He Vanished.

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.

© The New York Times

Lady Gaga performing at Madison Square Garden in New York in August 2025.
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You Get an Eagle, and You Get an Eagle: Xi Takes Home Trump’s Go-To Gift

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

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

President Trump gave Xi Jinping, China’s leader, a statue of a bald eagle as a gift on Thursday.
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Why Nepal’s Prime Minister Balen Shah Wears Sunglasses

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.

© Lexi Parra/The New York Times

Prime Minister Balendra Shah of Nepal speaks at the United Nations on Thursday.
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