Daily Caller
Panda Conservation Projects Backfiring After American Zoos Dished Out Millions To China

Giant Panda at the Atlanta Zoo. Creative Commons license -Flickr/Rob
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Ireland Owens
American zoos have dished out millions to China for panda conservation projects, but the money has instead largely been spent developing China’s economy, according to The New York Times.
U.S. zoos have sent tens of millions of dollars to China for the right to host pandas in the U.S., according to the NYT. Despite the U.S. government requiring that the funds be allocated toward panda conservation, the Chinese government has spent millions on various other expenses, including roads, apartment buildings and museums.
American zoos pay around $1 million annually to receive pandas from China, according to the NYT. Some of the American zoos were aware that the funds were not always being used to protect pandas, but were concerned that they may have to stop displaying pandas and return them to China if the payments ceased.
Many American zoos rely on displaying pandas to boost merchandise sales and attract visitors, according to the NYT. Some U.S. regulators have previously raised concerns about Chinese administrator’s use of the funds, and regulators halted payments to China in 2003 due to inadequate documentation.
“There was always pushing back and forth about how the U.S. shouldn’t ask anything,” Kenneth Stansell, a former Fish and Wildlife official, told the NYT.
Two giant Chinese pandas arrived in Washington, D.C. in October and are set to debut at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in January 2025, according to CNN. The zoo has already begun to release panda-themed merchandise, according to Washingtonian.
“It’s really alarming that they’re approving these things in the first place,” said Delcianna Winders, an animal-law professor at Vermont Law and Graduate School, the NYT reported. “And then there’s no follow-up to track that the money is actually going to what it’s supposed to be going to.”
conflict
‘They Don’t Know What The F*ck They’re Doing’: Trump Unloads On Iran, Israel

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
President Donald Trump expressed frustration Tuesday after Iran broke a ceasefire, prompting retaliation from Israel during a gaggle with reporters on the White House lawn.
Trump announced the ceasefire Monday, saying it was supposed to take effect at 1 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, but Iran fired missiles at Israel Tuesday. Trump vented, saying the countries had been “fighting so long” they couldn’t make peace.
WATCH:
“You know, when I say okay, now you have 12 hours, you don’t go out in the first hour just drop everything you have on them,” Trump said. “So I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either. But I’m really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning because the one rocket that didn’t land, that was shot, perhaps by mistake, that didn’t land, I’m not happy about that.”
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard, that they don’t know what the fuck they are doing,” Trump added.
The United States struck facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan related to Iran’s effort to develop nuclear weapons early Sunday morning local time, using as many as 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators in the operation, which involved a 37-hour flight by seven B-2A Spirit bombers.
The American strikes came ten days after Israel launched a military operation targeting the Iranian nuclear program. Iran has responded with repeated missile attacks on Israeli cities and a refusal to resume negotiations over its efforts to pursue nuclear weapons.
Automotive
Supreme Court Delivers Blow To California EV Mandates

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
“The Supreme Court put to rest any question about whether fuel manufacturers have a right to challenge unlawful electric vehicle mandates”
The Supreme Court sided Friday with oil companies seeking to challenge California’s electric vehicle regulations.
In a 7-2 ruling, the court allowed energy producers to continue their lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to approve California regulations that require manufacturing more electric vehicles.
“The government generally may not target a business or industry through stringent and allegedly unlawful regulation, and then evade the resulting lawsuits by claiming that the targets of its regulation should be locked out of court as unaffected bystanders,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion. “In light of this Court’s precedents and the evidence before the Court of Appeals, the fuel producers established Article III standing to challenge EPA’s approval of the California regulations.”
Kavanaugh noted that “EPA has repeatedly altered its legal position on whether the Clean Air Act authorizes California regulations targeting greenhouse-gas emissions from new motor vehicles” between Presidential administrations.
“This case involves California’s 2012 request for EPA approval of new California regulations,” he wrote. “As relevant here, those regulations generally require automakers (i) to limit average greenhouse-gas emissions across their fleets of new motor vehicles sold in the State and (ii) to manufacture a certain percentage of electric vehicles as part of their vehicle fleets.”
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals previously rejected the challenge, finding the producers lacked standing to sue.
“The Supreme Court put to rest any question about whether fuel manufacturers have a right to challenge unlawful electric vehicle mandates,” American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) President and CEO Chet Thompson said in a statement.
“California’s EV mandates are unlawful and bad for our country,” he said. “Congress did not give California special authority to regulate greenhouse gases, mandate electric vehicles or ban new gas car sales—all of which the state has attempted to do through its intentional misreading of statute.”
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