On a snow-blanketed field in Virginia, a handful of workers were silent but for the groan of a chainsaw chopping through bamboo — a delicacy for their furry clients down the road in the US capital of Washington.The team, bundled up for the cold, then stuffed up to 700 bamboo stalks into a pickup truck to be driven 70 miles (110 kilometres) to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo to feed, among others, its newly arrived pandas.Bao Li, a male, and female Qing Bao, landed in the United States from China in October as part of a decade-long breeding and research agreement.Public visitors are this week finally allowed to see the pair at the free-entry zoo and more likely than not, the pandas will be snacking on bamboo harvested at this hilly farm.But satisfying these bears — who can spend up to 16 hours a day feeding on up to 100 pounds (45 kilos) of bamboo — is no easy feat.Their appetites are so ravenous because pandas’ digestive systems are designed to process meat yet they have evolved to be almost entirely dependent on bamboo, which is of little nutritional value.”Bamboo harvest is probably one of the most rigorous things that we do,” said Mike Maslanka, head of nutrition for the zoo, his hands plunged into pockets to guard against the 10 degree Fahrenheit (minus 12 degree Celsius) temperatures at the site in the Shenandoah Valley.Trudging through ankle-deep snow, three young men chopped down scores of bamboo stems — some reaching 20 feet high — and began piling them up.After harvesting, the bamboo must pass quality control, where leafless stems are cast aside and only the greenest ones make it to the zoo’s bamboo fanatics, which also include Asian elephants and gorillas.- Picky eaters -The pandas add to the already high demands, with Maslanka saying the bamboo farm team is now operating four days a week, up from three days last year.It also means learning the new arrivals’ eating habits. Qing Bao is proving a “little bit more finicky in terms of palate,” said Maslanka, who wore a black beanie emblazoned with a panda, while Bao Li is “OK with just about anything that we offer.”Maslanka added that this was a common thread among pandas, whose reputation as picky eaters has prompted deep discussion — and confusion — about their feeding habits. “We’ve tried to pin it down to species or age or location or soil type, slope, elevation. We can’t, there’s no rhyme or reason,” he said.”We’ll offer this bamboo to them tomorrow and they won’t like it. We’ll offer it to them the next day, they’ll think it’s the best thing ever,” added Maslanka, who has over 15 years of experience with the Smithsonian National Zoo.This makes it a delicate task ensuring the bamboo is up to the pandas’ standards.Before being served to the bears, Maslanka said the bamboo is placed into an air-conditioned shed which is cooled to around 55 degrees Fahrenheit and equipped with misters to keep the stems moist.The Washington pandas are among just a few that remain in the United States, including a pair that arrived at San Diego’s zoo last summer.Their presence is part of the so-called panda diplomacy carried out by Beijing, in which its black-and-white bears are sent across the globe as soft-power diplomats.Thanks to conservation efforts, the giant panda was downgraded last year from “endangered” to “vulnerable” on the global list of species at risk of extinction.

A federal judge  blocked Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship in the United States on Thursday as liberal states scored their first victory against the new president’s hardline agenda.The ruling imposes a 14-day stay on the enforcement of one of the most controversial executive orders Trump signed in the hours after he was sworn into office for a second term.”This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” US District Judge John Coughenour was reported as saying during the hearing in Washington state.”I’ve been on the bench for over four decades, I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is,” said Coughenour, who was appointed by a Republican president, Ronald Reagan.Trump told reporters his administration would “obviously” appeal the ruling, while the Department of Justice said it would defend the executive order, which a spokesman said “correctly interprets” the US Constitution.”We look forward to presenting a full merits argument to the court and to the American people, who are desperate to see our nation’s laws enforced,” the spokesman said.Birthright citizenship is enshrined in the US Constitution under the 14th Amendment which decrees that anyone born on US soil is a citizen.It says, in part: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”Trump’s order was premised on the idea that anyone in the United States illegally, or on a visa, was not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the country, and therefore excluded from this category.An incredulous Coughenour chided Justice Department attorney Brett Shumate over his assertion that Trump’s order was constitutional.”Frankly, I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar could state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order,” Coughenour said. “It just boggles my mind.”- ‘On a whim’ -The ruling comes after a flurry of lawsuits filed by 22 states, two cities and numerous civil rights groups.It was hailed by states that took part in the legal actions.”No president can change the constitution on a whim and today’s decision affirms that,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said.The ruling is “the first of many wins to come as my office fights instances of executive overreach and any illegal actions the new administration may take.”Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said Trump’s order was “un-American.””Birthright citizenship makes clear that citizenship cannot be conditioned on one’s race, ethnicity or where their parents came from,” he said after the ruling.”It’s the law of our nation, recognized by generations of jurists, lawmakers and presidents, until President Trump’s illegal action.”Ted Lieu, a congressman from California said the matter was clear.”Birthright citizenship is as American as apple pie,” he wrote on social media.”If you’re born in America, you’re a citizen.”The legal challenge was no surprise, and Trump had acknowledged it was likely when he signed the order.He has repeatedly — and wrongly — asserted that the United States is the only country in the world with birthright citizenship; in fact more than 30 others also have it, including Canada and Mexico.Trump’s opponents have argued that the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868 as the United States sought to knit itself back together after the Civil War, has been settled law for over a century.They have cited an 1898 US Supreme Court ruling in the case of a San Francisco-born Chinese American man named Wong Kim Ark.Wong was denied entry back into the United States after visiting relatives in China on the grounds that he was not a citizen.The court affirmed that children born in the United States, including those born to immigrants, could not be denied citizenship. 

When Donald Trump was inaugurated in 2017, opponents marched in pink knitted “pussy hats” while protesters abroad plastered streets with images of the new US president as “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader.Spool forward eight years — after his entanglements with the law, two impeachments and divisive pardons of violent criminals — and the vibe among the anti-Trump resistance movement isn’t so much “A New Hope” as its darker sequel, “The Empire Strikes Back.”Although there has been sporadic protest, the United States has seen almost none of the mass mobilization that made opposition to Trump in 2017 the largest social movement in a half-century.Even in Congress, Democrats have been more inclined in recent weeks to talk about “working with” Trump — noting his popular vote victory — rather than going after the Republican at every opportunity. “Resistance alone is a failed strategy. If it worked, Trump wouldn’t be president,” said political consultant Andrew Koneschusky, a former press secretary to Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “Democrats ran a campaign of resistance last cycle and it barely made a dent.”Trump, 78, sparked outrage after winning a tight 2016 election despite disparaging Mexicans, boasting about groping women on the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape and facing numerous sexual misconduct allegations.Democrats see as much to worry about this time around, and yet analysts have noted a palpable lack of the anger that came with his first term.- ‘The new Resistance’ -There has been some limited action by Democratic leaders in California to counter Trumpism, mainly behind-the-scenes strategy sessions, and “The People’s March” in Washington last weekend was reasonably well attended.But it was tiny compared to the 500,000-strong 2017 “Women’s March.” Even liberal Hollywood seems cowed, with the political spotlight moving away from the music and movie stars who backed Kamala Harris in 2024 to the Tinseltown legends like Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson who have joined Trump’s team.Koneschusky suggested that opposition was shifting to a more focused approach that targets specific aspects of Trump’s populist “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) agenda, in the courts as much as in news studios.”The Resistance hasn’t vanished — it has evolved. It has moved from the streets to the courts. Well-crafted legal challenges have replaced protests and public displays of opposition,” he told AFP.He pointed to more than 20 Democratic states suing to block Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship and civil society groups like the ACLU girding for a variety of legal fights. “The lawsuit, rather than the protest, is the new Resistance,” he said.Veteran political strategist Mike Fahey added that those who organized against Trump in 2024, only to see him win anyway, have hit a wall, and that exhaustion rather than apathy is paralyzing opposition.But he agreed that much of the opposition was simply less performative than in the past — and not necessarily less effective.- ‘The guts to fight’ -“Instead of relying on the sorts of large, dramatic demonstrations that characterized the early weeks of Trump’s presidency, these organizations have begun to stage far more sophisticated and less visible public events to work their will,” he said.While Trump’s victory last November was painful for Democrats, many believe that presenting Trump as an avatar of all society’s ills — or shrieking that every tweet was a threat to democracy — was counter-productive.Peter Loge, the director of George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs, said smart opponents were tuning out the noise coming from Trump’s Truth Social feed to focus instead on specific policy impacts. “One way to think about it is like an amusement park or nightclub. When the lights are flashing and the noise is blaring it’s easy to get caught in the show,” he told AFP.”Smoke machines, disco balls and laugh tracks drive attention and resources, but ultimately it is about how people live their daily lives — and that’s policy.”Some groups that opposed Trump first time around reject the idea that his narrow popular vote victory gave him a broad mandate, pointing out that more people voted against him than for him in November.”Democrats can’t afford to cower behind half measures or excuses,” said Ezra Levin, the co-executive director of progressive lobby group Indivisible.”If they don’t have the guts to fight this now, when it’s all on the line, they’ll be handing Trump and MAGA Republicans exactly what they want: a propaganda victory that will embolden their assault on our freedoms.”

Venezuelan Josnexcy Martinez, who is staying at a shelter in a Texas border city, said she’s afraid of getting swept up in a raid targeting migrants even though she entered the country legally.   President Donald Trump began his second term with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling immigration into the United States. He has signed orders declaring a “national emergency” at the southern border and announced the deployment of more troops to the area while vowing to deport “criminal aliens,” moves that have spread fear across many communities.  Martinez, 28, is staying at a shelter in the city of El Paso with her five-year-old after entering the United States using the CBP One app.The platform allowed migrants in Mexico to make an appointment with US officials at designated border crossings, where they could apply for temporary residency. Trump cancelled the service on the first day of his new term. Even though Martinez is entitled to stay in the United States until her asylum case is heard by a judge, she said Trump’s actions have left her perpetually on edge. “My fear is that I will be arrested in a raid, by a police officer or someone from immigration and that they will ask me for my papers,” she said.Martinez, who gently drew a sheet over her son in the bunk bed where he sleeps, also held up the ID given to her by US officials when she crossed, explaining that she always has it on her. Karina Breceda, who runs the shelter where Martinez is staying, voiced concern that because of Trump’s policies, “we’re… going to start targeting people based on what we think a person that’s undocumented looks like, based on the color of their skin, or their clothes.”- ‘Just insane’ -In El Paso — a city of 678,000 people where roughly 80 percent of the population is of Latin American origin — Trump’s actions have bred anger among some. Mirna Cabral, 37, is a beneficiary of the DACA program launched during former president Barack Obama’s administration that gave some undocumented migrants who arrived as minors temporary work permits, which must be renewed.  She entered the United States illegally as a child and made a life in Texas. She married an American, who has since died, and had two children.Cabral was outraged by Trump’s executive order that aims to restrict birthright citizenship, an action already facing legal challenges on grounds that it breaches provisions in the Constitution. “That is just insane,” she said of Trump’s order. “It’s going against our Constitution because it doesn’t matter if you have a legal status or you don’t.”Everyone born in the United States, she said, has “the same rights.”Julieta Torres, 65, was born in Mexico but has lived in El Paso for decades. Cancelling birthright citizenship was unfair to children, she argued. “If they were born here, they are from this country, even if they are the children of undocumented parents,” she said.Hector Chavez, who works in El Paso, said migrants aspiring to be American in search of a better life should rethink their plans.  The 61-year-old Mexican national legally crosses to work in the United States, but chooses to live in Ciudad Juarez on the Mexican side of the border, where life is more affordable. Immigrants should “stay on the other side,” he said. “The American dream is over.”

Donald Trump has derided the Delta smelt as a “worthless fish,” blaming efforts to protect the species for the devastating Los Angeles wildfires on social media, in a press conference, and even a White House order.In reality, California’s Delta smelt has minimal connection to the city’s water supply, say experts, who argue the US president’s willingness to condemn an endangered species reflects the chaotic and shortsighted nature of his environmental policies.”It’s scapegoating an internal enemy that’s supposed to be responsible for all our problems, in this case, fires and drought — and directing everybody’s anger toward that,” John Buse, general counsel for the Center for Biological Diversity, told AFP.It is a “classic authoritarian” move, he argues — and a likely harbinger of what we will see under Trump 2.0.Trump’s assertion, first made on Truth Social, claimed that Governor Gavin Newsom’s failure to sign an order allowing millions of gallons of water from excess rain and snowmelt to flow southward from the state’s north had hampered firefighting efforts.He reiterated the accusation in a Day One executive order dramatically titled “Putting People Over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California.”-  Real crisis, wrong culprit – California has a complex water crisis — with climate change an outsized factor.But the Delta smelt — a small, translucent fish considered a “sentinel” species that indicates the health of its Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta habitat — is not a culprit.”It was once one of the most abundant fish in the upper estuary, supporting a diverse array of predators including striped bass,” said Peter Moyle, a University of California, Davis ichthyologist widely regarded as the leading expert on the species.However, habitat degradation caused by water diversions for agriculture and urban use, competition and predation by invasive species, exposure to contaminants, and dwindling food sources led to the Delta smelt being listed as “threatened” in 1993, and “endangered” by California in 2009. Water projects in The Golden State must balance conservation with meeting agricultural and urban demands.Trump’s rhetoric has nationalized what was previously a Californian political narrative pitting fish against farmers, leaving the Delta smelt a convenient “scape fish,” according to Moyle.Massive federal- and state-run pumping stations redirect water from northern areas to the south, creating challenges for the smelt and other aquatic life. Increased salinity from these pumping operations harms the fish, and many are killed when they are sucked into screens or diverted into canals.- Culture war politics – Despite Trump’s claims, however, protections that limit the amount of pumping for the Delta smelt and other fish have had minimal recent impact on the Los Angeles water supply.The federal Central Valley Project, which Trump has targeted under his order, primarily serves agriculture in Central California — not Los Angeles, explains Buse.While the State Water Project does supply water to Southern California, including Los Angeles, most of the state’s major reservoirs are currently at or above historic levels for this time of year, particularly in the south, official data shows.Even in drier years, protections for the Delta smelt account for only a small fraction of reductions in outflow.The primary factor determining water pumped downstream is the amount of rainfall and snowmelt flowing into the San Francisco estuary.As Moyle explained in a 2017 paper, the same saltwater that harms the fish also poses significant challenges for agriculture, making it the key driver of restrictions on water exports.The Delta smelt’s legal protection “has been particularly controversial because right-wing pundits and politicians have seized on its small size,” said Caleb Scoville, a sociologist at Tufts University. “Salmon aren’t as easy of a target.”Rather than addressing the root causes of California’s water challenges — including climate change — Trump’s rhetoric turns “hardships associated with environmental destabilization into partisan gotchas,”  Scoville argued.”It feeds us-versus-them identity politics but doesn’t actually hold power to account.”