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After months of preparation for their journey from a sanctuary in Yaan, China, the first giant pandas in 20 years to make the trip from China to the United States are ready to go.

It’s not clear when the public will be able to get their first glimpse at pandas Yun Chuan (pronounced yoon chu-an) and Xin Bao (pronounced sing bao) at the San Diego Zoo, but it’s expected to be at some point this summer, NBC News correspondent Janis Mackey Frayer reported June 26 on TODAY.

“There’s a magic that I can’t begin to explain, but you all feel it. Whenever you get an opportunity to see one up close, and you see them look back in your eyes, it’s powerful,” the San Diego Zoo’s told Frayer on TODAY.

Baribault is part of a delegation from the zoo who are in China for the pandas’ send-off.

While there is secrecy around the pandas’ exact departure plans, Frayer shared on TODAY June 25 that the animals will go into crates transported via truck to an airport for their specialized flight to the U.S.

“We’re always looking out for what’s best for the pandas, and so we want to make sure that nothing distracts from us just doing the best by the giant pandas,” Dr. Megan Owen, vice president of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, said on TODAY in the June 26 segment.

Their Chinese handler, Wang Shan, will make the trip with the pandas, giving them their food and helping them settle once they reach San Diego. He said on TODAY on June 26 that he will miss the lovable pair.

“Absolutely,” he said. “We consider them our friends.”

The pandas will celebrate their next birthday in San Diego. They were both born days apart in late July, and a celebration with a cake of frozen fruit and carrots is being planned.

The birthday bash may or may not be open to the public, depending on whether the pandas have finished their acclimation period in quarantine to adjust to the new climate and different food.

Experts also told Frayer that the pandas have a fondness for each other that could mean panda babies down the road.

Once the animals are situated, those who are interested in visiting them should plan accordingly: The ideal time to see them is in the morning when it hasn’t gotten too hot. Later in the day, they enjoy sleeping in the shade.

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The Chicago woman’s mother, Colette Seymore, is among a small group traveling to the Bahamas on Wednesday to help in the search, according to a statement from Casey’s family. Seymore spoke to ABC News about the situation.

“You know, a mother’s intuition and answers I was getting just didn’t correlate, just wasn’t what I wanted to hear,” Seymore told ABC News. “A young lady called me and said, ‘have you heard from Taylor?’ And I’m like, I’m looking at the phone because I know she was from the yoga retreat … and then she said ‘Taylor hasn’t showed up for yoga classes.'”

The Royal Bahamas Police Force issued a missing person bulletin on June 21, two days after the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat reported to police that Casey did not show up for morning classes.

The yoga retreat said it also reported the disappearance to the U.S. Embassy and Casey’s family.

Amin Stigal, 22, is wanted for conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and damage, for his alleged role in the cyberattacks, the Department of Justice said after it unsealed the indictment Wednesday.

The DOJ alleged that Stigal supported the Russian GRU’s activities by setting up infrastructure for them to conduct cyberattacks, and is alleged to have used a so-called “WhisperGate” malware to target the government entities that included military units and critical infrastructure systems.

Bloomberg reports that a document was briefly posted on the Supreme Court’s website showing that it will dismiss Idaho’s appeal of a lower court’s decision that allowed emergency abortions to protect the health of a mother.

The current law states that the procedure is only allowed if “necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman.” There is an exception for victims of rape and incest, but only in the first trimester.

The Biden administration challenged the law, saying it conflicts with federal regulations — specifically the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA. It requires emergency rooms to treat patients in active labor and provide stabilizing care. The Biden administration argued that includes abortion if necessary.

In a statement to Scripps News, the Supreme Court acknowledged that the document was real, but it did not say whether that was the final ruling.

“The opinion in Moyle v. United States, No. 23-726, and Idaho v. United States, No. 23-727, has not been released,” Supreme Court spokesperson Patricia McCabe said. “The Court’s Publications Unit inadvertently and briefly uploaded a document to the Court’s website. The Court’s opinion in these cases will be issued in due course.”

This is the second time in two years that a document from the Supreme Court got out prematurely.

In 2022, a leaked draft opinion showed the Supreme Court would overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide.

The leak forecasted the decision, which was made official about a month later. The Supreme Court was never able to identify the person who leaked the draft opinion.

Bloomberg reports that a document was briefly posted on the Supreme Court’s website showing that it will dismiss Idaho’s appeal of a lower court’s decision that allowed emergency abortions to protect the health of a mother.

The current law states that the procedure is only allowed if “necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman.” There is an exception for victims of rape and incest, but only in the first trimester.

The Biden administration challenged the law, saying it conflicts with federal regulations — specifically the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA. It requires emergency rooms to treat patients in active labor and provide stabilizing care. The Biden administration argued that includes abortion if necessary.

In a statement to Scripps News, the Supreme Court acknowledged that the document was real, but it did not say whether that was the final ruling.

“The opinion in Moyle v. United States, No. 23-726, and Idaho v. United States, No. 23-727, has not been released,” Supreme Court spokesperson Patricia McCabe said. “The Court’s Publications Unit inadvertently and briefly uploaded a document to the Court’s website. The Court’s opinion in these cases will be issued in due course.”

This is the second time in two years that a document from the Supreme Court got out prematurely.

In 2022, a leaked draft opinion showed the Supreme Court would overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide.

The leak forecasted the decision, which was made official about a month later. The Supreme Court was never able to identify the person who leaked the draft opinion.

Truck drivers are getting caught in the crossfire or have their cargo seized by marauding “gang-like” groups, said Doug Strope, with the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The sense of desperation gripping ordinary Palestinians is only compounded by the combination of Gaza being an active combat zone and a prevailing “general sense of lawlessness,” Stropes told The Associated Press.

The security “that’s needed for the humanitarians to work is what’s really lacking right now,” the USAID official added.

The remarks are the latest amid international criticism over Israel’s campaign against Hamas as Gaza faces severe and widespread hunger. The eight-month war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, and people there are now totally dependent on aid.

The war was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in which the militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage. Since then Israel’s ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,600 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Over 80% of the territory’s 2.3 million people have been displaced. Palestinians in Gaza are heavily reliant on U.N. aid, which has only trickled in after Israel in early May expanded its offensive into Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, shutting down a major land crossing and slowing deliveries from another one.

Meanwhile, the U.N. food agency has suspended aid delivery from a U.S.-built pier linked to Gaza’s coastline due to security concerns after the Israeli military appeared to use the area in a June 8 hostage rescue.

The World Food Program is currently reviewing the security around the beach area so that deliveries can resume “very soon,” Stropes said.

Since June 25, ships have delivered almost 7,000 metric tons (7,716 U.S. tons) of humanitarian assistance from the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus to Gaza via the pier — but only 1,000 metric tons (1,102 U.S. tons) have so far reached Palestinians. The rest is being stored on a stretch of beach by the pier, he said.

Scenes of desperate people randomly grabbing what they can off the trucks and the reported “gang-like activity” in which looting has become “more organized and systemic,” are undermining aid efforts, he added.

Still, aid donated by the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and other European countries, continues to be shipped to Gaza from the Cypriot port of Larnaca to the pier.

On Wednesday, the U.S. navy ship MV Cape Trinity was being loaded with hundreds of pallets of aid carried onboard by trucks that drive through scanners inspected by both Cypriot and Israeli customs officials. U.S. military officials said that no contraband of any sort has so far been identified among the cargo.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned on Wednesday during a visit to Athens that 96% of Gaza residents “are suffering from conditions that can’t be accepted humanitarianly,” according to a report by the food analysis agency Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.

In Cyprus, Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos acknowledged the difficulties of the maritime corridor — a complex “mega-project” from Larnaca, across the Mediterranean Sea to the pier in Gaza, untried before on this scale anywhere else.

“There is no alternative, inaction or inertia in this kind of situation is not an option,” Kombos told reporters.

U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus Julie Fisher said the pier was built because of the urgency of the need to get food and medicine into Gaza.

“Last month alone, the assistance that went through this maritime corridor, we know it reached a million Palestinians in Gaza,” Fisher said after talks with Kombos. “Undoubtedly, it has challenges. We also know that it is making a difference. We know we can do more.”

___

Associated Press senior video producer Thedora Tongas in Athens contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Truck drivers are getting caught in the crossfire or have their cargo seized by marauding “gang-like” groups, said Doug Strope, with the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The sense of desperation gripping ordinary Palestinians is only compounded by the combination of Gaza being an active combat zone and a prevailing “general sense of lawlessness,” Stropes told The Associated Press.

The security “that’s needed for the humanitarians to work is what’s really lacking right now,” the USAID official added.

The remarks are the latest amid international criticism over Israel’s campaign against Hamas as Gaza faces severe and widespread hunger. The eight-month war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, and people there are now totally dependent on aid.

The war was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in which the militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage. Since then Israel’s ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,600 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Over 80% of the territory’s 2.3 million people have been displaced. Palestinians in Gaza are heavily reliant on U.N. aid, which has only trickled in after Israel in early May expanded its offensive into Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, shutting down a major land crossing and slowing deliveries from another one.

Meanwhile, the U.N. food agency has suspended aid delivery from a U.S.-built pier linked to Gaza’s coastline due to security concerns after the Israeli military appeared to use the area in a June 8 hostage rescue.

The World Food Program is currently reviewing the security around the beach area so that deliveries can resume “very soon,” Stropes said.

Since June 25, ships have delivered almost 7,000 metric tons (7,716 U.S. tons) of humanitarian assistance from the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus to Gaza via the pier — but only 1,000 metric tons (1,102 U.S. tons) have so far reached Palestinians. The rest is being stored on a stretch of beach by the pier, he said.

Scenes of desperate people randomly grabbing what they can off the trucks and the reported “gang-like activity” in which looting has become “more organized and systemic,” are undermining aid efforts, he added.

Still, aid donated by the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and other European countries, continues to be shipped to Gaza from the Cypriot port of Larnaca to the pier.

On Wednesday, the U.S. navy ship MV Cape Trinity was being loaded with hundreds of pallets of aid carried onboard by trucks that drive through scanners inspected by both Cypriot and Israeli customs officials. U.S. military officials said that no contraband of any sort has so far been identified among the cargo.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned on Wednesday during a visit to Athens that 96% of Gaza residents “are suffering from conditions that can’t be accepted humanitarianly,” according to a report by the food analysis agency Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.

In Cyprus, Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos acknowledged the difficulties of the maritime corridor — a complex “mega-project” from Larnaca, across the Mediterranean Sea to the pier in Gaza, untried before on this scale anywhere else.

“There is no alternative, inaction or inertia in this kind of situation is not an option,” Kombos told reporters.

U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus Julie Fisher said the pier was built because of the urgency of the need to get food and medicine into Gaza.

“Last month alone, the assistance that went through this maritime corridor, we know it reached a million Palestinians in Gaza,” Fisher said after talks with Kombos. “Undoubtedly, it has challenges. We also know that it is making a difference. We know we can do more.”

___

Associated Press senior video producer Thedora Tongas in Athens contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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