By CHRISTINA LARSON

With their distinctive shaggy orange manes, pale blue faces and dense fur covering their hands and feet, it’s hard to mistake China’s endangered golden snub-nosed monkeys for any other animal.

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These rare and charismatic monkeys, unique to the frigid mountains of central China, have recently joined the country’s famous pandas as furry envoys to zoos in Europe for the first time — on loan for 10 years from the same government-overseen group that coordinates official panda exchanges.

As with “ panda diplomacy,” some observers cheer new opportunities for scientific and conservation collaboration, while others raise concerns about the welfare of individual animal ambassadors transported around the world.

Leaping among red and gray-tiled roofs

Three golden monkeys arrived at France’s Beauval Zoo in the city of Saint-Aignan this April, following an agreement to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and France.

Another trio of golden monkeys arrived at the Pairi Daiza zoo in Hainaut, Belgium, in May. The zoo distributed Belgian and Chinese hand flags to visitors on the day the monkeys arrived.

After a monthlong quarantine, the two sets of monkeys made their public debuts. So far, they appear to be in good health, according to the two zoos, adapting to new climates outside Asia for the first time.

Golden snub-nosed monkeys sit together in the Shennongjia National Park in Shennongjia in central China’s Hubei province on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

At Pairi Daiza, the habitat enclosure for Liu Yun, Lu Lu and Juan Juan includes traditional Chinese gazebos with red columns and gray-tiled roofs, where the monkeys spend much of their time jumping between logs and rope ladders and scrambling over roofs.

“The diplomatic aspect comes from this cultural awareness,” said Pairi Daiza spokesperson Johan Vreys.

The hope is to build longstanding scientific exchanges between the zoos and Chinese authorities, said Anaïs Maury, the communications director for the Beauval Zoo.

The zoo is in discussions with China to launch joint research and conservation programs “similar to those already in place for other emblematic species like pandas,” Maury said.

A short history of modern animal ambassadors

Both giant pandas and golden snub-nosed monkeys are endangered animals that are unique to China and they can only be moved outside the country with approval from the central government, said Elena Songster, an environmental historian at St. Mary’s College of California.

While both species are considered national treasures, only monkeys have deep roots in Chinese art and culture, appearing in countless paintings and as characters in classic literature, including the wily Monkey King in the 16th century novel “Journey to the West.”

In this photo provided by Pairi Daiza, a golden snub-nosed monkey from China is transported in Brugelette, Belgium, in May 2025. (Pairi Daiza via AP)

When pandas stepped, rolled, scratched and stumbled onto the world stage in recent decades, they quickly became symbols of modern China — in part to due to their own “cuddly cuteness” and deft diplomatic presentation, said Susan Brownell, a China historian at the University of Missouri, St. Louis.

The original soft power couple from post-war China was a pair of giant pandas, Ping Ping and Qi Qi, sent to the Soviet Union in 1957 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution, which led to the establishment of the world’s first Communist state.

In 1972, a pair of pandas was sent to the U.S. for the first time, following President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing. In 1984, China switched from gifting pandas to loaning them.

Following outcry from animal-rights activists, China ended the practice of short-term loans and began longer leases, usually around a decade. In this arrangement through the China Wildlife Conservation Association, part of the money that an overseas zoo pays annually to China must be earmarked for habitat conservation or scientific research to benefit the species.

Still, what benefits a species may not be beneficial to an individual animal. Transporting animals over long distances and sending their offspring back to China, as the agreements require, may highly stress animals, said Jeff Sebo, an environmental and bioethics researcher at New York University.

“Animal health and welfare matters,” he said, “not just for geopolitical or strategic aims.”

Habitat conservation in China

Within China, the golden snub-nosed monkeys today live across a swath of central and southwestern China that includes parts of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu and Hubei provinces.

A baby golden snub-nosed monkey climbs on a branch in the Shennongjia National Park in Shennongjia in central China’s Hubei province on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

At the Shennongjia National Park in Hubei, conservation efforts since the 1980s have helped increase the region’s population threefold to around 1,600 monkeys today, said Yang Jingyuan, president of the Academy of Sciences at the park.

It’s unclear exactly how to evaluate the diplomatic track record of furry ambassadors.

Still, in an era of rising global tensions, “I think pandas are a really useful entryway,” said James Carter, a China historian at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. “Pandas open up an opportunity for people to think something positive about China — they’re cute, they don’t do anything bad.”

A golden snub-nosed monkey is seen in the Shennongjia National Park in Shennongjia in central China’s Hubei province on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

The golden snub-nosed monkeys now at zoos in France and Belgium are so far the only ones outside of Asia.

“China’s golden snub-nosed monkeys aren’t globally iconic yet,” said Brownell, “but there may be potential for them to be in the future.”

Associated Press video producer Wayne Zhang, in Shennongjia National Park, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

A sign of the Minnesota Wild’s early-season struggles were laid bare Monday when the NHL released its three stars awards for the week that ended on Sunday. Three players who played, and beat, Minnesota last week — Utah forward Logan Cooley, San Jose forward Macklin Celebrini and New Jersey forward Jack Hughes — were recognized for their achievements.

In fairness, the Wild kept Hughes off the score sheet last week in their 4-1 loss in Newark, but Grand Casino Arena public address man Adam Abrams called Cooley and Celebrini’s names on more than one occasion over the weekend, and not for penalties, as the Wild fell to 1-4-2 in their last seven games.

The Wild have played four home games, and have four more upcoming on their current homestand, starting Tuesday night versus Winnipeg. They are 1-2-1 on home ice this season, but perhaps more concerning is that they have given up a total of 22 goals in those for games — an average of 5.5 goals against per game in St. Paul.

In the building where defensive mastermind Jacques Lemaire once patrolled the space behind the home bench, that number is notably too high,

As has seemingly been the story for way too long now, injuries are a factor, as veteran Zach Bogosian has now missed five games with a lower body injury, which has led to still youthful David Jiricek being forced into more key on-ice time. During Sunday’s whacky 6-5 overtime loss to the Sharks, a San Jose power play goal happened when Jake Middleton was in the penalty box and in his stead, Jiricek missed a defensive assignment – a mistake that ended up on the other side of the goal line.

The Wild have preached patience with Jiricek, acquired 11 months ago in a trade with Columbus. He was the sixth overall pick by the Blue Jackets in the 2022 NHL Draft, and has all of the physical tools to be a standout blueliner at this level. But Wild coach John Hynes noted in training camp that Jiricek’s decision making in the heat of the battle in the defensive zone is sometimes lacking. The San Jose power play goal was another example of a misplay by a player who as of this week has just 65 NHL games to his credit, and is still learning.

“I would say more it’s experience of being in that situation,” Hynes said on Sunday. “It’s understanding the details of it and how those things matter. So, I think it’s a work in progress.”

Two other young defensemen who have been every-night members of the Wild lineup – rookie Zeev Buium and third-year player Brock Faber – have had moments of struggle and flashes of brilliance.

Buium, who got his first taste of NHL hockey in the playoffs last season, scored his second career goal versus San Jose and has had moments where the puck-moving flash that made him one of college hockey’s more dynamic players a year ago at Denver is clearly evident. He also said that one of the biggest lessons at this level of the game has come on the defensive side, where things that you could get away with in college are almost certain to end up in your NHL team’s net.

Faber recorded three assists versus the Sharks, tying his career high, and had three golden opportunities to win the game in overtime, when the Wild controlled possession for more than three minutes. He admitted after the game that even 10 games into an 82-game campaign a 3-5-2 record is notably less than what they and the fanbase expects, and defensive miscues have been part of the problem.

“It’s like everyone’s gripping the stick a little differently. We got a group of guys that has the right intentions. Every single guy on this team wants to win. Every single guy on this team is sacrificing, doing whatever they can to win, and it’s just not working out,” Faber said. “And sometimes when you’re playing that desperate, I don’t want to make a mistake. Sometimes that causes you to make mistakes.”

While Hynes has talked about his team’s identity of “playing north” and putting the other team’s defenders under duress, the current funk has been fueled at least in part by the Wild’s own defensive miscues. Cleaner play in that end of the rink, and fewer NHL standouts getting recognized for their work versus Minnesota, look like two potential solutions for righting the ship.

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By NICOLAS VAUX-MONTAGNY and SYLVIE CORBET

PARIS (AP) — Ten people went on trial on Monday accused of cyberbullying Brigitte Macron after they allegedly made “malicious” comments online spreading claims that President Emmanuel Macron ‘s wife is a man.

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Brigitte Macron did not show up at the two-day trial in Paris that started on Monday afternoon.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said the eight men and two women are accused of spreading “numerous malicious comments” online about the first lady’s gender and “sexuality” and of mentioning the age gap with her husband as “pedophilia.” Seven of the defendants were in court Monday, while three others were being represented by their lawyers.

Some of the defendants, aged between 41 and 60, are very active on social media, with posts sometimes accumulating tens of thousands of views.

Delphine Jegousse, 51, known as Amandine Roy, who describes herself as a medium and an author, is considered as having played a major role in spreading the rumor after she released a 4-hour video on her YouTube channel in 2021.

Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, 41, known as Zoé Sagan on social media, has seen his X account suspended last year after his name was cited in several judicial investigations.

Others include an elected official, a teacher and a computer scientist.

The chief judge said they are all accused of cyberbullying the first lady, which led to “a deterioration of her physical and mental health.”

The Macrons have for years been dogged by conspiracy theories that Brigitte was born a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux, who supposedly then took the name Brigitte as a transgender woman. Jean-Michel Trogneux is the name of Brigitte’s brother.

The two-day trial in Paris comes after the Macrons filed a defamation suit in July in a Delaware court as their lawyer said they’ll be seeking “substantial” damages from U.S. conservative influencer Candace Owens if she persists with claims that Brigitte is a man.

Owens is a right-leaning political commentator whose YouTube channel has about 4.5 million subscribers. In 2024, she was denied a visa from New Zealand and Australia, citing remarks in which she denied Nazi medical experimentation on Jews in concentration camps during World War II.

A verdict in the Paris case will likely be issued at a later date.

In September 2024, Brigitte and Jean-Michel Trogneux won a defamation suit against Jegousse and another woman who were sentenced by a Paris court to fines and damages for spreading the claims about the first lady online. A Paris appeals court overturned the ruling in July. Brigitte and her brother have since turned to France’s highest court to appeal that decision.

The Macrons, who have been married since 2007, first met at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher. Brigitte Macron, 24 years her husband’s senior, was then called Brigitte Auzière, a married mother of three.

Emmanuel Macron, 47, has been France’s president since 2017.

A gunman was sentenced to nearly five years in prison Monday for a 2023 robbery at a St. Paul park and a June shooting that wounded three at a downtown pool party.

Tyson Joseph Volk (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Tyson Joseph Volk, 20, received his sentence in Ramsey County District Court after pleading guilty to the two cases in August. Three counts of attempted second-degree murder filed in the shooting were dismissed as part of a plea deal he reached with the prosecution.

According to court records, Volk was out on bond in the robbery case when he fired a 9 mm handgun nine times on June 21 at the rooftop pool at Kellogg Square apartments at Kellogg Boulevard and Robert Street.

The shooting was fueled by a physical fight a month earlier between Volk and a 23-year-old man, the criminal complaint said.

On the rooftop, Volk and another man approached the 23-year-old, who then punched Volk. Volk stumbled backward, pulled out a gun and started firing.

The man was struck in the knee, while a 20-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound to the pelvis. A 16-year-old boy was hit in the ankle.

Marquez Demar Hill-Turnipseed then fired shots toward Volk, according to a complaint charging the 23-year-old with possession of a firearm by a person who was ineligible due to a conviction of a crime of violence.

Earlier cases

Less than three weeks earlier, on June 1, Hill-Turnipseed allegedly fired a barrage of bullets from a Dodge Challenger into several groups of people at Boom Island Park along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, a shooting that killed 23-year-old Stageina Whiting and wounded four men.

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Hill-Turnipseed, of Minneapolis, was charged under a sealed complaint with aiding and abetting murder and other counts. He was arrested in early July in Chicago.

Both cases against him are pending.

In Volk’s robbery case, a 19-year-old man told St. Paul police he went to Weida Park in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood to smoke marijuana with two acquaintances just after midnight Oct. 2, 2023.

He said Volk pulled out a handgun, pointed it at his face and then pistol-whipped him while a juvenile recorded the incident on a cellphone. He was robbed of his iPhone, clothes and Nike Air Force shoes. Police found two videos of the robbery on Volk’s phone.