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Happy Birthday, Moo Deng: The world’s beloved pygmy hippo turns 1 – National TenX News

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The internet’s most loved hippo is celebrating her first birthday.

Moo Deng, the pygmy hippo from Thailand who captured the hearts of people across the globe with her playful personality and goofy antics, is being treated to four days of festivities in celebration of her first full trip around the sun.

Staff at Khao Kheow Open Zoo treated the hippo to a three-tier cake adorned with rainbows, flowers, and her favourite snack, watermelon.


Zoo staff prepare a cake for Moo Deng, the popular pygmy hippo from Thailand, on her first birthday.


Lauren DeCicca / Getty Images

Throughout the four-day event, children under 12 years old can enter the zoo, which is about a two-hour drive from the capital, Bangkok, for free.

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Moo Deng’s fans, including adults, have come from far and wide to watch her celebrate.

Among them was Molly Swindall, who flew from New York to catch a glimpse of the famous hippo.

She was seen handing a tray of food to a zoo keeper for Moo Deng’s breakfast, which the baby hippo and her mother, Jona, gobbled up.


Moo Deng eats a fruit-topped cake with her mother, Jona.


Lauren DeCicca / Getty Images

“I just loved her so much and decided, you know what, I have three or four days off of work … I can make it work to fly to Thailand,” Swindall told The Associated Press. I will only be there for about 30 hours, but that’s enough to go see Moo Deng. And that’s exactly what I did.”

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Zoo director Narongwit Chodchoy said that by Thursday afternoon, 12,000 people had visited the zoo, but Moo Deng remained calm amid the hysteria.

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Chodchoy said the number of visitors has dropped since the height of Moo Deng’s fame last year, and that the zoo has had about 2,000 visitors during a weekday and around 5,000 during weekends over the past few months — about half the numbers it saw at its peak.


Click to play video: 'Meet Moo Deng, a baby pygmy hippo melting hearts around the world'


Meet Moo Deng, a baby pygmy hippo melting hearts around the world


Fans photographed the baby hippo and sang her “Happy Birthday” as she was presented with an elaborate cake.

Meanwhile, more Moo Deng lovers spoke of their admiration for her.

“Moo Deng is my happy pill, and she’s my energy pill, my curing pill. She’s my vitamin!” Thea Chavez, who flew in from Houston, Texas, said.

Another fan, Jennifer Tang from Malaysia, leaned over the enclosure to take pictures.

“She makes me happy. Whenever I’m stressed at work, I pull up photos of Moo Deng,” Tang said. “So my whole office knows that I’m here … They let me take a week off.”

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The zoo also held an auction for the privilege of sponsoring Moo Deng’s birthday cake, which went for 100,000 baht, about US$3,065.

Moo Deng went viral on TikTok shortly after she was born when her keeper, Atthapon Nundee, began sharing sweet videos of her playing, hilariously squirming at the idea of a bath, munching on veggies, napping and leisurely going about her day.


Moo Deng is seen sunbathing in her enclosure at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo on Nov. 26, 2024, in Chonburi, Thailand.


Matt Jelonek / Getty Images

The name Moo Deng, which means “bouncy pork” in Thai, was chosen by fans. It matches the names of her siblings: Moo Toon (stewed pork) and Moo Waan (sweet pork). There is also another hippo at the zoo named Kha Moo (stewed pork leg).

— With files from The Associated Press


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Israeli strikes kill at least 32 in Gaza as Palestinian war deaths top 58,000 – National TenX News

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Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed at least 32 people on Sunday, including six children at a water collection point, while the Palestinian death toll passed 58,000 after 21 months of war, local health officials said.

Israel and Hamas appeared no closer to a breakthrough in indirect talks meant to pause the war and free some Israeli hostages after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Washington visit last week. A new sticking point has emerged over Israeli troops ‘ deployment during a ceasefire.

Israel says it will end the war only once Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something it refuses to do. Hamas says it is willing to free all the remaining 50 hostages, about 20 said to be alive, in exchange for an end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Throughout the war in Gaza, violence has surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Funerals were held there Sunday for two Palestinians, including Palestinian-American Sayfollah Musallet, killed by Israeli settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

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In central Gaza, officials at Al-Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies after an Israeli strike on a water collection point in nearby Nuseirat. Among the dead were six children.

Ramadan Nassar, a witness who lives in the area, told The Associated Press that around 20 children and 14 adults had been lined up to get water. He said Palestinians walk some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) to fetch water from the area.

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The Israeli military said it was targeting a militant but a technical error made its munitions fall “dozens of meters from the target.”


In Nuseirat, a small boy leaned over a body bag to say goodbye to a friend.

“There is no safe place,” resident Raafat Fanouna said as some people went over the rubble with sticks and bare hands.

Separately, health officials said an Israeli strike hit a group of citizens walking in the street on Sunday afternoon in central Gaza City, killing 11 people and injuring around 30 others.

Dr. Ahmed Qandil, who specializes in general surgery, was among those killed, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. A ministry spokesperson, Zaher al-Wahidi, told the AP that Qandil had been on his way to Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital.

In the central town of Zawaida, an Israeli strike on a home killed nine, including two women and three children, officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said. Later, Al-Awda Hospital said a strike on a group of people in Zawaida killed two.

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Israel’s military said it was unaware of the strike on the home, but said it hit more than 150 targets over the past 24 hours, including what it called weapons storage facilities, missile launchers and sniping posts. Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militant group operates out of populated areas.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says women and children make up more than half of the over 58,000 dead in the war. The ministry, under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The U.N. and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

The Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251.

Israel’s Energy Minister Eli Cohen told right-wing Channel 14 that his ministry will not help rebuild infrastructure in Gaza. “Gaza should remain an island of ruins to the next decades,” he said.

In the West Bank, which has seen violence between Israeli troops and Palestinians and Israeli settlers’ attacks on Palestinians, funerals were held for a Palestinian-American and a Palestinian friend.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Musallet, from Florida, had been beaten by Israeli settlers. Diana Halum, a cousin, said the attack occurred on his family’s land. The ministry initially identified him as Seifeddine Musalat, 23.

Musallet’s friend, Mohammed al-Shalabi, was shot in the chest, the ministry said.

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Israel’s military has said Palestinians hurled rocks at Israelis in the area on Friday, lightly wounding two people and setting off a larger confrontation. Palestinians and rights groups have long accused the military of ignoring settler violence.

Their bodies were carried through the streets on Sunday as mourners waved Palestinian flags and chanted, “God is great.”

Musallet’s family has said it wants the U.S. State Department to investigate his death and hold the settlers accountable. The State Department said it had no comment out of respect for the family.

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EU delays retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods in hopes of Aug. 1 trade deal – National TenX News

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The EU will suspend retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods scheduled to take effect Monday in hopes of reaching a trade deal with the Trump administration by the end of the month.

“This is now the time for negotiations,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels on Sunday, after U.S. President Donald Trump sent a letter announcing new tariffs of 30 per cent on goods from the EU and Mexico starting Aug. 1.

The EU — America’s biggest trading partner and the world’s largest trading bloc — had been scheduled to impose “countermeasures” starting Monday at midnight Brussels time (6 p.m. EDT). The EU negotiates trade deals on behalf of its 27 member countries.

Von der Leyen said those countermeasures would be delayed until Aug. 1, and that Trump’s letter shows “that we have until the first of August” to negotiate. European leaders have urged Trump and von der Leyen to give negotiations more time.

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“We have always been clear that we prefer a negotiated solution,” she said. If they can’t reach a deal, she said that “we will continue to prepare countermeasures so we are fully prepared.”

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Standing alongside Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, von der Leyen said the trade tensions with the U.S. show the importance of “diversifying our trade relationships.’”

Trump has said his global tariffs would set the foundation for reviving a U.S. economy that he claims has been ripped off by other nations for decades. Trump in his letter to the European Union said the U.S. trade deficit was a national security threat.

U.S. trade partners have faced months of uncertainty and on-and-off threats from Trump to impose tariffs, with deadlines sometimes extended or changed. The tariffs could have ramifications for nearly every aspect of the global economy.

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The value of EU-U.S. trade in goods and services amounted to 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in 2024, or an average of 4.6 billion euros a day, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat. Europe’s biggest exports to the U.S. were pharmaceuticals, cars, aircraft, chemicals, medical instruments and wine and spirits.

Trade ministers from EU countries are scheduled to meet Monday to discuss trade relations with the U.S., as well as with China.


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52 Palestinians in Gaza are killed by Israeli airstrikes or shot dead while seeking aid – National TenX News

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Israeli airstrikes killed at least 28 Palestinians including four children in the Gaza Strip, while 24 others were fatally shot on their way to an aid distribution site, Palestinian hospital officials and witnesses said Saturday.

The children and two women were among at least 13 people killed in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, after Israeli airstrikes pounded the area starting late Friday, officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said. Fifteen others died in airstrikes in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment.

At least 24 people were killed on their way to a food distribution site near Rafah run by an Israeli-backed American organization, hospital officials and witnesses said. Israel’s military said it fired warning shots toward people it said were behaving suspiciously to prevent them from approaching. It said it was not aware of any casualties.

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The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said no incident occurred near its sites.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that would bring the release of more hostages from Gaza and potentially wind down the war. But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough. The militant group still holds some 50 hostages, with at least 20 believed to remain alive.

The 21-month war has left much of Gaza’s population of over 2 million reliant on outside aid while food security experts warn of famine. Israel blocked and then restricted aid entry after ending the latest ceasefire in March.


The fatal shootings of 24 people occurred in the Rafah area of southern Gaza, hundreds of meters from the food distribution site, Israel’s military said.

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A GHF spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the group’s policies, said: “We checked with our extended team and this incident didn’t happen near our sites.”

Witnesses said they were shot at while on their way to the site seeking food.

Abdullah al-Haddad said he was 200 meters from the aid distribution site run by the GHF close to the Shakoush area, west of Rafah, when an Israeli tank started firing at crowds of Palestinians.

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“We were together, and they shot us at once,” he said, writhing in pain from a leg wound at Nasser Hospital.

Mohammed Jamal al-Sahloo, another witness, said Israel’s military had ordered them to proceed to the site when the shooting started.

Sumaya al-Sha’er’s 17-year-old son, Nasir, was killed in the shooting, hospital officials said.

“He said to me, ‘Mom, you don’t have flour and today I’ll go and bring you flour, even if I die, I’ll go and get it,’” she said. “But he never came back home.”

Until then, she said, she had prevented the teenager from going to GHF sites because she thought it was too dangerous. But food supplies were running out.

Witnesses, health officials and U.N. officials say hundreds have been killed by Israeli fire while heading toward GHF distribution points through military zones off limits to independent media. The military has acknowledged firing warning shots at Palestinians who it says approached its forces in a suspicious manner.

The GHF denies there has been violence in or around its sites in the past. But two of its contractors told the AP that their colleagues have fired live ammunition and stun grenades as Palestinians scramble for food, allegations denied by the foundation.

In a separate effort, the U.N. and aid groups say they are struggling to distribute humanitarian aid because of Israeli military restrictions and a breakdown of law and order that has led to widespread looting.

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The first fuel — 150,000 liters — entered Gaza this week after 130 days, a joint statement by U.N. aid bodies said, calling it a small amount for the “the backbone of survival in Gaza.” Fuel runs hospitals, water systems, transport and more, the statement said.

Israel’s military said that over the past 48 hours, troops struck approximately 250 targets in Gaza including militants, booby-trapped structures, weapons storage facilities, anti-tank missile launch posts, sniper posts, tunnels and additional Hamas sites.

Also on Saturday, the military announced strict restrictions along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast and called on fishermen, swimmers and divers not to go to sea.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the war and abducted 251.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 57,800 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The U.N. and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

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