Hong Kong welcomed a new pair of giant pandas gifted by Beijing on Thursday with a lavish ceremony, raising hopes for a boost to the city’s tourism.

An An and Ke Ke are the third pair of giant pandas to be sent to the city from mainland China since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Their arrival came after their new neighbour, Ying Ying, gave birth to twins last month and became the world’s oldest first-time panda mother on record.

With the addition of the new bears, the twins, and their father, Le Le, Hong Kong now houses six pandas.

Chief Executive John Lee on Tuesday said An An is a five-year-old male panda who is agile, intelligent and active, while Ke Ke, a five-year-old female, is good at climbing, cute and has a gentle temperament.

Hong Kong hopes pandas will boost visitor numbers

The new arrivals will undergo two months of quarantine and adapt to their new home at Ocean Park, a zoo and aquarium that has long been a favourite of residents and tourists. Lee expressed hope that the public could meet the new bears in mid-December.

In October, the government will invite residents to propose new names that showcase the pandas’ characteristics.

Tourism industry representatives are optimistic about the potential impact of housing six pandas, hoping it will boost visitor numbers in Hong Kong. Officials have encouraged businesses to capitalise on the popularity of the new bears and newborn cubs to seize opportunities in what some lawmakers have dubbed the “panda economy”.

China’s panda loan programme is a tool for diplomacy

Pandas are widely considered China’s unofficial national mascot. The country’s giant panda loan programme with overseas zoos has long been seen as a tool of Beijing’s soft-power diplomacy. Giant pandas are only found in China’s southwest and their population is under threat from development.

But caring for pandas in captivity is expensive. A zoo in Finland agreed with Chinese authorities to return two loaned giant pandas to China more than eight years ahead of schedule because they were too costly for the facility to maintain amid declining visitors.

Hong Kong’s Ocean Park has been hosting pandas since 1999, when the first pair, An An and Jia Jia, arrived in the financial hub shortly after it was handed back to China.

Jia Jia, who died at 38 in 2016, is the world’s oldest-ever panda to have lived in captivity. The average lifespan for a panda in the wild is 18 to 20 years, while in captivity it’s 30 years, according to the Guinness World Records.

For non-EU nationals living in Italy or thinking of moving to the country, there’s good news about getting citizenship.

Campaigners have been pushing for a change in the law to make it easier for foreigners to gain citizenship by residency.

Currently, non-EU nationals need to live in Italy for at least 10 years before they are eligible for citizenship by residency.

Opposition politicians and non-profit organisations like Oxfam Italia have been fighting to reduce this to five years.

On Tuesday, they announced they had gathered enough signatures to qualify for a national referendum.

Changes to citizenship laws would affect 2.5 million foreigners

“We did it! In very few days 500,000 citizens signed for the #CitizenshipReferendum,” opposition lawmaker Riccardo Magi posted on social media.

This means a national referendum to reduce the required residency time from 10 years to five can now be requested.

Halving the time non-EU nationals have to live in Italy before being eligible for citizenship would bring Italy in line with other European countries including Germany, France, Portugal, the Netherlands and the UK.

Since 1999, several challenges to the law have been made but none have been successful.

Magi said that campaigners and those who signed the petition are pushing for “something simple, almost banal: those who choose Italy to live, study, love and grow, those who imagine their future in our country, are Italian”.

“And it is only the first step towards a more just law that recognises each one of their daughters, each one of their sons, as Italian,” he added.

Even if they are born in Italy, children of non-EU nationals who are not Italian citizens cannot apply for citizenship until they turn 18.

However, when parents become Italian citizens, minors are automatically awarded citizenship.

The request for a referendum must be now approved by two of Italy’s highest courts with a 50 per cent voter turnout for the result to be valid.

If changes to the law are passed, around 2.5 million foreigners would become eligible for Italian citizenship, campaigners said.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party is not in favour of easing the current rules.

The right-wing party is seen to have a strict anti-immigration stance. Talking to the media on Tuesday, Meloni said she considered 10 years of residency “a reasonable period for citizenship” and saw “no need to change” the law.

How can foreigners obtain Italian citizenship by residency?

Once the required period of residency has passed, or two years after marriage to an Italian citizen, non-EU nationals can make an online application for citizenship via the Italian Ministry of the Interior.

Applicants need multiple documents, including translations, for the process.

These include an original copy of your birth certificate translated and authenticated, criminal records from the countries where you currently hold citizenship, proof of residency in Italy and a certificate of B1 language proficiency.

The application costs €250.

Paris and Berlin will soon be connected by a new high-speed train service.

A night train between the French and German capitals launched in late 2023 but its daytime counterpart has lagged behind.

Now, it will finally hit the rails in December, France’s SNCF and Germany’s Deutsche Bahn have confirmed.

It’s set to bring faster, more regular connections between the two cities at a competitive price.

How long will the new Paris-Berlin train take?

Currently, travelling during the day between Paris and Berlin involves a connection and usually takes between nine and 10.5 hours.

The ÖBB Nightjet overnight train between the two capitals, meanwhile, takes around 13 hours and 15 minutes. It only departs three times a week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Since August, the service has been suspended due to major works on the rail network. It is expected to return in late October.

The new direct train service will run daily and take around eight hours, departing Paris Gare de l’Est at 9.55am and arriving at Berlin Hauptbahnhof at 6.03pm.

In the other direction, the train will depart at 11.54am and arrive at 7.55pm.

When will the new Paris-Berlin train launch and how much will it cost?

The new high-speed ICE train will run from 16 December – just in time for Christmas. It will stop in Strasbourg, Karlsruhe and Frankfurt along the way.

Tickets will go on sale from 16 October, starting at €59 one way.

“This creation of a connection contributes to a common objective of our two countries: to promote carbon-free mobility,” managing director of TGV-Intercités Alain Krakovitch tweeted after announcing the new service on Tuesday.

“Compared to the plane, the [train] journey between Berlin and Paris generates only one hundredth of the CO2 emissions,” he added.

Deutsche Bahn plans to make trains more reliable

Germany’s reputation for punctuality has, in recent years, not extended to its trains. In both 2022 and 2023, over a third of long-distance trains were delayed, DB figures show.

Short-term construction works, rail repairs, staff strikes and extreme weather were the main reasons behind the delays.

The operator hopes to improve the situation in the coming year, in part by adding more long-distance services with fewer stops.

From October, it will also allow passengers to pre-book 12 months ahead, up from the current six.

As infrastructure improvements continue, DB hopes that delays will gradually ease over the next two years.