Actor John Cena has apologized to fans in China after he called Taiwan a country in a promotional interview for his upcoming film and became the latest celebrity to face the fury of Chinese nationalists.

WASHINGTON – More than three months after his birth, the National Zoo's new panda cub finally has a name. Officials at the Smithsonian, which runs the zoo, announced Monday morning that the cub born on August 21 would be named Xiao Qi Ji (shee-OW-chee-jee), which is Mandarin Chinese for “little miracle.”The choice was the result of a five-day online poll that drew nearly 135,000 voters to choose between different Mandarin Chinese names. In a nod to Chinese tradition, the name was not chosen until 100 days after the birth. Monday's announcement comes on the day the zoo shut its doors to the public for the second time this year due to the the COVID-19 pandemic. But the zoo reopened on July 24 and other museums gradually reopened other museums with timed entry passes to keep the crowds low.

Ethnic Mongolians, including students and parents, in Chinas Inner Mongolia region are demonstrating their anger in rare public protests against a new bilingual education policy that they say is endangering the Mongolian language. The new policy for Inner Mongolia, a northern province that borders the country of Mongolia, affects schools where Mongolian has been the principal language of instruction. Literature classes for elementary and middle school students at the Mongolian-language schools will switch to a national textbook and be taught in Mandarin Chinese. The education bureau in Inner Mongolia did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment. Now Chinese class is literature class, Chinese is the primary language and Mongolian has become a supplementary language," he said.