Washington, D.C
Giant pandas begin their journey to DC's National Zoo
Panda-monium is back! … Or at least, on the way. A pair of 3-year-old giant pandas have begun their journey to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., according to officials from the China Wildlife Conservation Society and Chinese state-owned media.
Bao Li and Qing Bao will arrive nearly a year after the zoo’s last three pandas left for China, leaving D.C. without pandas for the first time in more than two decades.
At the time, it wasn’t clear when — or if — D.C. would ever again be home to giant pandas, but it turned out we wouldn’t have to wait all that long. In May, officials announced that China planned to send a pair of young pandas, male Bao Li and female Qing Bao. But at the time, they didn’t provide an official arrival date.
On Sunday night, according to Chinese state-owned media, Bao Li and Qing Bao left the Dujiangyan base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in a special vehicle en route to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport. They were set to then board a special flight to the D.C. area on Monday, according to the Chinese state-owned Xinhua News Agency, with a translation checked by NBC’s Peter Guo.
A spokesperson for the National Zoo declined to comment Monday, telling NBC: “For the safety of animals and staff, we are not able to confirm any details at this time. Thank you for your patience.”
The expected bundles of joy will come to the National Zoo under a 10-year breeding and research agreement between China and the U.S., the zoo has said.
Meet DC’s newest future residents: Giant pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao
Although the two were born in China, Bao Li (BOW-lee) has some major D.C. roots: He is the son of Bao Bao, who was born at the National Zoo in 2013. That makes him the grandchild of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, who lived at the Zoo for about 23 years before moving to China last November with their youngest offspring.
“The pandas’ arrival is not just an exciting event, but it’s proof positive of the success of our giant panda program,” National Zoo director Brandie Smith said when the plan was announced in May.
Roshan Patel, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute
Bao Li, whose name means “treasure” and “energetic” in Mandarin Chinese, was born Aug. 4, 2021, and lived at the Shenshuping Base in Wolong, China.
“Bao Li is just as handsome as his uncles, Tai Shan and Xiao Qi Ji,” Chinese ambassador Xie Feng said at a press conference in May, referring to two more of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian’s offspring, who were also born at the National Zoo. “I believe he is also excited for the upcoming trip from his hometown in Sichuan to D.C. to see the place where his family lived and get to know the friends here.”
As for Qing Bao (ching-BOW): “She is a star,” Xie said back in May. Qing Bao was made the ambassador of the ninth World Wildlife Day when she was a year old.
Qing Bao, whose name means “green” and “treasure,” was born Sept. 12, 2021, and lived at the Dujiangyan Base in Sichuan.
FedEx was expected to fly the new pair to the United States via its “Panda Express service.” Neither FedEx nor the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority provided public comment Monday.
The animals were expected to be quarantined for at least 30 days, and then allowed to settle in for a few weeks before the newly revamped panda exhibit opens to the public at the National Zoo.
“The public debut date will be announced as soon as the animal care team feels the bears are ready to meet visitors,” zoo officials previously said.
Under the new agreement, the National Zoo will pay $1 million per year to the China Wildlife Conservation Association to “support research and conservation efforts in China,” the zoo has said. That money does not come from federal funding, according to the zoo.
In May, the National Zoo said it was looking to raise $25 million to pay for renovations to the panda exhibit, upgrade the Giant Panda Cam, pay for costs of operating the panda exhibit and to support conservation efforts. It announced a $10 million donation from David Rubenstein last month.
The zoo said crews were also installing new climbing structures, water features and rockwork for exercise and play. A new ventilation system will improve air quality and temperature control, and the zoo also upgraded its smoke evacuation network to keep the pandas safer in an emergency, officials said.
Chinese ambassador Xie Feng revealed new details about the giant pandas coming to D.C.’s National Zoo.
China will retain ownership of the pandas, and any cubs must be returned to China by age 4 — similar to the previous agreement involving Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their offspring.
The Chinese ambassador hopes the agreement will bring joy to a new generation of families, he said in May.
“Over the past five decades, pandas have held a special place in the childhood memories of numerous Americans. Today, many of those happy kids have become grandpas and grandmas, dads and moms themselves. They look forward to taking their kids to the zoo to tell their stories with pandas and start new ones for their little boys and girls,” Xie said.
Giant pandas were a staple at D.C.’s National Zoo for over 50 years
The National Zoo’s longstanding resident pandas, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang, departed D.C. last fall, along with their youngest offspring, Xiao Qi Ji, who was born at the zoo in 2020. The three went to new homes in the China Wildlife Conservation Association, leaving the National Zoo’s giant panda habitat vacant for the first time in decades.
Pandas first arrived at the National Zoo in the 1970s and evolved into D.C.’s unofficial mascots. The black-and-white bears appeared on Metro farecards and street signs and as statues around the District.
The panda conservation program flourished after Tian Tian and Mei Xiang arrived in D.C. in 2000. Mei Xiang gave birth to four surviving cubs. Tai Shan was born in 2005, but his birth was followed by a long dry spell before a crushing blow: A cub born in 2012 lived for just a week.
The following August, we got both hope and sadness: A squirming newborn arrived, along with a stillborn twin. But as D.C. held its collective breath, the living cub thrived. Bao Bao squawked adorably during vet exams captured on video, tumbled (safely — whew!) down a pile of rocks, and even prolonged the excitement when the National Zoo’s webcam went dark during a government shutdown. When the cams went live again, she had a new surprise: Her eyes had opened.
Maybe it was just us, but Bao Bao always seemed to know when to drum up some attention. She was the source of some adorable headlines. (Case in point: Mei Xiang Cuddles Cub Rather Than Snacking.) There was a paternity drama — was her biological father the zoo’s own Tian Tian, or another male panda whose sperm was also used in a fertility attempt? (Verdict: Tian Tian IS the father.) And just before Christmas 2014, Bao Bao spent 24 hours in a tree, diverting focus from holiday celebrations before she finally climbed down.
But after becoming a big sister, Bao Bao was ready to strike out on her own. She moved to China — taking a similar FedEx journey as the rest of her family members ultimately did — and became a mom herself.
Bao Bao’s birth at the National Zoo was followed by two surviving younger brothers: Bei Bei in 2017 (who was born with a twin who died days after birth) and Xiao Ji Qi, the first panda in the U.S. born after his mother was artificially inseminated with frozen, instead of fresh, semen.
The agreement to keep Tian Tian and Mei Xiang was extended several times. The panda program has always served as a gesture of friendship and a sort of soft diplomacy between China and the United States. The pullback of pandas from the National Zoo and other zoos in the United States initially sparked some concern. Currently, there are only four pandas in the country – all at Atlanta’s zoo.
But in February, news that China would send a new pair of giant pandas to the San Diego Zoo signaled the return of panda diplomacy. The pair arrived in June and, after a period of settling into their new habitat, made their public debut in San Diego last month.
Despite the links with U.S.-China diplomacy, negotiations regarding pandas are conducted among researchers and aren’t based in politics, Smith told News4 last summer.
“We’re a bunch of scientists; we’re a bunch of animal people,” Smith said. “This is not a political conversation. This is absolutely a conversation between colleagues talking about, what’s best for the overall program, and also, what can be best for individual animals?”
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Washington, D.C
The director of the Congressional Budget Office—known for its gloomy national debt data—is very optimistic that a crisis will be avoided entirely | Fortune
Dr Phillip Swagel is an optimist, both by nature and when he looks at the U.S. economy.
This fact is perhaps at odds with what one might assume: Swagel is the director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the nonpartisan agency that offers independent budgetary and economic analysis to Congress.
Very often—an inevitable occupational hazard—the subject of national debt and the interest the U.S. Treasury pays to maintain is its central focus. The numbers are eye-watering: Public debt stands at more than $39 trillion. The interest expense on that borrowing now exceeds $1 trillion a year. Indeed, the latest budget update from the CBO highlights that the government—according to preliminary estimates—paid out nearly $530 billion between October 2025, when the fiscal year starts, and March 2026. This equates to more than $88 billion in interest payments a month, or more than $22 billion a week.
The CBO’s figures are routinely cited by policymakers, think tanks, and lobbyists as alarming evidence that the U.S. needs to find a more sustainable fiscal path or risk dire straits.
Swagel doesn’t subscribe to the notion that the U.S. will face a crisis of its own making. His justification is simple: He was at the Treasury during the 2008 financial crisis, and joined the CBO months before the COVID pandemic began. He has watched as the U.S. economy, seemingly against all odds, has clawed its way out of economic crises before.
That’s not to say Swagel isn’t a staunch advocate of setting the U.S. on a more sustainable fiscal path—rather, he trusts the people in power to do so when the time comes.
Why the optimism?
Among those concerned about national debt are notable names: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is also worried about federal spending and has endorsed a plan floated by Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett that would render members of Congress ineligible for reelection if they allow deficits to exceed 3% of GDP.
On the other hand, optimistic economists suggest that, despite the value of the debt, it’s not actually an issue: the bond market is holding steady, indicating a reliable market of buyers. Likewise, the U.S.’s own central bank buys huge swaths of the debt, meaning, in the simplest of layman’s terms, the economy can essentially print its own money. There are holes in this argument, not least the fact that Fed chairman nominee Kevin Warsh has suggested he would like to reduce the Fed’s balance sheet and may therefore be less inclined to finance borrowing.
Swagel’s positive outlook doesn’t rely on the argument that a crisis hasn’t happened yet, so therefore it never will: “[My optimism] is rooted in my experience,” Swagel tells Fortune in an exclusive interview in Washington D.C. “First being at Treasury during the financial crisis and seeing very difficult times and the country coming together with an effective response—not saying it’s perfect, lots of controversy—but it was effective.”
“The second thing is policymakers are smart, they’re thoughtful. Interacting with members of Congress makes me optimistic. I know you read about all the squabbles … I’m completely aware of this, but the policymakers that are thinking about these things are thoughtful and effective. Not necessarily always effective at passing legislation, but that’s part of our political system, it was set up to make it difficult ot pass legislation.”
Decisions on the horizon
Swagel’s optimism that Congress will be pushed into action will be tested sooner rather than later, likely at some point in the next six years, he told Fortune. This is partly due to the fact that, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) both Social Security and Medicare will become insolvent within that time period.
“Making progress to address the fiscal trajectory would be a positive for the U.S. economy,” Swagel said. “Credible steps would lead to lower interest rates that would make the subsequent adjustment easier, there is a reward to virtue. It’s a positive thing, we can’t go on [with] the scolding narrative. My sense is that members of Congress understand the fiscal situation, it’s not that everyone single one has looked at our one-pager of numbers and understands the debt to the third decimal point, but they understand something needs to be done.”
“It doesn’t have to be done immediately, but at some point reasonably soon.”
Swagel is of the opinion that bond investors haven’t increased risk premiums not because they’re not worried about a fiscal crisis, but because they have priced in preventative action from Congress—in his mind “a vote of confidence that my optimism is not misplaced.”
“As a country, we face up to these problems. It’s not happening now, I’m not sure it’s going to happen in the rest of this year or even the next year, or the next two years. But we will face up to it, and the market in some sense expects us to, because otherwise interest rates would be higher,” he explained.
The Cheesecake Factory
The role of the CBO, to some extent, is to provide policymakers with their options if and when they do choose to take action on federal deficits. It’s a menu not unlike the Cheesecake Factory, Swagel says: Large, inclusive of a range of modifications and options, and delivered without judgement.
“Right now it’s maybe a pick three, and you’re looking at a six or seven course menu,” joked Caleb Quakenbush, director of fiscal policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, in an interview with Fortune. “The longer you delay, the more you’re gonna have to add to your tab, and those options become more expensive.”
Indeed, economists and analysts aren’t necessarily worried about the absolute level of government debt, rather the debt-to-GDP ratio. Depending on whom you ask, the debt-to-GDP ratio stands at around 122% of GDP at present. This measure demonstrates an economy’s spending versus its growth, and the risk associated with lending to a nation that isn’t growing fast enough to handle its spending. To rebalance that ratio, an economy could either cut spending or increase growth—the latter being by far the less painful option.
The growth option is becoming less feasible, Michael Peterson, CEO of fiscal think tank the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, told Fortune in an exclusive interview: “I think it requires government action because we’ve waited so long. We’ve added so many trillions, and the current deficit is so big at 6% that the level of growth you would need really exceeds what is feasible.
“Growth needs to be a part of it, but it’s sort of a vicious cycle. The longer we delay, the more debt we have, the slower growth is going to be. The more we get this under control, I think the greater optimism there is, interest rates go down, more growth comes from that. It’s sort of a virtuous or vicious cycle depending on your policy response.”
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Seventy-two veterans took a trip Saturday to our nation’s capital to visit memorials honoring their service in the armed forces.
This year marks the 12th trip to Washington, D.C. for Honor Flight Tallahassee.
Early Saturday morning, veterans and their guardians met to take a charter flight up to D.C.
Throughout the day, veterans were taken to the World War II memorial, as well as the Korean and Vietnam War memorials. The veterans also visited Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
More Tallahassee news:
The day ended with a wonderful welcome home celebration.
Our Jacob Murphey, Julia Miller, Taylor Viles, and Grace Temple accompanied the veterans, capturing moments from throughout the day.
The team will have live coverage from Washington, D.C. on Monday to share more from the day’s events.
We will continue to have coverage throughout the month of May, leading up to our Honor Flight special on Memorial Day.
To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Nextdoor and X (Twitter).
Have a news tip or see an error? Write to us here. Please include the article’s headline in your message.
Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click here to get started.
Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.
4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
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