Two giant pandas were flying home from France to China for retirement on Tuesday, after the female was diagnosed with kidney failure, AFP journalists said.

Huan Huan and her partner Yuan Zi took off aboard a plane from the French capital's Charles de Gaulle airport, the journalists said, after more than a decade living in France and emotional goodbyes from visitors of the Beauval Zoo in the center of the country at the weekend.

A vintage blue VW bus that became an unlikely symbol of resilience after it survived a California wildfire made its public debut this week, shiny and like-new after Volkswagen spent months restoring the damaged vehicle.

The bus went viral in January when an Associated Press photographer captured it looking surprisingly unharmed by the deadly Palisades Fire, a spot of blue and white dwarfed by the charred remains of a Malibu neighborhood. Volkswagen saw the accompanying AP story and reached out to the owner, Megan Weinraub. Upon closer inspection, VW technicians discovered that while the bus had survived, it had smoke damage and blistered paint, rust and a window busted by the heat.

Fátima Bosch Fernández of Mexico was crowned Miss Universe 2025 on Friday, a dramatic victory for a 25-year-old at the center of the turbulent 74th staging of the popular beauty pageant in Bangkok who stood up to public bullying from one of the hosts.

The issues at this year's event sprang from a sharp-tongued scolding of Bosch, which sparked a controversy marked by a walkout, feminist solidarity and a teary, melodramatic apology from the local organizer who set it all off.

Organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest announced plans to change the voting system of the popular musical extravaganza to ensure fairness, a move that follows allegations of "interference" by Israel's government.

The European Broadcasting Union, a Geneva-based union of public broadcasters that runs the event, said Friday that the changes were "designed to strengthen trust, transparency and audience engagement."

Technology giant Meta on Thursday began sending thousands of young Australians a two-week warning to downland their digital histories and delete their accounts from Facebook, Instagram and Threads before a world-first social media ban on accounts of children younger than 16 takes effect.

The Australian government announced two weeks ago that the three Meta platforms plus Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube must take reasonable steps to exclude Australian account holders younger than 16, beginning Dec. 10.

Britain's Royal Mint is celebrating Freddie Mercury with a new coin design that marks 40 years since his iconic Live Aid concert performance.

The coin features an image of the Queen front man, head thrown back and holding the microphone stand midperformance. A musical stave that runs around the edge of the coin represents his four-octave vocal range.

Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo was at the White House on Tuesday as President Donald Trump hosted a glitzy dinner to honor Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The football star was seated near the front of the East Room, not far from where the president and crown prince gave remarks to officials from both nations, along with major business leaders such as Apple CEO Tim Cook and Tesla founder Elon Musk.

The head of the Louvre Museum said Wednesday that new surveillance cameras and anti-intrusion systems will soon be installed at the Paris landmark after last month's stunning crown jewels heist.

The cameras — some 100 of them — will be up and running by the end of next year while anti-intrusion systems will start to be put in place within two weeks, Louvre director Laurence des Cars said.

Tom Cruise, at 63 still the biggest movie star in a room full of them, finally got to hold his own Oscar on a Hollywood stage on Sunday night.

"Making movies is not what I do, it's who I am," said Cruise. He was composed as always, but at moments seemed near tears as he spoke, grasping the gold honorary statuette that celebrated his more than 40 years at the apex of the industry at the film academy's annual Governors Awards.

The BBC will fight a defamation case Donald Trump has threatened to bring, its chairman told staff Monday, after the US president said he would to seek up to $5 billion in damages from the British broadcaster.

"I want to be very clear with you -– our position has not changed. There is no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this," Samir Shah said in a message to staff, amid a row caused by a BBC program which misleadingly edited a Trump speech.