D.C. is officially getting giant pandas back at the National Zoo.

Why it matters: In a city where panda merch and "bearthday" parties were rampant, being giant panda-less since November has not been easy for Washingtonians. Now that they're coming back, expect plenty of happy panda-monium.

The big picture: Since China first sent giant pandas to the National Zoo following the normalizing of ties with the U.S. in 1972, the iconic bears have been a sign of friendship between the two nations.

The Smithsonian National Zoo announced Wednesday that giant pandas would return to Washington, D.C.

After nearly six months without pandas in the zoo, China will send two panda bears to the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington. In a comical video featuring first lady Jill Biden, the Smithsonian announced the pandas’ return.

A prolonged and deadly heat wave in Mexico, one of the most extreme the country has faced, shows little sign of easing and is oozing into the United States, where it has already set records and fueled violent storms.

The heat has been breaking records in Mexico since early May. Many Mexican states have observed their highest temperatures on record, while more than 80 percent of the country is also enduring drought. Mexico City has set all-time record highs on multiple occasions, while fears grow that it may run out of water.

Mexico has been consuming record amounts of electricity and occasionally more than its utility infrastructure can generate and transmit, official data showed, as scorching heat raises the likelihood of power outages.

In the late afternoon on Monday, Mexico consumed 51,595 megawatts of electricity across the country, grid operator CENACE recorded.

When demand exceeds supply, the country becomes much more prone to outages.

The extreme heatwave in Mexico is not only affecting the environment, it's wreaking havoc on the howler monkeys and causing them to fall dead out of trees, the Associated Press reported. 

"They were falling out of the trees like apples. They were in a state of severe dehydration, and they died within a matter of minutes," wildlife biologist Gilberto Pozo described what he witnessed to the AP. 

On Wednesday, Florida became the first US state to ban the production and sale of lab-grown, or “cell-cultivated” meat.

“Take your fake lab-grown meat elsewhere,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said before signing SB 1084 into law. “We’re not doing that in the state of Florida.”

Alabama is on the cusp of passing similar legislation.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has banned lab-grown meat, saying he will "save our beef" from the "global elite" and its "authoritarian plans".

"Florida is fighting back against the global elite's plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs," Mr DeSantis said in a statement.

The first-in-the-nation law prohibits anyone from selling or distributing lab-grown meat in Florida.

Similar efforts are under way in Alabama, Arizona and Tennessee.

Lab-grown or "cultivated" meat was first cleared for consumption in the US in 2022.

On Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed SB 1084 into law, making his state the first in the nation to ban lab-grown meat.

He touted the move as a step in the right direction amid an elite-driven push to abandon what has been a staple of the human diet for thousands of years in favor of laboratory-concocted alternatives, adding that Florida is actually "increasing meat production."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Wednesday banning lab-grown meat in the state, claiming it is being pushed for “authoritarian goals.”

The technology to produce lab-grown meat is still in development, though two companies recently received approval to sell lab-grown chicken.

Lab-grown meat usually begins with a sample from animal cells that is fed with essential ingredients like vitamins and amino acids to produce meat.

Mitt Romney may have infamously tied a dog in a kennel to the roof of his car for a cross-country trip but at least he didn’t shoot it, the Utah Republican senator said, as outrage over the South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, telling her story of killing a 14-month-old hunting dog continued to ripple through US politics.