Indonesia's panda cub Rio thriving 40 days after birth

CISARUA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s conservation park on Tuesday released a video showing the progress of a giant panda cub, 40 days after his birth in the country.

The panda named Satrio Wiratama and nicknamed “Rio” was examined for the first time outside the incubator while veterinarians at the Indonesian Taman Safari park in Cisarua, West Java province, took his measures. The video shows Rio's growth from a tiny pink baby to a panda with black and white fur.

“The panda cub is developing healthily and growing very well. Its body weight has increased by 46% over the past 30 days, while its body length has increased by 95%," said Bongot Huaso Mulia, a veterinarian who monitors Rio’s progress.

Rio was born on Nov. 27 to Hu Chun, a 15-year-old adult female, and Cai Tao. The pair arrived in Indonesia in 2017 on a 10-year conservation partnership with China. They live in an enclosure built for them at the park about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Jakarta.

Rio’s birth was the result of the fourth artificial insemination, said Mulia.

“So we tried natural mating four times first, followed by four rounds of artificial insemination. It really was not easy,” Mulia said.

Pandas are widely considered as China’s unofficial mascot and its loans of the animals to overseas zoos have long been seen as a tool of Beijing’s soft-power “panda diplomacy.”

Giant pandas have difficulty breeding and births are particularly welcomed. There are less than 1,900 giant pandas in their only wild habitats in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu.

“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. After years of hard work, finally we’ve got real. The baby panda, joining the global panda family,” China’s Ambassador to Indonesia Wang Lutong said.

Cai Tao, a 15-year-old giant panda, the father of Satrio Wiratama, the first panda cub born in Indonesia, stands up as he is given food by a staff in his enclosure at Indonesia Safari Park, in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Cai Tao, a 15-year-old giant panda, the father of Satrio Wiratama, the first panda cub born in Indonesia, sits in his enclosure at Indonesia Safari Park, in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Staff wear panda plush toys on their shoulder during a press conference announcing the first giant panda cub born in Indonesia, at Indonesia Safari Park, in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

An image of Satrio Wiratama, nicknamed 'Rio', the first giant panda cub born in Indonesia idisplayed on a screen during a press conference at Indonesia Safari Park, in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Images of Satrio Wiratama, nicknamed 'Rio', the first giant panda cub born in Indonesia displayed on a screen as senior veterinarian and the Vice President of Life Science at Indonesia Safari Park Bongot Huaso Mulia speaks, during a press conference, in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's owners announced Wednesday the paper will be shutting down in a few months, citing financial losses.

Block Communications Inc. announced it will cease publication on May 3. The paper is printed on Thursdays and Sundays and says on its website the average paid circulation is 83,000.

A couple dozen union members returned to work at the Post-Gazette in November after a three-year strike.

More than five years ago, the newspaper declared it had reached a bargaining impasse with the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh and unilaterally imposed terms and conditions of employment on those workers. The paper was later found to have bargained in bad faith by making offers that were not intended to help reach a deal and by declaring an impasse prematurely.

The announcement that Block was shutting it down came on the same day the U.S. Supreme Court declined the PG Publishing Co. Inc.'s emergency appeal to halt an National Labor Relations Board order that forced it to abide by health care coverage policies in an expired union contract.

Andrew Goldstein, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, said the paper’s journalists have a long history of award-winning work.

“Instead of simply following the law, the owners chose to punish local journalists and the city of Pittsburgh,” Goldstein said. The union said employees were notified in a video on Zoom in which company officials did not speak live.

The Post-Gazette said Block Communications has lost hundreds of millions of dollars over two decades in operating the paper, and the company said it deemed “continued cash losses at this scale no longer sustainable.”

The Block family said in a statement it was “proud of the service the Post-Gazette has provided to Pittsburgh for nearly a century.”

A phone message seeking comment was left Wednesday at Block Communications headquarters in Toledo, Ohio.

The paper traces its roots to 1786, when the Pittsburgh Gazette began as a four-page weekly, and became a leading advocate for the abolition of slavery in the 19th century. It went through a series of mastheads and owners before 1927, when Paul Block obtained the paper and named it the Post-Gazette.

FILE - Cars are parked near the building where the offices of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Feb. 14, 2019, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

FILE - People walk past the building where the offices of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Feb. 14, 2019, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette logo is displayed on the newspaper's Pittsburgh office Wednesday, Jan 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)