This photo taken by a camera trap shows a group of Cross River gorillas in the Mbe Mountains of Nigeria on Monday, June 22, 2020. Conservationists have captured the first images of a group of rare Cross River gorillas with multiple babies in the Mbe mountains of Nigeria, proof that the subspecies once feared to be extinct is reproducing amid protection efforts. (WCS Nigeria via AP)

DAKAR, Senegal — Conservationists have captured the first images of a group of rare Cross River gorillas with multiple babies in Nigeria’s Mbe mountains, proof that the subspecies once feared to be extinct is reproducing amid protection efforts. Only around 300 Cross River gorillas were known to be alive at one point in the isolated mountainous region in Nigeria and Cameroon, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, which captured the camera trap images in May. More color images were recovered last month. John Oates, professor emeritus at the City University of New York and a primatologist who helped establish conservation efforts for the gorillas more than two decades ago, was excited about the new images. “It was great to see … evidence that these gorillas in these mountains are reproducing successfully because there have been so few images in the past,. We know very little about what is going on with reproduction with this subspecies, so to see many young animals is a positive sign.” Experts don’t know how many Cross River gorillas remain in the mountain cluster and have been trying to track the subspecies for some time. About 50 cameras were set up in 2012 and multiple images have been captured in Cameroon’s Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary and in Nigeria’s Mbe Mountains community forest and Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary. But Cross River gorillas are notoriously difficult to capture together on camera and no images had captured multiple infants. About 100 Cross River gorillas have since been recorded in Nigeria’s Cross River State and about 200 in Cameroon in a transborder region of about 4,633 square miles. The Mbe mountains forest is home to about a third of the Nigeria population. The gorillas are extremely shy of humans and their presence is detected mostly by their nests, dung and feeding trails, experts say.

Gov says no St. Louis name change

ST. LOUIS — Despite some calls to change the name of St. Louis, Missouri’s governor has told President Trump that it’s not going to happen. The issue came up Tuesday in Washington when Republican Gov. Mike Parson participated in a discussion about reopening schools across the nation. At one point, Trump asked Parson: “And you won’t be changing the name ‘St. Louis’, will you? Huh?” Parson chuckled and replied, “No, we will not be doing that.” Trump replied: “Thank you. Thank you very much. That’s very important. Thank you very much.” More than 1,000 people have signed a petition to change the name of St. Louis. Activists have cited concerns about the treatment of Jewish and Muslim people by the city’s namesake, 13th Century French King Louis IX. The petition also calls for a statue of the king to be removed from Forest Park. It does not suggest an alternative name for the city. St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said last month that she opposes a city name change, calling it a “distraction to a lot of hard work that we all need to do.”

Depp says Heard is Ms. Hyde

LONDON — Johnny Depp denied an allegation by ex-wife Amber Heard that he is a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” monster who turned violent when he drank and took drugs, though he acknowledged in a London court on Wednesday that he may have done things he can’t remember while he was under the influence. Depp underwent a second day of cross-examination at the High Court by a lawyer for British tabloid The Sun, which is defending a libel claim after calling the Hollywood star a “wife beater.” Depp is suing The Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers, and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an April 2018 article that said he’d physically abused Heard. The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star says Heard’s claims that he assaulted her on multiple occasions are “totally untrue.” The newspaper’s lawyer, Sasha Wass, read the court an email to Depp that Heard had composed in 2013 but never sent, in which she called his behavior a “full on disco blood bath.” “I just don’t know if I can do this anymore,” she wrote. “It is like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Half of you I love madly, and the other half scares me. Many times you have hurt me. Physically and emotionally from the things you say and did while (messed) up.” Depp said the email was evidence “that Ms Heard was building a dossier” as “an insurance policy for later.”

26 accuse Paris street artist

PARIS — Paris police are investigating accusations by 26 women that a street artist in the historic Montmartre neighborhood raped or sexually assaulted them, in what their lawyers describe as a systematic, years-long pattern of targeting and manipulating teen girls and young women. The artist-photographer has not yet been questioned by police and says he has “never hit anyone, never raped anyone,” his lawyer said Wednesday. The women were between 16 and 26 at the time of the alleged encounters, which occurred between 2009 and April this year. The artist-photographer is identified in legal documents as Wilfrid A. Lawyers for the accusers say he preyed on teens and young women in his lively neighborhood or on social networks, complimented them and offered to take modeling photos. Once in his photo studio — which turned out to be his apartment — he allegedly plied them with alcohol or drugs and pressured the women into sex, said lawyer Valentine Reberioux, who is representing 25 of the women accusing him. Of the 26 women pressing charges, 12 accused him of rape, and 14 accused him of sexual assault. Reberioux said the girls and women didn’t report the encounters to police at the time out of fear that they wouldn’t be believed, or that he would publish nude photos of them, or because they felt responsible for allowing themselves to be abused and manipulated. “His plan was perfect,” Reberioux saod “It’s his modus operandi.” The artist was detained twice in the past for similar accusations, in 2016 and 2019, but released without charge,. Wilfrid’s distinctive art adorns several spots around Paris, bearing his signature phrase “L’amour court les rues,” meaning “Love runs the streets.” Some of his work was covered in graffiti, replacing the word “love” with “rapist.”

Brooks Brothers in bankruptcy

NEW YORK — The storied Manhattan clothier Brooks Brothers is filing for bankruptcy protection. The company that says it’s put 40 U.S. presidents in its suits survived two world wars and navigated through casual Fridays and a loosening of dress standards even on Wall Street, but the coronavirus pandemic pushed the 200-year-old company into seek Chapter 11 protection Wednesday. Another famed men’s clothier, Barneys of New York, sought bankruptcy protection last year, and it was followed by a slew of others toppled by the pandemic, including Neiman Marcus, J.Crew and J.C. Penney. More bankruptcies are anticipated in the retail sector. The virus-induced recession has cratered spending in most sectors of the economy and accelerated shifts in where people shop, mostly to the benefit of online retailers like Amazon and eBay. Online sales are up a sizable 31% from a year ago. Brooks Brothers was one of the few national chains that produced its clothing in the U.S. In March, it shifted some production at plants in New York, North Carolina and Massachusetts to produce 150,000 masks per day for frontline healthworkers. The New York company was founded in 1818, making it possibly the oldest clothier in the U.S.

Guilty of killing ex-president’s son

BERLIN — A 57-year-old German man was convicted Wednesday of killing the son of Germany’s former president Richard von Weizsaecker and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. He was ordered held in a psychiatric ward. Fritz von Weizsaecker, a doctor, was stabbed to death in November while delivering a lecture on liver disease at a clinic in Berlin. An off-duty police officer who tried to stop the attack was seriously injured. Berlin’s regional court convicted the defendant, identified only as Gregor S. due to privacy rules, of murder and attempted murder. Prosecutors said the defendant had acted out of hatred for the former German president, who died in 2015, blaming him for the use of the chemical known as “Agent Orange” during the Vietnam War. Richard von Weizsaecker, once worked for a German chemical company the killer believed had helped produced the defoliant widely used by U.S. troops during the conflict. The chemical has been blamed for health problems among those exposed to it. Prosecutors, who had sought a 14-year prison sentence, said the defendant wanted “revenge” against the von Weizsaecker family.

Rockfall in Austrian gorge

BERLIN — Two people have died and eight were injured by a rockfall in an Austrian gorge popular with hikers, Police in the southeastern region of Styria said a boulder struck a trail in the Baerenschuetzklamm shortly after noon, killing a 50-year-old hiker from Hungary and a 21-year-old from the nearby city of Graz. One person was seriously injured, while seven others suffered light injuries. Michael Miggitsch, who heads the Styria mountain rescue, said first responders had to climb through difficult terrain to reach the injured. The gorge is on a popular hiking route along a picturesque Alpine stream.

Crane collapses in London, 1 dead

LONDON — A 20-meter (65-foot) crane collapsed onto a block of apartments under development and two houses in east London, killing one person and injuring four others, authorities said Wednesday. “Sadly, despite the efforts of emergency services, a fifth person has been found and died at the scene,” the London Ambulance Service said. Four people were treated, including two people taken to the hospital with head injuries.

United to lay off 36,000 in US

United Airlines will send layoff warnings to 36,000 employees — nearly half its U.S. staff — in the clearest signal yet of how deeply the virus outbreak is hurting the airline industry. United officials said Wednesday that they still hope to limit the number of October layoffs by offering early retirement, and that the 36,000 number is a worst case scenario. The notices being sent to employees this month are meant to comply with 60-day warning ahead of mass job cuts. The furloughs would include 15,000 flight attendants, 11,000 customer service and gate agents, 5,500 maintenance workers and 2,250 pilots. If United carries through on the notices, furloughs would take effect on or shortly after Oct. 1. United can’t lay off workers before then as a condition of the $5 billion in federal payroll aid it began receiving this spring. The flight attendants’ union and other airline labor groups are lobbying Congress to approve another $25 billion in payroll aid to protect jobs through next March. But a senior United executive expressed doubt that Congress would approve the spending in an election year. “We do not feel like we can count on additional government support to survive,” said the official.

81 Venezuelan vehicles seized

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Federal investigators said Wednesday they have seized 81 vehicles worth an estimated $3.2 million that were bound for Venezuela as part of a smuggling ring operated for wealthy and politically-connected people. Anthony Salisbury, chief of the Miami Homeland Security Investigations office, said the vehicles were to be smuggled in violation of U.S. export laws and sanctions against the socialist Venezuelan government, “This is all part of an ongoing effort to combat foreign public corruption and in particular for public corruption in Venezuela and the laundering and the fleecing of the Venezuelan people’s wealth and the stealing of the Venezuelan wealth from the national treasury for the gain of a few politically exploited, exposed people, kleptocrats and their associates,” Salisbury said. According to Salisbury, many of the vehicles are linked to Venezuelans already facing indictments in the U.S., including billionaire Raul Gorrin. Gorrin is a government-connected media magnate wanted in the U.S. for allegedly masterminding a graft network that stole $2.4 billion from state coffers through fraudulent currency deals with Venezuela’s oil monopoly. A former resident of Miami, Gorrin was involved last year in a furtive effort to bridge differences with the Trump administration by brokering a potential soft exit for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in exchange for sanctions relief.

Loans for winery, puppetry

LOS ANGELES — From a godfather of cinema to Kermit the Frog, the U.S. government’s small-business lending program sent money into unexpected corners of the entertainment industry. While legendary names like Francis Ford Coppola and Jim Henson hardly evoke the image of “small” business, the leaders of modestly sized companies that bear their names say the funds have been essential to keeping ordinary workers afloat during the coronavirus pandemic. Francis Ford Coppola Presents, the broader brand of the director of “The Godfather” films and “Apocalypse Now,” received a loan of between $5 million and $10 million to help keep 469 people employed, according to data released Monday by Treasury Department on the Payroll Protection Program. The money went to pay workers for 24 weeks at Coppola’s winery, including some 200 hospitality employees who staff its restaurant, pools, movie gallery and bocce court, which spent months shut down, though the vineyard kept producing wine. The Jim Henson Co., founded by the late creator of the Muppets, director of “The Dark Crystal and “Labyrinth,” and puppeteer of Kermit the Frog, also received funding from the program to stay afloat. While its brand has been wildly famous for decades, the company said its shop is more small and artisanal than its big name. The Jim Henson Co. employs about 75 people, company spokeswoman Nicole Goldman said in a statement. “Thanks to the approximate $2 million dollar PPP loan we received, we have been able to keep 100% of our staff employed during this unprecedented time when we have had to fully shut down key businesses including live-action productions, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop (in Los Angeles and New York City), Henson Recording Studios, and our soundstage,” she said.

Limit on free birth control OK’d

WASHINGTON — More employers who cite religious or moral grounds can decline to offer cost-free birth control coverage to their workers, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, upholding Trump administration rules that could leave more than 70,000 women without free contraception. The high court ruled 7-2 for the administration, which had made a policy change to allow some employers to opt out of providing the no-cost birth control required by the Obama-era health care law. Lower courts had previously blocked the Trump administration’s changes. “Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a big win for religious freedom and freedom of conscience,” White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement, adding that the court had “once again vindicated the conscience rights of people of faith.”

Cop rescues dog from fire

RACINE, Wis. — A police officer says he did what any dog lover would do when a pet is in a burning home. He rescued the pup. Caledonia K-9 Officer Cory Radke and his canine partner, Lou, were on their way home Monday when Radke saw smoke and heard a dispatcher calling all squad cars to the fire. Radke was first to arrive at the house. He kicked in a side door, calling out for dogs as smoke filled the living room. In body camera footage, Radke is heard saying, “Come here, puppy!” Radke found a dog named Deezel on the couch. After getting the dog outside, the officer went back in, but the smoke was getting to him. Firefighters found another dog, Fido, under a bed and brought that dog out. No one was hurt. The owners were not home.

Dog alerts to fire next door

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — A dog in Tennessee became a hero on the Fourth of July by alerting her owner to a house fire next door. Roux, a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois, woke her owner Jeff LeCates with “frantic and unusual barks” on Saturday night. When LeCates opened his door to investigate, Roux burst out and LeCates saw his neighbor’s home on fire, officials said. LeCates banged on their door, waking the family of three and their pets, and then used a garden hose on the fire until firefighters arrived. No one in the home was injured. Franklin Fire Marshal Andy King said video evidence shows the homeowners throwing away fireworks and other combustibles near their trash can. Consumer fireworks are illegal in Franklin. The woman whose home caught fire has a special place in Roux’s heart. The press release said the woman is a dog groomer and the reason why LeCates adopted Roux 15 months ago. She knew LeCates had lost his German Shepard and Roux is a similar breed. She helped with the adoption, knowing Roux needed a home.