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  • New Species of Permian Herbivorous Tetrapod Identified in China

    New Species of Permian Herbivorous Tetrapod Identified in China

    Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of mid-sized pareiasaur from two fossilized specimes found in China in 2018.

    An artist’s reconstruction of Yinshanosaurus angustus. Image credit: X.-C. Guo, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.

    Named Yinshanosaurus angustus, the newly-identified species roamed Earth during the latest Permian period, between 259 and 254 million years ago.

    The ancient beast was a member of Pareiasauria, a specialized group of herbivorous tetrapods that existed throughout the supercontinent Pangea during the Middle-Late Permian.

    “Pareiasauria are a bizarre herbivorous clade of tetrapods that existed in the Guadalupian and Lopingian and were victims of both the Late Capitanian and the end-Permian mass extinction events,” said Dr. Jian Yi and Jun Liu from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Chongqing Institute of Paleontology.

    “Pareiasauria has a worldwide distribution, with fossils discovered in Africa, Europe, Asia and South America.”

    “Pareiasaurs were common primary consumers in several terrestrial tetrapod faunas, including the Late Permian fauna of northern China.”

    “Since the 1960s, eight Chinese pareiasaur species have been described.”

    Two specimens — a nearly complete skull and an articulated partial postcranial skeleton with a nearly complete skull — were unearthed in China in 2018.

    “The first specimen was excavated form the dark purple siltstone in the lower part of the Sunjiagou Formation, near Zhangjiagetuo village, Baode county, Xinzhou city, Shanxi,” the paleontologists said.

    “The second specimen was excavated from purplish silty mudstone in the upper part of Member I of the Naobaogou Formation, near Qiandian village, Shiguai district of Baotou City, Nei Mongol.”

    According to the authors, Yinshanosaurus angustus had the narrowest skull of all pareiasaurs, with skull length more than twice the skull width at the lateral edges of the cheeks.

    “The skeleton of Yinshanosaurus angustus provides the complete cranial and articulated postcranial details of Chinese pareiasaurs for the first time,” they said.

    Their paper was published this month in the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

    _____

    Jian Yi & Jun Liu. 2025. The tetrapod fauna of the upper Permian Naobaogou Formation of China: a new mid-sized pareiasaur Yinshanosaurus angustus and its implications for the phylogenetic relationships of pareiasaurs. Papers in Palaeontology 11 (3): e70020; doi: 10.1002/spp2.70020

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  • UK food prices push up shop price inflation for first time in nearly a year – Reuters

    1. UK food prices push up shop price inflation for first time in nearly a year  Reuters
    2. UK BRC Shop Price Index for June 2025: +0.4% y/y (prior –0.1%)  Forexlive | Forex News, Technical Analysis & Trading Tools
    3. Grocery footfall, mobile overtakes TV, alcohol ads: 5 interesting stats to start your week  Marketing Week
    4. Butter at 18%? Food Inflation Shock Explained  MSN
    5. Shop prices return to inflation for first time in almost a year  Yahoo

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  • A Modern Lake in an Ancient Crater

    A Modern Lake in an Ancient Crater

    A false-color version of the image shows the snow-covered vegetation as greenish-blue. Snow and ice appear blue, including the ice that covers the ring-shaped lake centered in the image.

    Terrain with some varied texture appears gray and white across most of the scene. A ring-shaped lake is centered in the image and appears white.
    A false-color version of the image shows the snow-covered vegetation as greenish-blue. Snow and ice appear blue, including the ice that covers the ring-shaped lake centered in the image.

    Impact craters exist on every continent on Earth. While many have eroded away or been buried by geologic activity, some remain visible from the ground and from above. This week, we revisit stories featuring some of our most captivating satellite images of impact sites around the planet. The images and text on this page were originally published on February 4, 2022.

    In southeastern Québec lies one of the world’s largest impact craters. Manicouagan Crater was formed 214 million years ago, near the end of the Triassic Period, when an asteroid 5 kilometers (3 miles) wide struck what is now Canada. Today, the remnants of the crater are made visible by water and, sometimes, ice.

    These images of Manicouagan Lake were acquired by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite on January 20, 2022. A natural-color image of the frozen lake is compared with a false-color image. In the false-color image, which uses MODIS bands 7-2-1, snow or ice appears electric blue and vegetation appears green. A blanket of snow covering the surrounding vegetation gives it a greenish-blue color.

    Sometimes called the “Eye of Québec,” the 1,940-square-kilometer (750-square-mile) ring-shaped lake is readily identifiable from space. The unique shape makes it a popular feature in satellite imagery and a favorite subject of astronaut photography. Despite the crater’s ancient age, the events that gave rise to the lake coincided with the dawn of the Space Age.

    In the 1960s, Hydro-Québec constructed the Daniel-Johnson Dam—the largest multiple arch-and-buttress concrete dam in the world—on the Manicouagan River. Prior to the dam’s completion in 1968, two separate crescent-shaped lakes flanked the sides of the impact crater: Manicouagan Lake on the east and Mouchalagane (Mushalagan) Lake on the west. As the water levels rose over the next few years, the previously isolated water bodies joined to form the Manicouagan Reservoir, which finished filling in 1977.

    Today, the reservoir reaches a depth of roughly 350 meters (1,150 feet) and holds 140 cubic kilometers (34 cubic miles) of water, making it one of the largest freshwater reservoirs in the world. The outflow from the dam drains south into the Manicouagan River, which empties into the St. Lawrence River.

    After the river was impounded, water rising behind the dam encircled the higher land in the center of the impact crater; René-Levasseur Island was formed. The highest point on the island is Mount Babel, which rises 600 meters (1,970 feet) above the lake level on its northern end.

    Mount Babel is the crater’s central peak, which formed in the aftermath of the impact when shattered rock and debris were uplifted. Geologists estimate that the crater was initially about 100 kilometers (60 miles) wide. It has since been heavily eroded and scoured by ice sheets and today measures 72 kilometers (45 miles) in diameter.

    NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Sara E. Pratt.

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  • U.S. approves $510 million sale of bomb guidance kits to Israel

    U.S. approves $510 million sale of bomb guidance kits to Israel

    U.S. President Donald Trump. File
    | Photo Credit: Reuters

    The United States on Monday (June 30, 2025) announced the approval of a $510 million sale to Israel of bomb guidance kits and related support, after Israel expended significant munitions in its recent conflict with Iran.

    “The proposed sale will enhance Israel’s capability to meet current and future threats by improving its ability to defend Israel’s borders, vital infrastructure, and population centres,” the U.S. Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a statement.

    “The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” it added.

    The State Department approved the possible sale and the DSCA has provided the required notification to the US Congress, which still needs to sign off on the transaction.

    Israel launched an unprecedented air campaign on June 13 targeting Iranian nuclear sites, scientists and top military brass in a bid to end the country’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is for civilian purposes but Washington and other powers insist is aimed at acquiring atomic weapons.

    Trump had spent weeks pursuing a diplomatic path to replace the nuclear deal with Tehran that he tore up in 2018 during his first term, but he ultimately decided to take military action, ordering US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

    A ceasefire brought the war to a halt last week, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to prevent Tehran from ever rebuilding its nuclear facilities, raising the prospect of a future conflict.

    Published – July 01, 2025 04:40 am IST

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  • Phiphen Games Releases Debut Title Ruffy and the Riverside – ACCESS Newswire

    1. Phiphen Games Releases Debut Title Ruffy and the Riverside  ACCESS Newswire
    2. ‘Ruffy and the Riverside’ Feels Like Pure Joy and Has All the Makings To Be a New Age Classic (Review)  VICE
    3. Mini Review: Ruffy and the Riverside (PS5) – A Cute Platformer with Missed Potential  Push Square
    4. Banjo-Kazooie and Paper Mario mix together in this delightful puzzle platformer that has me swapping textures to solve puzzles by changing the world  MSN
    5. Ruffy and the Riverside Review  TheSixthAxis

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  • Parents face barriers to vaccinating children, says report

    Parents face barriers to vaccinating children, says report

    Getty Images A young child wearing a green top has her sleeve rolled up and is ready to get a vaccine from a doctor (unpictured) whose arms and hands are in view, who is holding a vaccineGetty Images

    Parents are being prevented from vaccinating their children because of obstacles such as difficulty booking appointments and a lack of reminders on what jabs are needed and when, a report suggests.

    Child health experts say “practical or logistical reasons” are discouraging families more often than fears over the vaccines.

    Vaccine uptake in the UK has fallen over the last decade, leading to outbreaks of measles and whooping cough.

    UK health officials say they are committed to working with the NHS to improve vaccine uptake among children.

    ‘Easier access’

    Since 2022, no childhood vaccine in the UK has met the World Health Organisation target of 95% of children vaccinated, which ensures protection of vulnerable people. As a result, measles and other preventable diseases have made a comeback.

    A commission of experts from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) spent a year looking at why.

    Dr Helen Stewart, officer for health improvement at RCPCH, said the steady decline in vaccination rates in a wealthy country like the UK was “extremely concerning”.

    But she said vaccine hesitancy, when parents waver over getting their children vaccinated, “is only part of a very complex picture”.

    “The reality is that there are many who simply need better support and easier access to appointments,” Dr Stewart said.

    Although confidence in vaccines is still relatively high, the report found barriers to accessing jabs are why many families don’t protect their children.

    Some of the most common barriers include:

    • difficulties getting through to book appointments at GP surgeries
    • difficulties getting time off work for appointments
    • limited transport options or no parking at GP surgeries
    • not seeing the same GP each time so lack of trust
    • not being able to speak to a GP or nurse to ask about the vaccines
    • lack of reminders for jabs being sent out from GP
    • not enough clear information about what jabs their child needs and when

    “One of the findings of this new report is that parents have no easy way to check their child’s vaccination status,” says children’s emergency medicine specialist, Dr Stewart.

    “When I ask if the child is up to date with their vaccinations, the most common response is ‘I think so’.”

    Poorer families, some ethnic minority groups and migrant communities are much less likely to be vaccinated, and these inequalities have become more obvious since the pandemic, the report says.

    It also notes an absence of health visitors often means parents have no one they feel comfortable discussing vaccines openly with.

    Digital red book

    The report recommends using NHS apps to improve the experience of booking jabs, investing and expanding vaccination services, and funding health visitors to deliver some of them.

    It also calls on the development of the ‘digital red book’ to be finalised so parents can keep track of their children’s vaccinations.

    The NHS website lists the full schedule of vaccinations for children, from babies, up to the age of 15.

    Dr Julie Yates, deputy director for immunisation programmes at UK Health Security Agency, said plans were in place to improve childhood vaccine uptake by ensuring more flexible appointment booking systems, making vaccines more widely available across different locations, and making access easier in all communities.

    “Despite the challenges, it is also important to note that parents have high confidence in vaccinations with almost 90% agreeing vaccines are effective,” Dr Yates said.

    Alison Morton, chief executive of the Institute for Health Visitors, said the report presented “a compelling case” to ensure babies and children are protected against serious diseases which can cause so much unnecessary harm.

    Helen Bedford, professor of children’s health at University College London, said improvements needed investment in staff and infrastructure.

    “Our children have the right to be protected from preventable diseases which can cause illness, disability or even death,” she said, adding that a fall in children getting their vaccines had resulted in the deaths of 11 young babies from whooping cough last year. 

    Falling vaccinations among children isn’t just an issue in the UK, in 2023 there were nearly 16 million children who had not had any vaccinations, most of them in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

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  • End of the line for King Charles' royal train – Reuters

    1. End of the line for King Charles’ royal train  Reuters
    2. Royal Train To Be Decommissioned Following Review Reveal Royal Accounts  Banbury FM
    3. Britain’s royal train to be retired  trains.com
    4. Royal train to end 156 years of service as King Charles III seeks to economize  WETM
    5. End of the line for Britain’s royal train  Citizen Tribune

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  • Surging Nonbank Lending Triggers Risks Across Financial Markets

    Surging Nonbank Lending Triggers Risks Across Financial Markets

    Last week, news came that Meta was moving toward obtaining $29 billion from private equity firms to help finance artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, according to the Financial Times.

    And as PYMNTS reported last month, Apollo Global Management is working with five banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group, to trade private credit.

    As the lines blur in financial services, and traditional banking players link with nonbanks to expand credit, so too is there a blurring of the nomenclature of those efforts, referred to variously as shadow banking or nonbank financial intermediation.

    Data found in this Monday (June 30) post by the St. Louis Federal Reserve underscore the magnitude of exposure. As measured at the end of the first quarter of 2025, U.S. banks held $1.14 trillion in loans outstanding to the nonbank financial sector.

    “This interconnectedness between banks and nonbanks adds an extra layer of intermediation, as banks lend to mortgage companies, insurance companies, investment funds (such as mutual funds, money market funds, hedge funds and private capital funds), pension funds, broker-dealers, securitization vehicles and other financial entities, which then lend directly to end users in the economy,” noted the Fed. The growth rate of non-depository financial institutional lending has grown by 26% on average each year since 2012.

    Getting a bit more granular, the Financial Stability Board estimated late last year that the aggregate FinTech lending across seven jurisdictions came in at $38.5 billion.

    As the FSB elaborated, “FinTech lending platforms can act as auxiliaries or intermediaries. As auxiliaries, they can be in the form of a ‘marketplace platform,’ which is an online market that allows lenders to trade directly with borrowers (peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding platforms). Fintech lending platforms can act as intermediaries when they use their balance sheets to originate the lending.”

    Loans to mortgage and private credit intermediaries each represent 23% of loans outstanding, and loans to business intermediaries and consumer intermediaries represent 21% and 9%, respectively, estimated the Fed.

    Risks of ‘Runnable’ Activity

    In separate data and analysis as of last week, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, “banks are increasingly lending to NBFIs (nonbank financial institutions) and, at the same time, reducing their lending to commercial and industrial borrowers.”

    “Increased lending from banks to NBFIs could expose banks to counterparty credit risk and spillover effects during a financial crisis…” the report added. “The size and growth of NBFI suggest that significant amount of financing is being intermediated and held outside of the banking sector. In contrast to the traditional banking model, where banks normally manage risks (e.g., credit, market, liquidity, and operational risks) on their balance sheets, the market-based NBFI financing model shifts risks toward capital markets investors and intermediaries.”

    As for the risks, the CRS cautioned that the “vulnerabilities affecting financial stability are present in capital markets NBFI, including in certain money-like instruments that face potential ‘runs,’ leverage levels, interconnectedness between nonbanks and banks, data and transparency issues, liquidity mismatch at certain open-end funds, and concentration risk at market intermediaries.”

    There’s a knock-on effect here, as some financial institutions are grappling with shadow banking stalwarts as competitors, which in turn has shifted activities away from core deposits toward long-term securities and other holdings. In this paper from economists at the Fed and at the University of Houston, there’s the contention that in doing so, net interest income margins are pressured.

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  • Susan Sarandon ‘terrified but excited’ to make UK theatrical debut in September | Theatre

    Susan Sarandon ‘terrified but excited’ to make UK theatrical debut in September | Theatre

    Susan Sarandon is to make her UK theatre debut alongside Andrea Riseborough, when the pair portray the same woman at different ages, in Tracy Letts’ drama Mary Page Marlowe.

    The play will be staged this autumn at the Old Vic in London by Matthew Warchus, in his final season as artistic director. Several actors portray the title character, which is described as a “time-jumping mosaic” spanning 70 years in the life of an accountant and mother of two in Ohio.

    It marks a high-profile return to the stage for Sarandon, who made her Broadway debut in 1972 in An Evening with Richard Nixon and … by Gore Vidal before her breakout film role in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. By the time she was next on Broadway, in Exit the King in 2009, she was a household name and five-time Oscar nominee (who won for Dead Man Walking). Sarandon said: “I’m so honoured to be asked to be in a play during Matthew Warchus’s final season at the Old Vic,” adding that she was “terrified but excited”.

    Riseborough, similarly better known as a film star, has not acted on stage for 15 years. Her last major London role was in Ivanov opposite Kenneth Branagh at the Donmar Warehouse in 2008. She recently appeared in Warchus’s screen version of Matilda the Musical. Riseborough said: “It’s an honour to be taking on the role of Mary – amongst others – in Tracy Letts’ poignant play, alongside the extraordinary Susan Sarandon. I’m so very grateful to be working with Matthew again and thrilled to finally work at the Old Vic, a beautiful space.”

    Warchus called Letts “one of America’s greatest living writers” and said the play would be staged in-the-round – as will all the productions in his final season. Mary Page Marlowe will run from 23 September to 1 November.

    Letts is best known for his Pulitzer winner August: Osage County, which was directed by Anna D Shapiro in a Chicago Steppenwolf production that played at London’s National Theatre in 2008. Shapiro directed the premiere of Mary Page Marlowe for the Steppenwolf theatre in 2016. In his review, the New York Times critic Charles Isherwood wrote: “Some may find the play’s form frustrating; I found it beautiful and affecting, like flipping through a friend’s photo album in no particular order, finding some faces familiar, others unexpected. And then you come upon someone entirely unknown – who obviously meant much to your friend – and you realize, with a pang of sadness, that your knowledge of even those closest to you will always be fragmentary and incomplete.”

    This will be the play’s UK premiere. Letts said: “From my first experiences as a playwright here 30 years ago, to the run of August: Osage County at the National, London is an integral part of my development as an artist. I’m deeply gratified to have Mary Page Marlowe at the Old Vic, directed by Matthew, featuring these remarkable actresses. A genuine thrill.”

    Warchus will step down from the Old Vic in September next year, when he will be succeeded by Rupert Goold, who in turn will be replaced in the top job at the Almeida theatre by Dominic Cooke.

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  • Lundin Mining Announces Updated Share Capital, Provides Update on Share Buybacks and Announces Filing of ESTMA Report and Modern Slavery Report

    Lundin Mining Announces Updated Share Capital, Provides Update on Share Buybacks and Announces Filing of ESTMA Report and Modern Slavery Report

    Lundin Mining Announces Updated Share Capital, Provides Update on Share Buybacks and Announces Filing of ESTMA Report and Modern Slavery Report

    June 30, 2025

    VANCOUVER, BC, June 30, 2025 /CNW/ – (TSX: LUN) (Nasdaq Stockholm: LUMI) Lundin Mining Corporation (“Lundin Mining” or the “Company”) reports the following updated share capital and voting rights, in accordance with the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. View PDF.

    The number of issued and outstanding shares of the Company has increased by 179,029 to 855,997,663 common shares with voting rights as of June 30, 2025. The increase in the number of issued and outstanding shares from May 31, 2025 to date is a result of the exercise of employee stock options or the vesting of employee share units. During this period, the Company did not purchase any shares for cancelation under its Normal Course Issuer Bid program.

    Normal Course Issuer Bid

    Under the Company’s shareholder distribution policy, the Company is committed to allocating up to US$150 million in annual share buybacks through the NCIB program. So far during 2025, Lundin Mining has acquired 12,629,000 common shares at a cost of approximately US$104 million.

    ESTMA Report and Modern Slavery Report

    Lundin Mining has filed its ESTMA Report and Modern Slavery Report for the year ended December 31, 2024, which can be found on the Company’s website (lundinmining.com).

    About Lundin Mining

    Lundin Mining is a diversified base metals mining company with operations or projects in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and the United States of America, primarily producing copper, gold and nickel.

    The information in this release is subject to the disclosure requirements of Lundin Mining under the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out below on June 30, 2025 at 16:00 Pacific Time.

    Lundin Mining Announces Updated Share Capital, Provides Update on Share Buybacks and Announces Filing of ESTMA Report and Modern Slavery Report (CNW Group/Lundin Mining Corporation)

    SOURCE Lundin Mining Corporation

    For further information, please contact: Stephen Williams, Vice President, Investor Relations: +1 604 806 3074; Robert Eriksson, Investor Relations Sweden: +46 8 440 54 50

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