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Wales Online
World
Steve Houghton

World news snapshot: Gibraltar's homage to the Queen, Covid protests in New Zealand and a new species of dinosaur

Gibraltar Chronicle

The newspaper serving the British overseas territory reports that a Royal Gun Salute was fired by the Royal Gibraltar Regiment yesterday (Monday) to mark the 70th anniversary of the accession to the throne of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Members of the public gathered to watch the salute at Grand Battery House. The Inspecting Officer, Mayor Christian Santos, was hosted by the regiment's battalion second-in-command, Major Timothy Cummings, and Gun Position Officer Captain Richard Dagger, with the officers and warrant officers of the regiment joining at Grand Battery House to mark the occasion.

On Sunday, the government of Gibraltar extended its “warmest and most loyal congratulations” to the Her Majesty the Queen on the occasion of the celebration of her Platinum Jubilee, describing it as an “outstanding and historic, record breaking, achievement”.

The paper added that many people in Gibraltar still remember well the ascension of a very young Princess Elizabeth to the throne of the United Kingdom after the sudden death of her father, King George VI. Upon her coronation, Queen Elizabeth II embarked on a world tour of the Commonwealth countries, including Gibraltar.

New Zealand Herald

The newspaper's website reports that hundreds of cars, trucks and motorbikes had arrived at parliament, as they continue to cause major backlogs on the main roads around and into Wellington.

The movement - dubbed the Convoy 2022 - has attracted people from all around the country. A large group of motorbikes, cars and trucks arrived outside parliament about 11am, coming to a stop on Molesworth Street, and several thousand were now on parliament's lawn.

Protesters have also parked at the bottom of Lambton Quay - blocking traffic heading into parliament.

The site said they were protesting against the government's ongoing Covid rules and restrictions, including the vaccine mandate introduced last year.

Both prime minister Jacinda Ardern and National Party leader Christopher Luxon said they had no intention of engaging with the protesters.

San Francisco Chronicle

The newspaper's website reports that "frustrated house hunters aren’t imagining it - there really is just one home for sale for every 1,206 South Bay households earning $100,000 (£74,000) to $125,000 a year.

It says that is according to a new report from the National Association of Realtors, which compares household income to the number of homes listed for sale in each price bracket as one way to gauge housing supply against potential demand.

From households earning $50,000 a year to those raking in $500,000, the San Jose and San Francisco metro areas are at or near the top of the list for the nation’s least accessible cities, and competition is steepest in lower price ranges.

Heraldo de Aragon, Spain

The Spanish site reports on a new species of titanosaur dinosaur discovered in the Pyrenees. It says the remains are of a creature 18 metres (59ft) long and 14 tons in weight that has been described from the most complete skeleton discovered to date in Europe. The University of Zaragoza has collaborated in the research.

Research staff from the Miquel Crusafont Catalan Institute of Paleontology, the Conca Dellà Museum, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the University of Zaragoza and the Nova University of Lisbon have described the news species "abditosaurus kuehnei from the remains excavated at the Orcau-1 site, in Pallars Jussà , dated to be 70.5 million years old.

The website said it is the most complete semi-articulated skeleton of this group of herbivorous dinosaurs discovered so far in Europe, in the Ibero-Armorican domain, the ancient region that currently groups Iberia and southern France.

It said one of the aspects that surprised the research staff was precisely its size. "The titanosaurs that we usually find in the Late Cretaceous of Europe tend to be small or medium in size as a result of having evolved in insular conditions," Bernat Vila, a leading paleontologist, is quoted. He added that during the Upper Cretaceous (between 83 and 66 million years ago), Europe was an extensive archipelago made up of dozens of islands. The faunas that evolved there tend to be small or even dwarf forms due to the food limitations of living on an island. He said: “It is a recurring phenomenon in the history of life on Earth and we have many examples in the fossil record. That is why we were surprised by the large dimensions of this specimen.”

France 24

The French site reports that Russian president Vladimir Putin said he was ready for compromise and would look at proposals put forward by French leader Emmanuel Macron during talks on Monday (yesterday) while still blaming the West for raising tensions over Ukraine.

Emerging from a meeting in the Kremlin that lasted more than five hours, the two leaders voiced hope that a solution could be found to the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.

Moscow has amassed tens of thousands of troops on the borders of Ukraine, raising fears that it is preparing a possible invasion of its pro-Western neighbour.

The site explains that the West has repeatedly warned of "severe consequences" if Russia invades, and Mr Macron was the first major Western leader to meet with Mr Putin since the start of the crisis in December.

It adds that repeatedly thanking the French leader for coming to Moscow, Putin said at a joint press conference that Macron had presented several ideas worth studying.

"A number of his ideas, proposals... are possible as a basis for further steps," Mr Putin is quoted as saying, adding: "We will do everything to find compromises that suit everyone."

The news site said he did not provide any details but said the two leaders would speak by phone after Mr Macron meets with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv today (Tuesday).

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