The disaster is the latest to befall migrants making the perilous Mediterranean crossing from Africa to Europe

International News via Reuters:

At least 26 people died in a migrant shipwreck on Wednesday off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa and 60 survivors were brought ashore, the coastguard said, warning more bodies could be missing as search operations continue.

The disaster, in this case involving people travelling from Libya, is the latest to befall migrants making the perilous Mediterranean crossing from Africa to Europe.

An Italian law enforcement aircraft spotted a capsized boat with bodies in the water about 14 miles (23 km) off Lampedusa on Wednesday morning, triggering a rescue operation, the coastguard said in a statement.

Based on initial accounts from the rescued migrants, they departed from the Tripoli area in Libya in the early morning aboard two boats. One of the vessels began taking on water and they transferred to the other one, which later capsized in choppy seas, a source close to the matter said.

Initial tallies from the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR indicated that the group of migrants comprised some 92 to 97 people.

Since the start of this year, 675 people have died in the central Mediterranean while trying to make the crossing from Africa, said Filippo Ungaro, a UNHCR spokesperson in Italy.

“The survivors brought into the hotspot arrived in reasonable health; naturally, there was exhaustion, and psychologically they were quite shaken,” said Imad Dalil, who heads the Italian Red Cross migrant hub on Lampedusa.

Earlier, the Red Cross said a total 56 men and four women had been brought ashore following the accident.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government has vowed to block migrant sea journeys from Africa and has passed measures against people smugglers, including tougher jail terms, urging allies to do the same.

In a statement, Meloni expressed her sadness over the tragedy and said it showed the need for stronger action to stop illegal arrivals.

“We therefore renew our commitment to combat these unscrupulous traffickers in the only way possible: by preventing irregular departures and managing migration flows,” she said.

Reporting by Angelo AmanteEditing by Gareth Jones and Gavin Jones

He repeated a forecast from July that average fares were likely to recover almost all of a 7% decline seen in the July-September quarter last year

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Ryanair is seeing strong demand across Europe with bookings ahead of last year, and is “reasonably optimistic” about hitting its summer targets, Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said in an interview on Thursday.

He also praised Boeing for agreeing to deliver some jets earlier than scheduled, ending a run of delays that have curbed Ryanair’s growth rate.

“We’re seeing strong bookings through the peak summer months … The fares are holding up,” O’Leary said, adding that bookings were about 1% ahead of the same point last year.

He repeated a forecast from July that average fares were likely to recover almost all of a 7% decline seen in the July-September quarter last year, when Ryanair was hit by consumer caution and a dispute with some online travel agents.

Hitting the summer target will depend on close-in bookings for the remainder of the airline’s key second quarter, which ends on September 30, he said.

There has been no sign of consumers changing their plans due to heatwaves this summer, O’Leary added. But he warned that U.S. tariffs would ultimately act as a drag on global growth.

“I think everybody is cautious at the moment, and we’re right to be cautious,” he said.

Boeing, which is due to deliver the final 29 aircraft of Ryanair’s current order of 737 MAX jets this winter, has agreed to deliver seven jets in August and seven in September, ahead of an earlier-agreed schedule.

“Boeing are doing a terrific job,” O’Leary said.

He was speaking in Tirana, where he announced a doubling of capacity to four million passengers per year with the basing of three aircraft at the airport from next April. He described Albania as a hidden jewel of the Adriatic.

SWEDISH GROWTH

Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passengers, also announced plans to increase capacity serving Sweden by 25% for this winter, adding eight new routes, after the country scrapped its aviation tax at the beginning of last month.

That will add to pressure on local rivals such as SAS and Norwegian Air.

Ryanair Chief Marketing Officer Dara Brady called on Sweden also to freeze airport charges and potentially offer additional incentives for growth, saying this could allow Ryanair to double its Swedish traffic by 2030.

“The market is well capable of growing significantly here over the next number of years,” Brady told a news conference.

Additional reporting by Niklas Pollard in Stockholm. Writing by Conor Humphries. Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Mark Potter

The scientists also discovered three other teeth dating to 2.59 million years ago that had traits showing they belonged to the oldest-known species of Homo

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Researchers have unearthed tooth fossils in Ethiopia dating to about 2.65 million years ago of a previously unknown species in the human evolutionary lineage, one that lived in the same time and place as the earliest-known member of the genus Homo to which our own species belongs.

The scientists discovered in the Ledi-Geraru research project area of northeastern Ethiopia’s Afar Region 10 teeth – six molars, two incisors, one premolar and one canine – that they concluded belonged to a new Australopithecus species. The teeth came from two individuals.

Until now, six species of the genus Australopithecus, an important early human ancestor that displayed a mix of ape-like and human-like traits, were known from fossils at various African sites. The researchers said the newly found teeth bore traits indicating they belonged to a seventh species.

A genus is a group of closely related species that share similar characteristics. For example, lions and tigers are from the same genus but represent different species.

The scientists also discovered three other teeth dating to 2.59 million years ago that had traits showing they belonged to the oldest-known species of Homo, one that was first revealed by a jawbone unearthed in the same vicinity in 2013.

Scientists have not yet assigned names to the Australopithecus and Homo species represented by these 13 teeth because of the incomplete nature of the fossil remains. Our species Homo sapiens is the most recent member of the Homo genus, first appearing roughly 300,000 years ago in Africa before later spreading worldwide.

The new dental fossils provide insight into a poorly understood period in human evolution. The close age of the teeth suggests that this newly identified Australopithecus species coexisted in this region with the early Homo species, raising questions about whether they competed for the same resources.

The teeth also indicate that there were four hominins – as species in the human evolutionary lineage are known – that inhabited East Africa at the time. Previous fossils showed that another Australopithecus species and a species of Paranthropus, a hominin possessing a specialized skull adapted for heavy chewing, lived in East Africa during this time. An additional Australopithecus species also inhabited southern Africa, bringing the number of hominins then on the continent to five.

The presence of these contemporaneous hominins illustrates the complicated nature of the human evolutionary process.

“This reinforces the idea that the story of human evolution is not of a single lineage changing slowly through time,” said University of Nevada, Las Vegas paleoanthropologist Brian Villmoare, lead author of the research published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

“Rather, the pattern of human evolution is similar to that of other organisms, repeatedly branching into multiple species throughout the fossil record, many of whom lived at the same time,” Villmoare added.

The researchers are seeking clues about the nature of any interaction between the Australopithecus and Homo species represented by the 13 teeth.

“We are currently analyzing teeth to see if we can tell if they ate the same thing,” said Arizona State University paleoecologist and project co-director Kaye Reed.

If so, they may have fought over resources, Reed said. Crude stone tools dating to about the same time were previously discovered nearby, Reed said, probably made by the Homo species.

The researchers determined the age of the teeth using a technique that dated feldspar crystals contained in volcanic ash in the sediments where they were discovered based on radioactive decay of the element argon.

The Afar Region, one of Earth’s hottest and lowest places, is an arid expanse of badlands. But at the time of these species, rivers flowed across a vegetated landscape into shallow lakes in a landscape populated by a splendid array of animals. These included giraffes, horses, pigs, elephants, hippos and antelopes as well as predators such as saber-toothed cats and hyenas.

Homo is generally thought to have descended from a species of Australopithecus, though the exact species and the timing have been a matter of debate. Australopithecus eventually died out.

Australopithecus includes the famous fossil Lucy, who was a member of the species Australopithecus afarensis who lived approximately 3.18 million years ago. Lucy’s remains were discovered in 1974, also in the Afar Region. The newly discovered teeth had characteristics that showed they did not belong to Lucy’s species, the researchers said.

“This new Australopithecus species is in no way some ‘missing link,’ and we actually don’t think that it was necessarily ancestral to any known species,” Villmoare said.

“Species arose and many went extinct,” Reed said. “Each find is a piece of the puzzle that puts human evolution into a twiggy tree, rather than a linear graphic.”

Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien

Walmart, the largest private employer in the United States, had previously extended its grocery discount during the holidays

International News via Reuters:

Walmart is expanding its 10% employee discount to nearly all of its grocery items, including dairy and meat, through the year, the company’s chief people officer told its staff in a letter on Wednesday.

The discount, previously limited to fresh produce and general merchandise such as apparel, now extends to almost all food categories — including milk, meat, dry grocery, and seafood — in stores and online, effective immediately.

Walmart, the largest private employer in the United States, had previously extended its grocery discount during the holidays, but the perk will now be available year-round, the company said.

“We’ve heard your feedback that these savings make a real difference for you and your families,” Donna Morris, Walmart’s chief people officer, wrote in the letter.

Morris said the extension of the discount card program, first introduced more than 50 years ago, was among the company’s most requested benefits.

The company has also raised wages for U.S. hourly workers and launched a bonus program for about 700,000 front-line staff over the last couple of years to help retain workers.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on the extension of the discount program.

Reporting by Juveria Tabassum in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid