News in Brief (2022-06-02)

UK forgets crisis to party for queen's jubilee
LONDON, June 01: Putting aside a biting inflationary crisis and doubts over the monarchy's future, Britons prepared Wednesday for four days of festivities to mark a record-breaking 70 years on the throne for Queen Elizabeth II. The Platinum Jubilee offers a brief respite from a surge in prices not seen since the 1970s, with accounts emerging daily of people struggling to put food on the table and pay spiralling bills. With two public holidays from Thursday and then the weekend, pubs, restaurants and retailers are hoping for a timely sales boost, after a difficult period including the Covid pandemic. "With the sun set to shine across the four days we're hoping to see pub gardens filled with people raising a toast to Her Majesty the Queen and showing their support for two great British institutions," the British Beer and Pub Association said. There are thousands fewer pubs in Britain than when the queen ascended the throne amid gloomy post-war rationing in 1952. — AFP

6.1-magnitude quake hits Sichuan
BEIJING, June 01: A 6.1-magnitude earthquake rattled Lushan County of Ya'an City in southwest China's Sichuan Province, at 5:00 p.m. Wednesday (Beijing Time), according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre (CENC). The epicentre, with a depth of 17 km, was monitored at 30.37 degrees north latitude and 102.94 degrees east longitude. — Xinhua

Scientists prove human middle ear evolved from fish gills
TAIYUAN, June 01: A new study conducted by scientists from China, Sweden, and the United Kingdom reveals that the human middle ear evolved from fish gills. According to Gai Zhikun, a Chinese Academy of Sciences researcher and the first author of the article "The Evolution of the Spiracular Region From Jawless Fish to Tetrapods," there is ample embryonic and fossil evidence that the human middle ear evolved from a fish's spiracle. — Xinhua

Indian opposition's Gandhis summoned in money laundering probe
NEW DELHI, June 01: India's financial crime-fighting agency wants to question the two most senior members of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, who lead the main opposition Congress party, as it investigates a complaint of money laundering, the party said on Wednesday. The summons by the enforcement directorate is linked to a nine-year old complaint by a lawmaker of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul, the party said. The lawmaker, Subramanian Swamy, had accused the Gandhis of forming a shell company and illegally gaining control of properties worth $300 million. — Reuters

World's biggest plant discovered off Australian coast
SYDNEY, June 01: The largest known plant on Earth - a seagrass roughly three times the size of Manhattan - has been discovered off the coast of Australia. Using genetic testing, scientists have determined a large underwater meadow in Western Australia is in fact one plant. It is believed to have spread from a single seed over at least 4,500 years. The seagrass covers about 200 sq km (77 sq miles), researchers from the University of Western Australia said. — BBC