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Disney to Announce New $60 Billion Theme Park in Shanghai 

Fireworks explode in the sky during Mickey and Minnie's Birthday Celebration Castle Projection “Best Wishes” at Shanghai Disneyland Resort on November 16, 2025, in Shanghai, China. (Getty Images)
Fireworks explode in the sky during Mickey and Minnie's Birthday Celebration Castle Projection “Best Wishes” at Shanghai Disneyland Resort on November 16, 2025, in Shanghai, China. (Getty Images)
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Disney to Announce New $60 Billion Theme Park in Shanghai 

Fireworks explode in the sky during Mickey and Minnie's Birthday Celebration Castle Projection “Best Wishes” at Shanghai Disneyland Resort on November 16, 2025, in Shanghai, China. (Getty Images)
Fireworks explode in the sky during Mickey and Minnie's Birthday Celebration Castle Projection “Best Wishes” at Shanghai Disneyland Resort on November 16, 2025, in Shanghai, China. (Getty Images)

Disney is tipped to imminently announce that it is developing a new theme park as part of a $60 billion investment in its Experiences division which generates the majority of its operating income, according to the American business magazine, Forbes.

It is widely expected that the park will be built in Shanghai alongside its existing fairytale-themed outpost there and the announcement could come as early as next week.

The resort will begin two days of celebrations to mark its tenth anniversary with Disney's chief executive Josh D'Amaro flying in for the festivities.

The invitation received by this author doesn't refer to an announcement and simply invites media to “join us to celebrate ten years of making magic together.” However, there will be plenty of opportunity for an announcement to be made.

The festivities will begin on Monday afternoon with a media session which will showcase highlights from the past decade at the resort and provide the updates about the latest developments, according to the organizers.

The media event will be followed on Tuesday by a red-carpet celebration with the highlight taking place in the evening in front of the park's soaring Enchanted Storybook Castle. It will be the backdrop for live performances by Disney characters and an anniversary fireworks celebration.

Unlike all of Disney's other so-called castle parks, Shanghai has no turn-of-the-century themed Main Street running from the entrance to its centerpiece castle.

In place of this slice of Americana is the cartoony Mickey Avenue which is themed to classic capers featuring Disney's mascot.

Likewise, there is no steam train or Haunted Mansion as you usually find in Disney's castle parks. The railroad got cut to maximize walking spaces while the Haunted Mansion was removed out of respect for Chinese cultural sensitivities regarding death and spirits.

Instead, Shanghai Disney is home to the grassy Garden of the Twelve Friends with 12 massive mosaic murals of classic Disney characters in the form of Chinese Zodiac animals. It took more than the wave of a magic wand to pull it off according to Jim Shull, a former Imagineer who worked on Shanghai Disney.

Caption: Fireworks explode in the sky during Mickey and Minnie's Birthday Celebration Castle Projection “Best Wishes” at Shanghai Disneyland Resort on November 16, 2025 in Shanghai, China. (Getty Images)

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Scientists Identify 64,000 sq Miles of Coral Reef Capable of Surviving Climate Crisis

FILE PHOTO: Fish swim at a coral reef inside a 'Rahui' or restricted area in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, French Polynesia, August 4, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Fish swim at a coral reef inside a 'Rahui' or restricted area in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, French Polynesia, August 4, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
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Scientists Identify 64,000 sq Miles of Coral Reef Capable of Surviving Climate Crisis

FILE PHOTO: Fish swim at a coral reef inside a 'Rahui' or restricted area in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, French Polynesia, August 4, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Fish swim at a coral reef inside a 'Rahui' or restricted area in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, French Polynesia, August 4, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

Scientists have identified nearly 166,000 sq km (64,000 sq miles) of coral reefs that are capable of surviving and recovering from climate change, three times more than previously estimated, research showed on Tuesday.

The world's coral reefs, which sustain a quarter of all marine life, have come under severe stress as a result of violent tropical storms, pollution and mass "bleaching" events caused by soaring ocean temperatures, with some scientists warning that they are facing irreversible decline.

But an analysis of 45,000 coral surveys together with decades of climate and ocean data has identified climate-resilient ⁠reefs across 71 ⁠countries and 100 territories, including in parts of the Caribbean and the Pacific and Atlantic oceans that have not previously been recognized.

"Coral reefs are often framed as ecosystems beyond saving," said Emily Darling, director of coral conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and one of the report's ⁠authors.

"This research shows otherwise: we know where the hope is and what we need now is political will."

Countries are currently drawing up action plans aimed at bringing 30% of their land and marine environments under formal protection by the end of the decade, a target known as "30 by 30", and the new research will enable governments to consider the location of coral reefs in their planning.

"Only 28% of the reefs currently fall within protected and conserved ⁠areas, so ⁠the opportunity is clear, and so is the urgency, especially as we face an upcoming super El Nino event," Reuters quoted Darling as saying at a briefing.

Stacy Jupiter, co-author and executive director of the WCS's Global Marine Program, said the data could give governments the information required to decide where limited funds are deployed and give the more resilient reefs the best possible chance of surviving.

"In certain cases, where reefs are below certain benchmarks for ecosystem function, it may be a case of triage, where we may need to leave those places," she said.

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Spanish Prehistoric Cave Suggests Human Settlement More Than 4,000 Years Ago

The cave is located in the Nuria Valley in the Girona region of Spain (Shutterstock)
The cave is located in the Nuria Valley in the Girona region of Spain (Shutterstock)
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Spanish Prehistoric Cave Suggests Human Settlement More Than 4,000 Years Ago

The cave is located in the Nuria Valley in the Girona region of Spain (Shutterstock)
The cave is located in the Nuria Valley in the Girona region of Spain (Shutterstock)

A mysterious ancient settlement has been discovered surprisingly high in the Pyrenean mountains in Spain, according to BBC Science Focus.

Documented in a new study, the prehistoric cave known as Cova 338 sits 2,235 meters above sea level, in the Nuria Valley – making it the highest altitude dwelling of its kind to date in this area.

For decades, archaeologists have thought that areas above 2,000 meters were only used by people passing through. But the new discovery suggests that, over the course of 5,000 years (between the 5th and 1st millennia BC), multiple populations actually occupied the caves for long periods of time.

Excavations of the cave took place between 2021 and 2023, and have posed a major logistical challenge, as access to the cave is only possible on foot from the Nuria Valley, with no motorized support allowed.

This has required all materials and sediments generated during the digs to be transported manually.

The main conclusion of the study was published last May in the magazine, Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology. It documented high-mountain prehistoric occupations of significant intensity, characterized by repeated activities and the direct exploitation of mineral resources within the cave.

Lead author of the study, Carlos Tornero, professor in the Department of Prehistory at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), said: “For a long time, these spaces were assumed to be marginal. What we document here is recurrent occupation, with complex activities and a clear exploitation of mineral resources.”

In the layers of the excavations, researchers found remains of fires and animal bones, ceramic fragments and even two pendants: one from a marine shell and one from a brown bear tooth.

The cave also contained a collection of green minerals, which the researchers think are likely malachite – a copper carbonate mineral – suggesting some of the earliest evidence of copper extraction in Western Europe.

Varieties

Wisconsin Beagle Research Facility that Drew Protests is Closing as Rescue Group Takes in Dogs

A woman pets one of the beagles transferred from Ridglan Farms on Monday, June 15, 2026, in Marshall, Wis. (Big Dog Ranch Rescue via AP)
A woman pets one of the beagles transferred from Ridglan Farms on Monday, June 15, 2026, in Marshall, Wis. (Big Dog Ranch Rescue via AP)
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Wisconsin Beagle Research Facility that Drew Protests is Closing as Rescue Group Takes in Dogs

A woman pets one of the beagles transferred from Ridglan Farms on Monday, June 15, 2026, in Marshall, Wis. (Big Dog Ranch Rescue via AP)
A woman pets one of the beagles transferred from Ridglan Farms on Monday, June 15, 2026, in Marshall, Wis. (Big Dog Ranch Rescue via AP)

A Wisconsin beagle breeding and research facility that’s been the site of recent violent protests is closing, and its remaining dogs are being taken in by a Florida rescue group.

Big Dog Ranch Rescue announced Monday that it has reached an agreement for the permanent closure of Ridglan Farms and the transfer of its 475 remaining beagles starting this week.

“Not one dog will remain,” Lauree Simmons, the group’s founder, said in a news conference at a farm in Wisconsin. “No more breeding, no more testing, no more anything.”

Yearslong opposition to the facility came to head in April when a large group of animal welfare activists stormed the property in an attempt to take away beagles, prompting police to use tear gas and pepper spray as they made dozens of arrests.

Some protesters were also arrested in March after they broke in and took 30 dogs from the facility, which is located in Blue Mounds, a small town about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Madison.

Big Dog Ranch Rescue said some of the beagles will go to rescue groups while others will be sent to its Florida and Alabama campuses where they will be spayed, neutered, and prepared for adoption.

The group bought roughly 1,500 of the facility’s more than 2,000 beagles in April for an undisclosed price.

About 200 dogs were being transferred Monday, according to Simmons. Another 125 will be moved Tuesday. The transfer of the remaining beagles will happen in August, as they are still puppies.

According to The Associated Press, Simmons called on protesters to refrain from further demonstrations as it says Ridglan Farms has committed to permanently closing its dog breeding, sales, research and testing operations.

“Our focus now should be on supporting these dogs as they transition into their new lives,” Simmons said. “These dogs will get to experience safety and a normal life for the first time.”

Simmons said her group is also “working closely” with the Trump administration to stop funding studies that subject dogs to “invasive and painful experimentation.”

Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., called Monday’s deal a “major win for animal welfare” in a post on X.

Ridglan Farms, in a statement, said all the dogs being transferred are “happy, healthy animals” with “extensive” state and federal inspection documentation.

“We hope these dogs will continue to flourish in their new homes,” the company said, adding that it hopes that the “years-long harassment campaign targeting the research facility’s owners, staff and neighbors comes to an end.”

Animal activists for years had sought to have dogs at the facility adopted, not sold to other research facilities.

Beagles are the most common breed of dog used for animal testing, primarily because of their smaller size and gentle temperament, according to Big Dog Ranch Rescue.

Ridglan Farms agreed in October to give up its state breeding license as of July 1 as part of a deal to avoid prosecution on felony animal mistreatment charges.

The firm has denied mistreating animals, but a special prosecutor determined that Ridglan Farms was performing eye procedures that violated state veterinary standards.