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This gelatinous Monterey Bay deep-sea creature is the ‘sister’ that took its own evolutionary path

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:27 GMT

We still don’t know what the world’s first animal looked like, but scientists say it arose roughly 700 million years ago from a soup of single-celled organisms floating in the ocean. The multi-celled creature thrived, multiplied and evolved, at some point splitting into two distinct species.One species kept evolving, eventually producing virtually all the animals on Earth — dinosaurs, humans, cats, mosquitoes. The other species, the “sister to all other animals,” took its own, narrower evolutionary path.Now, after years of fierce debate, scientists have the clearest evidence to date which animal alive today is the sister’s true descendant: It’s the mysterious comb jelly, several species of which flourish in Monterey Bay.Left, The California sea gooseberry, photographed in a laboratory, helped Northern California researchers provide key evidence that the comb jelly, not the sponge, descended from the “sister to all other animals.” (Darrin Schultz © 2021 MBARI)Right, A tul...

Guatemalans Guarded the Memory of Democracy Through Years of War and Corruption. Now They See an Opening.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:27 GMT

On the evening of August 20, election day for Guatemala’s second round of presidential voting, Alba Noe Muñoz’s family was afraid she would have a heart attack. The 90-year-old, mostly blind matriarch listened to the television, rapt, as the results came in and Bernardo Arévalo, progressive candidate for the Semilla party, took a commanding lead. She prayed, she exulted, and then she ran out into the street in front of her home, in the hamlet of San Juan Ostuncalco in Guatemala’s western highlands, and shouted to the neighbors and anyone within earshot. “Arévalo won! Arévalo won!” Alba Noe Muñoz, 90, poses for a portrait in her home in San Juan Ostuncalco, Guatemala, on Aug. 27, 2023.Photo: Victor J. Blue for The InterceptThe last time she felt this deep well of hope, it was 1944, she was 11 years old, and she was cheering the ascension of Juan José Arévalo, the father of the now president-elect. Along with the rest of her country, she had waited decades for a dream deferred: the re...

Top women’s soccer official Nadine Kessler turns down trailblazing job in Germany to stay with UEFA

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:27 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — UEFA’s head of women’s soccer Nadine Kessler has turned down the chance to take a trailblazing job overseeing all of Germany’s national teams, including the men’s, the European soccer body said Sunday.The former FIFA Women’s Player of the Year had talks over the past month with the German soccer federation (DFB) in its search for a managing director to replace Olivier Bierhoff. He left in December after another early exit for the national team at the men’s World Cup.Hiring the 35-year-old Kessler would have been a powerful statement by the DFB amid rapid progress for women’s soccer globally on the field but systemic problems off the field in governance by soccer bodies.Kessler said she was “flattered to have been approached” by her national federation.“I have decided to step back from the conversations last week and wish to continue my current role wholeheartedly,” the former Germany midfielder said in a statement released by UEFA, which is based in Nyon, S...

Gov. Youngkin pardons father of sexual assault victim arrested at Loudoun Co. school board meeting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:27 GMT

Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Sunday that he’s granting a pardon for a Virginia father who was arrested at a Loudoun County School Board meeting back in 2021 after his daughter was sexually assaulted in a school bathroom.The man’s daughter was raped at Stone Bridge High School — leading to the father’s arrest for disrupting a contentious June 22, 2021 school board meeting.The man, whom WTOP is not naming to avoid indirectly identifying the teenager who was sexually assaulted, had been arrested and convicted in District Court of disorderly conduct.Youngkin called him “a dedicated parent who’s faced unwarranted charges in his pursuit to protect his daughter” in a news release, after the father disrupted a comment period on transgender policy at the school board meeting and resisted arrest.“In Virginia, parents matter and my resolve to empower parents in unwavering,” Youngkin said. “A parent’s fundamental right to be involved in their child’s e...

Denver weather: Cool temps for the workweek

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:27 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Changes have arrived! Keep the umbrella handy the next few days with showers and thunderstorms expected for Denver's weather. Weather today: Cooler, cloudy skiesSunday will be cooler with highs only in the low 70s. Look for mostly cloudy skies and a few sprinkles in the morning, but more storms are on the way for the afternoon and evening. Storms today have the potential to become strong to severe with large hail the biggest threat. Looking ahead: Cool temps for the workweekMonday will be the coolest day of the week with upper 60s and a chance for scattered showers. Rain chances and temperatures in the 70s stick around for most of the week. 

‘I don’t want to contain China,’ Biden says in Beijing’s backyard

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:27 GMT

Three days into high-profile visits to the capitals of India and Vietnam, President Joe Biden said that his presence and moves to strengthen ties with China’s neighbors weren’t designed to “contain” Beijing.And he repeated that phrase — again and again.“I don’t want to contain China,” he said during a news conference in Hanoi shortly after elevating the U.S.-Vietnam relationship and palling around with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “We’re not trying to hurt China.” Under his watch, Biden said America’s goal is “getting the relationship right” between the world’s two foremost powers.Biden’s team has said previously it doesn’t aim to curb China’s rise, even when it imposes strict export controls on technologies crucial for its military development and takes steps to move closer to other countries in Asia. But the remarks, and the setting of the message, is the strongest signal the administration has sent to Beijing that it doesn’t want to foment a new Cold War.Biden arrive...

Revolution coach Bruce Arena quits after draw with Minnesota United

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:27 GMT

SAINT PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Franco Fragapane scored in the third minute of second-half stoppage time — with an assist from goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair — and Minnesota United rallied for a 1-1 draw with New England Revolution on Saturday night.It was Fragapane’s first goal of the season for Minnesota United (9-8-10), which increases its regular-season unbeaten streak to seven 3-0-4. The home side had won all four of the previous match-ups, including three by New England (13-5-9).The Revolution’s winless streak on the road in all competitons is now nine — 0-4-5. It’s only longer skid was an 11-match run spanning the 2018-19 seasons.New England took a 1-0 lead in the 38th minute when Carles Gil took a pass from Nacho Gil and scored his eighth goal of the season.Earl Edwards Jr. saved five shots in his fifth start of the season for the Revolution. St. Clair had three saves for Minnesota United.Minnesota United has put together at least a seven-match unbeaten run in each of...

Convicted killer who escaped Pennsylvania prison spotted more than 20 miles from search area and changed his appearance, police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:27 GMT

(CNN) — Danelo Cavalcante, the convicted killer who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison, was seen overnight Saturday more than 20 miles from the search area where he was last reportedly sighted, according to state police.“During the late evening and overnight hours, Cavalcante was reportedly seen in the northern Chester County area near Phoenixville,” Pennsylvania State Police said in a news release early Sunday, placing the fugitive about 25 miles northeast of the county prison from which he escaped on August 31.He was no longer thought to be in that area by late Sunday morning, however, with police in a subsequent statement citing new “(i)nvestigative leads.”The latest sightings coincided with two other notable developments:First, Cavalcante, 34, has “changed his appearance,” state police said, describing him as “clean-shaven” after earlier photos showed him with facial hair. He’s also “wearing a yellow or green hooded sweatshirt, black baseball cap, green prison pan...

John Means ready to rejoin Orioles, regardless of role: ‘I just want to win the World Series’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:27 GMT

Fenway Park has been host to plenty of highlights in John Means’ career, the site of his major league debut in 2018 and first opening day start with the Orioles in 2021.It’s also where, this weekend, he rejoined the team in advance of his long-awaited activation from the injured list after his April 2022 Tommy John elbow reconstruction. Means threw a bullpen Saturday, and with Baltimore yet to list starters for the final two games in its upcoming home series with the St. Louis Cardinals, the 30-year-old left-hander seems poised to return to the rotation he shepherded for much of the organization’s rebuild. Even joining the Orioles as a reliever would not dull what he’s out to achieve with a team pursuing its first playoff berth since 2016.Means was an All-Star and the runner-up for American League Rookie of the Year in 2019 and was announced as the Orioles’ opening starter the next three seasons, though arm fatigue prevented him from making the assignme...

Aftershock rattles Morocco as rescuers seek survivors from the earthquake that killed over 2,100

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:27 GMT

By SAM METZ and MOSA’AB ELSHAMY (Associated Press)AMIZMIZ, Morocco (AP) — An aftershock rattled Moroccans on Sunday as they mourned victims of the nation’s strongest earthquake in more than a century and sought to rescue survivors while soldiers and aid workers raced to reach ruined mountain villages. The disaster killed more than 2,100 people — a number that is expected to rise.The United Nations estimated that 300,000 people were affected by Friday night’s magnitude 6.8 quake and some Moroccans complained on social networks that the government wasn’t allowing more outside help. International aid crews were poised to deploy, but some grew frustrated waiting for the government to officially request assistance.“We know there is a great urgency to save people and dig under the remains of buildings,” said Arnaud Fraisse, founder of Rescuers Without Borders, who had a team stuck in Paris waiting for the green light. “There are people...