NEWS HEADLINES
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Explosions and gunfire as armed groups launch co-ordinated attacks across Mali
Witnesses report clashes in the centre and north, in what has been described as the largest jihadist attack in years. read more
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Seven dead in major Russian attack on Ukraine
The city of Dnipro was hardest hit, with officials saying four died in a strike on a residential building. read more
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Palestinians in West Bank and some in Gaza vote in local elections
Local elections are held in the occupied West Bank and in one Gazan city, though Hamas and other groups are not taking part. read more
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Katya Adler: Europe's Nato allies push back at reported US threat to Spain
On Friday morning, souring relations between Europe and the United States reared its Medusa-like head again, writes the BBC's Europe editor. read more
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Nato says 'no provision' to expel members after report US could seek to suspend Spain
An internal Pentagon email reportedly outlines options to punish allies over a perceived lack of support for Iran war. read more
BIOGRAPHY
Stephen Jay Gould was born and raised in the community of Bayside, a neighborhood of the northeastern section of Queens in New York City. His father Leonard was a court stenographer, and his mother Eleanor was an artist whose parents were Jewish immigrants living and working in the city’s Garment District.[6] When Gould was five years old his father took him to the Hall of Dinosaurs in the American Museum of Natural History, where he first encountered Tyrannosaurus rex. “I had no idea there were such thingsāI was awestruck,” Gould once recalled.[7] It was in that moment that he decided to become a paleontologist.
Raised in a secular Jewish home, Gould did not formally practice religion and preferred to be called an agnostic. Biologist Jerry Coyne, who had Gould on his thesis committee, described him as a “diehard atheist if there ever was one.

