NEWS HEADLINES
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Germany's far-right AfD set for big win in eastern state, just short of majority
Germany's AfD has hailed a "historic result" and is projected to win 44% of the vote, far ahead of the conservatives on 17%. read more
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Zelensky says he expects war to continue into winter after talks with US envoys
There was no announcement of a major breakthrough, after Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner travelled to Kyiv. read more
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Peace talks rich in symbolism but fundamental differences between Russia and Ukraine remain
Despite talks between US envoys and both Putin and Zelensky, the expectation in Kyiv is the fighting will continue, writes James Landale. read more
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Volcano eruption leaves 170,000 passengers stranded in Indonesia
More than 170,000 airline passengers are stranded after ash was detected in airspace near Jakarta following the eruptions. read more
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Dozens feared trapped in collapsed building in Delhi
As many as 50 people are thought to have been inside the five-storey hostel when it came down. 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.

