NEWS HEADLINES
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EU chief backs plan for Canada to become 'associate member'
Canada is seeking closer ties with EU after a breakdown in relations with the US and its president Donald Trump. read more
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Eight children among 21 killed after war-damaged Gaza building collapses, rescuers say
Dozens of people are missing beneath the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli strike last year, where some 10 families had been living. read more
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US accuses Russia of trying to kill Ukrainian allies overseas
The FBI says five men "conspired to intimidate, threaten, or murder people on US soil and around the world". read more
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OpenAI boss says world 'right to be afraid' but should trust AI firms
Sam Altman and other tech CEOs say there are incentives to limit advancements in AI, as fears grow over the threats it poses to humanity. read more
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Eight German state premiers back Merz amid speculation over future
Christian Democratic Union leadership throws its weight behind the chancellor ahead of two state elections this weekend. 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.

