(NEW YORK) — At least 10 states from Louisiana to Delaware are under snow and ice alerts as this latest winter storm moves east.
On Tuesday, the storm brought 11 inches of snow to Missouri, 8 inches to Kansas and more than 2 inches to Oklahoma.
Freezing rain and sleet fell in Oklahoma and Arkansas, leaving roads extremely dangerous.
On Wednesday morning, the snow fell from Tupelo, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee, to Lexington, Kentucky. Schools in Nashville are closed on Wednesday.
In Kentucky, where the death toll has risen to 14 from severe flooding that struck earlier in the week, this new storm is dropping 2 to 8 inches of snow.
In eastern Kentucky, some officials are unable to get equipment on the roads to clear the snow, Gov. Andy Beshear said Wednesday.
Further south, heavy rain was reported in New Orleans Wednesday morning.
By Wednesday afternoon, the snow is forecast to move into the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.
The heaviest snow — 5 to 10 inches — will be from just northeast of Raleigh, North Carolina, to Norfolk, Virginia, and Ocean City, Maryland.
South of Raleigh and into South Carolina, an icy mix is possible.
This storm will end by Wednesday night.
But behind the storm is an Arctic blast.
Many cities recorded record low temperatures Wednesday morning, including: negative 25 degrees in Rapid City, South Dakota; negative 15 degrees in Billings, Montana; 1 degree in Wichita, Kansas; and2 degrees in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
The wind chill — what temperature it feels like — is even colder, clocking in at minus 1 degree in Dallas; minus 16 degrees in Oklahoma City; minus 18 degrees in Wichita; and minus 25 degrees in Minneapolis.
The record cold temperatures will spread further south into the Gulf Coast on Thursday and Friday, with record lows possible in Dallas; Corpus Christi, Texas; Birmingham, Alabama; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
It will warm up this weekend, and by next week, temperatures will climb to the 60s and 70s in the South.
A Georgia woman is suing a fertility clinic after an in vitro fertilization (IVF) mix-up allegedly led to staff implanting the wrong embryo and to her giving birth to another couple’s biological child.
Krystena Murray, 38, of Savannah, said she selected a sperm donor who looked like her “with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes.” She became pregnant and delivered a baby in December 2023, according to the lawsuit.
However, Murray, who is white and who, according to the complaint, had a white sperm donor, was shocked when she gave birth and the baby boy she delivered was African American, the suit states.
Murray bonded with the baby and wanted to keep him, despite knowing that the clinic, Coastal Fertility Specialists (CFS), had likely implanted somebody else’s embryo, according to the lawsuit.
She requested a DNA test which confirmed her fears that the baby was not genetically related to her. When Murray contacted the clinic, staff alerted the baby’s biological parents of the mix-up, according to the lawsuit.
The other couple sued Murray for custody, and she turned over the baby five months after giving birth. She said she has not seen him since.
“I questioned at first whether I was meant to be a mom, because I had tried for so long,” she told ABC News. “This is something that actually happens, and it’s devastating, and it can ruin someone’s life, and realize that it is an actual possibility.”
A lawsuit was filed on Tuesday afternoon in the State Court of Chatham County, in Georgia.
Murray said she had dreamed of being a mother. When she was asked at a young age what she wanted to be, her response was: a mom.
“They were actually referring to career but, my young mind, that’s what I wanted to do with my life was to be a mom,” she said. “I spent the majority of my younger years thinking I needed to have the perfect person or spouse to start a family and, once I started getting older, I realized that my priorities changed, and I wanted to pursue being a mother sooner rather than later.”
For about 18 months prior to contacting CFS, she said she attempted intrauterine insemination without success. During a press conference on Tuesday, Murray said she contacted CFS, which operates clinics in Georgia and South Carolina, in either late 2022 or early 2023.
Over several months, Murray said she attended many appointments that included follow-up exams and blood tests. She also underwent daily injections over a two-week period to stimulate the ovaries to increase egg production, the lawsuit states.
Murray went through one egg retrieval surgery and became pregnant during her second transfer in May 2023, she said. She gave birth in late December 2023.
“So, the first time I saw my son, like any mom, he was beautiful and literally the best thing I’ve ever seen, but it was also immediately apparent that he was African American,” Murray said during the press conference. “I would like to say my first thought is, ‘He’s beautiful.’ My second thought was, ‘What happened? Did they mess up the embryo, or did they mess up the sperm? And if they messed up the embryo, can someone take my son?’ That was all within the course of the first 10 or 15 seconds of me seeing him.”
Murray said she loved the baby and bonded with him, breastfeeding him and taking him to doctors’ appointments, but she knew the clinic had made a mistake somehow.
She purchased an at-home DNA test and received results in late January 2024, confirming the baby was not genetically related to her, according to the lawsuit.
Murray’s attorneys reached out to CFS in February 2024 to share Murray’s fears, the lawsuit states. In March 2024, the clinic realized its mistake and reached out to the biological parents to let them know their embryo had been transferred into Murray, according to the lawsuit.
The biological parents sued Murray for custody of the child. Another DNA test confirmed the baby was genetically related to them, the lawsuit states.
Murray said she wanted to keep the baby and hired a family law attorney but, after a “tremendous amount of money and time,” they told her that she would likely lose her case.
During a family court hearing in May 2024, Murray said she voluntarily turned the baby over to the other couple, marking the last time she saw him.
Murray said surrendering him over to his biological parents was “the hardest day of my life.”
“I think about him every single day. There’s not a day that I don’t wonder what he’s doing,” she told ABC News. “I raised him for five months, but I didn’t get to see his first steps. I don’t know what his first words are. I don’t know, what milestones he’s hitting.”
“I’m not privy to what type of person he’s becoming or how he’s growing and developing, and it is very hard, and I do think of him every single day and wonder how he is,” she added.
According to her lawsuit, Murray said she doesn’t know what happened to her own embryo, whether it was also mistakenly transferred to another couple or resulted in a pregnancy.
Murray said the process made her question motherhood, but she said she is currently getting treatment at another clinic and hopes she can become a mother soon.
Her lawsuit against CFS and some of its staff was filed by the law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise for negligence, gross negligence, bailment, breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent concealment, battery, lack of informed consent, violations of the Georgia Fair Business Practices Act and violations of the South Carolina Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The attorneys are seeking a judgment in excess of $75,000 as well as punitive damages, recovered attorney fees, recovered treble damages and all other costs. CFS did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Murray’s attorney, Adam Wolf, said he has represented more than 1,000 people against fertility clinics due to errors that allegedly occurred during their treatments. He described Murray’s experience as a patient’s “wildest fear.”
“Having done this work for 13 years now, when you go into a fertility clinic, there’s a risk that they might not get as many eggs as you had hoped, or create as many embryos as you wanted,” he told ABC News. “You might come out of that process without having any embryos. But what you never think in your wildest fear is that your fertility clinic is going to transfer to you an embryo that belongs to somebody else. That is beyond the pale, and it should never happen at a fertility clinic.”
He said he hopes this leads CFS to change its processes and procedures so a mistake like this doesn’t happen again and that more safeguards are put in place across the fertility industry nationwide.
Murray said she hopes to bring more awareness by sharing her story and to let other patients going through something similar know they are not alone.
“You’re not alone and use your voice. Don’t be silenced,” she said. “I feel like if we don’t come forward and we don’t speak our truth and we don’t share our experiences, then there will never be change, and this will just be a repetitive cycle. And use your voice, if not for you, because we can’t change the situation that we’re in, then do it for someone else.”
The family of a passenger who died in the midair collision near Washington, D.C., filed legal claims against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the United States Army, seeking $250 million in compensation for each claim.
The filings are likely the beginning of a lengthy legal battle stemming from the deadliest aviation incident in the U.S. over the last quarter century, killing all 64 aboard the American Airlines passenger jet and three servicemembers in the Blackhawk helicopter on Jan. 29.
“This was a disaster waiting to happen, and it just so happened that particular night. Everything came together to create this preventable tragedy,” said Robert Clifford, a lawyer representing the family of Casey Crafton. “We want to get to the bottom of it, and this gets us going.”
Crafton was on board the American Airlines regional jet returning from a business trip to his home in Salem, Connecticut, where he lived with his wife, Rachel, and his three young sons. Crafton worked as a technical support manager for an aviation consulting firm after studying aviation management at Bob Jones University.
“Casey was an incredible human being. He was a giver. He was a loving husband and father. He enjoyed coaching his boys on their youth soccer and little league baseball teams. They will be grieving him for the rest of their lives that will never be the same,” Clifford said.
Clifford Law Offices filed two forms yesterday required under the Federal Tort Claims Act to bring claims against both the FAA and Army, seeking $250 million for each claim. Each claim was filed on behalf of Rachel Crafton, Casey’s wife.
Clifford described the $250 million number as a ceiling for the claim made “out of an abundance of caution.”
“You can always go down, you cannot go up. And if you look at, you know, wrongful death claims across the country, it’s not unheard of to have a number that high,” he told ABC News. “You’re talking about a father of three children and a loving wife. It’s a substantial claim.”
The firm has not filed claims against American Airlines, PSA Airlines, Sikorsky Aircraft or Collins Aerospace — though it sent preservation letters to each — as they await more information about the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation, according to the firm’s press release.
Separately, Clifford Law said it has begun an “investigation into potential claims of willful neglect” by airlines operating in the airspace near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, where the crash occurred.
The NTSB — which is leading the investigation– has not yet identified a cause for the collision.
Clifford, who described the incident as “preventable,” alleged that the airlines that fly in and out of Washington, D.C., failed to take “sufficient precautions to protect its passengers.”
With the pre-case claim against the FAA and Army filed, each entity has six months to respond; after six months without a response or if the claims are rejected, Clifford Law could file lawsuits in federal court.
An FAA spokesperson declined to comment on potential litigation.
Early this month, as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, the first flight carrying “high threat” migrants landed at Guantanamo Bay, home of the notorious U.S. prison camp that administration officials said would house the most violent “worst of the worst” migrants apprehended on American soil.
ABC News, however, has spoken with the families of two migrants who say they’re being held there despite having no criminal record.
“President Donald Trump has been very clear: Guantanamo Bay will hold the worst of the worst. That starts today,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after releasing photos of the migrants boarding a C-17 military plane in Texas on Feb 4.
The move followed an executive order by Trump directing the secretaries of the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to “expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity” for “high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States.”
“There’s a lot of space to accommodate a lot of people,” Trump said in the Oval Office last month when he signed the order. “So we’re going to use it.”
But in the weeks that have followed, as more migrants have been sent to Guantanamo, immigrant advocacy groups and some relatives of those detained claim the administration has provided no evidence that those detained are “high-threat” — and that people are being sent to the military base without access to legal counsel or the ability to communicate with relatives.
“It’s troubling enough that we are even sending immigrants from the U.S. to Guantanamo, but it’s beyond the pale that we are holding them incommunicado, without access to attorneys, family or the outside world,” said Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.
A federal lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., last week and backed by the ACLU, says this is the first time in U.S. history that the government has detained noncitizens on civil immigration charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
A DHS spokesperson told ABC News last week that in addition to holding violent gang members and other “high-threat” migrants, the military is also holding other undocumented migrants with final deportation orders.
An ABC News review of 53 Guantanamo detainees whose names were published by The New York Times found federal cases associated with 14 of the names. That number does not account for possible variations in spelling, nor does it include any possible state cases.
According to federal court records, among those cases, one individual was charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding an officer during a riot at a detention center. Another was charged for allegedly being involved in an “illegal alien smuggling scheme,” and one was charged with “intentionally conspiring to transport” undocumented people in Texas.
In the other federal cases ABC News found, the individuals were charged for entry or illegal reentry into the U.S., a criminal offense.
ABC News spoke with the families of two migrants who are in Guantanamo, who claimed their detained relatives do not have ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua or other criminal groups as authorities have alleged.
A senior DHS official told ABC News the two migrants are members of Tren De Aragua, but did not elaborate or offer any details.
“There is a system for phone utilization to reach lawyers,” added the official. “If the AMERICAN Civil Liberties Union cares more about highly dangerous criminal aliens including murderers & vicious gang members than they do about American citizens — they should change their name.”
The family members said they believe their relatives were unfairly targeted because of their tattoos.
“He told us he was being targeted because of his tattoos … he was accused of being part of Tren de Aragua, but that is not true,” said Barbara Simancas, the sister of Jose Rodriguez Simancas who is reportedly one of the migrants in Guantanamo. “His tattoos have nothing to do with that … they are of his children’s names.”
Barbara Simancas told ABC News that her brother last spoke to a relative on Feb. 4 to let them know he was being transferred to the military base in Cuba the next day. She said her brother surrendered to authorities after crossing the southern border last year and claiming asylum, and that he was placed in a detention center in El Paso, Texas.
Barbara Simancas maintains her brother does not have a criminal record and provided to ABC News a criminal background check from Venezuela.
Rodriguez Simancas was charged with “improper entry” into the U.S. in May 2024. Court records obtained by ABC News noted that he has “no criminal history” other than the improper entry to which he pleaded guilty.
Barbara Simancas said she has not been able to get in touch with ICE or DHS since her brother was sent to Guantanamo.
“I just ask the government to send him back to Venezuela,” Simancas said. “His kids are worried. They want to see their dad.”
ABC News also spoke with Jhoan Lee Bastidas, the father of Jhoan Lee Bastidas Paz, who is being held at Guantanamo Bay. He was charged with “improper entry” into the U.S. in November 2023 and pleaded guilty. Court records also indicate he has “no criminal history” besides that charge.
Lee Bastidas told ABC News he found out about his son’s detention when his other son saw a photo on social media of Bastidas Paz on a military flight to Guantanamo.
“When I saw the photo of him, I said ‘Oh my God,'” said Lee Bastidas, who told ABC News that his son’s name was also in the list of Guantanamo detainees published by the Times.
“We’re thinking the worst things because on social media, they say Guantanamo is the worst … that it’s where they house the terrorists,” Lee Bastidas said. “I am tormented.”
LONDON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hit back at President Donald Trump’s call for the country to hold fresh presidential elections following Tuesday’s historic Russia-U.S. talks in Saudi Arabia.
The U.S.-Russia talks in Riyadh — to which Ukraine was not invited — represented “an important step forward” toward ending Russia’s three-year-old invasion of its neighbor, according to a State Department readout.
Hours after the talks concluded, Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago that Zelenskyy’s public approval rating was “down to 4%,” failing to provide a source for the figure. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also repeatedly framed Zelenskyy as illegitimate, citing the postponement of the country’s 2024 presidential elections due to martial law.
During a Wednesday press conference in Kyiv, Zelenskyy challenged Trump’s claim, pointing to respected recent surveys showing him polling consistently above 50% with voters and describing Trump’s assertion as Russian “disinformation.”
“If someone wants to replace me right now, then right now won’t work,” Zelenskyy said. “If we are talking about 4% then we have seen this disinformation, we understand that it comes from Russia. And we have evidence.”
The president said he would conduct opinion polls for trust ratings for world leaders, including Trump, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Zelensky said he took Trump’s comments “calmly” and that Ukraine would help get the president out of information “isolation”.
Hours after the U.S.-Russia discussions concluded with a commitment to continue talks, Russia launched a major missile and drone barrage into Ukraine. Ukraine’s air force reported 167 drones and two Iskander ballistic missiles launched into the country, with 106 intercepted and 56 more lost in flight.
Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov reported a “massive enemy strike on a densely populated area of the city” causing electricity, heating and water outages.
Zelenskyy said in a post to social media that the strike targeted “civilian energy facilities,” in keeping with longstanding Russian doctrine. “For nearly three years now, the Russian army has relentlessly used missiles and attack drones against them,” he said.
“Just yesterday, after the notorious meeting in Riyadh, it became clear that Russian representatives were once again lying, claiming they do not target Ukraine’s energy sector,” Zelenskyy continued.
“Yet, almost simultaneously, they launched another attack, with drones striking electrical transformers,” he wrote. “And this is during winter — it was minus 6 degrees Celsius at night.”
“We must never forget that Russia is ruled by pathological liars — they cannot be trusted and must be pressured,” the president said.
Kyiv’s exclusion from the Saudi talks have badly unsettled Ukraine and its European allies. Trump was unapologetic when speaking with reporters Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, just as Odesa came under attack.
“They’ve had a seat for three years and a long time before that,” Trump said of Ukraine, suggesting Kyiv could have made a deal with Moscow to avoid the huge loss of lives and land.
Trump said he believes he has “the power to end this war,” while falsely claiming Ukraine started the conflict against Russia. The war began when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, a campaign that followed eight years of cross-border Russian aggression in Crimea and Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
“I think it’s going very well,” Trump said of U.S. efforts to end the war. “But today I heard, oh, ‘Well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years — you should have never started it.”
Speaking on Wednesday, Zelenskyy criticized the Trump administration’s recent demand for a treaty that would hand over 50% of Ukraine’s natural resources to the U.S., in exchange for no security guarantees. Trump himself has repeatedly said he wants $500 billion worth of Ukraine’s rare minerals to pay back the U.S. for its support during Russia’s invasion.
Zelenskyy said such a demand was “not serious”, and corrected Trump’s claim that the U.S. has provided more money than Europe.
“There wasn’t a word there about security guarantees,” he said. “There is nothing precise there. I can’t sell the state.”
Zelenskyy said that if Ukraine cannot join NATO, it needs a strong army backed by Western weapons and air defense. He said Ukraine was looking for a troop contingent from European countries to help protect Ukraine after a ceasefire, but warned that Ukraine’s own troops needed to be backed by air defense, which only the U.S. can provide.
“Only the Americans, President Donald Trump, have this protection, this air defense, it’s exclusively from them, and that’s what’s important,” Zelenskyy said. “We have a map that shows us this, but we are ready for dialogue, for discussion, about what quantity, how much is needed. We’ve calculated everything; we’ve figured it all out. So this is essentially the main point of what we are requesting.”
Zelenskyy suggested on Tuesday that the U.S.-Russia talks in Riyadh merely revived ultimatums issued by Moscow in the early stages of its invasion.
“I have the impression that there are now some negotiations happening and they have the same mood, but between Russia and the United States,” Zelenskyy said during a visit to Turkey.
“Again, about Ukraine without Ukraine,” he added. “It’s interesting, if Ukraine didn’t yield to ultimatums in the most difficult moment, where does the feeling come from that Ukraine will agree to this now?”
“I never intended to yield to Russia’s ultimatums and I don’t intend to now,” Zelenskyy added.
In Riyadh, the U.S. and Russia agreed to appoint as-yet unnamed special representatives to continue peace talks, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Addressing the Russian parliament on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov — who led Moscow’s team in Riyadh — told lawmakers that “the atmosphere is positive, the intentions are correct, we will see how the situation develops further, what decisions will be made.”
He added, “The main thing is to meet, listen and hear, make decisions that will be realistic.”
Putin aide Yuri Ushakov told the state-controlled Channel One television channel that Trump’s Ukraine-Russia envoy — Keith Kellogg — would negotiate a settlement with Kyiv and European nations.
Kellogg arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday morning, where he is expected to hold talks with Ukrainian leaders.
Kellogg told reporters his “mission is to sit and listen” and then report back to Trump. He parried questions about whether Trump is siding with Putin, saying that Trump wants to end the war because “he understands the human suffering” it is causing.
Kellogg added that he agrees with Trump that the war would never have begun if he had been president at the time.
ABC News’ Fidel Pavlenko, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
The future looked bright for Luis Eduardo Perez Parra, Leonel Rivas Gonzalez and Abrahan Josue Barrios last week.
After being held in immigration custody for over a year and facing the possibility of transfer to Guantánamo Bay, the three men asked a federal court to intervene, warning they might have “disappeared into the legal black hole” of Guantánamo.
Last Sunday, a federal judge in New Mexico handed down a surprise ruling blocking the Trump administration from sending the men to Guantánamo — the first successful legal challenge to the policy since it was enacted last month.
But their victory was short-lived.
The very next day, the men were placed on the first deportation flight back to Venezuela in over a year, according to their lawyer Jessica Vosburgh.
“It’s hard to imagine that it didn’t have something to do with them filing a habeas piece and then stepping forward to challenge these threatened Guantanamo transfers,” Vosburgh told ABC News. “The court’s order only applied to transfers to Guantánamo, this is just a slap in the face to get deported the next day.”
While Vosburgh stopped short of calling the deportations retaliatory, she said she struggles to see what else could have led to the sudden deportation.
“With thousands of other post-order Venezuelans detained in the United States awaiting removal, it is hard to imagine that petitioners would have been prioritized for these first deportation flights if they had not filed this habeas action, and courageously challenged the executive branch’s reprehensible and legally unsupportable decision to begin shipping detained migrants to the notorious military prison at Guantánamo and holding them there incommunicado,” Vosburgh argued in a court filing voluntarily dismissing the case.
Vosburgh also called out the Trump administration for alleging that her clients — two of whom have no criminal records, and one who was accused of a non-violent offense — were members of the infamous Tren de Aragua gang, which could cause severe harm now that they are back in Venezuela where President Nicolás Maduro has linked the gang to his political opposition.
“Respondents’ reckless labeling of these two Petitioners as gang-affiliated is part of a disturbing pattern, beginning on the Trump campaign trail, of scapegoating and criminalizing migrants who come to this country seeking protection and a better life,” Vosburgh wrote. “It is also part of a trend, fueled by President Trump and his administration and supporters, of painting all Venezuelan migrant men as dangerous gang members deserving of being disappeared into the legal black hole of Guantánamo.”
Vosburgh noted that her clients have safely made it to their homes and been reunited with their families, but the scars of their year-long incarceration remain.
According to Vosburgh, each man endured “dismal conditions” that led them to suffer depression and suicidal ideation. One of the men was admitted into a psychiatric facility last month after he tried to hurt himself, according to the filing.
“Petitioners were needlessly separated for many months from their loved ones in the United States—including Mr. Rivas Gonzalez’s young daughter, who he has not been able to hold in his arms for half of her life. Their separation may now be permanent. It is deeply regrettable and an affront to justice that Petitioners had to suffer so much and for so long,” the filing said.
(LONDON) — The discovery of a well-preserved fossil is helping researchers learn more about an iconic Jurassic-period dinosaur.
The plesiosaur, considered a successful marine predatory dinosaur, may have been aided in its underwater hunting endeavors by turtle-like scales that covered its body — which scientists have now discovered due to the presence of soft tissue in a newly unearthed fossil, according to a paper published earlier this month in Current Biology.
Researchers from Lund University in Sweden have been analyzing the soft tissue from a 183 million-year-old plesiosaur for the first time in history after the fossil was found intact near Holzmaden, Germany.
Fossilized soft tissue, such as skin and internal organs, is “exceptionally rare” in dinosaur fossils, Miguel Marx, a Ph.D. student in geology at Lund University and the lead author of the study, said in a video published on the university’s website.
The preserved skeleton of the plesiosaur is articulated with fossilized soft tissue from the tail and one of the flippers, he said.
“I was shocked when I saw skin cells that had been preserved for 183 million years,” Marx said. “It was almost like looking at modern skin.”
The specimen reveals that the plesiosaur had both smooth and scaly skin, which likely helped it swim rapidly and move along rough seabeds, according to the researchers.
“This mosaic of scales and scaly skin has never been reported before in a plesiosaur, and thanks for this amazing find, we now have a much better appreciation of what these animals might have looked like while alive,” Johan Lindgren, an associate professor of geology at Lund University, said in a statement.
Plesiosaurs were considered among the most successful marine hunters of their time. The long-necked dinosaurs grew to nearly 40 feet long and had four paddle-like flippers that allowed them to swim like sea turtles.
The species was first studied 200 years ago, but little was known about the external anatomy of the plesiosaur until the newest fossil was discovered. Plesiosaur fossils can be found all over the world, Marx said.
The combination of both smooth and scaly skin is unusual, and it had different functions, the researchers said. The plesiosaur’s smooth and hydrodynamic skin allowed it to swim efficiently to catch fish and other squid-like animals, but its scaly flippers likely helped them move across rough sea floors by providing protection and traction.
Without the presence of the soft tissue, Marx would have assumed the plesiosaur would be scaleless, like other marine dinosaurs of the time, he said.
“We used a broad range of techniques to identify smooth skin in the tail region as well as scales along the rear edge of the flippers,” Marx said. “This provided us with unparalleled insights into the appearance and biology of these long-extinct reptiles.”
The findings will also help researchers enhance the understanding of macroevolution and how species adapted to specific environments over time, according to the paper.
“The discovery of scales was surprising and changes our perceptions of how these animals would have adapted to their pelagic environment,” Marx said.
(WASHINGTON) — Freshly confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a room packed with federal health workers on Tuesday that he plans to “investigate” whether the timing of childhood vaccinations and anti-depression medications are among several “possible factors” in the nation’s problem with chronic diseases.
“Nothing is going to be off limits,” Kennedy told the large crowd Tuesday.
The campaign-style speech at the Department of Health and Human Services headquarters was intended for staff only, although a livestream link was circulated. Staff was invited to meet him afterward, and an emailed invitation sent earlier to HHS workers noted “selfies are welcome!”
Kennedy’s offer of selfies with staff came amid widespread firings and resignations across the federal government were underway, including at HHS. Agency officials have not provided details on the firings, including what the impact there could be.
According to people familiar with the effort, some 700 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were fired late last week.
Kennedy urged staff to keep an “open mind” on Tuesday as he planned to turn the agency’s vast resources to revisit matters considered as settled science.
“We will convene representatives of all viewpoints to study the causes for the drastic rise in chronic disease,” Kennedy said. “Some of the possible factors we will investigate were formally taboo or insufficiently scrutinized.”
He then gave a list of these “possible factors” to investigate including the childhood vaccine schedule and “SSRI and other psychiatric drugs,” referring to federally approved drugs that help treat such conditions as depression and anxiety.
Studies do not suggest vaccines or SSRIs are to blame for chronic illnesses, such as autism or obesity. Critics argue Kennedy’s rhetoric could create more doubt and public mistrust of these medicines.
Also on his list was electromagnetic radiation, herbicides and pesticides, ultra-processed foods, artificial food, allergies, microplastics and long-lasting chemicals used in the production of non-stick pans. Scientists are actively exploring the possible health impacts of environmental toxins, with some studies suggesting they could play a role in chronic illnesses.
Kennedy’s willingness to revisit the childhood vaccine schedule appears to be at odds with his Senate testimony in January in which he told skeptical lawmakers that he specifically supported federal recommendations.
“I support vaccines. I support the vaccine schedule. I support good science,” Kennedy testified last month.
Vaccinating infants and young children is widely recommended as a way to prevent kids from being exposed to life-threatening diseases like measles and to protect other children in school.
Kennedy has previously pushed a debunked claim that vaccines cause autism, despite numerous large-scale studies finding no connection. He appeared to walk back that claim in his Senate testimony last month, and told lawmakers he wouldn’t try to change the vaccine schedule for children.
ABC’s Soo Youn and Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge appears poised to block the Trump administration if the Department of Defense attempts to place limitations on or ban transgender service members.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes is still hearing arguments Tuesday in the case but signaled deep skepticism with the claim that transgender service members lessen the military’s lethality or readiness.
“You and I both agree that the greatest fighting force that world history has ever seen is not going to be impacted in any way by less than 1% of the soldiers using a different pronoun than others might want to call them. Would you agree with that?” Judge Reyes asked during a hearing this morning.
“No, Your Honor, I’m not. I can’t agree with that,” a lawyer for the Department of Justice responded.
At issue is Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order that directed the DOD to update its guidance “regarding trans-identifying medical standards for military service and to rescind guidance inconsistent with military readiness.” While the Department of Defense has not issued final guidance on transgender service members, the order led to a pause in gender affirming care for service members and is expected to lead to a significant curtailment of transgender service members based on “readiness and lethality.”
With the DOD policy expected to be finalized over the coming week, Reyes said she would hold off on issuing an order but had largely made up her mind about the legality of the order, at one point remarking that “smarter people on the D.C. Circuit would have to tell me I’m wrong” about the policy. She added that the central premise of the executive order — that only two genders exist — is “not biologically correct.”
Reyes also raised concerns about the wording of the executive order, which she criticized for being intentionally imprecise and a pretext for a ban on transgender soldiers.
“If we had President Trump here right now, and I said to him, ‘Is this a transgender ban?’ What do you think he would say?” Reyes asked.
“I have no idea, Your Honor,” said DOJ attorney Jason Lynch.
“I do. He would say, ‘Of course it is.’ Because he calls it a transgender ban, because all the language in it is indicative,” Reyes said.
The judge — who began the hearing by noting that every service member regardless of their gender ideology “deserves our gratitude” — also spent a portion of the hearing questioning Lynch about the group of transgender soldiers who filed the lawsuit.
“If you were in a foxhole, you wouldn’t care about these individuals’ gender ideology, right? You would just be happy that someone with that experience and that bravery and that honorable service to the country was sitting right next to you. Right?” Reyes asked.
“Don’t want to testify as a witness, Your Honor, or offer my personal views of hypothetical,” Lynch responded before conceding, “If I were in a foxhole, I doubt that the gender identity would be a primary concern.”
Reyes also pushed the lawyer for the Department of Justice — who she later commended for arguing his case well — to admit that the transgender soldiers made the country “safer.”
“Are they honorable, truthful, and disciplined?” Reyes asked. “As far as I know, among them, they have over 60 years of military service.”
“That’s correct,” Lynch said.
“And you would agree that together, the plaintiffs have made America safer?” Reyes asked.
(WASHINGTON) — The chief of the criminal division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Washington, D.C. abruptly resigned Tuesday amid pressure from top Trump Justice Department appointees to freeze assets stemming from a Biden administration-era environmental initiative, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
A resignation letter sent to the office’s employees by prosecutor Denise Cheung did not detail specific reasons for her sudden departure from the office, but encouraged prosecutors to continue adhering to the Constitution.
“Please continue to support one another, to fulfill your commitment to pursuing justice without fear or prejudice, and to be kind to, and take care of, yourselves,” Cheung said. “You are the resource our nation has.”
Sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that Cheung was under pressure from Department of Justice (DOJ) leadership, including acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove and interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, to launch a formal criminal investigation into an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funding initiative pursued under the Biden administration, a request Cheung believed lacked the proper predication to initiate a grand jury investigation.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has previously addressed with DOJ their effort to rescind contracts tied to the so-called Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. DOJ’s intervention in the process can only come when prosecutors can credibly allege that the funds are tied to a crime.
Cheung’s resignation letter comes just one day after President Trump announced Martin as his nominee for U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. amid a wave of controversial actions and statements by Martin in his weeks leading the office, actions that have led to growing consternation among career prosecutors.
As ABC News has previously reported, Martin has represented defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and was on Capitol grounds himself on that day, though it’s unclear whether he ever entered areas officially designated as restricted.
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to an ABC News request for comment.
