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Leaders in creation of Arctic vault that protects millions of seeds win World Food Prize

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Leaders in creation of Arctic vault that protects millions of seeds win World Food Prize
  • Cary Fowler and Geoffrey Hawtin, two men who led the effort to create the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, will receive the 2024 World Food Prize.
  • The vault opened in 2008 and now holds 1.25 million seed samples from almost every country in the world.
  • Fowler and Hawtin hope their selection as World Food Prize laureates will enable them push for additional funding of seed bank endowments around the world.

Two men who were instrumental in the “craziest idea anyone ever had” of creating a global seed vault designed to safeguard the world’s agricultural diversity will be honored as the 2024 World Food Prize laureates, officials announced Thursday in Washington.

Cary Fowler, the U.S. special envoy for Global Food Security, and Geoffrey Hawtin, an agricultural scientist from the United Kingdom and executive board member at the Global Crop Diversity Trust, will be awarded the annual prize this fall in Des Moines, Iowa, where the food prize foundation is based. They will split a $500,000 award.

The winners of the prize were named at the State Department, where Secretary of State Antony Blinken lauded the men for their “critical work to advance global crop biodiversity and conserve over 6,000 varieties of crops and culturally important plants, which has had a direct impact in addressing hunger around the world.”

SECOND ARCTIC ‘DOOMSDAY’ VAULT WILL STORE THE WORLD’S DATA

Fowler and Hawtin were leaders in an effort starting in 2004 to build a back-up vault of the world’s crop seeds at a spot where it could be safe from political upheaval and environmental changes. A location was chosen on a Norwegian island in the Arctic Circle where temperatures could ensure seeds could be kept safe in a facility built into the side of a mountain.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened in 2008 and now holds 1.25 million seed samples from nearly every country in the world.

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Fowler, who first proposed establishing the seed vault in Norway, said his idea initially was met by puzzlement by the leaders of seed banks in some countries.

Cary Fowler, left, and Geoffrey Hawtin are shown on Feb. 24, 2014, at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. (World Food Prize Foundation via AP)

“To a lot of people today, it sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to do. It’s a valuable natural resource and you want to offer robust protection for it,” he said in an interview from Saudi Arabia. “Fifteen years ago, shipping a lot of seeds to the closest place to the North Pole that you can fly into, putting them inside a mountain — that’s the craziest idea anybody ever had.”

Hundreds of smaller seed banks have existed in other countries for many decades, but Fowler said he was motivated by a concern that climate change would throw agriculture into turmoil, making a plentiful seed supply even more essential.

Hawtin said that there were plenty of existing crop threats, such as insects, diseases and land degradation, but that climate change heightened the need for a secure, backup seed vault. In part, that’s because climate change has the potential of making those earlier problems even worse.

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“You end up with an entirely new spectrum of pests and diseases under different climate regimes,” Hawtin said in an interview from southwest England. “Climate change is putting a whole lot of extra problems on what has always been significant ones.”

Fowler and Hawtin said they hope their selection as World Food Prize laureates will enable them push for hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding of seed bank endowments around the world. Maintaining those operations is relatively cheap, especially when considering how essential they are to ensuring a plentiful food supply, but the funding needs continue forever.

“This is really a chance to get that message out and say, look, this relatively small amount of money is our insurance policy, our insurance policy that we’re going to be able to feed the world in 50 years,” Hawtin said.

The World Food Prize was founded by Norman Borlaug, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his part in the Green Revolution, which dramatically increased crop yields and reduced the threat of starvation in many countries. The food prize will be awarded at the annual Norman E. Borlaug International Dialogue, held Oct. 29-31 in Des Moines.

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Midwest

US Marine arrested, accused of traveling ‘to meet, kidnap and sexually assault’ 12-year-old girl: FBI

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US Marine arrested, accused of traveling ‘to meet, kidnap and sexually assault’ 12-year-old girl: FBI

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An active-duty U.S. Marine was arrested this week after he allegedly traveled from North Carolina to Indiana “to meet, kidnap and sexually assault” a 12-year-old girl, the FBI said.

William Richard Roy, a 24-year-old from Camp Lejeune, was taken into custody by the FBI in Durham, N.C., on Oct. 26, according to the FBI’s Indianapolis Field Office.

The bureau said its investigation began on Oct. 25 when the FBI Indianapolis Field Office’s Merrillville Resident Agency received information from the Hammond Police Department regarding a missing 12-year-old girl believed to be traveling with Roy. The child’s grandmother had reported her missing earlier that day. 

“Through the coordinated efforts of the FBI, Hammond Police Department, and U.S. Marshals Service, it was determined Roy allegedly flew to Chicago on October 24, 2025. The following day, he took an Uber to Hammond, where he met the child at a park,” the FBI statement added. “The two then traveled by Uber back to Chicago, stayed overnight at a hotel, and later boarded a Greyhound bus bound for Durham, North Carolina.”

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DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKER HIT WITH CHILD SEX CHARGES, CALLS GROW FOR IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION

The main gate to Camp Lejeune Marine Base is seen outside Jacksonville, N.C. William Richard Roy was arrested this week, the FBI said. (Allen G. Breed/AP; Durham County Sheriff’s Office)

“When the bus arrived in Durham on October 26, agents from the FBI Charlotte Field Office’s Greensboro and Raleigh Resident Agencies took Roy into custody and safely recovered the child,” the FBI also said.

An FBI Indianapolis spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Friday that Roy claimed he met the child on TikTok.

NEW DETAILS REVEALED AFTER MARINE CORPS LIVE-FIRE ROUND HITS PATROL CAR NEAR CAMP PENDLETON

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An American flag is pictured at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. (Fred Marie/Art In All Of Us/Corbis via Getty Images)

Roy is now facing federal charges of enticement of a minor to travel for illicit sexual activity, transportation of a minor to engage in illicit sexual activity, interstate travel with intent to engage in a sexual act with a minor.

William Richard Roy is an active-duty U.S. Marine, according to the FBI. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

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The Marines did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

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Detroit, MI

Second-half surge lifts Detroit Pistons to 6th straight win

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Second-half surge lifts Detroit Pistons to 6th straight win


PHILADELPHIA — At halftime of Sunday night’s game at Xfinity Mobile Arena, it looked like the Detroit Pistons would see their five-game winning streak come to a screeching halt.

The hometown Philadelphia 76ers were moving the basketball, hitting shots and playing with a verve that the Pistons — despite being the rested team, having not played the night before, as Philadelphia did — didn’t seem capable of matching.

But then the second half started. And behind a spectacular performance from Cade Cunningham — who scored 24 of his 26 points after the break, including a spectacular dunk over former Piston Andre Drummond in the game’s closing minutes — Detroit secured a 111-108 victory, givingthe franchise its best start to a season in a generation.

“It’s not hard to believe,” Cunningham said when asked whether he was surprised by Detroit’s 8-2 start only two years after its 14-68 season. “Even then, I couldn’t believe that we were in such a low.

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“So to be here now, I feel like we’re where we’re supposed to be. We got a lot of guys that have always been big-time players, have always found ways to win at every level, and the NBA is tough. So we got here and we had to figure it out together. We were young, but now we’re getting our foot in and we’re figuring it out.”

It’s a lot easier to figure things out when your team is led by a player like Cunningham, who has backed up last season’s breakout performance — when he made his first All-Star and All-NBA appearances of his career and led Detroit to the playoffs — by leading the league in assists and putting up one impressive performance after another in the early going.

Cunningham had entered Sunday’s game having scored at least 30 points in three consecutive games and in four of Detroit’s last five. But after playing well below his standards in that first half — with just two points on 1-for-9 shooting from the field — he completely flipped things around, allowing Detroit to post its best record through 10 games since starting the 2005-06 season with a 9-1 record.

Cunningham’s 17 points in the third quarter immediately pulled Detroit back into the game after it trailed by as many as 13. And that was before his spectacular dunk over Drummond with just under two minutes to go helped in denying a late push by Tyrese Maxey (32 points, seven assists) and the 76ers (6-4).

“Man, he could get one of those every game,” Jalen Duren(21 points, 16 rebounds) said with a smile. “I don’t know why he doesn’t. But I love it. I mean, I’ve seen a lot of that. His game speaks for itself.

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“I continue to say [he’s the] best guard in the NBA, so he going to make plays like that.”

Duren has also taken a massive step forward this season, with Sunday’s game marking the sixth time he has eclipsed 20 points this season. His 19.4 points per game this season dwarfs his averages from last season (11.8) and 2023-24 (13.8).

He has also played a significant role in Detroit’s third-ranked defense through 10 games, and he contributed another two steals and two blocks Sunday while continuing to be one of the league’s most imposing rebounders.

“He’s been dominant,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “The way he helps us protect the rim, the job he does on the boards, the threat that he is in the pick-and-roll and in the pocket … he’s a guy that can connect our group, too. He’s another guy who can facilitate and playmake, and then he’s an elite communicator, which has been a huge growth for him defensively. He’s talking to guys, always in the right spot, so I thought he was great again tonight.”

Cunningham and Duren also share the connection of having lived through that dismal 14-68 season two years ago, when it seemed like the Pistons were miles away from being relevant in the Eastern Conference. But as the league wakes up Monday morning, it will be Detroit looking down at the rest of the conference, and looking up at only one team — the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder — in the league standings.

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“I think sky’s the limit,” Duren said when asked about his expectations. “I think we keep following J.B., keep working hard, keep defending, keep playing together … I think sky’s the limit at that point.”

For his part, Cunningham said that even when things were at their lowest ebb two seasons ago, his belief in himself kept him pushing him forward. It is that same belief that won’t allow him to be satisfied with only a good start to the season.

“Yeah, I mean, more than anything, my faith in myself, knowing that I was going to be successful in the NBA, knowing that I was going to do everything it took to be successful,” he said. “And I got lucky and fell into a franchise in the city that has the same mentality that I felt like it took for me to take the next step.

“So it has been a hell of a ride, man. It’s been a lot of ups and downs. It’s still early, though … I’m not above myself because we’re 8-2. I think this [success] is something that we all want, but we want something bigger than this. So we just want to keep our heads down and keep working.”br/]

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Milwaukee, WI

Arnass Hardan’s brace powers Robert Morris past Milwaukee in Horizon League playoff

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Arnass Hardan’s brace powers Robert Morris past Milwaukee in Horizon League playoff




Horizon League Men’s Soccer First Round

FINAL: Robert Morris 2, Milwaukee 1

Match Stats

With the match potentially headed to extra time, Robert Morris senior midfielder Anass Hadran buried a penalty kick in the 88th minute to lift the RMU men’s soccer team to a 2-1 victory over Milwaukee in the Horizon League Men’s Soccer Quarterfinal on Sunday afternoon.

With the win, the defending champion Colonials improve to 6-3-7 overall and advance to the Semifinal Round of the Horizon League Championship for the second straight season.

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“We try to manage the game wisely. Winning last year has given us more experience of how to handle being ahead,” Hardan said.

“We have a great group that fights every single minute. (Goalkeeper) Josh Lane had a big performance today saving Milwaukee’s PK — he’s a great goalkeeper.”

The Colonials will take on Cleveland State on Wednesday afternoon.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Milwaukee came out strong and dictated possession early, firing six shots in the opening 15 minutes.

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Senior captain William Dodzi Afawubo provided the spark that shifted momentum, ripping off three shots in a two-minute stretch to help RMU settle into the match. The Colonials’ back line tightened up and didn’t allow a single Milwaukee shot attempt over the final 30 minutes of the half.

RMU closed the opening 45 with seven shots — five from Afawubo alone.

Just one minute into the second half, the Colonials broke through. Senior Fabian Overkamp cleared a ball out of midfield and into the attacking third, where Kosi Udeh corralled it through traffic. Hadran joined the counter and received a feed from Udeh outside the left corner of the 18. He then curled a highlight-reel strike into the far corner, giving RMU a 1-0 lead.

In the 55th minute, Milwaukee earned a penalty after a player was taken down in the box.

Josh Lane guessed correctly, stretching out for a full extension save to keep the Panthers off the board.

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However, moments later, Milwaukee equalized as Jack Bretzmann snuck behind the back line to level the match at 1-1. A minute later, Overkamp nearly restored the lead, but his shot rattled off the woodwork.

With the season on the line, both teams traded dangerous chances in the closing minutes. The decisive moment came in the 88th, when Riley Cotton drew a penalty in the box. Hadran stepped up to the spot and calmly slotted home the game-winner for his second of the day.

“We’re looking forward to our next match. We know it won’t be easy. We want to win again and make it back to the final.”

RMU travels to Cleveland, Ohio to face top-seeded Cleveland State in the Semifinal Round on Wednesday, November 12 at 4:00 PM ET at Krenzler Field.

The match will air live on ESPN+

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 RMU MSOC MATCH NOTES

  • RMU outshot Milwaukee 20–18; the Panthers held a 7–6 edge in shots on goal. Afawubo recorded a career-high seven shot attempts.
  • Milwaukee earned five corner kicks, while RMU tallied two.
  • Eight Colonials played all 90 minutes: Overkamp, Hadran, Udeh, Afawubo, Jaxson LeeKevin GorbellVictor Koah, and Miguel Dominguez.
  • Lane finished with five saves, matching his postseason career-high (also five vs. Oakland in last year’s final).

HADRAN HEATING UP AT THE RIGHT TIME

The senior midfielder has now scored in four straight matches, totaling five goals and one assist over that span. Today marked his first career multi-goal game.

Hadran becomes just the third Colonial in program history to score multiple goals in a postseason match. The last to accomplish the feat was Jacek Przednowek, who recorded a hat trick in the 2005 NEC Final vs. Monmouth. Musa Shannon was the first, netting three in the 1996 NEC Semifinal vs. Mount St. Mary’s.

Hadran now owns six goals and four assists on the season. His goal total is tied for second in the Horizon League, and his 16 points rank fourth in the conference. In his career, he’s tallied 14 goals, 16 assists and 44 points.

POWER FORWARD

Udeh continues to be a key driver of RMU’s playoff push. The junior forward has produced a goal and two assists over the last two matches. His late-season form mirrors last year, when he scored in four straight league games to close the regular season.

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John Krysinsky has covered soccer and other sports for many years for various publications and media outlets. He is also author of ‘Miracle on the Mon’ — a book about the Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC, which chronicles the club, particularly the early years of Highmark Stadium with the narrative leading up to and centered around a remarkable match that helped provide a spark for the franchise. John has covered sports for Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, DK Pittsburgh Sports, Pittsburgh Sports Report, has served as color commentator on Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC broadcasts, and worked with OPTA Stats and broadcast teams for US Open Cup and International Champions Cup matches held in the US. Krysinsky also served as the Head Men’s Soccer Coach at his alma mater, Point Park University, where he led the Pioneers to the first-ever winning seasons and playoff berths (1996-98); head coach of North Catholic boys (2007-08), associate head coach of Shady Side Academy boys (2009-2014).




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