By Katie Hunt, CNN

(CNN) — In the depths of Scarisoara cave in Romania sits one of the world’s biggest underground glaciers, a monumental slab of ice the size of roughly 40 Olympic swimming pools that began to form around 13,000 years ago.

Scientists studying ancient microbes once entombed in the cave’s ice say a bacterial strain they thawed and analyzed is resistant to 10 modern antibiotics used to treat diseases such as urinary tract infections and tuberculosis.

While there’s no evidence the bacteria are harmful to humans, awakening microbes that have lain dormant for thousands of years may sound like the plot of a sci-fi novel or movie. The new research, however, demonstrates how resistance has, in certain cases, evolved naturally in the environment, long before modern antibiotics were ever developed or prescribed by doctors.

“Ancient bacteria can resist modern antibiotics because antibiotic resistance is an ancient evolutionary characteristic that was shaped over millions of years by competition between microbes,” said Cristina Purcarea, a senior scientist at the department of microbiology at the Institute of Biology Bucharest of the Romanian Academy, and senior author of the study that published this week in the scientific journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

As they mix with one another over the course of millions of years, bacteria can share useful traits by exchanging small pieces of DNA, even between unrelated bacterial species, in an evolutionary arms race. This survival strategy has, coincidentally, resulted in some strains of bacteria being unaffected by certain antibiotics, drugs that trace their origins to natural compounds. This phenomenon is more common among microbial strains that live in extreme environments, the study noted.

“Modern antibiotics may speed up the spread of resistance, based on molecular mechanisms that existed in nature long before humans developed these drugs,” Purcarea added.

The scientists said the insights they have gained from the work may help in the fight against modern superbugs that can’t be treated by commonly used antibiotics

Core of ice

The newly identified strain of bacteria that Purcarea and her colleagues studied, known as Psychrobacter SC65A.3, thrives in cold environments and could not infect humans, she said.

“This strain is a psychrophile, meaning it’s a lover of the cold, not a lover of human bodies. Most Psychrobacter species are typically found in ice or refrigerated settings,” including foods, she said.

The sample in the study came from a 25-meter (82-foot) cylindrical core of ice the team drilled from an area of the cave known as the Great Hall. The core contained 13,000 years’ worth of frozen material, but the sample analyzed in the study was from 5,000-year-old ice.

In the lab, the researchers isolated various bacterial strains and sequenced their genomes to evaluate which genes allow the strain to survive in low temperatures and which are linked to antimicrobial resistance.

In the case of SC65A.3, when exposed to 28 antibiotics routinely used to treat bacterial infection, the researchers found the strain was resistant to 10, including trimethoprim, clindamycin and metronidazole, which treat bacterial infections.

As the planet warms and glaciers and ice caves melt, microbes trapped for thousands of years coul

By John Fritze, Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — The Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping emergency tariffs on Friday, a significant decision that could redirect the course of the administration’s economic and foreign policy agenda.

The 6-3 decision, which included both conservative and liberal justices in the majority, had the potential to reset the relationship between a White House that has repeatedly pushed legal boundaries and a Supreme Court that has in case after case blessed those efforts since Trump returned to power.

But like most major Supreme Court opinions, the ruling Friday raised new questions about how the court’s broad parsing of federal law would play out in practical terms for American businesses, consumers and voters heading into a midterm election.

In a combative news conference hours after the decision, Trump attacked several justices and announced he would rely on other legal authorities to keep tariffs in place.

Here’s what to know about the blockbuster decision:

First major merits loss for Trump

Since returning to the White House, Trump has racked up an impressive record at the conservative Supreme Court, including a decision that made it harder for lower courts to block his agenda and a series of important emergency decisions blessing his immigration policies and his push to consolidate power within the executive branch.

And in 2024, the court granted the president immunity from criminal prosecution for some of the actions he took in the waning days of his first term — a landmark decision that the administration continues to regularly cite in recent cases.

But that successful record in major, merits cases came to a crashing halt Friday. Two of the justices he named to the bench during his first – Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett – ruled against him.

“I’m ashamed of certain members of the court,” Trump said in an angry news conference at the White House reacting to the decision, calling the justices in the majority a “disgrace to our nation.”

Even though the court’s decision to strike down Trump’s emergency tariffs was predicted following the oral arguments last fall, the ruling is a formal repudiation of the administration’s push-the-limits approach. It underscored the notion that federal courts are one of the last institutions within the federal government willing – at times – to tell the president “no.”

Chief Justice John Roberts warned in his 21-page opinion that the administration had tried to pitch a “‘transformative expansion’ of the president’s authority over tariff policy” to justify its global tariffs and “as demonstrated by the exercise of that authority in this case — over the broader economy as well.”

But it’s far too soon to say whether the opinion signals a resetting of the relationship between the executive and judicial branches. There are several other cases pending on court’s docket that Trump will have a difficult time winning, including his effort to end birthright citizenship and Read more

Por Karen Esquivel, CNN en Español

Lo que comenzó como unas vacaciones en un pueblo de México se convirtió en un viaje de ida y vuelta entre dos países, marcado por el amor, una pérdida dolorosa y mucha espera. Durante años, Yesica Aramburo y Ramón Vega sostuvieron su relación entre aeropuertos, procesos migratorios y duelo, hasta que una green card aprobada les permitió, por fin, vivir en el mismo lugar la historia que habían construido a distancia.

Yesica Aramburo viajó de vacaciones a México en abril de 2017 a las fiestas del pueblo de su familia en La Moncada, Guanajuato, en el centro del país. Nunca pensó que esa breve visita le cambiaría la vida y la llevaría a encontrar el amor.

Aramburo tenía entonces 20 años y aún cursaba sus estudios en Chicago, pero la emoción de vivir en persona todo lo que su familia le contaba sobre las festividades la hizo hacer el viaje con sus padres mexicanos, que migraron a EE.UU. Fue precisamente ese viaje el que la llevó a conocer a Ramón Vega, detallista automotriz.

Pese a ese primer encuentro, el amor llegó un poco más tarde.

Aquel 2017, Yesica regresó a Chicago a continuar sus estudios en Contabilidad, pero nació en ella la inquietud de regresar a la tierra de sus padres por un periodo más largo. “Como cuando estaba chiquita y me quedaba con mis papás dos o tres meses de vacaciones”.

La estadounidense, de 29 años, tiene un profundo amor por México desde muy pequeña. Relata que le gusta lo colorida que es la vida del otro lado de la frontera, la forma de ser de las personas, la comida, las fiestas patronales, la convivencia.

“A mí me encanta México. Cuando era pequeña lloraba y le preguntaba a mis papás por qué no podíamos vivir en México. Allá, aunque la gente viva muy sencilla, te sientes tan llena de tanto, no sé cómo explicarlo, como si tuvieras todo el mundo”, dice.

En enero de 2018 volvió a México con la idea de permanecer algunos meses. Entonces, ella y Ramón se reencontraron, tenían citas, salían juntos, pero ninguno se sentía preparado para tener una relación seria. Ella regresó a Chicago, él se quedó en Guanajuato y poco tiempo después ambos comenzaron relaciones con otras personas.

Corría el mes de septiembre de 2020 cuando Yesica volvió a México y se encontró, una vez más y de manera definitiva, con el hombre con el que tendría un bebé, aunque las cosas no salieron como esperaban.

A partir de ese momento, la distancia en su relación se hizo presente. Ella regresó a Chicago en las fiestas decembrinas para darle la noticia a su familia y permaneció ahí hasta febrero de 2021, cuando tomó un vuelo a México para hacer la fiesta de revelación de sexo de su bebé.

Al mes siguiente, en México, Yesica tuvo complicaciones que la hicieron acudir con un médico que le recomendó tener reposo y volver a Estados Unidos porque estaba perdiendo líquido amniótico y no podían hacer nada para ayudar a su bebé debido a que no es una situación común.

“Entonces regresé a mi casa, pasaron algunas noches cuando se me salió todo el líquido, tuve que ir al hospital y mi bebé nació el 11 de abril de 2021, mi bebé tenía 20 semanas; lo tuve conmigo media hora y lo pude bautizar, después murió”, recuerda.

En esos momentos, lo más difícil para Yesica fue estar lejos de su pareja, saber que, aunque quisieran estar juntos en duelo por su bebé, no podían porque él no tenía visa para ir a visitarla.

“Fue muy difícil para mí porque me tocó hacer todo sola, tampoco podía correr a verlo y aunque él me apoyaba no estaba físicamente. Yo tenía citas en el doctor, tampoco pudimos enterrar a nuestro bebé, lo cremamos porque yo no quería quitarle la oportunidad de estar en ese momento”, explica.

Cuando terminaron sus citas médicas y con la tristeza a cuestas, Yesica viajó a Guanajuato con las cenizas de su bebé en una pequeña urna con forma de corazón y sin una fecha de regres

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