Hoover’s family celebrated the commutation. “Almost home!” his son Larry Hoover Jr. wrote on Instagram and posted a picture toasting his father.
Manuel Rodriguez sits atop a canoe shaped like an axolotl during its symbolic release in the canals of Xochimilco, a borough of Mexico City, Feb. 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)According to Montero, the myth implies that, after a god’s passing, its essence gets imprisoned in a mundane creature, subject to the cycles of life and death. Axolotl then carries within itself the Xolotl deity, and when the animal dies and its divine substance transits to the underworld, it later resurfaces to the earth and a new axolotl is born.
“Axolotl is the twin of maize, agave and water,” Montero said.Current fascination toward axolotl and its rise to sacred status in pre-Hispanic times is hardly a coincidence. It was most likely sparked by its exceptional biological features, Montero said.Through the glass of a fish tank, where academic institutions preserve them and hatcheries put them up for sale, axolotl are hard to spot. Their skin is usually dark to mimic stones — though an albino, pinkish variety can be bred — and they can stay still for hours, buried in the muddy ground of their natural habitats or barely moving at the bottom of their tanks in captivity.
Aside from their lungs, they breathe through their gills and skin, which allows them to adapt to its aquatic environment. And they can regenerate parts of its heart, spinal cord and brain.A woman holds an axolotl during a media presentation in Xochimilco, a borough of Mexico City, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
A woman holds an axolotl during a media presentation in Xochimilco, a borough of Mexico City, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
“This species is quite peculiar,” said biologist Arturo Vergara, who supervises axolotl preservation efforts in various institutions and cares after specimens for sale at a hatchery in Mexico City.Anti-Israel protests in Basel have been much smaller than last year in Malmo. Another pro-Palestinian demonstration is planned for Saturday in downtown Basel, 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the contest venue, St. Jakobshalle arena.
But concern by some Eurovision participants and broadcasters continues.More than 70 former Eurovision contestants signed a letter calling for Israel to be excluded. Several of the national broadcasters that fund Eurovision, including those of Spain, Ireland and Iceland, have called for a discussion about Israel’s participation.
Israel’s Yuval Raphael poses for a photo, during the opening ceremony of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (Peter Schneider/Keystone via AP)Israel’s Yuval Raphael poses for a photo, during the opening ceremony of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (Peter Schneider/Keystone via AP)