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The gunman in the Brown University shooting was found dead. That's where we're starting the seven. From the Washington Post, I'm Christina Quinn in for Hannah jewell. It's Friday, December 19th. Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories. On Saturday, a gunman opened fire in a lecture hall at Brown during an economics study session. Keith Killing two students and wounding nine others. It sparked a search that appeared to stump investigators and rattled communities from Providence, Rhode island to Boston. Yesterday that search came to an end. Authorities last night announced the gunman responsible was found dead of a self inflicted gunshot wound in a New Hampshire storage facility. He was identified as 48 year old Claudio Manuel Nevis Valente, a physics graduate student at Brown more than two decades ago. Officials said he was also responsible for Monday's killing of an MIT professor. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Narona gave an update on the case last night.
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We are 100% confident that this is our target and that this case is closed from a, from a perspective of pursuing people, people involved.
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A legal permanent resident from Portugal, authorities said Nevis Valente was living in Miami before he came to Boston last month. He appears to have acted alone and his motive for the killings remains unknown. The Kennedy center board voted to rename the arts institution to the Trump campaign Kennedy Center. That's number two. For months, President Donald Trump has repeatedly joked about renaming Kennedy center after himself.
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The Trump Kennedy Center. I mean Kennedy Center. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
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Now that joke might become reality. Yesterday, the board voted in favor of renaming it to the Trump Kennedy Center. Trump joined the board meeting virtually and thanked members for their vote. That's according to an attendee who spoke to the Post. The move drew an immediate backlash. Kennedy family members and Democrats blasted the potential renaming as illegal. The law establishing the building designates it as the John F. Kennedy center for the Performing Arts. The vote to rename the Kennedy center represents the latest effort by Trump's allies to honor the president by putting his name on on government buildings and programs. Number three, President Trump's pardons have wiped out payments to defrauded victims. This morning, the Post reported that at least 20 people who have received clemency from Trump so far this year were also forgiven of financial penalties totaling tens of millions of dollars. Some of these offenders owed money to real life victims of fraud. Marion Morgan, for example, was sentenced in 2013 to nearly 34 years in prison for running a Ponzi scheme. She was ordered to pay $17.5 million to dozens of investors most of which remains unpaid. In May, Trump commuted her sentence to, quote, time served, with no further fines, restitution, probation or other conditions. Trump has wielded his executive power to reward dozens of allies. He has routinely ignored guidelines that state pardons should only be given to offenders who are five years past their conviction or imprisonment. The White House did not respond to questions from the Post about whether the president considers the victims and their ability to receive compensation when making clemency decisions. The Coast Guard abruptly deleted its noose and swastika entry from a new policy manual. That's number four. Yesterday, Rennie told you about a controversial section from the Coast Guard's new workplace harassment policy. It had downgraded the definition of swastikas and nooses from overt hate symbols to, quote, potentially divisive. Well, that section has now vanished. In a message to all personnel at Admiral Kevin Lundy, the service's top officer, said the section had been completely removed from the policy manual. The document now shows a large black bar obscuring the relevant chapter in its table of contents. There's also a message directing readers to a separate manual outlining the Coast Guard's civil rights policies. It was an abrupt turnaround after the updated guidelines were allowed to take effect this week. Foreign. Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding a marathon year end news conference today. It's not often that Putin answers questions from the public, but today ordinary Russian people can quiz their leader in the annual event, which often runs for four hours. It is the Russian president's most significant public address this year. Polling from the Levada center, an independent agency, suggests that 21% of Russians wanted to know when the war against Ukraine would end, and 16% wanted to know when pensions and benefits would increase. The event comes as President Trump is pushing to settle Russia's war against Ukraine. Number six Feeling a sense of wonder every day can improve your health. Researchers from King's College in London analyzed people while they looked at art for 20 minutes, and their study, which is now in preprint, found that their levels of the stress hormone cortisol dropped by an average of 22%. And that's not all. Their markers of inflammation dropped even more sharply. Their heart rhythms also signaled greater relaxation. If you'd like to try it for yourself, click the link to our newsletter. You can find that in our show Notes. It has prompts used in National Gallery of Art Tour, which is meant to help you experience a sense of awe. But the questions can also be used while you're on a walk or at another exhibition. Number seven made me feel wonder. Today, the rare sight of a mother polar bear adopting a cub was captured on camera. Researchers in Environment and Climate Change Canada have been tracking polar bears for over 45 years. In that time, they have only documented 13 cases of adoption. This fall, one of the mothers they had been watching, called X33991, turned up with an extra cub that wasn't biologically related to her. It's unclear why adoptions like this happen, but one of the research scientists said it could be because polar bears are really good moms who can't help but intervene when they spot a lone cube. X33991 is likely to look after both cubs, who are about 10 and 11 months old, for another year. That will give the animals from the vulnerable species a good chance of making it to adulthood. You can find a video of them frolicking in the snow together in today's newsletter. It's really cute. That's the show for this week, but before you go, here's another reminder to please take our podcast survey. We want to hear from you about your listening habits and how you think we could be better. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to complete and when you're done, you can enter to win $100 gift card. Find it@washingtonpost.com podcastsurvey that's washingtonpost.com podcastsurvey the associate producer of the Seven is Taylor White. The staff writers are Jamie Ross, Izan Akaba, and Hannah Jewel. Special thanks to guest host Renny Svenofsky. John Taylor is our editor. Additional editing by me, Christina Quinn Copy editing by Melissa Ngo and Thomas Haliba. Mixing and sound design is by Jim Briggs and Justin Gerrish. Our theme music is by Edith Mudge. I'm Christina Quinn. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend. I'll meet you back here on.