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The Trump administration repealed the US Government's power to fight climate change. That's where we're starting the seven from the Washington Post, I'm Hannah Jewell. It's Friday, February 13th. Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories. Nearly 17 years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten the public's health and welfare. It was known as the endangerment finding, and it gave the government a legal basis to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air act, for example, by restricting vehicle emissions. Yesterday, the EPA rescinded that landmark legal finding. President Donald Trump spoke at a White.
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House event in 2009. Barack Hussein Obama his EPA designated fossil fuels such as oil, gas and other things that actually make factories rock and roll and other things drive very nicely as a threat to health and human welfare. Known as the endangerment finding. This determination had no basis in fact, had none whatsoever.
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Climate scientists and public health experts disagree. Yesterday's announcement marks the culmination of years of effort by conservative and industry groups to undermine federal rules that limit greenhouse gases and to hamper future administrations from putting them back in place after Trump. A judge rejected Pete Hegseth's bid to punish a senator over a video message to troops. That's number two. In November, six Democratic lawmakers appeared in a video advising U.S. troops to reject illegal orders. Yesterday, there was another setback in the Trump administration's attempts to punish them for it. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wanted to discipline Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and retired Navy captain. But a federal judge ordered a halt to pending disciplinary action, which could have reduced Kelly's rank and cut his military retirement benefit. The judge said that Kelly's right to free speech was under attack by the Trump administration. Hegseth said in a social media post that the ruling would be appealed immediately. 3. Border Czar Tom Homan declared an end to Operation Metro surge in Minnesota the surge of federal officers in the Twin Cities was the Trump administration's largest immigration operation since the president took office, promising to deport millions of people. The operation led to fatal shootings by officers of two American citizens, and it sparked widespread protests against immigration raids. Now it's apparently over. Homan made the announcement yesterday in Minnesota.
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I'm very pleased to report that this surge operation and our work here with state and local officials to improve coordination and achieve mutual goals, as well as our efforts to address issues of a concern here on the ground, have yielded the successful results we have came here for the Twin Cities of Minnesota in general are and will continue to be much safer for the communities here because of what we have accomplished under President Trump's leadership.
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The apparent withdrawal of federal agents may not be enough to avert a shutdown of large parts of the Department of Homeland Security this weekend. Senate Democrats yesterday blocked two funding bills because they did not include new restrictions on federal immigration agents. Number four the FBI gave more details about the suspect in the Nancy Guthrie case. Yesterday, investigators described the build and clothing of a man they believe kidnapped the 84 year old mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie. In a social media post, the FBI described the suspect as a man around 5ft 9 inches tall with an average build. Footage from the doorbell camera of Guthrie's Tucson home showed the man was wearing a black Ozark Trail Hiker PAC backpack. The FBI also doubled their reward for information leading to Guthrie's location or to the arrest of a person involved in her disappearance. It now stands at $100,000. Guthrie was reported missing by her family on February. Number five the US has been experiencing record cold and warmth this winter. Data shows that large parts of the Northeast and Mid Atlantic are dealing with their coldest winter in more than 20 years. But those aren't the only areas experiencing record cold. For most of the Midwest, Mid South, Southeast and parts of Florida, it's been the coldest winter in five to 20 years. The persistent cold has led to significant ice cover in the Great Lakes and on rivers. Extremely rare snow was even observed in Bermuda. But it's a very different story for anyone living near or west of the Rocky Mountains, where winter has been almost non existent. There, people are experiencing record warm temperatures. In our newsletter today, you can look up the last time winter was this cold in your city. You can find that, as always, in our show notes. ChatGPT has a hidden bias about your state or city. That's number six. Researchers at Oxford and the University of Kentucky forced the AI Chatbot to reveal its prejudices about different cities, states and countries. When pressed, it revealed it had some pretty strong opinions about where people are the most lazy, honest, hospitable or annoying. These regional stereotypes aren't deliberately programmed into ChatGPT by its maker, OpenAI. Instead, they're absorbed from the vast quantities of online text used to train its artificial intelligence. The researchers say that can have a real impact on what ChatGPT tells its more than 900 million users each week. A Disclosure the Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI. In our newsletter today, you can look up how ChatGPT views your city compared with dozens of others, it might be a little offensive. And at number seven, scientists discovered one of the most sensitive secrets of elephants. If you've ever seen an elephant peel a banana, you already know they are very impressive creatures. New research reveals more about why they are so good at using their trunks. According to a close up study, Asian elephant whiskers are some of the most sophisticated and sensitive in the animal kingdom. The hundreds of fine hairs that cover an elephant's trunk are uniquely able to transmit information to the brain. That makes elephant trunks uniquely capable of detecting motion, handling objects and performing complex tasks like peeling a banana. One of the study's authors, Lena Kaufman, said the discovery could help human engineers develop better touch sensors and other robotic tools. But just as important, it helps us better understand our fellow creatures. That's the show for this week. The staff writers of the Seven are Jamie Ross, Izanakabau and me. Special thanks to Sharla Freeland, who got up way too early with us this week to help produce. John Taylor is our editor. Copyediting by Rebecca Branford and Brian Molasics. Mixing and sound design is by Jim Briggs and Justin Gerrish. Our theme music is by Edith Munch. I'm Hannah Jewell. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend. Will be off Monday for President's Day, but I'll meet you back here on Tuesday.