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AT&T Business Advertiser
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Hannah Jewell
The longest government shutdown in U.S. history is over. That's where we're starting the Seven from the Washington Post, I'm Hannah Jewell. It's Thursday, November 13th. Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories. Foreign last night, President Donald Trump signed a bill into law to reopen the government. He was quick to pin blame for the shutdown on Democrats. Here he is at a signing ceremony in the Oval Office.
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Donald Trump
I just want to tell you the country has never been in better shape. We went through this short term disaster with the Democrats because they thought it would be good politically. And it's an honor now to sign this incredible bill and get our country working again. Thank you.
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Hannah Jewell
Earlier in the day, the House of Representatives approved the bill. Six Democrats voted with Republicans to pass it. Two Republicans joined Democrats in voting against it. So you made it 43 days without a fully operating federal government. What does it mean now? It's back. First of all, federal employees will return to work, many as soon as this morning. Federally funded museums will reopen, food assistance benefits will resume. And flight delays could ease, though it may take some time for airlines to fully resume operations. Something that won't happen, though, at least for now, is an extension of Affordable Care act subsidies set to expire at the end of this year. That was something Democrats had demanded for weeks. Without them, average premiums for Americans who buy coverage on healthcare.gov are expected to rise 30% in the new year. The House Oversight Committee released thousands of pages of documents about Jeffrey Epstein. That's number two. The documents are made up of emails, text messages and other files from the late sex offender's estate. In one email from 2019, Epstein wrote that Donald Trump knew about the sexual abuse of underage girls but never participated in it. It reads trump knew of it and came to my house many times during that period. He never got a massage. That account conflicts with Trump's denial of ever knowing about Epstein's solicitation of underage prostitution before Epstein's 2008 plea deal. Yesterday, Trump accused Democrats of trying to distract Americans from the end of the shutdown. But the scandal that earlier this year threatened to engulf Trump's second term shows no sign of letting up. 3 Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US will consider obesity as a reason to deny visas. Earlier this month, Rubio told U.S. consulates and embassies around the world about new guidance in evaluating foreigners for visas. The diplomatic cable was obtained and verified by the Post. It instructed visa officers to consider obesity as a reason to deny visas. It also mentioned other chronic health conditions such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes as possible grounds for rejection, and whether an applicant is past retirement age, how many dependents they have, and whether any of those dependents have special needs or disabilities. The move gives visa officers new justifications to reject applicants for both immigrant and nonimmigrant visas. In a statement, a White House spokesperson cited the potential financial burden of such applicants. Number four is a Post exclusive FIFA will use the Kennedy center free of charge for a World cup event According to documents obtained by the post, soccer's international governing body will take over much of the D.C. arts venue to host the 2026 World cup draw later this month. The event will disrupt performances, but FIFA will get to use the center free of charge to prepare for the draw. FIFA will occupy performance spaces and other sections of the Kennedy center for almost three weeks since President Trump took over the Washington, D.C. arts venue earlier this year. It has already seen a sharp decline in ticket sales. Fossil fuel emissions are projected to reach an all time high this year. That's our fifth story. Parts of the world are pivoting to renewable energy and decreasing their rates of emissions, but the planet is still on track to keep heating up, according to a report published yesterday. Emission rate increases will accelerate in the US and eu, but will slow in China and India. At this rate, the report's authors say, it will take the world four years to pass a critical 3 threshold. That's 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming above pre industrial levels. Experts have agreed that would constitute catastrophic global warming. Despite that, the US is skipping the UN's annual climate conference, which is currently taking place in Brazil. Number six. The Post analyzed ChatGPT's style to help you spot when it's written something you may be familiar with. Some of the classic tells that something has been written by AI, like how chatbots play fast and loose with EM dashes or love to use variations of the phrase not just x but y. The Post analyzed more than 300,000 publicly shared messages from ChatGPT in English to find patterns in how it uses language. By the way, the Post has a content partnership with ChatGPT's maker, OpenAI. Our reporters found that the chatbot has decreased its use of formal words like delve and approach. It has increased its use of contractions like isn't possibly trying to sound more human, and it's started saying the words core and modern a lot more in recent months, they also discovered that the chatbot has fallen in love with emojis, specifically the green check mark emoji. Looking for these patterns might help you spot emails and documents written with help from ChatGPT. What you do with that information is up to you. And at number seven, the US treasury has officially stopped making pennies. Yesterday, the US Mint struck its final run of $0.01 coins and ending over 230 years of production. Officials say this is a cost cutting measure and that it costs 3.69 cents to produce each penny. But the demise of the penny may cost you. It could lead businesses to round up prices by a few cents. If you have a lot of pennies stuck down the side of your couch that you were hoping to use one day, don't worry, they will remain legal tender. But the last five pennies struck yesterday will not go into circulation. They will be auctioned off instead. One rare coin expert said they could sell for over $1 million each. So I'm sad I probably won't be finding one of those pennies under my car seat. Alright, you're all caught up. We were delighted to receive more of your lovely voice notes. Wishing the Seven podcast a happy third birthday like this one from 14 year old Miri in San Jose, California.
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Miri
My dad and I listen every morning. It's our ritual on the drive to school. We catch up on the news, talk about the stories and laugh at Hannah's jokes. Happy Birthday to seven. Thanks Hannah and the crew for making our mornings so special.
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Hannah Jewell
Also, it turns out we have glamorous European listeners in our midst like these guys.
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Johannes
Hi, this is Johannes in southern Germany. Congrats on the anniversary. The 7 is such a great counterweight to all the loud news out there in the US media landscape, especially because of Hannah's calm and soothing delivery. I listen every day, so keep up the great work. Thanks a lot. And here's to the next 700. Bye now.
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Laura's Husband
Congratulations to the seven team. My wife Laura and I listen to you every day while we have lunch in Galic, north of Spain. Hannah, we love your intonation.
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Hannah Jewell
Thanks guys. I love your intonation too. I'm Hannah Jewell. I'll meet you back here tomorrow.
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Washington Post Subscription Promoter
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