Rejecting science, Trump reverses conclusion that climate change is harming Americans

The Trump administration on Thursday reversed the U.S. government’s longstanding scientific assertion that planet-heating pollution seriously threatens Americans, erasing a foundational piece of the country’s efforts to address climate change.

The repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding — a conclusion based on decades of science that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare — represents one of the biggest environmental rollbacks in U.S. history, and the latest in a series of actions by President Donald Trump to scrap policies and regulations designed to curb the use of fossil fuels and accelerate the transition to clean energy.

Experts and scientists condemned the action. The Environmental Protection Network — a bipartisan group of more than 700 former staff and appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency — described it as “unprecedented and dangerous.”

“This move is a fundamental betrayal of EPA’s responsibility to protect human health,” said Joseph Goffman, former assistant administrator of the EPA Office of Air and Radiation. “It is legally indefensible, morally bankrupt and completely untethered from the scientific record.”

—Los Angeles Times

Poll: Trump’s immigration crackdown deeply unpopular in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS — New polling shows Minnesotans and people across the country widely disapprove of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in the state, a shift that’s turned his deportation campaign from a political strength into a potential liability ahead of the midterm elections.

Negative marks on Operation Metro Surge from independents and suburban voters could be a problem for Republicans hoping to hold onto the U.S. House and Senate. It could also be an obstacle for a Minnesota GOP that hoped to win control of the Legislature and the governor’s office by riding a wave of frustration with widespread fraud in social services programs.

About two-thirds of Minnesotans view U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement negatively and believe the tactics of federal agents have gone too far, according to the NBC News Decision Desk/KARE 11/Minnesota Star Tribune Poll powered by SurveyMonkey.

An overwhelming majority of Minnesotans want local police to cooperate with immigration authorities to deport people in some or all cases. That could be a welcome result for the Trump administration, which has made greater cooperation a condition of withdrawing the remaining 2,000 federal agents that have been operating in Minnesota since December. Federal officials have blamed the chaos of street arrests on some local leaders who they say won’t work with ICE or Border Patrol.

—The Minnesota Star Tribune

Washington considers requiring AI companies to add mental health safeguards

SEATTLE — As artificial intelligence chatbots become better at mimicking human conversations, the potential for damage has grown, particularly for people who turn to them for mental health advice and to discuss plans to harm themselves.

State lawmakers and Gov. Bob Ferguson are seeking to add mental health safeguards to AI chatbots through new legislation. House Bill 2225 and Senate Bill 5984 would require companion chatbots to notify users they are interacting with AI and not a human at the beginning of the interaction and every three hours.

If someone seeks mental or physical health advice, the chatbot operator would have to issue a disclosure that the AI system is not a health care provider. Chatbot operators would also have to create protocols for detecting self-harm and suicidal ideation and provide referral information for crisis services.

Washington’s proposed legislation is part of a growing national trend — some other states have passed legislation aiming to prevent chatbots from offering mental health advice, particularly to young users.

—The Seattle Times

Indian farmers protest against Modi’s trade deal with Trump

Thousands of Indian farmers gathered across the country from Punjab to Tamil Nadu to demonstrate against a long-awaited trade deal with the United States, an agreement that protesters say could hurt domestic agriculture.

Thursday’s rallies — which went ahead even after the U.S. watered down its language around the deal — underscore the challenge faced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as he seeks to slash punitive U.S. tariffs while still shielding India’s rural economy and maintaining some trade with Russia.

India’s tens of millions of small farmers are a vital political constituency in the world’s most populous nation, and any threat of sustained nationwide protests evokes memories of 2020 and 2021, when growers paralyzed the capital and mounted Modi’s most significant challenge in over a decade at the helm.

Crowds of farmers in Punjab — joined by industrial and rural workers — chanted slogans against Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump, as the gathering also voiced opposition to other rural policies, including employment initiatives and proposed legislation on seeds and electricity.

—Bloomberg News