By SETH BORENSTEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency has removed any mention of fossil fuels — the main driver of global warming — from its popular online page explaining the causes of climate change. Now it only mentions natural phenomena, even though scientists calculate that nearly all of the warming is due to human activity.

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Sometime in the past few days or weeks, EPA altered some but not all of its climate change webpages, de-emphasizing and even deleting references to the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, which scientists say is the overwhelming cause of climate change. The website’s causes of climate page mentions changes in Earth’s orbit, solar activity, Earth’s reflectivity, volcanoes and natural carbon dioxide changes, but not the burning of fossil fuels. Seven scientists and three former EPA officials tell The Associated Press that this is misleading and harmful.

“Now it is completely wrong,” said University of California climate scientist Daniel Swain, who also noted that impacts, risks and indicators of climate change on the EPA site are now broken links. “This was a tool that I know for a fact that a lot of educators used and a lot of people. It was actually one of the best designed easy access climate change information websites for the U.S.”

Earlier this year, the Trump Administration removed the national climate assessment from government websites.

“It is outrageous that our government is hiding information and lying,” said former Obama National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief and Oregon State oceanographer Jane Lubchenco. “People have a right to know the truth about the things that affect their health and safety, and the government has a responsibility to tell the truth.”

An October version of the same EPA page, saved by the internet Wayback Machine, said: “Since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have released large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which has changed the earth’s climate. Natural processes, such as changes in the sun’s energy and volcanic eruptions, also affect the Earth’s climate. However, they do not explain the warming that we have observed over the last century.”

That now reads: “Natural processes are always influencing the earth’s climate and can explain climate changes prior to the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s. However, recent climate changes cannot be explained by natural causes alone.”

“Unlike the previous administration, the Trump EPA is focused on protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback, not left-wing political agendas,” said Brigit Hirsch, EPA spokesperson, in an email. “As such, this agency no longer takes marching orders from the climate cult. Plus, for all the pearl-clutchers out there, the website is archived and available to the public.”

Clicking on “explore climate change resources” on the EPA archived website leads to an error message that says: “This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it.”

Former Republican Governor Christie Todd Whitman, who was EPA administrator under George W. Bush, said, “You can refuse to talk about it, but it doesn’t make it go away. And we’re seeing it. Everybody’s seeing it.”

“We look ridiculous, quite frankly,” Whitman told The Associated Press in an interview. “The rest of the world understands this is happening and they’re taking steps… And we’re just going backwards. We’re knocking ourselves back into the Stone Age.”

Democratic EPA chief Gina McCarthy blasted current EPA chief Lee Zeldin, calling him “a wolf in sheep’s clothing, actively spiking any attempt to protect our health, well-being and precious natural resources.”

Nearly 100% of the warming the world is now experiencing is from human activity, and without that, the Earth would be cooling and dropping in temperatures until the Industrial Revolution, Swain and other scientists said. The EPA listed natural causes “might be causing a very tiny amount of warming or cooling at the moment,” he said.

Marcia McNutt, a geophysicist and president of the National Academy of Sciences, said that there is consensus among experts from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, or NASEM, on the causes of climate change.

“Numerous NASEM reports from the nation’s leading scientists confirm that the climate is changing as a result of human activities,” McNutt said. “Even the EPA acknowledges that natural causes cannot explain the current changes in climate. It is important that the public be presented with all of the facts.”

Former EPA climate advisor Jeremy Symons, now a senior advisor for Environmental Protection Network of former EPA officials, said: “Ignoring fossil fuel pollution as the driving force behind the climate changes we have seen in our lifetime is like pretending cigarettes don’t cause lung cancer.”

Michael Phillis contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

ORLANDO — When 5 p.m. approached on Tuesday and Derek Falvey’s phone still hadn’t rung, the Twins’ president of baseball and business operations came to the natural conclusion: the team had not landed the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft.

“You’re waiting and you’re like, ‘It’s 5. They would have called by now. This isn’t great,’” Falvey said.

No, the luck of the ping pong balls was not on the Twins’ side on Tuesday afternoon — they had the second-highest odds of landing the first pick —  but the team still walked away from the draft lottery with the No. 3 overall selection, a good result all things considered.

The draft lottery took place behind closed doors at the Winter Meetings in Orlando with the results announced in a televised show on MLB Network.

Reporters and executives, including assistant general manager Sean Johnson, who is in charge of amateur scouting, watched the reveal in a crowded ballroom. On stage, two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana represented the Twins. Falvey and general manager Zoll were upstairs in a nearby hotel room, watching on television, waiting as team by team was revealed until finally a card with the Twins’ logo was turned over. The Chicago White Sox, who had the highest odds to win the lottery, landed the first overall pick and the Tampa Bay Rays jumped the Twins to end up at No. 2.

“I was going to live with four. I was going to be OK,” Falvey said. “(Zoll) was going to slam something at four and be OK with three and above, so I was like, ‘Alright, we’re on the same page.’”

At four, Zoll corrected, he would have disappointed. If they had fallen to fifth, he might’ve slammed something. The Twins could have finished anywhere from 1-8.

“Once we had an indication that it wasn’t going to be the top pick, I know Sean and the scouting group were really hopeful to be in the top three so to land that feels really good,” Zoll said.

The Twins had a 22.18 percent chance to land the first pick after their 92-loss season, though three teams actually finished with a worse record than them. Both the Colorado Rockies and Washington Nationals finished with worse records but were ineligible for a lottery pick as part of a measure to prevent tanking. The Rockies are a revenue payee and have picked in the lottery in each of the past two drafts while the Nationals are a revenue payor and they selected in the lottery last year.

Their ineligibility boosted the Twins’ lottery odds.

Though there’s still plenty of time before the draft, UCA shortstop Roch Cholowsky is the favorite to go first overall. Behind him, MLB.com ranks Grady Emerson and Justin Lebron as the second and third prospects respectively. Both are shortstops — Emerson at Fort Worth Christian School in Texas and Lebron at Alabama.

The No. 3 pick is the Twins’ highest draft pick since 2017 when they picked current third baseman Royce Lewis with the first overall selection.

“You hope you don’t fall too far. … There’s a good outcome,” Falvey said. “Ultimately to pick in the top three is a really exciting opportunity for the organization and I think we’re going to get someone there that we know our scouting group is going to like.”

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By LAURAN NEERGAARD and MIKE STOBBE

It’s normal for parents, or anyone, to have questions about vaccinations — but what happens if your pediatrician urges a shot that’s under attack by the Trump administration?

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That’s getting more likely: The nation’s leading doctors groups are in an unprecedented standoff with federal health officials who have attacked long-used, lifesaving vaccines.

The revolt by pediatricians, obstetricians, family physicians, infectious disease experts and internists came to a head when an advisory panel handpicked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged an end to routine newborn vaccination against hepatitis B, a virus that can cause liver failure or liver cancer.

That vaccine saves lives, helped child infections plummet and has been given safely to tens of millions of children in the U.S. alone, say the American Academy of Pediatrics and other doctors groups that vowed Tuesday to keep recommending it.

But that’s not the only difference. That Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices now is examining possible changes to the entire childhood vaccination schedule, questioning certain ingredients and how many doses youngsters receive.

Pushing back, the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued its own recommendations for youngsters. Other medical groups — plus some city and state public health departments that have banded together — also are issuing their own advice on certain vaccines, which largely mirrors pre-2025 federal guidance.

“We owe our patients a consistent message informed by evidence and lived experience, not messages biased by political imperative,” Dr. Ronald Nahass, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, told reporters Tuesday.

But Nahass acknowledged the inevitable consumer confusion, recounting a relative calling him last weekend for advice about hepatitis B vaccination for her new grandbaby.

“Most Americans don’t have a Cousin Ronnie to call. They are left alone with fear and mistrust,” he said, urging parents to talk with their doctors about vaccines.

New guidelines without new data concern doctors

Hepatitis B isn’t the only vaccine challenge. Kennedy’s health department recently changed a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention webpage to contradict the longtime scientific conclusion that vaccines don’t cause autism. Federal agencies also moved to restrict COVID-19 vaccinations this fall, and are planning policy changes that could restrict future flu and coronavirus shots.

But when it comes to vaccine advice, “for decades, ACIP was the gold standard,” said Dr. Jake Scott, an infectious disease physician and Stanford University researcher.

The panel once routinely enlisted specialists in specific diseases for long deliberations of the latest science and safety data, resulting in recommendations typically adopted not only by the CDC but by the medical field at large, he said.

FILE – Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a news conference at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file)

Last week’s meeting of Kennedy’s panel, which includes vaccine skeptics, marked a radical departure. CDC specialists weren’t allowed to present data on hepatitis B, the childhood vaccine schedule or questions about vaccine ingredients. Few of the committee members have public health experience, and some expressed confusion about the panel’s proposals.

At one point, a doctor called in to say the panel was misrepresenting her study’s findings. And the panel’s chairman wondered why one dose of yellow fever vaccine protected him during a trip to Africa when U.S. children get three doses of hepatitis B vaccine. The hepatitis B vaccine is designed to protect children for life from a virus they can encounter anywhere, not just on a trip abroad. And other scientists noted it was carefully studied for years to prove the three-dose course offers decades of immunity — evidence that a single dose simply doesn’t have.

“If they’ve got new data, I’m all for it — let’s see it and have a conversation,” said Dr. Kelly Gebo, an infectious disease specialist and public health dean at George Washington University, who watched for that. “I did not see any new data,” so she’s not changing her vaccine advice.

Committee members argued that most babies’ risk of hepatitis B infection is very low and that earlier research on infant shot safety was inadequate.

Especially unusual was a presentation from a lawyer who voiced doubt about studies that proved benefits of multiple childhood vaccines and promoted discredited research pointing to harms.

Dr. Robert Malone chairs a meeting of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in Atlanta on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025 to consider changes in hepatitis B vaccine recommendations for infants. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

“I don’t think at any point in the committee’s history, there was a 90-minute uninterrupted presentation by someone who wasn’t a physician, a scientist, or a public health expert on the topic — let alone someone who, who makes his living in vaccine litigation,” said Jason Schwartz, a vaccine policy expert at Yale University.

By abandoning data and the consensus of front-line doctors, the ACIP is “actively burning down the credibility that made its recommendations so powerful,” added Stanford’s Scott. “Most parents will still follow their pediatricians, and AAP is holding the line here. But the mixed messages are precisely what erode confidence over time.”

Parents already have a choice — they need solid guidance

Trump administration health officials say it’s important to restore choice to parents and to avoid mandates. That’s how the panel’s hepatitis B recommendation was framed — that parents who really want it could get their children vaccinated later.

Parents already have a choice, said Dr. Aaron Milstone of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The government makes population-wide recommendations while families and their doctors tailor choices to each person’s health needs.

But many doctors don’t — or can’t — do their own lengthy scientific review of vaccines and thus had relied on the ACIP and CDC information, Yale’s Schwartz noted.

They “rely on trusted expert voices to help navigate what is, even in the best of times, a complicated landscape regarding the evidence for vaccines and how best to use them,” he said.

That’s a role that the pediatricians and other doctors groups, plus those multistate collaborations, aim to fill with their own guidelines — while acknowledging it will be a huge task.

For now, “ask your questions, bring your concerns and let us talk about them,” said Dr. Sarah Nosal, of the American Academy of Family Physicians, urging anyone with vaccine questions to have an open conversation with their doctor.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By ISABEL DEBRE

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers.

Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur.

Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones. Children squealed with delight and giddily petted every dog that pranced about.

Families posed for pet selfies under the blazing Southern Hemisphere’s summer sun.

Sipping Argentina’s traditional yerba mate drink, attendees swapped fun facts about their favorite breed — such as goldens’ famed ability to sniff out low blood sugar and cancer — and shared stories of their retrievers comforting them throughout all of life’s ups and downs.

“Since we were children, she’s been a constant presence in our family. We’ve had vacations with her. We’ve done everything together,” said Nicolás Orellana, a 26-year-old wearing a T-shirt with a photo of a golden retriever on it. His family said they drove an hour and a half from their hometown in Buenos Aires province for the event.

“It’s a type of dog that’s known to create a special bond,” he said, kneeling to pet his contented-looking 13-year-old dog Luna.

Around them, fellow golden retrievers sniffed each other furiously, some decked out in costumes ranging from Argentine soccer jerseys and national flags to tutus and Star Wars bandanas.

Through the tsunami of tail-wagging and treat-giving, 10 dog-loving volunteers clad in yellow vests roved with clipboards to register each golden retriever in attendance.

After hours of meticulous counting, the final number came in late Monday. With 2,397 golden retrievers recorded, the event’s organizer, Fausto Duperre, announced that Argentina had broken the informal world record set last year when an event in Vancouver drew 1,685 goldens.

“This is a historic event,” gushed Duperre, a 28-year-old Argentine actor who has become something of a golden retriever influencer on social media, where he regularly posts content about his 10-year-old golden named Oli.

“I’m truly grateful and happy, proud, excited and overjoyed all at once,” he added.

High hopes for a big group photo of the dogs alone on the field quickly faded as it became clear that no owner — nor dog — would withstand even a few moments of separation. Plus, there was the all-too-real fear of dogs getting lost among their thousands of furry counterparts. Owners yanked at leashes and wrangled with the most restive dogs to keep them close.

Some said they were expecting total chaos from Monday’s event but were surprised to report that it turned out to be easy and delightful — like the dogs themselves.

“I was afraid I would lose her, I was afraid she would fight, I was afraid another dog would attack her,” said Elena Deleo, 64, stroking her golden retriever Angie. “But no, they’re all affectionate, all gentle. … It’s just a very lovely experience.”