Good Morning! Today’s edition is 893 words, a 4-minute read.

What’s on tap: 

• Government admits fault in Reagan crash

• Eating cheese could lower dementia risk

• Most and least stressed cities

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Big Stories

Trump Reclassifies Cannabis

• President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday directing the reclassification of cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III, allowing the FDA to study its medicinal uses. Cannabis is currently classified alongside heroin and LSD. Under Schedule III, it would be grouped with drugs like Tylenol with codeine and ketamine.

• Trump said the order aims to help people with chronic pain but stressed it does not legalize cannabis nationwide or permit recreational use. "It's never safe to use powerful controlled substances recreationally," he said.

• Reclassification would ease regulatory hurdles and allow medical use by seniors, veterans, and others, potentially overriding state restrictions. The order also directs work with Congress to expand access to CBD products while restricting those that pose health risks.

Federal Trans Care Ban

• The Trump administration announced Thursday it will prohibit hospitals from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries to minors as a condition of participating in Medicare and Medicaid. Hospitals that don't comply would lose federal funding. The proposed rules will be finalized after a 60-day comment period.

• HHS also proposed excluding gender dysphoria from disability protections, and the FDA will issue warning letters to 12 breast binder manufacturers. Separately, the House passed a bill Wednesday that would charge doctors with felonies punishable by up to 10 years in prison for providing gender-affirming care to minors.

• More than 20 hospitals in liberal cities like Los Angeles and Boston have already ended their programs after federal investigations began in July, while twenty-seven states have banned such care. Major medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, oppose the restrictions.

Government Admits Role in Reagan Crash

• The US government admitted Wednesday in court filings that an air traffic controller and Army helicopter pilots played a role in the Jan. 29, 2025, collision between an airliner and Black Hawk near Reagan National Airport that killed 67 people. The government said it breached its duty of care in the deadliest aviation accident on US soil in over two decades.

• The filing, responding to a lawsuit by victims' families, said the air traffic controller violated visual separation procedures and the Army pilots failed to maintain vigilance to avoid the airliner. The helicopter was flying 78 feet above its 200-foot altitude limit.

• Investigators identified 85 near misses at Reagan in the three years before the crash, but the FAA failed to take action to address safety risks at the airport.

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Quick Stories

US News

• Police issued an arrest warrant for a suspect in Saturday's Brown University shooting that killed two students. Investigators believe the attack is possibly linked to an MIT professor's murder in Brookline, Massachusetts. (More)

• The Kennedy Center board unanimously voted Thursday to add Trump's name to the iconic Washington arts venue, though Congress must approve renaming it the "Trump-Kennedy Center." (More)

• Pope Leo XIV picked Chicago Bishop Ronald Hicks to lead New York's Catholics, one of America's biggest church posts, replacing 75-year-old Cardinal Timothy Dolan. (More)

World

• French anaesthetist Frédéric Péchier got life in prison Thursday for deliberately poisoning 30 patients and killing 12 to make rival doctors look incompetent. (More)

• Rain on Iran's Hormuz Island turned the sea blood-red this week as iron-rich soil washed into the Persian Gulf, creating a stunning natural display. (More)

• Over 1,000 civilians were killed by Sudan's Rapid Support Forces when they attacked the country's largest refugee camp in April, US investigators said Thursday. (More)

Business & Economy

• US stock markets closed higher on Thursday (S&P +0.79%, Nasdaq +1.38%, Dow +0.14%). Lighter-than-expected inflation data helped indexes break multi-day losing streaks. (More)

• Elliott hedge fund is exploring a stock market listing for Waterstones and Barnes & Noble, the biggest bookstore chains in Britain and America, with over 900 combined stores. (More)

• TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance agreed to give US control of the app to investors Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi's MGX by January 22. (More)

Sports & Entertainment

• Seattle stunned the Rams 38-37 in overtime Thursday, erasing a 30-14 fourth-quarter deficit and winning on a 2-point conversion. (More)

• Former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and family members were among seven killed when their business jet crashed and burned while landing in North Carolina on Thursday. (More)

• Wham!'s "Last Christmas" hit No. 1 on Billboard's global chart this week, breaking Mariah Carey's four-year December winning streak with "All I Want For Christmas Is You." (More)

Science, Health, & Tech

• Rivian's new EVs got hands-free driving software on Thursday that covers 3.5 million US road miles, but drivers must still watch for traffic lights and handle all turns themselves. (More)

• Eating about two ounces of high-fat cheese daily was linked to lower dementia risk in a 25-year Swedish study of 27,670 adults, though researchers don't yet understand why. (More)

• NASA finished building its Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, an infrared observatory with a view 100 times wider than Hubble's that could launch by fall 2026 to study dark energy and exoplanets. (More)

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