QUOTE OF THE DAY

'In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.'

Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., speaking to Donald Trump about immigrants and members of the LGBTQ+ community, during the Ingaugural Prayer Service yesterday. She said Americans were "all once strangers in this land."

TODAY'S BIG QUESTION

Why is the FDA slow to ban food additives?

Though the Food and Drug Administration just banned the use of Red Dye No.3 in foods, the coloring was banned back in 1990 for use in cosmetics after being linked to cancer in rats. So much time passed because The FDA has a rule for food additives that "gives corporations the license to add potentially harmful ingredients to foods without regulatory oversight or public notice," said The Los Angeles Times. The legal loophole is the agency's "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) designation.

What did the commentators say?
The designation was "created so that common household ingredients with a long history of safe use in food — like oil and vinegar, baking soda, and everyday spices and seasonings — would not have to go through rigorous safety reviews," said The Washington Post. The problem is that under the current rules "companies can skirt the premarket approval process and determine on their own that a new food additive or substance is 'generally recognized as safe.'"

This is not the first time the FDA has been slow to ban a food additive that many other countries have. "There are more than 10,000 chemicals and additives allowed in food in the United States, often in small amounts," said CBS News. "But many haven't been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration in decades."

What next?
While the FDA has banned Red 3, the ban "could face legal challenges from food manufacturers because evidence hasn't determined that the dye causes cancer when consumed by humans," said Euronews. The dye's ban has been a long time coming, and experts have been looking to have other additives reassessed, including Red Dye No. 40, BHA, brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate and propyl paraben, which have been "linked to an increased risk of cancer and hyperactivity in children," said the Post. "Consumers should not be placed, as they have for the last several decades, in this situation where they need to check the package every time to see if this chemical that FDA should have banned is still there," Dr. Peter Lurie, the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said to The New York Times.

Statistic of the day

$500B: The total amount that will be invested in a new partnership for artificial intelligence infrastructure, President Donald Trump announced today. The entity, Stargate, will be made up of a trio of high-profile tech companies: OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank. Trump confidante Elon Musk has bashed the project, though, claiming the companies "don't have the money."

the explainer

State Sponsors of Terrorism list includes Cuba again

President Donald Trump placed Cuba back on the State Department's list of State Sponsors of Terrorism on Monday, just one week after the Biden administration removed the country's designation. That puts Cuba back on a short list with just three other countries: Iran, North Korea and Syria. This is how each country wound up on the list.

Syria
The State Sponsors of Terrorism list was created in 1979 for countries that "have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism," said the State Department. Syria is the "last country from this original list to remain so designated today," said The Atlantic Council. Its original designation in 1979 stems from the Syrian government's support for "U.S.-listed terrorist groups."

Iran
The Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah played a major role in landing Iran on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list on January 23, 1984. The action followed five years of escalating tensions between the two countries that began when dozens of U.S. diplomats and embassy workers were held hostage in Tehran for 444 days during the Iranian revolution and culminated in the 1983 Hezbollah suicide bombing of a Marines barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. military personnel.

North Korea
North Korea was first designated a state sponsor of terrorism in 1988. The bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 from Baghdad to Seoul, which killed all 115 people on board, was "later linked to North Korean agents," said The Washington Post.

Cuba
Cuba was initially placed on the list in 1982 for "providing advice, safe haven, communications, training and financial support to guerrilla groups and individual terrorists," said the State Department. President Barack Obama removed the designation in April 2015, only to see Trump place Cuba back on the list with just days left in his first term.

Trump's decision to reverse the Biden administration's last-minute order to remove Cuba from the list "aligns with his administration's hardline stance on Cuba," said CBS News. But while the move was expected, said Politico, the new Trump administration's "rationale for the policy reversal was not immediately explained."

Good day 🪐

… for space enthusiasts. Stargazers will be able to see six planets at once in the night sky, a rare astronomical feat. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus will all be visible to the naked eye after dark tonight through the end of January, while Uranus and Neptune will require a telescope to be seen, according to NASA.

Bad day 📰

… for The Sun newspaper. The British tabloid has settled a lawsuit brought by Prince Harry. The Sun owner News Group Newspapers has apologized to the royal for admittedly hacking the phones of journalists and private investigators at a defunct tabloid, the News of the World. The tabloid has also paid "substantial damages" to settle.

Puzzles

Daily crossword

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The Week recommends

Fukuoka: a Japanese metropolis with superb eating

There are endless urban centers to visit in Japan beyond Tokyo and Kyoto. To shift away from heavily touristed cities, head to the island of Kyushu and its biggest metropolis, Fukuoka. Japan's sixth-largest city has an "exploding startup scene and a young, creative energy that's reshaping its future," said Travel and Leisure Southeast Asia.

Wander
Multiple rivers converge in Fukuoka and connect to Hakata Bay on the edge of the city. Visit the "more than 150 yatai food stalls, or mobile food carts," located on the Naka River, said Afar. Dine on gyoza, yakitori and oden (hot pot). At the stalls, the "seating arrangements are so intimate that you are bound to make friends."

The ancient coexists with the modern in Fukuoka. The Kushida Shrine, a Shinto temple built in the 8th century, has been Fukuoka's "spiritual backbone for over a thousand years," said Travel and Leisure.

Eat
Many Americans covet the rich flavors of Hakata ramen, a style that demands a milky tonkotsu (pork bone) broth. You will find every version of tonkotsu ramen across Fukuoka. As Junot Díaz said in Condé Nast Traveler, "what counts as outstanding in a ramen periphery like New York would only rate as pretty good in a ramen metropole like Fukuoka."

Sleep
The Ritz-Carlton's outpost in Fukuoka opened in 2023 and is located in the "chic, upscale Hakata neighborhood with its wide tree-lined streets through which a network of canals lazily winds," said Condé Nast Traveler. The hotel is the "definition of quiet luxury, impressively balancing simplicity and sumptuousness."

Poll watch

Over six in 10 Americans (65%) "strongly favor" deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of violent crimes, according to an AP-NORC survey. However, the poll of 1,147 adults found there's less support for broader mass deportations. Only 33% view widespread deportations of nonviolent immigrants as a "high priority."

INSTANT OPINION

Today's best commentary

'Women filmmakers have much to say to India'
Rana Ayyub at The Washington Post
There's a "remarkable surge of female cinematic talent that has blossomed over the past decade in India," says Rana Ayyub. Bollywood has "traditionally used women merely as good-looking props, but women in these new movies are the protagonists, with complex challenges and lives." Over the "past decade, most mainstream Indian films have tried to stay true to the diktats of the government, with many echoing state propaganda," but women filmmakers are "reclaiming that space."

'If politicians want the support of Latinx voters, they need to face facts'
Samuel Cruz at Newsweek
One "lesson from the recent election cycle" is that Republicans and Democrats are "chomping at the bit to attract more Latinx and Hispanic voters," says Samuel Cruz. If "either party wants to be consistently successful, they will need to address a painful reality — both parties have a long, horrid history of demeaning Hispanic and Latin countries." For "millions of voters, both political parties talk a big game but fail to meaningfully pursue policies that will uplift them."

'We are on the precipice of a grievance-based society'
Richard Edelman at Time
People have "raised their voices against business, government and the wealthy across the globe," and "such grievances stem from a conviction that the system is unfair, business and government make things worse and the rich keep getting richer," says Richard Edelman. Our "collective grievances are broad-based, extending from economic to electoral to societal," and we "need to move back from the precipice of a grievance-based society where violence is seen as a viable option."

WORD OF THE DAY

boosterism

The practice of enthusiastically promoting a place or person to try and improve its public image. This tactic is often used by politicians when it comes to foreign policy.

How long will Trump's honeymoon last?