Good morning. Instacart has been ordered to pay $60 million in refunds to customers to settle allegations from the Federal Trade Commission that it used deceptive practices to raise costs for shoppers.

• Not really free? The FTC alleged that the grocery-delivery platform falsely advertised free delivery and 100% satisfaction guarantee, and also didn’t adequately disclose terms for Instacart+ membership. Consumers were still charged a service fee for deliveries, despite the free-delivery advertising, the FTC claimed.
   
• Refund ordered: Instacart is being ordered to refund customers who were charged for Instacart+ without their express informed consent, the FTC said.
   
• Denying wrongdoing: “We flatly deny any allegations of wrongdoing by the Federal Trade Commission, and we stand firmly behind the integrity and transparency of our programs,” the company said.

Trump orders cannabis to be reclassified as less dangerous drug.

President Trump directed the federal government to reclassify cannabis as a less-dangerous drug, a seismic shift in U.S. drug policy that is poised to boost the legal marijuana industry.

The president signed an executive order Thursday calling for Attorney General Pam Bondi to expedite the rescheduling of cannabis to a less-restrictive category. Senior administration officials said the move aimed to expand medical research into cannabis applications, including medical marijuana and CBD.

EU sanctions shadow fleet, discusses Ukraine loan.

The European Union announced sanctions Thursday on 41 additional vessels it said are part of Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers used to circumvent sanctions and the oil price cap, Risk Journal reports.

The sanctions come as EU leaders gather in Brussels Thursday for a two-day summit to discuss a controversial plan to use frozen Russian central bank assets to finance a reparations loan for Ukraine. The European Commission has proposed using earnings generated by approximately €210 billion, about $246 billion, in immobilized Russian assets.

• Ben & Jerry’s remaining independent board members said owner Magnum Ice Cream is threatening to oust them, accusing the ice-cream giant in a court filing of telling them the company has grounds to dismiss them.
   
• Plastics distributor MGI International admitted to evading roughly $3.9 million in tariffs on Chinese imports in an agreement with the Justice Department.
   
• The U.S. said it would block the import of car tires made by a European unit of China’s Linglong Tires over forced labor concerns.
   
• Regulators have accused a New York City brokerage firm of running a four-year fraud involving excessive trading that produced $46 million in revenue.
   
• WH Smith said the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has opened an investigation into the company over potential breaches of U.K. listing principles, disclosure and transparency rules.

The $8 billion black market for Venezuelan oil is suddenly closing down.

Venezuela has long used the same playbook as Russia and Iran to get around crippling American sanctions on its oil industry, tapping a shadowy fleet of aging vessels to carry crude to customers.

President Trump’s partial oil blockade threatens to devastate this black market, which U.S. officials say lines Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s pockets and props up the impoverished country’s fragile economy.

• Trump Ups Pressure on Venezuela but Repeatedly Shifts the Rationale

This buzzy cyber startup wants to take on dangerous AI threat.

Kevin Mandia, founder of the cybersecurity firm Mandiant—which was acquired by Alphabet’s Google for $5.4 billion—has formed a new company called Armadin that will take on the imminent threat from AI hacking.

The company aims to use artificial intelligence to supercharge the business of testing networks for vulnerabilities. Armadin raised $24 million in seed funding from Ballistic Ventures, a venture-capital firm co-founded by Mandia, and is in talks with Accel, GV and Kleiner Perkins to raise $100 million or more, people familiar with the matter said. The deal is expected to value the company at more than $600 million. The round isn’t finalized, and the details could still change.

• The Bank of Japan raised its policy rate target to its highest level in 30 years on Friday, another small step back from the world’s longest and biggest experiment with ultra-expansionary monetary policy.
   
• European leaders committed to lend Ukraine 90 billion euros, or around $105 billion, to help the country keep fighting Moscow’s invasion but failed to agree on a plan to use frozen Russian assets for the loan.
   
• European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen urged leaders of the European Union’s 27 member states to approve the bloc’s long-awaited trade deal with Mercosur nations after it faced more pushback from countries—including France—at the 11th hour.
   
• The U.S. said it had approved $11.1 billion in arms-sales packages for Taiwan, a show of support from Washington as President Trump focuses on trade deals and displays a softer U.S. stance toward China.
   
• Canada’s Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions said Thursday it views systemic vulnerabilities in the financial system to be stable, and in some cases below past highs.
   
• More than six years after Islamic State’s caliphate collapsed in the Middle East, the group’s brand of extreme violence lives on, inspiring lone-wolf attacks such as the one on Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
   
• President Trump’s phased peace plan for Gaza is struggling to move beyond its initial stage.

• An Iranian-linked hacker group leaked sensitive personal data belonging to a former Israeli prime minister this week, one of a number of attacks linked to Tehran that have raised concerns about Israel’s cyber defenses.
   
• A business jet carrying six people crashed while landing at an airport in North Carolina Thursday morning, according to authorities. Former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle, his wife Cristina and their children were killed in the crash, according to North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson.
   
• Kids who are stars in sports and music don’t usually grow up to be stars as adults, a new study found.
   
• The man suspected of killing two Brown University students and later an MIT professor was found dead in a storage unit in New Hampshire on Thursday night after a six-day manhunt, officials said.
   
• A torrent of news happened in 2025. Here’s a timeline of some of the most important stories.

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