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  • ‘ChatGPT Health’ Soon Will Connect To Your Electronic Medical Records

    The new feature from OpenAI allows users to analyze medical test results and seek guidance on diets and workout routines, but the company stressed that it will supplement, not replace, the judgment of doctors. Initially, OpenAI will let users sign up for a waitlist to try it out, Bloomberg reported, but the program will expand in the coming weeks.

    Bloomberg:
    OpenAI Unveils ChatGPT Health To Review Test Results, Diets

    OpenAI is introducing a new feature in ChatGPT that will allow users to analyze medical test results, prepare for doctors appointments and seek guidance on diets and workout routines — marking the company’s biggest push yet into the health care sector. ChatGPT Health, announced Wednesday, is intended to help provide useful health and fitness information but stop short of making formal diagnoses. The new feature can connect with peoples’ electronic medical records, wearable devices and wellness apps, such as Apple Health and MyFitnessPal, the company said. (Ghaffary, 1/7)

    More news about artificial intelligence —

    Modern Healthcare:
    Aidoc Names Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld As Chief Medical Officer

    Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, former president of the American Medical Association, has been named global chief medical officer of Aidoc. The startup offers artificial intelligence-enabled tools designed to support clinical decision making. Ehrenfeld will work with health systems looking to implement a comprehensive approach to AI-powered clinical technology, Aidoc said in a Wednesday news release. (DeSilva, 1/7)

    AP:
    AI Health Tech At CES Makes Big Promises, Experts Wary

    Health tech gadgets displayed at the annual CES trade show make a lot of promises. A smart scale promoted a healthier lifestyle by scanning your feet to track your heart health, and an egg-shaped hormone tracker uses AI to help you figure out the best time to conceive. Tech and health experts, however, question the accuracy of products like these and warn of data privacy issues — especially as the federal government eases up on regulation. (Hill, 1/8)

    The New York Times:
    Google And Character.AI To Settle Lawsuit Over Teenager’s Death 

    Google and Character.AI, a maker of artificial intelligence companions, agreed to settle a lawsuit that had accused the companies of providing harmful chatbots that led a teenager to kill himself, according to a legal filing on Wednesday. The lawsuit had been filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in October 2024 by Megan L. Garcia, the mother of Sewell Setzer III. Sewell, 14, of Orlando, killed himself in February 2024 after texting and conversing with one of Character. AI’s chatbots. In his last conversation with the chatbot, it said to the teenager to “please come home to me as soon as possible.” (Rocha, 1/7)

    More health industry developments —

    The 19th:
    Children’s Hospitals Face HHS Probe Over Gender-Affirming Care

    Three children’s hospitals are under federal investigation for providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth, as the Trump administration continues to use all the levers it can to block such care. (Rummler, 1/7)

    Stateline:
    Freestanding Birth Centers Are Closing As Maternity Care Gaps Grow

    Dr. Heather Skanes opened Alabama’s first freestanding birth center in 2022 in her hometown of Birmingham. Skanes, an OBGYN, wanted to improve access to maternal health care in a state that’s long had one of the nation’s highest rates of maternal and infant mortality. (Vollers and Hassanein, 1/7)

    Becker’s Hospital Review:
    Medical Groups Face Mounting Costs, Stagnant Revenue: 5 Things To Know

    Operating expenses continue to exceed revenue for many system-affiliated medical groups, with average expense ratios over 100%, according to the “AMGA 2025 Medical Group Operations and Finance Survey.” The organization gathered data from 39 medical groups — 25 system-affiliated and 14 independent — encompassing more than 7,100 clinics and over 34,500 provider [full-time equivalents]. (Gooch, 1/7)

    The Wall Street Journal:
    This Startup Wants To Bring Cancer Patients Care At Home

    For cancer patients, traveling to receive drug infusions is often a regular part of treatment. Luminate Medical wants to bring infusions to them. The startup has raised $21 million in new venture financing from 8VC, Artis Ventures and others to deliver chemotherapy and other cancer-drug infusions in the home—a service that could ease burdens on patients, but one that isn’t typically offered today. (Gormley, 1/7)

    KFF Health News:
    Solving The Home Care Quandary

    You’re ready to leave the hospital, but you don’t feel able to care for yourself at home yet. Or, you’ve completed a couple of weeks in rehab. Can you handle your complicated medication regimen, along with shopping and cooking? Perhaps you fell in the shower, and now your family wants you to arrange help with bathing and getting dressed. There are facilities that provide such help, of course, but most older people don’t want to go there. They want to stay at home; that’s the problem. (Span, 1/8)

    The Baltimore Sun:
    Stop The Bleed Could Save Maryland Lives

    Earlier application of basic bleeding control called Stop the Bleed could have saved up to 70 Maryland lives, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis published by the Journal of the American College of Surgeons in December. (Hille, 1/7)


    This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.

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  • CrowdStrike to Acquire SGNL to Transform Identity Security for the AI Era

    CrowdStrike to Acquire SGNL to Transform Identity Security for the AI Era

    CrowdStrike is expanding the Falcon platform with Continuous Identity, redefining privilege and access for all users everywhere – from human to non-human AI agents

    AUSTIN, Texas – January 8, 2026 – CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SGNL, a leader in Continuous Identity. This acquisition will accelerate CrowdStrike’s leadership in Next-Gen Identity Security, enabling access for human, non-human (NHI), and AI identities to be continuously granted and revoked based on real-time risk. With SGNL, CrowdStrike will extend dynamic authorization across SaaS and hyperscaler cloud access layers. The combination of dynamic privilege and access coupled with Falcon® platform intelligence sets a new standard for agentic identity security. 

    “AI agents operate with superhuman speed and access, making every agent a privileged identity that must be protected,” said George Kurtz, CEO and founder of CrowdStrike. “With SGNL, CrowdStrike will deliver continuous, real-time access control that eliminates the known and unknown gaps from legacy standing privileges. We’re disrupting the premise of modern privilege and access – for every identity, human or machine. This is identity security built for the AI era.”

    Falcon Next-Gen Identity Security: Identity Security for the AI Era

    Identity security is rapidly becoming one of cybersecurity’s largest and fastest-growing segments. According to IDC, the identity security market is expected to grow from approximately $29 billion in 2025 to $56 billion by 2029.1

    As NHIs and the agentic workforce expand, these entities function as high-privilege identities with access to data, applications, compute resources, and other agents. They’re created dynamically in SaaS applications and hyperscaler workloads and operate across distributed cloud access paths. This shift exposes the risk created by legacy access models built on static policies and standing privileges. These models cannot reassess risk or revoke access as threat conditions change, leaving organizations exposed as AI identities operate autonomously. Identity security for the AI era requires a fundamentally different approach, built on continuous risk evaluation and dynamic authorization across modern access paths.

    Falcon® Next-Gen Identity Security already secures the full hybrid identity lifecycle, unifying initial access prevention, privileged access management (PAM), identity threat detection and response (ITDR), SaaS identity security, and agentic identity protection. Falcon correlates identity, asset, and threat intelligence across endpoint, cloud, and SaaS environments, establishing the foundation for continuous, risk-aware authorization at scale.

    Securing Modern Identities with SGNL

    SGNL is the runtime access enforcement layer between modern identity providers and the SaaS and hyperscaler resources that people, NHIs, and AI agents access. Powered by real-time Falcon platform intelligence and risk signals, SGNL will continuously evaluate identity, device, and behavior to dynamically grant, deny, or revoke access as conditions change, eliminating standing privilege access across every identity and environment.

    Key features and benefits of SGNL and the Falcon platform will include: 

    • Eliminate Standing Privileges for Humans, NHIs, and AI Agents: Grant access the moment it’s needed and remove it the moment it’s not with continuous dynamic authorization powered by real-time Falcon platform risk signals.
    • Access Enforcement Across All Major Identity Systems: Extend Falcon Next-Gen Identity Security’s Just-in-Time access beyond Active Directory and Entra ID to AWS IAM, Okta, and other cloud identity and SaaS systems.
    • Identity Governance and Downstream Protection: Enhance Falcon’s asset intelligence and identity governance with Continuous Access Evaluation Protocol (CAEP)-driven enforcement integrated into Falcon® Fusion SOAR to revoke access beyond the identity provider, proactively prevent misconfiguration-driven breaches, and protect downstream applications and services.
    • Unify Hybrid Identity Security: Secure every identity across the attack chain – from initial access to privilege escalation and lateral movement spanning on-prem, SaaS, and cloud environments.


    “SGNL was founded to connect access decisions with business reality,” said Scott Kriz, CEO and co-founder of SGNL. “The world needs our technology to eradicate the significant risk that legacy standing privileges expose in today and tomorrow’s environments. Joining CrowdStrike provides us with global scale natively through cybersecurity’s leading platform to transform enterprise security with Continuous Identity, furthering CrowdStrike’s mission of stopping breaches.”

    Transaction Details

    The purchase price is contemplated to be paid predominantly in cash and includes a portion to be delivered in the form of stock subject to vesting conditions. The proposed acquisition is expected to close during CrowdStrike’s first quarter of FY’27, subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory clearances. 

    About CrowdStrike

    CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD), a global cybersecurity leader, has redefined modern security with the world’s most advanced cloud-native platform for protecting critical areas of enterprise risk – endpoints and cloud workloads, identity and data.

    Powered by the CrowdStrike Security Cloud and world-class AI, the CrowdStrike Falcon® platform leverages real-time indicators of attack, threat intelligence, evolving adversary tradecraft, and enriched telemetry from across the enterprise to deliver hyper-accurate detections, automated protection and remediation, elite threat hunting, and prioritized observability of vulnerabilities.

    Purpose-built in the cloud with a single lightweight-agent architecture, the Falcon platform delivers rapid and scalable deployment, superior protection and performance, reduced complexity, and immediate time-to-value.

    CrowdStrike: We stop breaches.

    Learn more: https://www.crowdstrike.com/

    Follow us: Blog | X | LinkedIn | Instagram

    Start a free trial today: https://www.crowdstrike.com/trial

    © 2026 CrowdStrike, Inc. All rights reserved. CrowdStrike and CrowdStrike Falcon are marks owned by CrowdStrike, Inc. and are registered in the United States and other countries. CrowdStrike owns other trademarks and service marks and may use the brands of third parties to identify their products and services.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding the benefits of the acquisition to CrowdStrike and its customers, CrowdStrike’s plans to integrate SGNL’s technology and operations, and the closing of the acquisition. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those contemplated as a result of risks and uncertainties. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from statements made in this press release, including the satisfaction of conditions to closing the acquisition including the receipt of regulatory clearances, CrowdStrike’s ability to integrate SGNL’s technology and operations, and other risks described in the filings CrowdStrike makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including CrowdStrike’s most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and subsequent filings. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to CrowdStrike as of the date hereof, and CrowdStrike does not assume any obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.

    Media Contact

    Jake Schuster

    CrowdStrike Corporate Communications

    press@crowdstrike.com

     



    1Source: IDC, Semiannual Security Products Forecast, 2025 H1, November 2025.

     


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  • Abdullah bin Zayed Appoints Envoy for Countering Extremism and Terrorism

    Abdullah bin Zayed Appoints Envoy for Countering Extremism and Terrorism

    As part of the UAE’s efforts to strengthen its active role in global efforts to combat extremism and terrorism, His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, appointed His…

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  • Stop Smoking, Feel Happier campaign launches to help smokers quit

    Stop Smoking, Feel Happier campaign launches to help smokers quit

    The Smokefree Advice Centre in Chatham.

    Published: Thursday, 8th January 2026

    A new campaign across the South East…

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  • Government accused of dragging its heels on deepfake law over Grok AI

    Government accused of dragging its heels on deepfake law over Grok AI

    Laura Cress,Technology reporterand

    Chris Vallance,Senior technology reporter

    Getty Images A person in a yellow jumper uses a smartphone.Getty Images

    Campaigners have accused the government of dragging its heels on implementing a law which would make it illegal to create non-consensual sexualised deepfakes.

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  • Bounty Returns as the Ultimate Wingman

    The Quicker Picker Upper is back with NFL Star Rob Gronkowski and brings in rookie for his Wingman, sportscaster Charissa Thompson, to give fans the winning play against gameday’s messiest food: wings + Bounty

    CINCINNATI–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Back for its fourth year, the Bounty is Your Wingman campaign is built on the simple, saucy truth: you can’t have football without wings, and you can’t have wings without Bounty. As NFL fans across the country gear up for the most-watched games of the year, Bounty is once again showing up where it belongs, at the center of wing-filled watch parties, handling every spill, drip, and sticky-finger so fans can focus on the fun.

    Gronk and Charissa are joined by more than 20 NFL players from across the league, each paired with their own wingman to share stories from messy game-day feasts, their love of football, and what it really means to be a wingman. Content will roll out across Instagram throughout the playoffs and Super Bowl season.

    Why Wings, Why Bounty?

    According to the National Chicken Council, Americans eat enough wings during the Super Bowl alone to circle the Earth more than three times if laid out end-to-end.* Just imagine the mess.

    As the MVP of clean, Bounty is twice as absorbent as ordinary paper towels, so fans can use less and get the job done with just one sheet.**

    Enter Rob Gronkowski & Charissa Thompson

    With that many wings in play, Bounty called in NFL legend and longtime partner Rob Gronkowski (aka Gronk), along with his newest wingman, sportscaster, on-air co-host, and real-life friend Charissa Thompson. Together, Gronk and Charissa are giving fans a front-row seat into how they really do gameday at home.

    “I go big on game day, big plays, big energy, and a ton of extra saucy wings,” said Gronk. “As the Bounty Man, I know mess happens, so Charissa and I call in Bounty, the only paper towel tough enough to keep the game going.”

    “Gronk and I go way back, and while fans might be used to seeing us together on camera, we’ve logged just as much time hanging out at each other’s watch parties,” said Charissa Thompson. “And anyone who has been to a Gronk watch party knows a mess is guaranteed. That’s why I’m excited to team up with Bounty so fans can enjoy every part of gameday, the fun, the food and yes, even the mess.”

    Bounty Takes Over Super Bowl LX Media Center

    It’s game on at Super Bowl Radio Row from February 2 – 6, 2026 at The George R. Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco with the annual Bounty House of Wingman. This year, Bounty takes the watch party experience to the next level with a two-story, 1,200 square foot smart home – anticipated to be an unforgettable standout at the Super Bowl media hub.

    The highlights:

    • Tens of thousands of chicken wings served to hungry reporters
    • Live interviews, photo ops, and content creation with Gronk, Charissa, and NFL Wingmen
    • A “front-lawn” football challenge, where attendees can launch footballs through an oversized roll of Bounty and race the clock for a high score

    The experience brings together food, fun, football, and of course plenty of Bounty to pick up the mess.

    Helping Fans Gear Up for Gameday at Home

    And it doesn’t stop there; Bounty is helping fans gear up for their own watch parties at home by offering a limited time coupon for up to $3 off select packs of Bounty starting today, making it easier to stock up and stay ready for the messiest Sunday of the year.

    About Procter & Gamble

    P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, and Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit https://www.pg.com for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands. For other P&G news, visit us at https://www.pg.com/news.

    *Source: https://www.nationalchickencouncil.org/americans-to-eat-1-45-billion-chicken-wings-for-the-big-game/

    **vs leading ordinary brand

    Contacts

    Alan Danzis

    908-209-9940

    alan.danzis@mslgroup.com

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  • Chris Stapleton to Perform in Hershey, Pa. in June 2026

    Chris Stapleton to Perform in Hershey, Pa. in June 2026

    Eleven-time GRAMMY Award-winning musician Chris Stapleton today announced the continuation of his “All-American Road Show” through this fall with more than 20 newly added stops. The tour will include a…

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  • Wind warnings as Storm Goretti hits

    Wind warnings as Storm Goretti hits

    The Met Office has issued a yellow warning of wind covering Plymouth from 3pm today until 8am tomorrow. There is also a red warning covering much of Cornwall from 4pm to 11pm.

    Storm Goretti is expected to bring a spell of strong winds,…

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  • Only ‘bilateral dispute’ with Kabul is terrorism emanating from Afghan soil: FO – Dawn

    1. Only ‘bilateral dispute’ with Kabul is terrorism emanating from Afghan soil: FO  Dawn
    2. Pakistan says diplomatic channels with Afghanistan open, seeks written assurances against terrorism  Ariana News
    3. Pakistan to stay in Pak-China-Afghan forum,…

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  • BIG EAST WBB Minute: #1 UConn and Georgetown Record Wednesday Night Victories

    BIG EAST WBB Minute: #1 UConn and Georgetown Record Wednesday Night Victories

    Georgetown 63 at Butler 46
    Box Score
    Georgetown was led by Laila Jewett with 17 points, while Brianna Scott…

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