The industry looks back wistfully on a past year of promise but little delivery, and wonders what next under Trump

For those awaiting the end of cannabis prohibition in the US, 2024 began on a hopeful note, but as the year comes to a close, many of those hopes remain unfulfilled.

“The big issue is rescheduling, and there was a lot of excitement about that, but it’s been sort of mired down,” said Alex Halperin, who has covered the cannabis industry in his newsletter WeedWeek since 2015 . Rescheduling would mean that cannabis is no longer federally banned under the Controlled Substances Act.

Pupils at Sacred Heart Catholic school in Barrow-in-Furness are in temporary classrooms and education is suffering

• Revealed: 1.5m children in England studying in unfit school buildings

Tinsel glistens through the window of the darkened classroom. But the decorations are not from this Christmas, or last. A whiteboard marks the date when pupils and staff were evacuated in a hurry from Sacred Heart Catholic primary school nearly two years ago.

It was 16 January 2023 when a routine inspection found that the floor of the 95-year-old school building was rotten and could collapse any moment. Children would have plunged into the rat-infested cellar below.

A festive and fancy gin and lime with hints of cinnamon, a hit of apricot brandy and a sherbet-frosted rim

There’s a bit of prep involved here – you need to make the syrup a day ahead, for instance – but this is a great drink for impressing guests. If you opt to rim the glasses with lime sherbet, either buy some in ready-made or make your own by finely crushing a few lemon drop sweets in a mortar – dip the rim of the glass first in lime juice and then in the lemon drop dust. The excess syrup will keep in the fridge for about a month – use it up in puddings, apple-based ones especially.

Jack Porter, head bartender, Gothic Bar, The Midland Grand , London NW1

Underinvestment has led to crumbling infrastructure in schools, hospitals and courts, Guardian study shows

• ‘Our school has been homeless for two years’

More than 1.5 million children are studying in dilapidated school buildings, a Guardian investigation has found, with years of underinvestment leaving England’s public infrastructure in a crumbling state.

A study of public sector building conditions, including hospitals, schools and courts, has found thousands are in need of urgent repair, with conditions so bad in many that they are endangering the lives of those who visit and work in them.

Geoffrey Hinton says there is 10-20% chance AI will lead to human extinction in next three decades amid fast pace of change

The British-Canadian computer scientist often touted as a “godfather” of artificial intelligence has raised the odds of AI wiping out humanity over the next three decades, warning the pace of change in the technology is “much faster” than expected.

Prof Geoffrey Hinton, who this year was awarded the Nobel prize in physics for his work in AI , said there was a “10 to 20” per cent chance that AI will lead to human extinction within the next three decades.

So-called moderates are mimicking populist demagogues, with potentially disastrous consequences

It was once known as the “centre right”, and this was the year it definitively perished. It never had a coherent political philosophy, but it tended to blend deference to the perceived needs of large business interests, the championing of so-called traditional values that were actually longstanding prejudices, and admiration for established institutions. Above all else, it supposedly offered a cordon sanitaire, preventing anything further to the right from acquiring political legitimacy.

That hasn’t quite worked to plan. Nigel Farage now claims his populist-right Reform party has a higher membership than the Tories: if true, it is the first time in British history that members of a rightwing rival have outnumbered the Conservative party’s. Nearly two decades ago, then Tory leader, David Cameron, dismissed Farage’s Ukip as “ fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists mostly”; but today, Cameron’s party has ceded ideological ground to its challengers and the current Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, is fighting Reform on Farage’s terrain.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

William Webster writes in letter to senators that ‘the safety of the American people … depends on it’

William Webster, the only man to head both the FBI and the CIA, has urged the US Senate to reject Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump ’s nominees as directors of the bureau and national intelligence, arguing that they are unqualified.

Writing to senators, Webster, who is aged 100 and who was appointed by both Democrat and Republican presidents, called on them to “weigh the critical importance of nonpartisan leadership and experience” and suggested that Patel and Gabbard possessed neither attribute.

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It’s also pretty foggy at Kempton …

Things are improving at Chepstow where you can now see the final fence/hurdle down the home straight.

Carrier suspends flights to five Russian airports after early findings of investigation into crash on Christmas Day

The aircraft involved in the Christmas Day plane crash in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people experienced “external physical and technical interference,” according to preliminary results of the investigation, Azerbaijan Airlines said on Friday.

The early findings led the carrier to suspend flights to five Russian airports, citing “potential risks to flight safety,” adding to the two routes that were suspended immediately after the crash.