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Robinhood said on Tuesday it is rolling back the event contracts that would let users bet on the result of the Super Bowl clash this weekend, after the online brokerage received a request from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The halt comes just a day after the launch of the product. Robinhood said it was “disappointed by the outcome.” “We are heeding their directive to cease offering these contracts despite the fact that the CFTC has not deemed Kalshi’s football championship contracts illegal,” said Lucas Moskowitz, Robinhood’s general counsel. Representatives for Kalshi and the CFTC did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. The products would have allowed the company to tap into the betting mania around one of the most iconic sporting events in the country, as Robinhood looks to expand into segments that are gaining traction with retail investors. The company had rolled out the contracts to 1% of its customers. Those who already placed the trades will get the option to close their positions or take them to resolution, Robinhood said. Event derivatives trading involves buying and selling contracts that let traders speculate on the outcomes of specific events, including elections, economic data releases and policy decisions. “Prediction markets and event contracts can be subject to complex regulatory landscapes,” said Michael Ashley Schulman, partner and chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors. “The CFTC may be concerned that this could be perceived as an active retail betting platform disguised under an investment umbrella, especially since sporting events are much more frequent than presidential elections.” These products have enjoyed a warm reception, despite being relatively new and widely seen as high-risk, especially after a U.S. court struck down the CFTC’s efforts to block KalshiEX’s election betting contracts. Robinhood’s derivatives arm is planning to launch a “more comprehensive” event contracts platform later this year. Niket Nishant and Manya Saini, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Families of transgender children on Tuesday asked a federal court to block President Donald Trump‘s order to end all federal funding or support for healthcare that aids gender transitions for people younger than 19. In a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration in Maryland federal court, the families, who are represented by Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union, allege that the order discriminates against transgender people and goes beyond Trump’s authority as president. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As a result of the order, the lawsuit said, hospitals across the country have already begun canceling appointments for gender transition treatments. The plaintiffs say their appointments were canceled in recent days by Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., NYU Langone in New York, Boston Children’s Hospital and Childrens Hospital of Richmond in Virginia. The hospitals are not defendants in the case. Trump, a Republican, said in the Jan. 28 order that it is “the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.” Details about how far the order will reach and how it will be enforced were not immediately clear. It directed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to “take all appropriate actions to end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.” That could include imposing conditions on healthcare providers receiving any federal funds, which virtually all hospitals do. The lawsuit called the order “part of a broad and sweeping attack President Trump has launched against ‘gender ideology’ and transgender people.” It followed a previous executive order by Trump banning transgender people from the military, and another stating that the government will not recognize gender identity apart from “an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.” The order on the military has already been challenged by transgender rights groups. The other has been challenged in two separate lawsuits by transgender women incarcerated in federal prisons who face transfer to men’s prisons, one of whom has won a temporary restraining order blocking her transfer. Treatments covered by the order include puberty blockers, hormones and surgery provided to patients under 19 for the purpose of gender transition. Such treatments are often known as gender-affirming care. Republicans in more than half of the 50 states have passed laws or policies that ban gender-affirming care for minors, some of which have been blocked or overturned by the courts. A challenge to Tennessee’s ban has been heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has yet to issue a ruling that could determine the legality of such bans nationwide. The administration of former President Joe Biden, a Democrat, supported access to puberty blockers and hormones, though not surgery, for transgender minors. It passed a rule banning discrimination against transgender people in healthcare, which was blocked by a judge last year. The American Academy of Pediatrics has said that gender-affirming care is proven to prevent suicide and improve mental health. Health organizations in some other countries have been more guarded, with the European Academy of Paediatrics calling for more research and a government-sponsored review in England concluding that the existing evidence around youth gender care is weak. Brendan Pierson, Reuters
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E-Commerce
A medical advocacy group on Tuesday sued the main U.S. health agencies over the sudden removal of websites containing public health information in response to an executive order by President Donald Trump targeting what his administration deemed to be “gender ideology extremism.” Doctors for America said in the lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., federal court, that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has removed “numerous” longstanding websites since the order. Those include a page on behavioral health risks among youth, which the lawsuit says is important for understanding health challenges faced by young people, including bullying and vaping; pages with data on the prevalence of HIV and associated risky behaviors; and a page on getting tested for HIV, which the lawsuit called “an important communication tool for physicians.” The liberal-leaning group also said in its lawsuit that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has removed pages recommending the inclusion of more women and underrepresented groups in clinical trials. “The removal of this information deprives researchers of access to information that is necessary for treating patients, for developing clinical studies that produce results that accurately reflect the effects treatments will have in clinical practice, and for developing practices and policies that protect the health of vulnerable populations and the country as a whole,” the lawsuit said. Trump, a Republican, signed an executive order on his first day back in office that the United States will recognize two sexes, male and female. On Jan. 29, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management issued a memorandum instructing agencies to take down any public-facing materials that promote what they deem to be “gender ideology.” Tuesday’s lawsuit names the CDC, FDA, and their parent agency the Department of Health and Human Services as defendants. It asks the court to rule that OPM’s memorandum exceeded the agency’s authority and to order the websites to be put back online. HHS and the CDC declined to comment. The FDA and OPM did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Doctors for America was cofounded in 2008 by Vivek Murthy, who served as U.S. Surgeon General under Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden; Mandy Cohen, who served as CDC director under Biden; and Alice Chen, now a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles medical school. Brendan Pierson, Reuters
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E-Commerce
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