How the new generation of weight-loss drugs work | How Ukraine Can Win a Long War | As the G20 summit nears, India is tearing itself apart | Financial Times

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Don't like ads? Go ad-free with TradeBriefs Premium How the new generation of weight-loss drugs work - The Economist    This article is part of our Summer reads series. Visit the full collection for book lists, guest essays and more seasonal distractions. WEIGHT-LOSS DRUGS are everywhere. In newspapers, on social media or by the water cooler, the gossip about injections that can help to melt away 10-20% of one’s body weight is hard to avoid. The real news is getting buried. These drugs offer a powerful new option to treat obesity, which is now widely accepted by doctors as a chronic disease. Being seriously overweight raises a person’s risk of suffering from diabetes, heart disease, strokes and 13 cancers. But there is evidence that, for most people, dieting is not an effective way to lose and keep off large amounts of weight: the body fights attempts to shift more than a little. How might new drugs help? The history of weight-loss medication is a sorry tale. In 1934 as many as 100,000 Americans were using dinitrophenol to shed excess pounds. It is toxic, causing cataracts and, occasionally, deaths. By one estimate 25,000 people were blinded by the drug; it was banned as a drug for human use in 1938 but deaths continue to this day as people are still enticed to buy it online. Next amphetamines became popular—until the risk of addiction and other side-effects became apparent. Ephedra, a herbal medication which in 1977 was taken by an estimated 70,000 people, was also banned in America after it led to deaths. Two other weight-loss drugs, rimonabant and sibutramine, were withdrawn from sale because of safety concerns. Continued here How Ukraine Can Win a Long War - Foreign Affairs    The war in Ukraine has just passed the 18-month mark. The country’s people, having fought and won three major offensive campaigns in 2022, are now using a mix of old Soviet and new Western equipment to fight a campaign in the south. Although severing the land link between Russia is an important aim, so is liberating the large swaths of land containing agricultural and mineral wealth that provide significant revenue for the Ukrainian government. The offensive has been, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described it, a slow affair. The sluggish pace should not surprise people who have studied military conflicts and the challenges of offensive operations. But to many observers, ones used to instant gratification (or who want a major resolution before the 2024 U.S. election), the deliberate, steady pace of the Ukrainians can be difficult to appreciate. Some U.S. security officials and policymakers have even suggested that the lack of rapid progress means the counteroffensive will not succeed. It is, however, much too soon to say which way the conflict will go. By way of comparison, 18 months into World War I, the allies had lost the campaign for Turkey’s eastern peninsula and the Battle of Verdun was still underway. And after the first 18 months of World War II, most of Europe was occupied by the Nazis, Singapore had fallen to Japan, and the United States was fighting on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines. Continued here As the G20 summit nears, India is tearing itself apart | Financial Times - FT    The upcoming G20 summit in New Delhi marks the culmination of a banner year for India. It is now both the world's most populous country and its fastest growing major economy. The recent historic moon landing has further boosted the nation's image. It has skilfully navigated the west-Russia faultline, while leveraging the sharpening China-US divide to its advantage. It's a pity, however, that India's theme for the summit, "One World, One Family, One Future" does not seem to extend to itself. The most pressing challenges facing India come from within, not without. At the heart of these challenges lie the politics of the ruling Bharatiya Janata party and prime minister Narendra Modi, one of the most transformative — and contentious — leaders of modern India. Continued here

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