🌊 Ozempic for Kids?

Florida man mayor in trouble.

Owen originally wrote this for the “Happy Hour” section, but we have to share it here:

Social media videos appear to show Edgewater, Florida’s 19-year-old mayor drinking underage at a bar and acting inappropriately. Mayor Diezel Depew, the youngest mayor in Florida history, was elected in 2022 at age 17.

We asked ChatGPT to write a more thoroughly Florida story, but it couldn’t. Thoughts and prayers to Mayor Diezel Depew and his constituents.

–Max, Max, and Owen

KEY STORY

Ozempic for Kids

Novo Nordisk said its anti-obesity drug was demonstrated to be safe and effective for children

• 20.7% of US 6-to-11-yos are obese, as are 22.2% of 12-to-19-year-olds. Drugs like Ozempic are approved for adolescents but not for 6-to-12-year-olds

• A new late-stage trial gave a daily shot of a GLP-1 drug, like Ozempic, to kids between 6 and 12. The company said lifestyle changes hadn’t worked for any of the kids

• The kids who received the shot lost 7.4% more of their BMI than those who did not. They regained the weight when they stopped taking the drug

Dig Deeper

• Denmark’s Novo Nordisk has been a pioneer in using GLP-1s – a class of drugs originally intended to treat diabetes – to treat obesity. Such drugs, including Ozempic and Wegovy, have made the company Europe’s most valuable. It’s now looking to expand treatments to children

KEY STORY

$7.5B Garbage Patch

A nonprofit organization announced that it can clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) for $7.5B

• The GPGP is a rapidly growing ~80,000 metric ton accumulation of trash floating between California and Hawaii. It’s approximately twice the size of Texas

• The nonprofit – The Ocean Cleanup – has removed ~1M pounds from the GPGP already and says that it can clean the whole patch in 10 years with $7.5B

• The organization’s plan calls for aerial analyses, a 30-boat fleet, and hundreds of surface nets. It has previously received funding from people, corporations, and foundations such as Peter Thiel and Coca-Cola

Dig Deeper

• Most of the GPGP originated from six Asian nations: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Thailand

• The Ocean Cleanup claims ocean plastic pollution costs the world “up to $2.5 trillion” every year in economic, industrial, and environmental damages

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Dig Deeper

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KEY STORY

Facebook AI & User Data

Facebook admitted to scraping public photos, posts, and other data of Australian users to train its AI models without offering an opt-out option

• In June, Meta informed EU and US users that it would use their data to train AI products unless they opted out, with EU users granted the option due to strict privacy laws

• During an inquiry on Tuesday, Meta’s global privacy director confirmed that Australians don’t have the same choice. She defended the data usage, arguing that Meta needs large amounts of data to build the most “flexible and powerful” AI tool possible

• The development came a day after the Australian government vowed to ban social media for children. A senator emphasized the need to prioritize updating privacy laws to protect users

Dig Deeper

• The Facebook representative stated that accounts of people under 18 weren’t scraped, but when asked if public photos of a senator’s children would be used, she confirmed they would. She couldn’t clarify whether data from users who were minors when they created their accounts but are now adults had been scraped

• “There’s a reason that people’s privacy is protected because European lawmakers made it clear today that if Australia had these same laws, Australians’ data would also have been protected,” a senator said

KEY STORY

NFL Boom Continues

The NFL has continued its stranglehold on TV ratings, averaging a record-setting 21M viewers per game during its opening week

• In 2023, 93 of the 100 most-watched telecasts were NFL games. The remaining seven consisted of three college football games, the State of the Union, the Oscars, the Thanksgiving Day parade, and the Super Bowl lead-out program

• Other leagues – particularly the NBA and MLB – have seen their ratings languish in recent years

• The average NFL team is now worth $6.5B, up from $1B in 2010

Dig Deeper

• Seven years ago, it seemed the NFL was in trouble. The league’s ratings were down 10% from the previous year due primarily to controversies surrounding kneeling for the national anthem

• Millions – including the newly-elected President Trump – boycotted the league

• But it wasn’t just the protests that plagued the league: Legal concerns about concussions and a broader decline in live TV viewership clouded its future

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

💣 The US and UK may allow Ukraine to use more Western weapons inside Russia

🛰 Private-citizen astronauts are scheduled to attempt the first-ever commercial spacewalk

📉 Shares of Trump Media fell over 10% on Wednesday

🎓 Several top American universities reported declines in the diversity of their incoming classes

🚒 The New York Fire Department (FDNY) added the names of 32 individuals who died from 9/11-linked health issues to its memorial wall, bringing the toll of firefighters who died from health consequences after the attack (360+) above that of those who died during the attack (343)

COMMUNITY

🧐 Yesterday’s question: Okay let’s hear it… thoughts on last night’s debate?

🧠 Today’s question: Who was your celebrity crush growing up?

Reply to this email to let us know what you think!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🦦 Otter-ly unbelievable: A group of joggers in Malaysia had a violent encounter with otters on Wednesday. The otters suddenly ambushed one of the runners, biting and clawing her and leaving severe wounds

📈 Reality Political TV: The Trump-Harris debate drew an average viewership of 57.5M, beating the Trump-Biden debate in June by 7M and the AFC Championship in January by 2M

😳 The Frito felon: An Illinois man admitted to police that he stole a vehicle after spotting a bag of Fritos on its seat while under the influence of drugs, leading him to burglarize several other vehicles

🥒 Cucumber culprit: Washington, DC, police are searching for a man who was caught on home security footage sodomizing himself with a cucumber

🍿 Penguin problems: Actor Colin Farrell, star of HBO’s upcoming Batman spinoff show, “The Penguin,” said the prosthetics and makeup were so annoying that he “wanted [the show] to be finished”

ROCA WRAP

RocAround the World

Here’s a selection of interesting stories from around the world that we came across this week.

World’s Best Burger

Valencia, Spain, is now home to the best burger in the world.

Valencia – Spain’s third-most populous city – is situated on the Mediterranean coast east of Madrid. Famed for its vibrant culture and Mediterranean climate, it’s now also claimed as the home of the world’s best burger.

This week, the “Michelin Guide for Burgers” named Valencia restaurant “Hundred Burgers” its top burger spot. Michelin reported that its aged beef burger – topped with “crispy bacon” – “melts in your mouth.”

While Spain isn’t known for its burgers, Hundred Burgers’ founders set out to change that.

In 2017, they came to New York City and tried the city’s 15 best burgers. They took their findings back to Spain, where they opened the restaurant in 2020. Soon after they began churning out gourmet patties, the founders earned the “best burger in Spain award.” This year, they improved upon that to win the world’s best burger award.

Despite the high quality, Hundred Burgers’ go-to burger costs just $12.50 – less than half that of the #2 best burger, the $31 “Emmy Burger” from Brooklyn’s Pizza Loves Emily. Rounding out the top five was a cheeseburger spot in Chicago, a burger joint in São Paulo, Brazil, and a food truck in Stockholm, Sweden.

What Housing Crisis?

Facing astronomical housing prices, employers in the Hamptons are looking to build a complex to house their staff.

The Hamptons – located on the east end of Long Island in New York – is among the country’s most luxurious vacation destinations. The average home now costs nearly $3.3M, up 40% from a year ago, and restaurant owners now say that housing workers has become a critical issue.

Some restaurant owners say they provide $90,000+ in housing benefits so their staff can afford to spend summers in the Hamptons. At one restaurant, line cooks make $100k.

A local magazine publisher has proposed a solution: A workforce housing complex where employers can buy units, with prices reaching up to $850,000 for three bedrooms. He believes this approach is necessary to tackle a worker housing crisis that has persisted for 40 years.

The complex would be built on a vacant site zoned for affordable housing, which he purchased for $5M in April, but it still requires town board approval. Many of the region’s largest restaurant groups support the proposal, saying it offers more flexibility than traditional affordable housing, where one-bedroom units rent for $1,500 a month but are subject to income caps and lottery systems. 

The plan isn’t without its skeptics – some have worried it could become a “pay-for-play” scheme or that employers could fill units with influencers – but it’s a sign that in luxury destinations, the workforce housing battle is heating up – just like the housing market.

Faith Takes Flight

Pope Francis visited one of the Catholic Church’s most remote outposts.

Papua New Guinea is a poor, mostly undeveloped island country in Oceania, home to hundreds of tribes and some uncontacted peoples. With 800+ known languages and only 13.25% of its population living in urban areas, Papua New Guinea is one of the world’s most linguistically diverse and rural countries.

Over 90% of Papua New Guinea’s population identifies as Christian, with at least 2.5M Catholics, per the Vatican. They blend their faith with local beliefs, rites, and rituals. Such Catholics have been a focus of Pope Francis, who has prioritized trips to communities where Catholics are often a minority. 

Last week, during a four-nation trip throughout Southeast Asia and Oceania, he became the second pope to visit Papua New Guinea. Then, on Sunday, he traveled to a remote town on the country’s northwest coast.

Due to limited road connectivity from the capital, Port Moresby, Francis flew to the town aboard a chartered Royal Australian Air Force C-130. Locals lined the main highway to welcome him, decorating the area with flowers and banners. Around 20,000 people gathered in front of the town’s cathedral, greeting Francis as singers and dancers performed.

The Vatican said Francis arrived with humanitarian aid, medicine, clothes, and toys. He spoke about church workers and the importance of peace, urging the crowd to avoid tribal conflict and to reject gender-based conflict. That would help “to drive out fear, superstition, and destructive behaviors such as violence, infidelity, exploitation, alcohol, and drug abuse,” he said.

On Monday, Francis headed to East Timor, another remote, undeveloped country. As the journey continues, it appears that no place is too far for faith.

ROCA VIDEO
Muslim Leader on Kamala Harris, Israel, and Wokeness

Our latest episode of We the 66 was recorded in Dearborn, MI — America’s Arab-majority city — with one of its prominent Imams. We wanted to better understand the community, its most important political issues, and whether it will vote for Kamala Harris this November. The conversation became fiery at times, especially on the subject of Israel, but we wanted to hear his candid perspective. We believe in more conversation, not less. Let us know what you think. We didn’t edit out any of what he said.

Make sure to subscribe to the channel! 

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Yesterday a reader wrote to us, asking, “Why do you, and so many others in the media, continue to refer to Harris as Kamala? But not Trump as Don? Are you friends? Otherwise, please show respect to the person who will be the next President of the US.”

We call her Kamala because that’s what her campaign leans into — her social media accounts are “Kamala HQ” not “Harris HQ” — and because that’s how most people refer to her. Have a great Thursday!

–Max and Max