Good morning. It's Tuesday, Dec. 2, and we're covering a $1B music piracy fight, new global guidelines on weight-loss drugs, and much more. First time reading? Join over 4.5 million insatiably curious readers. Sign up here.
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Cyclone-fueled flooding across Southeast Asia, including in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, has now killed at least 1,200 people. Roughly 800 remain missing, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced since last week. Officials say entire low-lying districts have been submerged as rivers overflowed and landslides buried nearby communities.
Indonesia (at least 604 deaths) and Sri Lanka (at least 355 deaths—the country's deadliest natural disaster) are hardest hit, with some areas receiving a month's worth of rain in 48 hours. Rescue crews face washed-out roads, collapsed bridges, and power outages, while military units have been deployed to help with evacuations and deliver aid to overcrowded shelters. See photos here.
Meteorologists say the disaster stems from a rare overlap of monsoon rains and cyclone systems, reflecting a broader pattern of erratic weather linked to a warming climate. Officials warn that more heavy rain could arrive this week, and damage assessments may take weeks as floodwaters recede. |
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in Cox Communications v. Sony Music—a case that could determine internet service providers’ level of responsibility for pirated content on their networks.
In 2023, pirated movies and TV shows were downloaded nearly 19 billion times, costing the US economy more than $29B, per industry estimates. That same year, music piracy sites saw more than 17 billion visits. Most internet service providers are part of a voluntary alert system to crack down on piracy. Cox—the US’ third-largest broadband provider—is not.
Entertainment companies say Cox's inaction has allowed customers to illegally distribute over 10,000 copyrighted works. In 2019, a jury sided with Sony, compelling Cox to pay $1B in damages. Cox is appealing the verdict, saying it should not be held liable for actions it does not take.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case by June of next year. |
The World Health Organization yesterday issued its first-ever guidance on treating obesity with glucagon-like peptide-1 therapies, conditionally recommending the drug class for long-term use in nonpregnant adults alongside a healthy diet, regular exercise, and medical counseling.
The guidance comes as global demand for drugs mimicking the hunger-curbing GLP-1 hormone has surged since 2021, when regulators began approving Wegovy (brand name for semaglutide) for weight loss. US spending on GLP-1 agonists reached $71.7B in 2023, an over 500% increase from 2018, when the drugs were primarily used to treat diabetes. A monthlong course in the US can cost upward of $1K, and the WHO estimates GLP-1 therapies will be inaccessible to over 90% of the more than 2 billion people projected to be affected by obesity in 2030.
The WHO's guidance calls for expanded access through measures such as tiered pricing and urges strong oversight to curb the spread of counterfeit drugs. |
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Sports, Entertainment, & Culture |
> Two female gymnasts file lawsuit alleging USA Gymnastics and Olympic sports watchdog failed to address sexual abuse by coach (More) | Antitrust trial against NASCAR begins, with fate of NBA star Michael Jordan's team at stake (More) |
> "Zootopia 2" earns $556M internationally over Thanksgiving holiday, marking the highest-ever global opening for an animated film and the highest global opening for any film in 2025 (More) |
> NFL announces Charlie Puth, Brandi Carlile, and Coco Jones as headliners for Super Bowl LX pregame show Feb. 8 (More) |
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> China's DeepSeek debuts two new AI models challenging Google's Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT (More) |
> Engineers create artificial tendons that allow robots to pinch with 30 times more force and three times faster than before, potentially enabling advances in surgical tools and autonomous exploratory machines (More) | Want more? Sign up for our weekly science and technology deep dives (More) |
> New DNA analysis suggests humans first traveled to Australia and New Guinea about 60,000 years ago, roughly 9,000 to 13,000 years earlier than previous genetic evidence indicated (More) |
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Why Experts Say This Is the Future of Hearing |
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> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -0.5%, Dow -0.9%, Nasdaq -0.4%) as December kicks off (More) | Bitcoin falls in largest daily drop since March (More) |
> Nvidia takes $2B stake in chip-software designer Synopsys as part of expanded multiyear computing power partnership (More) | Eli Lilly cuts price for weight-loss drug Zepbound on direct-to-consumer site (More) |
> Starbucks to pay over $35M to more than 15,000 New York City workers, along with over $3M in civil penalties, to settle allegations it violated labor laws (More) |
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> Tennessee voters head to the polls in special election to replace Rep. Mark Green (R, TN-7), who announced his resignation earlier this year (More) | Former Trump attorney Alina Habba disqualified as New Jersey's top federal prosecutor, appeals court rules (More) |
> Son of Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán pleads guilty to two drug-related charges, months after his brother enters similar plea deal (More) |
> Transportation Security Administration announces $45 fee for travelers without a federally compliant driver's license or identification card, known as a REAL ID, beginning in February (More) | What is a REAL ID? (More) |
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> Why We Are Better Off Than a Century Ago
The New Atlantis | Charles C. Mann. A case for optimism, considering advances in nutrition, sanitation, medicine, and other public health metrics. (Read) |
> Stories from Bhutan
Wait But Why | Tim Urban. Inside Bhutan, the world's last Buddhist kingdom and the only carbon-negative country, with a modest population of 800,000 people. (Read) |
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Historybook: Abolitionist John Brown dies (1859); Scientists achieve first human-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction (1942); Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace born (1946); US Environmental Protection Agency is created (1970); Britney Spears born (1981); Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is killed (1993). |
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