A significant trial of a daily weight-loss pill has found that it helped people to shed the pounds and reduce their blood sugar levels, making it a contender to join the new wave of drugs that combat obesity and diabetes. People who took a 36mg pill of orforglipron lost an average of 7.3kg (16lbs) over nine months, according to results from a phase 3 clinical trial reported by the drug’s manufacturer, Eli Lilly, on Thursday. The trial, which enrolled 559 obese people with type 2 diabetes from the US, China,…
Tag: Society
Far Beyond the Pasturelands review – on the trail of the ‘Himalayan Viagra’
Every year, thousands of Nepalese villagers make their way to the Himalayan foothills in search of a fungus called yarsagumba. Known for its aphrodisiac properties, the elusive substance sells in China for a price higher than gold. Following Lalita, a young mother among the countless trekkers, this intimate documentary from Maude Plante-Husaruk and Maxime Lacoste-Lebuis paints a stirring portrait of a community exploited by modern commerce. Living in the largely agrarian village of Maikot, a wistful Lalita thinks back on her adolescent dreams of going to university, but an early…
The Guardian view on global women’s rights: Saudi Arabia isn’t the only problem | Editorial
Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the Beijing declaration, a landmark blueprint for advancing women’s rights. It marked the mainstreaming of feminist concerns, with 189 states signing up to the text at a conference in China, where Hillary Clinton, then first lady of the US, declared that “women’s rights are human rights”. Yet when the United Nations celebrates that achievement, its commission for promoting and evaluating progress on gender equality will be steered by Saudi Arabia. A country known for its abysmal record on women’s rights was chosen…
Is mild man Dowden up to the threat of China’s cyber campaign? | Zoe Williams
The deputy prime minister’s statement on cybersecurity and China-backed attempts to undermine UK democracy had been briefed far enough in advance that MPs had had time to sharpen their insults. Iain Duncan Smith said Oliver Dowden’s announcement was like watching an elephant giving birth to a mouse. The SNP member Stuart C McDonald accused Dowden of taking a wooden spoon to a gunfight. Labour’s Chris Bryant called him “wilfully blind, and therefore dangerous”. The inattentive observer might come away from the statement unclear on who posed the greater threat to…
China needs to do more on ‘silent crisis’ of debt, says World Bank official
China holds the key to speeding up debt relief and ending the “silent crisis” that is holding back attempts to tackle poverty in the world’s poorest countries, a senior World Bank official has said. Ayhan Kose, the Bank’s deputy chief economist, said Beijing needed to be more active in negotiations to provide financial support for those countries already in, or close to, debt distress. Kose said China’s emergence as a significant creditor country over the past 15 years meant it needed to take responsibility for making a post-pandemic debt relief…
Chinese and US officials meet in effort to stop flow of deadly fentanyl
American and Chinese officials met on Tuesday to discuss joint efforts to stem the flow of fentanyl into the US, a sign of cooperation as the two global powers try to manage their contentious ties. The two-day meeting was the first for a new counternarcotics working group. One focus of the talks was fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that is ravaging the US, and in particular ingredients for the drug that are made in China. The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, agreed to restart cooperation in a handful of areas, including drug…
‘It’s difficult to survive’: China’s LGBTQ+ advocates face jail and forced confession
At the end of last summer, Mei* received a message from her friend telling her she was running away from home. It was the first time that Mei, 29, a transgender woman living in a southern Chinese city, had heard from her friend Ying* in nine months. Ying’s family – who are not supportive of her trans identity – had been keeping Ying, an adult over 18, under house arrest and cut off from the outside world. In August, they finally allowed her to leave to pursue her studies. She…
Gao Yaojie obituary
When walking down a narrow alley in a small north Chinese village in the mid-1990s, Dr Gao Yaojie heard a child crying desperately for its mother. “When I entered,” she later recalled, “I saw that the mother had hanged herself and the body was stiff.” The father had already died and the family was destitute after being defrauded by quack doctors. In another village in Henan province, half the houses hung white paper emblems outside to signify a death. The villagers called it the “nameless fever”, and orphans were left…
UK white paper raises concerns over China’s growing foreign aid role
China’s growing role in international development marks a systemic global shift that will require robust challenge by Britain if its interests are threatened, a UK government white paper on aid has warned. With David Cameron starting as foreign secretary and under scrutiny for his previous business links with China, the document does not hold back in challenging the Chinese development model or its growing influence. The drawbacks listed include “operating with lower social and environmental standards, limited transparency, allegations of corruption and capture of local elites, and limited coordination through…
Defining sexual consent is crucial | Observer letters
Barbara Ellen said that “consent should happen before sex, not during or after” (“How to Have Sex broke my heart: it shows that consent is still a hazy concept”, Comment). Yes, consent absolutely should be ascertained between all participating parties before engaging in sex, but consent does not end there. Consent is an ongoing process, it is not a box to be ticked, or, as Ellen puts it, “banked” as a get-out clause that enables anyone to do anything that they subsequently wish, because “hey, you said ‘yes’, remember?” It…