Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.Hims & Hers is now selling Ozempic-like weight loss drugs for $199Summary: Hims & Hers Health, a telehealth company that specializes in providing everything from hair-loss to erectile dysfunction to skin-care products, online, announced on Monday that it is now offering a compounded version of semaglutide, which is the active ingredient in weight loss drugs like Ozempic and diabetes drugs like Mounjaro.Context: Semaglutide-based drugs, though rife with side effects, some of them substantial, have surprised the medical community by proving incredibly effective for helping folks who have traditionally had trouble losing weight, lose substantial amounts of it, and new studies have shown that it can reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events and the risk of severe liver disease, as well, alongside other benefits; compounded drugs, like the one Hims & Hers is offering, are basically mixed versions of a more standardized, FDA-approved drug, and they are not reviewed by the FDA, and are generally frowned-upon if a standardized, reviewed version—like Ozempic—is available, because of that lack of oversight; the branded versions of these drugs have been in very short supply since they began to boom in popularity and use, though, and this custom version costs a fraction of the price of Ozempic (about $199 per month compared to around $1,000), which is why Hims & Hers’ stock boomed following the announcement of this new offering, and why we’ll likely see more compounded versions of this drug from other companies in the coming months.—QuartzOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Ex-South African leader Zuma, now a ruling party critic, is disqualified from next week’s electionSummary: The former President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, is not qualified to run for Parliament in next week’s election because of an earlier criminal conviction, according to a ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court. Context: This will almost certainly complicate the election, in part because the ruling was handed down so last-minute, but also because Zuma—who was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2021 for refusing to testify during an inquiry into governmental corruption, and who was forced out of power in 2018 under a tidal wave of corruption allegations—has become a prominent force in local politics, having started a new party last year and having become a critic of his former party and the person who replaced him in office, current President Cyril Ramaphosa; the country’s governing party, the ANC, is facing its most significant challenge since it took power decades ago, and some analysts are expecting it’ll have to form a coalition government for the first time if it wants to hold onto its majority.—The Associated PressScarlett Johansson says OpenAI chatbot voice 'eerily similar' to hersSummary: Scarlett Johansson, an actress who, among many other prominent roles, provided her voice to an artificial intelligence in the movie Her, has accused OpenAI of creating a voice for its ChatGPT tool that sounds a lot like her, despite her not having approved her voice for that use.Context: The voice in question was pulled from OpenAI’s offerings following the actresses’ accusations, and while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said no effort was made to create a copy of Johansson’s voice for their product, he’s previously said that Her is his favorite movie, posted the word “her,” without context, on the social platform X two days before the new voice options were announced, and apparently asked Johansson to license her voice for ChatGPT purposes in September, and then again a few days before the release, which she declined; though OpenAI contends that they hired a different voice actress without considering how similar she sounds to Johansson, this is being seen as the most recent instance of what many creatives are worrying about right now, namely their work or likenesses being used by AI systems without their permission and without any kind of compensation, which arguably puts their livelihoods at risk.—ReutersMany US homeowners are feeling trapped by the “golden handcuffs” of low mortgage rates they locked-in before the Fed started hiking interest rates, which in turn dramatically increased mortgage rates; current mortgage rates are not historically high, but the gap between what many homeowners enjoy and what’s available on the mortgage market is historically significant.—The New York Times$15.7 millionMedian pay of CEOs in 2023 in a WSJ analysis of executives for S&P 500 companies.That’s up from a median of $14.5 million in 2022, and the highest-earning CEO in this survey is the CEO of Broadcom, who earns $162 million a year.—The Wall Street JournalTrust Click Get full access to One Sentence News at onesentencenews.substack.com/...
