🌍 Wegovy for the win-govy

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Janet Yellen said the US “does not seek to decouple from China.” But the Biden administration still wants the US to diversify its supply chains and engage Beijing while not ignoring national security or human rights issues, the US treasury secretary said in a speech hosted by the Asia Society.

Russia is withdrawing its ratification of the global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests. Washington criticized the move, but Moscow said it’s only following the lead of the US, which signed the treaty but didn’t ratify it.

Sheryl Sandberg has started a venture fund. Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, which the former Meta executive started with her husband, Tom Bernthal, is funded with the couple’s own capital and already has a LinkedIn profile.

US cosmetics brand e.l.f. raised some eyebrows on Wall Street... The beauty company’s revenue exceeded $438 million this quarter, much higher than the expected $197 million—but its stock is still sinking from an all-time high set in September.

…while Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation blew out expectations. Its quarterly revenue was up 32% year over year to $8.2 billion, thanks to Beyoncé and Taylor Swift.

One big number: 734%

The year-over-year spike in third-quarter sales of Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drug Wegovy

Soaring demand for Wegovy, as well as Novo Nordisk’s Type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic, boosted the Danish drugmaker’s total revenue by 29% from last year’s third quarter.

The latest numbers signal that semaglutide—the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy—might well be the drug industry gold rush that junk food companies have feared. But a banner quarter is masking a long-term challenge that even a huge drugmaker can’t beat: limited supply.

Getting John Lennon back

With a little help from artificial intelligence, Beatles fans now have some new John Lennon to belt to.

“Now and Then,” a song that George Harrison had some choice words for when it was discovered on a Lennon demo cassette, was produced with AI to separate Lennon’s original vocals from the piano music that backed it. (It is not clear whether any software was used to replicate Lennon’s voice at any parts in the song.) Then Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr recorded the backing instruments, with existing recordings of the late Harrison woven in.

It’s not the first, or worst, example of “new” Beatles music created with an assist from technology. But it does raise a whole new set of questions about the future of the music business.

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Surprising discoveries

No one talks about carpal tunnel anymore. At least not as much as in the 1990s… but was it all just hype anyway?

Music streamers are filled with sped up versions of songs. One study found that there’s likely more than a million unauthorized remixes circulating on the services.

Someone almost threw away 4,000 glass plate photos from the 1860s to the 1930s. We’re glad they didn’t, because the preservations are stunningly high quality for their age.

A robot mimicking insect sounds might save wineries. If it works, the Pied Piper, as the device is called, could lower the use of toxic chemicals.

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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, historic photos, and wine robots to [email protected]. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner and Heather Landy.