Reuters World News - Super Bowl parade shooting, Indonesia's election, Europe’s birth rate and young Wegovy users

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

A shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade has left one dead. Indonesia’s defence minister has declared victory in the election. Europe struggles to boost its birth rates. And weight loss drug use is on the rise among young people. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, a deadly shooting Mars Kansas City's Super Bowl celebration. Europe confronts a falling birth rate. Indonesia's likely new president rebrands from Harden General to Cuddly Grandfather. And the surge in weight loss medication use among teens. It's Thursday, February 15th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. Every weekday. Tara Oaks in Liverpool.

And I'm Christopher Walgessper in Chicago. The moment, police and citizens apprehend a suspect at a mass shooting during the Kansas City Chief's Super Bowl Victory Parade. Three people have been taken into custody following the incident, which killed at least one and wounded 21. Stacey Graves is Kansas City Police Chief. The people who came to this celebration should expect a safe environment. Police have said they don't yet know the motive. Chief's titan, Travis Kelsey, posted on X that he was heartbroken over the tragedy. Indonesian Defence Minister Prabho Sobiento has declared victory in a presidential election after unofficial results showed him trouncing his rivals.

His success with voters comes after a concerted effort to rebrand him from a macho nationalist to a cuddly grandpa. Kate Lamb is in Jakarta. So Kate, who is? Who is? is Prabhuo Sabiento? He is a 72-year-old former Special Forces General, once kind of rising star in the military. He's the ex-son-in-law of Suharto, who was Indonesia's long-time dictator or authoritarian ruler. He's someone that was implicated in a number of human rights allegations, including the kidnapping of about 13 students during the mass demonstrations of 1998 that led to the fall of Soharto. those activists have never been found.

He's always denied those allegations, but he was banned from entering the US for decades on account of them, but that has since been removed because he's now the defence minister. How did he position himself with voters? Yeah, so this is super interesting. So, Prabol has lost the presidency twice in 2014 and in 2019. And during those campaigns, he was this really fiery, fervent nationalist. You know, he would be up on the podium, screaming, basically.

He was seen as someone very to Gus or tough. This election, we've seen a very, very different proble. The catchphrase associated with him now is Gamoi. And Gamoi in Indonesian is like when something is so cute, you kind of want to squeeze it, like a puppy or a baby or something. He's a real hit on TikTok. He's been these dance moves that he has done have gone viral. He's often on social media cuddling his cat.

Bobby. And what will his presidency mean for Indonesia? Most observers would say that there has been a kind of steady chipping away of democratic institutions in Indonesia, which is the world's third largest democracy. So many expect that Pabobo will likely continue that. In the past, he's talked about abolishing direct elections. So there is kind of question marks about how well he will protect Indonesian democracy. Japan has lost its title as the world's third largest economy to Germany, after it unexpectedly slipped into recession at the end of last year. Japan's shrinking GDP has raised doubts about when the central bank could begin to exit its decade-long ultra-loose monetary policy.

Britain's economy also fell into a recession in the second half of 2023, a tough backdrop for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has promised to boost growth ahead of an expected election later this year. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will press ahead with an offensive against Hamas in Rafa after allowing citizens to vacate the area. He gave no indication when the offensive might take place or whether hundreds of thousands of people now crammed into Rafa might go. Russia has dismissed a warning by the U.S. about new Russian nuclear capabilities in space,

calling it a malicious fabrication. It's in response to reports that the U.S. told Congress and allies in Europe about new intelligence related to Russian attempts to develop a space-based weapon. And Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he prefers Joe Biden to Donald Trump, but was willing to work with any U.S. president. Putin was asked by an interviewer who was, quote, best for us, Biden, a Democrat, or Trump, a Republican. And Putin replied, without hesitation.

Biden. Saying Biden is a more experienced, predictable person, a politician of the old school. Time for markets now, and chipmaker NVIDIA has eclipsed Google pair in alphabet as the third most valuable U.S. company. Invidia has been a top beneficiary of technology companies race to build AI into their products and services. Invidia controls about 80% of the high-end AI chip market, a position that, has boosted its stock price 47% this year after it more than tripled in 2023. Europe is facing a falling population. Attempts at increasing the birth rate are coming up short.

For a decade now, Europe's fertility rate has been stuck around one and a half births per woman. That's far short of the 2.1 needed to maintain population levels. So what does that mean for the continent's economic future? Mark John is our European economics editor. So Mark, why are birth rates in Europe just not keeping up? So on the one hand, there are these very hard kind of economic constraints on people. For example, the cost of housing, which has surged across much of Europe, makes it very difficult for young couples.

On the other hand, there are some deeper cultural, almost psychological things going on, which are less well understood. So the fact that people no longer necessarily see children as a kind of investment to help them through into old age, particularly. Then there are more recent things like the impact of social media, which is not that well understood. But for example, there have been studies that suggest that the way that social media drives certain narratives about the planet has a certain unnerving effect on people. You know, why would I want to start a family, given the state of the planet and so on? So how does this falling birth rate translate to the economic reality in Europe? Yeah, well, I think the received wisdom is that there's a kind of a, it's a sort of demographic time bomb.

In other words, that as populations age and possibly shrink, they become poorer and aren't able to sustain things like, for example, the pension system. That being said, I think there are a number of voices now that's saying, actually need that necessarily be true, people, if they're living longer, can simply work longer as well. That's not politically popular, but actually it is already happening. Probably the biggest gain overall, actually, is in making the labour market more accessible to women. Finally, there is, of course, immigration, a very controversial, polarising topic in Europe at the moment, but the simple fact is that there is the possibility to import labor to help with specific labor shortages if the political will is there to do so.

As the use of weight loss drugs like Wagovi and Zepbound climbs, young people who struggle with weight loss are increasingly turning to this new form of treatment. More than 1,200 patients between 12 and 18 were prescribed these drugs in the first 10 months of last year. Robin Respoh is one of our health care reporters based in San Francisco and has been looking into the rise in use by adolescents. Robin, how do these drugs work in younger patients? Yeah, so I spoke with a family in Oakland, California, whose son started Wagovi almost a year ago when he was 15 years old. At the time, he weighed around 385 pounds, and he struggled. with severe asthma. Since going on this medication, he has lost about 90 pounds, and he has started

to go out with friends again, joining them for movies and playing basketball. He began going to the gym with his father, and his father told me that his confidence has really changed as the weight has come off. Now, these are early days for this drug, and not every adolescent has had this experience with Wagovi, but for this family, they are very pleased with how it's going so far. Are there concerns about side effects among young people? Yes. And with the adolescents, we also see gastrointestinal side effects and other side effects from this drug.

Novo's longest clinical trial of Wagovi so far in adolescence was about 18 months. So we don't know the long-term side effects for this drug for adolescents. lessons. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show. To make sure you know what's going on in the world, listen in for 10 minutes every weekday. And don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player or download the Reuters app.