Ozempic: A Giant Brain Experiment

Good morning!

Ozempic is big business, and growing fast. Millions of people worldwide, including 10 to 20 percent of Americans, have taken it and other glp-1 drugs like Wegovy, which are meant to help people with diabetes and weight problems.

[BRIEF]

• These drugs mimic a natural gut hormone that signals the body to feel full, slow down digestion, and regulate blood sugar. People spent roughly $60 billion on them last year.

But scientists are now realizing these drugs change how the brain works in ways they don’t really understand, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

• Researchers in a recent University of Colorado study examined brain scans of 13 young women and teens with a hormone condition. After a few months on the drug, connections in parts of their brains that help decide what deserves our attention and control cravings and emotions had grown stronger.
• “We didn’t expect to see this effect, and we really don’t know what it means,” one researcher said.

This could explain “Ozempic personality.” These drugs tend to quiet “food noise”—mental chatter about eating. Many people say they lose interest not just in overeating but also in alcohol, smoking and other habits. But, the Post writes:

On social media and at doctors’ offices, some users have reported a type of brain fog and others something broader and harder to define: a strange emotional flattening. People describe less pleasure, less motivation, diminished interest in hobbies and even reduced sexual desire.

Those accounts are beginning to raise deeper questions about what, exactly, these drugs are changing.

This is basically a giant, unplanned experiment on human brains. While many people enjoy having fewer cravings, we don’t fully know the long-term effects of changing reward and desire systems in the brain.

It’s remarkable the faith people will invest in science as it fiddles with forces it doesn’t fully understand—particularly when profits are such an intoxicating incentive.

• The allure of a pill or a weekly injection erasing such galling, insoluble conditions as diabetes and excess weight is simply overwhelming.

So manufacturers and scientists gamble and enjoy the windfall, and consumers trustingly, unwittingly turn themselves into lab rats. It’s a potent example of a powerful dynamic driving modern civilization into all sorts of dangerous unknowns.

God wants us to learn to exercise and control our senses. This is how we build character. These drugs suppress our senses, which hurts not only our physical but also our spiritual health.

• It is a physical hack for a fundamentally spiritual problem.

The consequences of breaking God’s laws—whether spiritual laws restricting our lusts or health laws governing our bodies—cannot be skirted.

Iran War Update

• A memorandum of understanding has been negotiated between Iran and the U.S., the White House confirmed yesterday. The memorandum would reportedly extend the ceasefire by two months, open the Strait of Hormuz, give Iran extended sanctions relief, conclude fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and formally start negotiations over its nuclear program and a peace treaty. It still needs the approval of President Donald Trump and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
• Israel struck Beirut in Lebanon yesterday for the first time in almost a month. Israel Defense Forces may be trying to maximize damage to the terrorist group Hezbollah before being pressured to stop by the United States due to its negotiations with Iran.

The Attack on the British Museum and Biblical Archaeology

“Ancient Israel and Judah” are now such controversial topics that you cannot safely host a talk about them in central London.

• This was the title of a lunchtime talk as part of the British Museum’s Jewish Culture Month. It was postponed a day due to “security concerns.” The museum said that “a significant proportion” of those who had tickets planned to “deliberately disrupt the event.”

“Why would a posse of aggressive activists be interested in the arcane details of bullae and steles and ostraca and inscriptions and numismatics in some small South Levantine kingdoms in the Iron Age?” asked historian Simon Sebag Montefiore.

• Their hatred shows the power of these arcane bullae, steles and ostraca.

Haters of Israel try to will the basic facts of history out of existence. A core part of the pro-Palestinian movement is that it rejects all Jewish history in the Middle East.

• It’s the same reason unesco, a group founded to further scholarship, culture and archaeology, encourages excavations everywhere on the planet except Jerusalem. They want to keep the facts of Judah’s history buried.

“The main issue is not free speech,” wrote Melanie Phillips. “It’s the need to combat Soviet-style disinformation and psychological warfare that’s resulted in a cult-like grip on millions of minds.”

• These pro-Palestinian enemies of the truth are not just trying to blot facts of history out of existence. They’re trying to blot out the God of the Bible. These same historical artifacts prove His existence and His power.

The demonic forces behind the Palestinian movement hate the Jews, God and the Bible. The attack on this history exposes these demonic roots. Rather than blotting it out, the world needs to take urgent heed of the message contained in archaeology, as Gerald Flurry wrote in “Archaeology Thunders: ‘Behold Your God!’”

German Economics Minister Concludes China Visit

Today, German Economics Minister Katherina Reiche concluded her three-day visit to China aimed at boosting trade cooperation and ensuring German access to Chinese critical raw materials.

• This follows the February 25–26 visit by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was accompanied by 30 leading German business executives.
• Reiche also brought several German business leaders, including the ceo of industrial manufacturing conglomerate Thyssenkrupp.

The Bible prophesies that Germany and China will develop a short-lived, anti-American economic alliance in the end time. Merz’s and Reiche’s visits shed light on that growing alliance.

• China and Germany have a complicated trade relationship: Germany relies on automotive exports to China’s huge market, but competition from Chinese manufacturers has helped stagnate Germany’s manufacturing sector and overall economy.
• Germany exported $93 billion to China last year while importing $198 billion, a problematic trade imbalance.

Reiche said yesterday that Chinese officials promised to address some of these issues, which she took as a “very, very positive signal from the Chinese government that it wants to work together in a trusting and constructive way.”

• “Our shared interest is to keep these relations stable,” Reiche said. She believes China is “so important and so large” that Germany must “maintain a stable, trusting and forward-looking relationship with the country, one that is also able to withstand critical issues.”

These high-level, in-person discussions show that Germany, the world’s third-largest economy, is focusing on developing a stronger trade relationship with China, the world’s second-largest economy—and both are gradually shutting out the world’s largest economy: the United States.

Gerald Flurry, the Trumpet‘s editor in chief, wrote about the prophetic implications of this relationship:

When the Holy Roman Empire attacks North America, there will be no help or sympathy from Asia. In fact, considering that China has come to possess most of the world’s strategic sea gates (which, ironically, at one time were held by Britain and America), we believe there may be a brief alliance between the German-led Holy Roman Empire and certain Asian powers (Russia, China, Japan—the kings of the east). Should Europe, the resurrected Holy Roman Empire, find a way to take advantage—even for a moment—of key resources and strategic holdings of China, Russia and Japan, it would have more than enough power to besiege the Anglo-Saxon nations and enslave them.

IN OTHER NEWS

Russian drone hits Romanian apartment building: A Russian drone launched during attacks on Ukraine struck an apartment building in Galati, Romania, injuring two people. Romania, a nato member nation, scrambled two F-16s and a helicopter in response and issued emergency alerts to residents in nearby areas. A nato statement denounced the damage as “Russia’s recklessness” but gave no indication that the incident would invoke Article 5, nato’s collective defense clause. Nonetheless, Russian aggression is terrifying the nations of Europe, and they are building a superpower in response.

Russia formed a new military pact with Afghanistan, the Kremlin and the Taliban announced Wednesday. Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu called on Western nations to reduce sanctions on Afghanistan and to “fully acknowledge their full responsibility for their 20-year presence in Afghanistan.” In 2025, Russia became the first and, so far, only country to recognize the Taliban regime as Afghanistan’s legitimate government. The relationship could involve the Taliban sending Russia abandoned American military equipment. This is another demonstration that Russia and China “are the main victors of America’s chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal.”

Germany to move nato command to better deter Russia: Later this year, the joint German-Dutch nato command center, 1gnc, will move from Münster, Germany, to the Baltic region, the German government announced yesterday. The command includes up to 50,000 troops and is designed to deter Russia. German news outlet Spiegel reported yesterday that the German Navy likely sent a reconnaissance ship to the Baltic Sea to monitor Russian actions in the region. Both of these developments highlight Europe’s growing fear of Russia, which is pushing it to arm.

Rumblings of a new chancellor: Germany’s Der Spiegel reported yesterday that there are rumors current Chancellor Friedrich Merz could be replaced by Hendrik Wüst, state premier of Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. Although it’s unlikely anything will come of the rumors, it shows the weakness of Merz’s grasp on power. Germany, and Europe as a whole, faces a leadership crisis that will usher the Continent into rule under a strong German leader.

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating E. Jean Carroll’s civil lawsuits against President Donald Trump, two sources told nbc News. Carroll accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a department store in the mid-1990s. In 2023, a jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation and awarded her $5 million. A 2024 jury added $83.3 million in a separate defamation case. Trump denies all allegations and is appealing both verdicts. The probe focuses on possible perjury regarding Carroll’s legal costs, which were partially funded by a nonprofit backed by billionaire Democratic Party donor Reid Hoffman. Trump’s critics are accusing him of unlawfully using government resources to punish his enemies.