World News: Your weekend must reads 📰

Saturday, July 30

Good morning, friends of The Short List!

It's John Riley, and I hope the weekend finds you safe and sound after a wild week of floods⛈️, fire 🔥 and record heat🥵. In between the climate catastrophes, there were some other great reads from the USA TODAY Network.

But first: Friday night was the drawing for the $1.1 billion Mega Millions prize. If you end up as the lucky prize winner, read this. 🤑

And now, the news:

Rethinking obesity

⚕️Being overweight used to be considered a personal failing. In reality, the vast majority of people find it almost impossible to lose substantial weight and keep it off. Now, armed with reams of data, the medical community has begun to stop blaming patients for not losing weight. In a six-part series, USA TODAY explores the emerging science and evolving attitudes toward obesity.

•	It's not your fault: People should stop blaming themselves for not losing weight, which is nearly impossible.
•	Stop the shame: Weight stigma is itself a public health issue
•	What you eat matters: Ultra-processed food is a major driver of the obesity epidemic
•	Powerful forces: Social, racial and economic inequities underlie the problem

An unhealthy relationship

🔵When COVID-19 hit in 2020, Utah entrepreneurs with no public health experience were hired by the state for COVID testing. That new company, Nomi Health, received a no-bid contract from Utah state officials to provide the testing.

Republican governors, a lobbyist and even actor Ashton Kutcher helped Nomi Health expand as the company made big donations to GOP campaigns. The contracts as well as political donations have raised questions about favoritism and pay-to-play campaign contributions.

🎁 More goodness: There are lots of great reads below.👇 Enjoy your weekend!