Doctors and medical experts are leading a rapid cultural shift around obesity, viewing it as a disease rather than a lifestyle choice.

• Why it matters: That shift is opening new treatments and better care — but also new controversies over who can access those treatments and how best to use them, Axios' Caitlin Owens writes.

An existing class of diabetes drugs has shown enormous promise for weight loss, offering hope to the millions of Americans with obesity.

• The drugs have become all the rage among some wealthy Americans. Elon Musk recently responded to a tweet asking him his "secret" by saying "fasting and Wegovy."

Yes, but: Many insurers, including Medicare, won't cover those drugs for weight loss. And they can be unaffordable without insurance coverage.

• Wegovy, which is approved for weight loss under certain conditions, has a list price of $1,349 for a month's supply.

The other side: The same class of drugs also can be misused. Some digital health startups are advertising and prescribing the drugs to people who aren't overweight, The Wall Street Journal reports.

What to watch: The treatment landscape is changing rapidly for children as well as adults.

• New guidance released last month by the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against delaying obesity treatment for children, and argues that doctors should be proactive about approaches like intensive health behavior and lifestyle treatment and, in some cases, prescription drugs or surgery.

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Starbucks workers are struggling to clear the biggest hurdle when it comes to union organizing — negotiating their first contract.

• Why it matters: Though surveys show that the public is increasingly pro-labor, big employers — even widely recognized brands like Starbucks, Amazon and Tesla — are not shy about aggressively fending off unionization, Axios' Emily Peck reports.

What's happening: Tesla was accused of firing 30 employees in Buffalo in retaliation for announcing a union campaign, according to a charge filed at the National Labor Relations Board on Thursday, first reported by Bloomberg.

• The NLRB ruled on Monday that Starbucks unfairly fired two organizers in Philadelphia and ordered that they be reinstated with back pay.
• “We disagree with the decision and are considering all options to obtain a full legal review of the matter,” a Starbucks spokesperson told Axios in an email, adding that the employees violated policies.

The labor board has lodged 77 complaints against Starbucks since 2019 for unfair practices, like illegally firing workers or threatening and intimidating them.

• That appears to be the most complaints filed by the board against a company in recent history.

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1. Vince McMahon, 77, wants up to $9 billion for his World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) empire — 37% above the company’s $6.5 billion market value. Potential buyers include Endeavor Group Holdings, owner of Ultimate Fighting Championship — as well as investors from the Middle East who have spent big on golf and soccer. —Bloomberg
2. Hedge fund winners: Citadel’s Ken Griffin, 54 (personal gain: $2.1 billion), Point72’s Steve Cohen, 66 ($1.6 billion) and Millennium’s Izzy Englander, 74 ($1.2 billion) were the top 3 finishers in Bloomberg’s annual ranking of top-earning hedge fund managers. Griffin made a total of $4.1 billion last year. See the top 15.
3. Some elite hedge funds, "where risky bets using esoteric number-crunching and cutthroat strategies," are dangling guarantees of as much as tens of millions over several years, the N.Y. Times reports (subscription). Millennium has offered new hires up to $60 million — partly to compensate for what traders leave behind when they move.

It took almost a decade, and 17 movies, for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to branch out from white, male directors, Axios' Thomas Oide reports.

• But once it did, the floodgates opened.

Driving the news: "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" — the newest MCU movie, released on Friday and directed by Peyton Reed — is only the second Marvel movie released since 2021 that is directed by a white man.

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The U.S. military ended the search for airborne objects shot down last week near Deadhorse, Alaska, and over Canada and Lake Huron, Mich.

• President Biden said Thursday that the intelligence community thinks "these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation, or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research" — not China's government.

🇨🇳 Sensors and other debris — "the guts" — have been successfully recovered from the Chinese balloon shot down by a U.S. fighter jet off the coast of Carolina.

• "They got almost all — at least that which was recoverable," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said. "And it’s quite a bit — it's a significant amount — including the payload structure, as well as some of the electronics and the optics."

The haul is now being analyzed at the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va.

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U.S. consumption of dairy products reached a historic high of 661 pounds in 2021.

• But the way Americans consume dairy is changing, Axios' Sami Sparber writes.
• Milk consumption has slowly declined, while butter has ticked up in recent years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Rush Limbaugh's death two years ago this week left a void in conservative media that younger, more versatile contenders are still trying to fill, Axios media trends expert Sara Fischer writes.

• Why it matters: Today, no one radio host commands the same level of power and influence that Limbaugh did.

But a number of new voices are emerging — blending the reach of traditional and digital platforms like TikTok — and collectively proving to be more powerful in shaping conservative opinion for younger audiences.

The big picture: One major shift in the post-Limbaugh landscape has been the rise of ideologically-driven personalities who aren't wed to the Republican party line.

• Provocateurs from outside traditional party politics, like Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, and Dave Portnoy, are driving a new strain of American political conversation.

The bottom line: "Limbaugh has been replaced in terms of the coveted noon to three Eastern time slot by a number of hosts — all of whom should be taken seriously — but none of whom are of the stature that Limbaugh was on," said Michael Harrison, the longtime editor and publisher of TALKERS, a radio trade publication.

• Thanks to the internet, "There probably never will be another one," he added.

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Drummers perform samba music during a carnival parade in Sao Paulo early Saturday. Brazil's government projects 46 million people will join in the multi-day celebration, Al Jazeera notes.

• Why it matters: It's the first full-scale edition in three years for the world's biggest carnival — billed as a celebration of life and democracy after COVID and Brazil's bitterly divisive elections.