A self-described foodie, social butterfly and New Yorker for 20 years, Lina Axmacher has long loved exploring the city’s famed restaurant culture.Then she started Ozempic.She lost her appetite — “my desire for cocktails and desserts and anything sweet” — and also more than 20 pounds (9.1 kilograms) in less than two months.But “I still wanted to maintain my social lifestyle, and I still wanted to be included in dinners,” the Swedish 41-year-old who works in the tequila industry told AFP.One of her favorite restaurants, Manhattan’s Le Petit Village, made that easier: it’s among the dining establishments in the city offering smaller portions at lower prices, as the prevalence of medications that reduce hunger like Ozempic grows.The West Village restaurant decided to shrink a corner of its brunch menu, including French toast and a smoked salmon tartine, not least to accommodate diners on GLP-1s who want to go out but can’t eat much.Approximately one in eight American adults are currently taking drugs from the class of GLP-1 agonists that are increasingly popular for weight loss, according to a November poll by the non-profit health policy tracker KFF.And one in five say they’ve taken the medications whose brand names include Ozempic and Wegovy — which are also prescribed to manage chronic conditions like diabetes — at some point.On Monday, Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk announced US authorities had approved Wegovy to be administered in pill form for weight loss, potentially making it even more accessible.Some in the restaurant industry are taking note.”I was going out and seeing people eat a lot less and take one bite of their food and one sip of their drink and that was it,” said Aristotle Hatzigeorgiou, who owns Clinton Hall, which has five locations across New York.And on top of that, much of the dishes his kitchens prepared ended up in the trash — “a mass amount of waste,” he said.So he developed the “teeny-weeny mini meal” — for $8, diners get a bite-sized burger, a small portion of fries and their choice of a 3-oz beer, martini or glass of wine.It’s a stark contrast to some of the beer hall’s other offerings, which include a “doughnut grilled cheese” and a “fondue burger” (they are what they sound like.)But the mini-meal has proven a hit, Hatzigeorgiou said, not only for those dropping weight but for those cutting costs.”I think people are definitely strapped with rents going up and inflation,” said the restaurant owner.Offering “a cheaper option to come out,” he said, has “been working.”- ‘Vast human experiment’ -For now, GLP-1s for weight loss purposes remain too expensive for many Americans.But experts expect that will shift; even US President Donald Trump has promised affordable options.And researchers are starting to examine how wider GLP-1 use is shaking cultural connections to food.”Food is your enemy, instead of your great pleasure in life? I mean, that’s very different,” Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of nutrition at New York University, told AFP in an interview. “I think the jury is out on all of it.”Side effects of GLP-1s can include unpleasant gastrointestinal issues, but for some people, Nestle said, the medications have proven “miraculous.”The nutritionist said it’s far too soon to have a grasp on long-term impact, physiologically or socioculturally: “It’s a vast human experiment.”Axmacher told AFP she’s taken Ozempic on and off. When she first decided to take a break, “I was ready to feel like I could enjoy life a little bit more again.””I do enjoy the sense of hunger and satisfaction when I get to eat something I’m in the mood for,” she said, adding that on Ozempic, “I missed that.”But using the medication also helped her develop positive and sustainable habits, she said: Axmacher cut down on alcohol, exercised more, and focused on eating enough protein.Ozempic or not, a trend of smaller restaurant dishes in the wake of America’s 1990s-2000s Super Size Era can only be positive, Nestle said.Le Petit Village management told AFP they’re considering expanding their menu of half-sized portions to dinner service, and Clinton Hall is working on developing a mini-meal featuring chicken.Some customers, Hatzigeorgiou said, have noted that “this is what meals used to look like.””We think it’s something different, but maybe it’s not so different,” he said with a chuckle. “Maybe it’s the right-sized meal.”

US President Donald Trump on Monday announced a new class of heavily armed warships that will be named after himself — an honor usually reserved for leaders who have left office.Two of the Trump-class ships will be built initially, but that number could grow substantially, according to the president, who said they will be “some of the most lethal surface warfare ships” and “the largest battleship in the history of our country.”Trump made the announcement at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida alongside Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Navy Secretary John Phelan, with images of the planned high-tech vessels on stands nearby.Asked if the planned warships are a counter to Washington’s rival Beijing, Trump declined to specify, instead saying: “It’s a counter to everybody, it’s not China. We get along great with China.”He said the ships will weigh between 30,000 and 40,000 tons and will be armed with missiles and guns as well as weaponry still in development, such as lasers and hypersonic missiles.They will also be capable of carrying atomic weapons in the form of the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile, Trump said.The Trump-class ships will be substantially larger than existing US destroyers and cruisers, but the projected displacement cited by the president is somewhat smaller than the last American battleships — from the Iowa class — which were retired in the 1990s.- ‘Most powerful fleet anywhere’ -Trump — who has complained in the past about the appearance of US ships — said he would be involved in the design along with the Navy “because I’m a very aesthetic person.”Trump’s announcement came just days after the Navy publicized plans for another new class of ships — frigates dubbed the FF(X) that it said will “complement the fleet’s larger, multi-mission warships.”Phelan has said the FF(X) will be based on an existing design from shipbuilder HII that is already in use by the United States Coast Guard, and that the aim is for the first of the new frigates to be in the water by 2028.The new frigate plans were announced after Phelan said in late November that four of six planned ships from the Constellation class of frigates would be canceled, while two that are already under construction are “under review.”Washington has fallen significantly behind Beijing when it comes to the number of ships in its Navy, and a report to Congress earlier this year noted that US military officials and other observers are concerned by the pace of China’s shipbuilding efforts.”We’re going to restore America as a major shipbuilding power,” Trump said on Monday, adding: “We’re going to ensure the USA has the most powerful fleet anywhere in the world, and long into the future, with battleships helping lead the way.”

Victims of disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein joined a chorus of criticism on Monday over the Trump administration’s slow release and heavy redaction of records from the investigation into his alleged sex crimes.President Donald Trump said meanwhile, in his first comments since the release of the files, that people who “innocently met” Epstein in the past risked having their reputations ruined.The Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump mandated the complete release of the Epstein files by Friday of last week.But the Trump Justice Department has released only one batch of documents so far, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche blaming the delay on the need to redact the identities of Epstein’s more than 1,000 victims.In a statement, a group of Epstein victims complained that only a “fraction” of the files have been released and were “riddled with abnormal and extreme redactions with no explanation.””At the same time, numerous victim identities were left unredacted, causing real and immediate harm,” they added.EFTA co-sponsors Ro Khanna, a Democrat, and Thomas Massie, a Republican, threatened over the weekend to bring contempt of Congress charges against Attorney General Pam Bondi for failing to comply with the law.And Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced a resolution on Monday calling for legal action against the administration for failing to release the complete Epstein files.”Instead of transparency, the Trump administration released a tiny fraction of the files and blacked out massive portions of what little they provided,” Schumer said in a statement.”This is a blatant cover-up. Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche are shielding Donald Trump from accountability, and the Senate has a duty to act.”- ‘We need no such protection’ -Blanche denied on Sunday that the Justice Department was redacting the files to protect the president, a formerly close friend of Epstein, a convicted sex offender with connections to the rich and powerful.Trump initially tried to block the disclosure of the files linked to Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in what was ruled a suicide.The president, who cut ties with Epstein years before his arrest and faces no accusations of wrongdoing, finally bowed to mounting pressure from Congress and signed the law compelling publication of the files.Trump on Monday dismissed the furor over Epstein as a distraction from his party’s achievements.”This whole thing with Epstein is a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous success that the Republican Party has,” he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago home.Former Democratic president Bill Clinton featured prominently in the first batch of photos from the Epstein files released by the Justice Department and Trump was asked for his reaction.”I like Bill Clinton,” he said. “I hate to see photos come out of him.”There’s photos of me too,” Trump noted. “Everybody was friendly with this guy (Epstein).””You probably have pictures being exposed of other people that innocently met Jeffrey Epstein years ago, many years ago, and they’re highly respected bankers and lawyers and others,” he said.”But they’re in a picture with him because he was at a party and you ruin a reputation of somebody.”Clinton urged the Justice Department in a statement on Monday to release any materials in the files related to him, saying he had nothing to hide.”Someone or something is being protected. We do not know whom, what or why. But we do know this: We need no such protection,” Clinton said.Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, remains the only person convicted in connection with his crimes and is serving a 20-year sentence for recruiting underage girls for the disgraced financier.