In early April, scores of revelers gather in the city of Kawasaki, about 30 minutes south of Tokyo, to celebrate Kanamara Matsuri – Japan’s infamous penis festival, with a name translating roughly to Festival of the Steel Phallus. Kanamara Matsuri’s main festivities have taken place on the first Sunday of April since 1969 (yes, seriously). 

At the festival centering on the um, organ and fertility, attendees get to erect gigantic penis statues on handheld shrines, enjoy penis-shaped lollipops, buy penis-shaped candles, and (obviously) dress as penises. There’s a seemingly endless array of phallic merch!

“Amazing. So fun, so unique, such a different experience,” one Australian tourist who went to this year’s gathering told Euronews. “It’s so weird coming from Australia to see something like this, but it looks like everyone’s having a great time.”

The company’s stock has zoomed this year, driven by the explosive growth of the weight-loss drug market.

Eli Lilly has hit $1 trillion in market value, making it the first drugmaker to enter the exclusive club dominated by tech giants and underscoring its rise as a weight-loss powerhouse.

A more than 35 percent rally in the company’s stock this year has largely been driven by the explosive growth of the weight-loss drug market and saw it join the $1 trillion club on Friday.

Once seen as a niche category, obesity treatments are now one of the most lucrative segments in healthcare, with steadily rising demand.

Novo Nordisk had the early lead in the space, but Lilly’s drugs – Mounjaro and Zepbound – have surged in popularity and helped eclipse its rival in prescriptions.

The company’s shares were up 1.3 percent at a record high of $1,057.70.

Lilly now trades at one of the richest valuations in big pharma, at about 50 times its expected earnings over the next 12 months, according to LSEG data, reflecting investors’ belief that demand for obesity drugs will remain strong.

Shares have also far outpaced the broader United States equity market. Since the launch of Zepbound in late 2023, Lilly has gained more than 75 percent, compared with a more than 50 percent rise in the S&P 500 over the same period.

In the latest reported quarter, Lilly posted combined revenue of more than $10.09bn from its obesity and diabetes portfolio, accounting for more than half of its total revenue of $17.6bn.

“They are doing so many things outside of obesity, but to suggest anything is driving share price beyond obesity at this point, I don’t know if that would be a factual statement,” said Kevin Gade, chief operating officer at Lilly shareholder Bahl and Gaynor, in advance of the milestone.

‘Sales phenomenon’

Wall Street estimates the weight-loss drug market to be worth $150bn by 2030, with Lilly and Novo together controlling the majority of projected global sales.

Investors are now focused on Lilly’s oral obesity drug, orforglipron, which is expected to be approved early next year.

In a note last week, Citi analysts said the latest generation of GLP-1 drugs have already been a “sales phenomenon”, and orforglipron is poised to benefit from the “inroads made by its injectable predecessors”.

Lilly’s recent deal with the White House to cut prices for its weight-loss drugs, as well as planned investments to expand drug production, augur well for its growth.

Lilly is starting to resemble the “Magnificent Seven” again, said James Shin, director of Biopharma Equity Research at Deutsche Bank, referring to the seven tech heavyweights, including Nvidia and Microsoft, that have powered much of the market’s returns this year.

At one point, investors viewed it as part of that elite group, but after some disappointing headlines and earnings, it slipped out of favour.

Now, however, it seems poised to rejoin that circle, possibly even as an alternative for investors, especially given recent concerns and weakness in some AI stocks, he added.

Still, analysts and investors are watching whether Lilly can sustain its current growth as prices of Mounjaro and Zepbound come under pressure, and whether its scale-up plans, along with its diversified pipeline and dealmaking, will offset margin pressure.

South Africa has classified violence against women a national disaster following an online campaign culminating in countrywide protests on Friday.

Women were urged to “withdraw from the economy for one day”, and lie down for 15 minutes at 12:00 local time (10:00 GMT) in honour of the 15 females who are murdered in the country every day.

The state had refused to make the categorisation but changed tack after “evaluating the persistent and immediate life-safety risks posed by ongoing acts of violence”.

South Africa experiences some of the world’s highest levels of gender-based violence (GBV), with the rate at which women are killed five times higher than the global average, according to UN Women.

The National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) has classified GBV and femicide a disaster following “a thorough reassessment of previous reports and updated submissions from organs of state as well as civil organisations”, said Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa.

The NDMC had earlier said calls to make the categorisation did not meet legal requirements.

Warning: This report contains descriptions of sexual assault

Fridays “lie downs” happened in 15 locations across South Africa, including major cities such as Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.

Allies in Eswatini, Kenya and Namibia have also expressed their support for the protest and say they joined in.

The demonstrators wore black as a sign of “mourning and resistance”.

The protest, dubbed the G20 Women’s Shutdown, has been organised by Women for Change, which has also been spearheading the online campaign that has seen many people, including celebrities, change their social media profile pictures to purple – a colour often linked to GBV awareness.

There has also been an online petition, signed by over one million people.

On Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa told the G20 Social Summit that South Africa had “declared gender-based violence and femicide a national crisis” in 2019.

Shortly afterwards, Mr Hlabisa confirmed it had been upgraded to a national disaster and that an announcement would be made on Friday, according to Women for Change.

The organisation shared a statement on its Instagram page on Thursday welcoming the news and telling its followers “we have won” and that their “persistence has been recognised”.

“We have written history together [and] we have finally forced the country to confront the truth,” it said.

The categorisation allows government departments to use their allocated budgets to “implement every measure possible” to reduce the scourge, the cooperative governance ministry told the BBC.

If these measures fail to bring change, the government can then declare a national state of disaster which would allow for the issue to be treated with even more urgency.

Before the announcement, Women for Change spokesperson Cameron Kasambala told the BBC that “so many beautiful acts and legislations” had been followed by “lack of implementation and transparency” on the government’s part.

“We’ve integrated violence… into our culture [and] into our social norms,” she said.

“Once the government truly reacts to this issue, I feel like we’ll already be able to see a reaction on the ground. Because they set the precedent and the tone for how the country responds.”

Grammy-award winning singer Tyla is among the thousands of celebrities and citizens who have rallied behind the call and changed their social media profiles. Some have gone further, posting pictures of purple hearts, nail polish and even clothing in what has since been dubbed the “purple movement”.

A South African professor who asked to remain anonymous told the BBC she had taken leave so she could travel to Johannesburg from Free State province to take part in the silent protest.

It’s important for her because she said she had second thoughts about simple things like jogging and hopes that the protest will “slow the scourge” of GBV.

However, some women have faced a backlash from employers for wanting to participate in the protest. One product designer who works for a major cooperation said they were strongly advised against taking part.

Some women who feel the government is not doing enough have taken matters into their own hands.

Lynette Oxeley founded Girls on Fire to help women protect themselves through gun ownership. It is legal to own a firearm in South Africa for self-defence if a person has a valid licence.

Most of the women in her group have been raped, attacked, robbed, or experienced some level of violence.

Prudence joined the group after she was raped in 2022.

“I said: ‘No’. I screamed, I cried but he didn’t take no for an answer,” she told the BBC.

Trying to find justice was an “uphill battle” as her case was withdrawn because her rape kit – the DNA they take after the crime – was lost.

It isn’t a “police problem, it is a nation problem,” she said.

Although the women are trained to shoot firearms, Ms Oxeley said using a gun was a “last resort”.

“It’s not about actually defending yourself with a firearm. I want ladies to change what they think about themselves. Stop being silent,” she said.

“Even if you do not win the fight, at least you are fighting back.”

The crash is the second recorded for the HAL Tejas, a key jet in India’s efforts to modernise its air force fleet.

An Indian-made fighter jet has gone down in flames at the Dubai Airshow, killing the pilot in the second known crash of the aircraft.

The HAL Tejas, a combat aircraft, crashed just after 2pm local time (10:00 GMT) on Friday during a demonstration for a crowd of spectators at Dubai World Central, where the last day of the airshow was under way.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) confirmed on social media that the pilot sustained “fatal injuries” and said it was launching an inquiry to determine what caused the crash.

“IAF deeply regrets the loss of life and stands firmly with the bereaved family in this time of grief,” the statement added.

Photos published by Indian media outlets showed the plane engulfed in flames and a wall of black smoke. A witness told Reuters news agency that the plane was flying at low altitude before appearing to rapidly descend in a ball of fire.

The crash sent sirens reverberating across Al Maktoum International Airport, where the biennial aviation event was expected to draw about 150,000 people this year. It was not immediately clear if anyone else was injured.

The Government of Dubai Media Office wrote on X that the pilot’s death was “tragic” and posted a photo of crews appearing to hose down debris at the site of the crash.

“Firefighting and emergency teams responded rapidly to the incident and are currently managing the situation on-site,” the office said.

Air demonstrations resumed less than two hours later as emergency workers finished clearing the scene.

The Tejas jet, built by India’s state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, has been a key symbol of New Delhi’s attempt to modernise its air force fleet, especially as China helps neighbouring Pakistan shore up its own air capabilities.

The crash and death in Dubai are another blow to the Indian Air Force.

In May, India and Pakistan engaged in their heaviest fighting in decades – involving fighter jets and cruise missiles – after armed men killed more than two dozen tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir’s town of Pahalgam in April. New Delhi blamed Islamabad for the attack, which the latter vehemently denied.

Pakistan claimed to have downed at least five Indian jets during the conflict, which India initially brushed off as “disinformation”. But a top Indian general admitted in June that Indian forces had indeed lost an unspecified number of jets.

United States President Donald Trump also asserted in July that “five, four or five, but I think five jets” were shot down, without providing more detail.

By November, an annual report to US Congress by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said that the conflict “showcased Chinese weaponry”, though it referred to the loss of just three jets flown by the Indian military.

China provided more than 80 percent of Pakistan’s arms imports from 2019 to 2023, the report added.

Last March, an Indian Tejas jet crashed in the state of Rajasthan, Indian outlet NDTV reported, the first such incident recorded since the jet’s first test flight in 2001. The pilot survived.

A pilot has died after an Indian fighter jet crashed while performing a display at an airshow in Dubai, officials have said.

The Indian Air Force said in a statement: “IAF deeply regrets the loss of life and stands firmly with the bereaved family in this time of grief.

“A court of inquiry is being constituted, to ascertain the cause of the accident.”

The Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd’s Teja jet crashed about about 14:10 local time (10:10 GMT), according to the Associated Press.