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Unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month. Mint Mobile Unlimited Premium

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Wireless. It's Friday, June

0:31

21st. Is it just

0:33

summer weather or are heat waves getting

0:35

worse? We start here. Extreme

0:40

heat bakes large parts of the

0:43

U.S. More frequent, more intense, and

0:45

longer lasting. What is a giant

0:47

heat dome and your other burning

0:49

questions answered? The Supreme Court

0:52

is saving some of its biggest decisions

0:54

for last. They're really preparing for

0:56

another blockbuster finale. From

0:58

Donald Trump's immunity claims to emergency abortions,

1:01

we'll tell you what rulings to be

1:03

on the lookout for. And

1:05

it may be cheap online, but what's

1:07

in it? He said they found bacteria

1:09

in some of them. You know, some

1:11

of them contained effectively nothing. As demand

1:13

surges for weight loss drugs, there's a

1:16

new warning out against counterfeits. From

1:19

ABC News, this is Start Here.

1:21

I'm Anne Flaherty. Hey,

1:27

Brad's out today, but I've got you covered in the meantime. Yesterday,

1:33

the tiny town of Caribou, Maine, near the U.S.-Canadian

1:35

border, made national news when it issued its first

1:37

ever excessive heat warning with

1:39

a heat index of 103 degrees. We're

1:42

lucky to live in the beautiful state of Maine where we

1:44

have lots of beautiful lakes and beaches and ponds. And

1:47

it wasn't alone. Heat alerts are now in

1:50

effect for more than a dozen states covering parts

1:52

of the country that don't typically do anything. But

1:55

it's not a big deal with dangerous heat. Cities

1:57

like Boston and Manchester, New Hampshire, hitting record highs

1:59

of... Can

18:00

I trust these products that are online

18:02

or we just don't know? It is

18:04

a health issue. There have been reports

18:07

of patient harm. The FDA is tracking

18:09

this and they've issued warnings. The World

18:11

Health Organization came out with a big

18:13

warning. There are real concerns. In fact,

18:16

some products that are posing as ozempic,

18:18

let's say, or some of these

18:20

other products have been found to

18:23

have nothing in them. Maybe there's

18:25

a saline solution or very worryingly

18:27

they've been found to have things

18:29

like insulin in them. And that

18:31

can be dangerous. Now,

18:33

the people who are selling these products,

18:35

like I said, it is a wide

18:37

range of actors. Some of them are

18:39

criminals. They're selling black market products. They're

18:42

completely made up. Some of

18:44

the issues here are a little

18:47

more complicated. They're about maybe

18:49

legitimate products that can't be

18:51

verified if they're high quality

18:53

or maybe they're compounded products,

18:55

which is a legal way

18:58

to make products that are in shortage.

19:00

But there have been these growing concerns

19:02

about within that legal industry some bad

19:04

actors potentially pushing the envelope and making

19:07

products that are not high quality as

19:09

well. Yeah, I was going to say,

19:11

I mean, technically you can use a

19:13

compounding pharmacy amid an ongoing drug

19:15

shortage, which is what we have here. But

19:18

the FDA is raising concerns about this,

19:20

that it's not necessarily all

19:22

good actors in this space. Is

19:24

that what's going on? Yeah, that's

19:26

exactly right. So the compounding pharmacy

19:28

system started as a way to

19:31

meet a need. So if you

19:33

can imagine pharmaceutical companies make mass

19:35

produced products for the average person,

19:37

right. But sometimes there are very

19:39

specific niche scenarios where maybe

19:41

it's a child that needs a very specific type

19:43

of cancer medication, but they're very, you know, they

19:45

have a different weight. A compounding pharmacy could come

19:47

in and step in and

19:50

make that product legally. In the

19:52

case of drug shortages, compounding pharmacies

19:54

are legally allowed to step in

19:56

and make these products legally. The

19:58

problem is that the The

20:00

demand for these products has been so

20:02

extraordinary and has blown so many people

20:04

away that so many

20:07

compounding pharmacies have rushed in and not

20:09

all of them are making high quality

20:11

products. In fact, in this recent open

20:13

letter, Eli Lilly said

20:16

that they've been testing the

20:18

quality of compounded products

20:21

and they said they found bacteria in some of

20:23

them, some of them contained

20:25

effectively nothing active in them. So they found

20:27

some serious issues in the quality of products

20:30

that are being made in a compounded way

20:32

and the FDA has also raised some of

20:34

those concerns. So, Sony, you're not supposed

20:36

to get anything online, but

20:39

at the same time, we've had

20:41

telehealth explode since COVID. So, it

20:44

seems reasonable to look at some of

20:47

these telehealth sites and say, well, maybe

20:49

that can be my doctor who I

20:51

talk to. Are those legitimate? With telehealth,

20:53

a doctor is involved in the process,

20:55

right? Oh, so they can actually write

20:58

the prescription. Yes, there's a real prescription.

21:00

It's a Zoom consultation and they're writing

21:02

you like a real prescription. And

21:04

then you take that to a

21:06

real pharmacist versus like all of

21:08

these websites out there advertising, you

21:11

know, semaglutide at really low prices

21:15

and you don't have to have a doctor

21:17

involved in that process. You just put your

21:19

credit card information in. That's where you should

21:21

really be, you know, concerned and thinking twice.

21:24

So, how do you protect yourself here? It just sounds like

21:26

the bottom line is you have to talk to your doctor.

21:28

Yeah, I think ultimately that's it. It may be frustrating for

21:31

people because we are in a shortage, but

21:33

try to get these drugs through your doctor, through

21:36

a legitimate pharmacist. I suggest

21:38

you never inject yourself with something you bought

21:40

off social media. Doctors we talk to

21:42

are hopeful that this is a problem that will ease

21:44

in the future as that production ramps up. And

21:48

whenever we see shortages, we also see crime.

21:50

And so, the faster they can do that,

21:53

the faster we can protect patients. But certainly for

21:55

the time being, it can continue to be a

21:57

scramble for patients. Sony

22:00

Salzman, thanks so much. Thank you, Anne. Okay,

22:05

one more quick break. When we come back, they

22:07

say you can always pick out the Americans traveling

22:09

abroad by the shoes we wear, or

22:12

maybe it's the ammunition in our luggage. One

22:14

last thing is next. In

22:19

the 1980s, everyone wanted to be

22:21

in the Brat Pack, except them.

22:24

Now, director Andrew McCarthy

22:26

reunites with fellow Brats. Demi Moore.

22:28

Why did we take it as an

22:30

offense? As opposed to like Brat? Because

22:32

we were young. We were afraid we

22:34

were Brats. Emilio Estevez,

22:37

Ali Sheedy, Rob Lowe. I'm

22:39

not gonna say we were Beatles or anything like that. Well, we

22:41

didn't tell Shea Stadium. 1985, I think we could've. The

22:44

original documentary, Prats, now streaming

22:46

only on Hulu. And

22:50

one last thing. In

22:54

the news recently, there have been several

22:56

stories about Americans getting into trouble overseas.

22:59

There was the American staff sergeant who

23:01

followed his girlfriend to Russia, where he

23:03

was charged with theft and assault. The

23:06

visit apparently turned sour. The woman claiming

23:08

she and Black had a domestic dispute.

23:10

And another American arrested after a night

23:13

of binge drinking, after which he climbed

23:15

into a children's library in Moscow and

23:17

stripped off his clothes before being discovered

23:19

by police. You run a tremendous risk

23:22

by traveling to Russia of being detained,

23:25

being imprisoned, being convicted.

23:27

And in both of these cases, the U.S.

23:29

government said, hey, unless these charges are bogus

23:31

and you're being wrongfully detained, there's not much

23:33

we can do. When you travel

23:35

to another country, you have to follow the laws

23:37

there. Enter Ryan Watson.

23:42

But I just hope that they know that, at the

23:44

end of the day, this was an accident. A father to

23:46

two young kids from Oklahoma who was

23:48

celebrating his 40th birthday in Turks and

23:50

Caicos when he was arrested for carrying

23:52

four rounds of ammunition in his luggage.

23:54

I looked at Ryan and I asked,

23:57

I said, what are those? He

24:00

was like, I think those are

24:02

my hunting, like deer hunting bullets. And

24:04

that's the bag he uses for weekend

24:07

trips. Turns out that Turks and Caicos,

24:09

a string of islands south of the

24:11

Bahamas known for its luxury resorts and

24:14

barrier reefs, also doesn't have a constitutional

24:16

right to carry firearms. In fact,

24:18

its laws say that no one, not

24:20

even tourists, can possess an unlicensed firearm

24:23

or any ammunition. It's not

24:25

just a slap on the wrist either, if

24:27

you break the law. At the time of

24:29

Watson's arrest, Turks and Caicos imposed a

24:31

12-year minimum mandatory jail sentence. Officer

24:34

said, no, you don't understand. Like, you guys

24:36

are both going to prison for 12 years.

24:39

And that's when my wife, she

24:42

broke down, and then when I heard her break down, I lost

24:45

it as well. And it wasn't just Watson who

24:48

found himself in jail on his vacation. Four

24:50

other American tourists were arrested after

24:52

going through airport screening with loose

24:54

ammunition in their bags. One

24:56

31-year-old dad, for example, said he had

24:58

been shooting at a gun range with

25:01

friends before leaving on his vacation and

25:03

said he completely forgot he was carrying

25:05

ammunition. Another American, a mom from

25:07

Florida celebrating Mother's Day with her daughter, said

25:09

she wasn't even sure how ammunition ended up

25:11

in her bag. When citizens of other countries

25:13

come to the United States, we expect them to abide

25:15

by United States law and we hold them accountable if

25:17

they don't. And that is true for

25:20

people traveling overseas. The State Department said

25:22

there wasn't much they could do other than

25:24

issue these travel warnings on their website. It's

25:27

just great to work together and

25:29

to be a part of helping reunite

25:31

this family. U.S. lawmakers even got

25:34

involved traveling to the islands to lobby

25:36

for changes to the law. Well,

25:38

yesterday, Watson got what could be

25:40

good news ahead of his sentencing

25:43

hearing today. The

25:46

Turks and Caicos government just changed

25:48

their laws, allowing courts in the

25:50

country to have more discretion in

25:53

sentencing, essentially dropping the 12-year minimum

25:55

jail time. We'll see what

25:57

happens later today and if the court takes the

25:59

new law. into account given it

26:01

wasn't enacted at the time of his

26:03

arrest. Of course, Watson

26:05

could still face a hefty fine

26:07

making that a seriously expensive vacation.

26:10

One thing I found interesting is that

26:12

Watson is out on bond but has

26:14

been forced to stay in the country

26:16

until his case is resolved along with

26:18

one other American also still facing charges.

26:20

The other three Americans have been released.

26:23

All a good reminder to check the laws of

26:25

any place you travel or at least

26:27

get the bullet points. I'm

26:31

pretty sure that climbing into a library drunk at

26:34

night and taking your clothes off is illegal anywhere

26:36

you go. Start Here

26:38

is produced by Kelly Therese, Jen

26:40

Newman, Brenda Salinas Baker, Vika Aronson,

26:43

Cameron Chortavian, Anthony Ali, Maro Mwaki,

26:45

and Amira Williams. Ariel Chester is

26:47

our social media producer. Josh Cohan

26:49

is director of podcast programming. Brad

26:51

Milkey is our managing editor. Laura

26:54

Mayer is our executive producer. Thanks

26:57

to Lakia Brown, John Newman, Tara

26:59

Gimbel, and Liz Alessi. Special

27:01

thanks this week to Chris Berry, Jessica

27:03

Hopper, and Jonah Haskell. I'm Ann

27:05

Flaherty, and for Brad Milkey, have a great

27:07

weekend.