Murder charge

Good morning. A man is charged with the murder of UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson. Israel steps up airstrikes and sends troops deeper into Syria. And here’s your opportunity to buy a New York landmark. Listen to the day’s top stories.

Luigi Mangione was the valedictorian at his $37,000-a-year prep school. He attended UPenn and worked as data engineer at TrueCar. Now, the 26-year-old has been charged with the murder of UnitedHealth’s Brian Thompson in Manhattan last week. Mangione had a manifesto that outlined how he acted alone and was self-funded. Read how the killing has plunged UnitedHealth into crisis.

Donald Trump endorsed KC Crosbie to succeed his daughter-in-law Lara Trump as a co-chair of the Republican National Committee. Lara Trump said she’d consider a potential Senate appointment in Florida if asked by Ron DeSantis. Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense-nominee Pete Hegseth told Fox that the president elect asked him to “keep fighting” for the position, for which he picked up support from a key Republican.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is in the ICU after undergoing brain surgery because of a hemorrhage. The craniotomy was carried out without complications, according to the hospital in Sao Paulo. Lula’s health has been the object of speculation since he suffered a fall in October, leading to the cancellation of a trip to the BRICS summit in Russia.
In the Middle East, Israel struck hundreds of targets in Syria and sent troops deeper into the country, as the rebel groups that toppled Bashar Al-Assad’s regime started to form a transition government. Amid all the chaos, one man stands to gain more than anyone else—Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has become a key powerbroker.

Exports from China to the US surged to their highest level since September 2022, driven by companies rushing to ship goods before new tariffs take effect. Meanwhile, economists are ramping up bets on bolder support from Beijing to prop up the economy. Nevertheless, China’s influence on the global market is declining, with recent promises of stimulus having little impact.

Deep Dive: The Search Engine Race

The number of people turning to AI chatbots instead of traditional search engines is still fairly small. But that’s no guarantee it’ll stay that way.

The Big Take

Opinion

In the US, how your party is doing is how you expect the economy to perform, John Authers writes. The way partisans on both sides are convinced that an election result can transform the economy is remarkable, and troubling.

Before You Go

Trophy asset: The Pierre, the eye-catching five-star hotel overlooking New York’s Central Park (and former home of Liz Taylor, Aristotle Onassis and Yves Saint-Laurent), is up for sale. Its new owner gets 189 hotel rooms plus retail space and restaurants, but the sale won’t include the 80 co-op residences.

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