The Headlines - A Manhunt in Manhattan, and Another Trump Pick in Trouble

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

Plus, the A.I. that aces weather forecasts.   Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. On Today’s Episode:Police Hunt Gunman After Health Executive Is Killed in ‘Brazen Targeted Attack,’ by Michael Wilson, Chelsia Rose Marcius, Maria Cramer and Joe RennisonAs Hegseth Vows to Fight, Trump Considers DeSantis for Defense Secretary, by Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan and Michael D. ShearTrump Organization Plans an Ethics Policy Without Banning Foreign Deals, by Eric Lipton, Ben Protess and David Yaffe-BellanySouth Korean Lawmakers Question Military Leaders After Failed Crackdown, by Choe Sang-Hun, John Yoon and Qasim NaumanSupreme Court Inclined to Uphold Tennessee Law on Transgender Care, by Adam Liptak and Emily BazelonGoogle Introduces A.I. Agent That Aces 15-Day Weather Forecasts, by William J. Broad

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Amelia Nirenberg. Today's Thursday, December 5th. Here's what we're covering. The full investigative efforts of the New York City Police Department are well underway and we will not rest until we identify and apprehend the shooter in this case. In New York City, an intensive manhunt is underway after the CEO of United Healthcare, one of the country's largest companies, was assassinated in midtown Manhattan.

Every indication is that this was a premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack. At a press conference, the city's police commissioner said that the CEO, Brian Thompson, was attacked as he was heading into a hotel for a conference early yesterday morning. A gunman wearing a mask, who'd been waiting for Thompson, came up from behind and shot him multiple times. The police are using dogs, drones and surveillance video to track down the suspect. They are also analyzing a cell phone they found near the site of the shooting. And they're scraping data about the public e-bike he apparently used, since riders need

a credit card or debit card to unlock the bikes. It's not clear what motivated the shooting. Thompson had recently received several threats, but investigators aren't sure where they came from, or exactly what they said. His killing sent shockwaves through the insurance industry. UnitedHealthcare is one of the nation's biggest insurers, with about 140,000 employees and over $370 billion in revenue. It is the classic art of the smear. Take whatever tiny kernels of truth, and there are tiny, tiny ones in there, and blow them up into a masquerade of a narrative about somebody that I am definitely not.

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's pick for defense secretary, has launched a public campaign to try and keep his nomination on track. In a radio interview and newspaper essay, he pushed back on a swirl of accusations of rape, sexual assault, and drunken behavior. The revelations have sparked serious concerns, even among Republican lawmakers

who are loyal to Trump. And Hegseth has been meeting one-on-one with senators who will vote on his nomination to convince them that he should still be confirmed. The word I would use to describe Pete Hegseth's viability right now is troubled. Jonathan Swan is a Times political reporter. Most people I talk to who are close to President-elect Trump would rate Hegseth's chances less than 50% that he makes it through. He hates surprises from his candidates. He doesn't like feeling like people haven't been forthcoming with him.

He complained to people privately that Hegseth hadn't told him about these things. And over the last 24 hours, even as Donald Trump has insisted to Hegseth himself that he's got his back, Trump has been very seriously entertaining the idea of replacing Hegseth with somebody else. And one person that has caught his attention in particular is Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida. That might be very surprising to people, given how ugly the primary campaign

between Trump and DeSantis was, but Trump has told sources of ours that he thinks it would be a quote unquote big story if he resurrected DeSantis after defeating him and put him in as the Secretary of Defense. Meanwhile, the Times has learned that Donald Trump's family business is poised to capitalize on his presidency. And to do that, it's loosening its own ethics rules. During his first term,

the Trump Organization avoided deals in foreign countries. This time, they're not making that promise. Without the guardrail, the company could profit from business in countries essential to American foreign policy. Trump's son, Eric, the company's de facto leader, has already been forging ahead. In the past few months,

he's made real estate deals in Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and the United Arab Emirates. He's also considering new hotel projects in the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. There will still be some ethics guidelines. For example, the Trump Organization is not expected to make deals directly with foreign governments. Still, the new ventures could blur the lines between the Trump organization and the Trump administration. One ethics expert told the Times, quote, I fear that Americans will look at public office as a job that is no longer about public service.

It is a family business. And in other news, the fallout from the short-lived declaration of martial law by South Korea's president continues. And in other news, the fallout from the short-lived declaration of martial law by South Korea's president continues. The country's defense minister has now stepped down. And today, in the first inside account of the chaotic night, military officials testified that President Yoon Suk-yul's decision caught them completely by surprise. The general who was appointed to oversee martial law said he only learned of the move when

Yoon announced it on television. Massive protests against the president are continuing across the country. They're expected to grow even larger on Saturday, when lawmakers will vote on whether or not to impeach him. And the US Supreme Court appears likely to uphold a ban on transgender care for minors in Tennessee. After hearing arguments in the case yesterday,

the court's conservative majority seems inclined to let individual states decide how to handle the treatments, much like it made abortion a state-by-state issue when it overturned Roe v. Wade. Today on The Daily, Time Supreme Court reporter Adam Lipcak breaks down the case and the potential implications of the court's ruling, which will come next year. And finally, a new tool from DeepMind, a Google company, could revolutionize weather forecasting using AI. The company says the tool, called Gencast, can generate 15-day forecasts faster

and more accurately than any other model. According to results published in the journal Nature this week, Gencast outperformed the current gold standard in weather forecasting 97% of the time. It does have some limitations. For example, Gencast doesn't provide much detail about the intensity of a hurricane, even though it is better at predicting its path. But the company is hoping that outside researchers can help test and improve Gencast,

and it's planning to make the tool and the the computer code that powers it, available to the public. Those are the headlines. I'm Amelia Nierenberg. Tracy Mumford will be back tomorrow.