Police believe gunman who killed insurance CEO has left New York City

Update Police believe gunman who killed insurance CEO has left New York City
A New York City Police officer walks through brush and foliage in Central Park. (AP)
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Updated 07 December 2024
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Police believe gunman who killed insurance CEO has left New York City

Police believe gunman who killed insurance CEO has left New York City
  • Security experts cautioned that the first 48 hours after such a crime are the best window of opportunity to catch a gunman

New York City police believe the man who fatally shot a UnitedHealth top executive has left the city, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Friday, as the hunt for the gunman passed the crucial 48-hour mark.

Brian Thompson, 50, the CEO of UnitedHealth’s insurance unit, was shot in the back on Wednesday in what police described as a targeted attack. Police have released multiple photos of the suspect — who fled the scene, climbed on an electric bicycle and disappeared into Central Park — and have asked the public for help in tracking him down.

Investigators on Friday recovered from Central Park a backpack they believe to be the suspect’s, CNN reported, citing unnamed police sources. The discarded backpack, potentially loaded with evidence, was missed on a first pass but found on a subsequent, expanded search through the 843-acre (341-hectare) park, CNN said.

Tisch said in an interview with CNN earlier on Friday that authorities now believe he has left New York City, after new video emerged showing him arriving at a bus terminal.

New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, in the same interview, said the video shows the suspect climbing into a taxi that took him to a Port Authority bus station near the George Washington Bridge in Upper Manhattan.

“Those buses are interstate buses. That’s why we believe he may have left New York City,” Kenny said.

The expanded hunt comes after security experts cautioned that the first 48 hours after such a crime are the best window of opportunity to catch a gunman, a timeframe that has now passed.

Felipe Rodriguez, a former NYPD police detective and an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said solving the case is like putting together a difficult jigsaw puzzle.

“You start from edges first and work your way in, but right now they might not have all the pieces. But the case is moving forward,” Rodriguez said.

Police have yet to identify the suspect, at least not publicly. They believe he arrived in New York 10 days before the shooting on a Greyhound bus that originated in Atlanta and checked into a Manhattan youth hostel using a fake ID from New Jersey, several media outlets reported. Reuters has not independently verified this account.

New York City police offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) offered a reward of up to $50,000 for the same.

SECURITY PRECAUTIONS

UnitedHealth is the largest US health insurer, providing benefits to tens of millions of Americans, who pay more for health care than people in any other country.

Thompson joined UnitedHealth in 2004 and became the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, a unit of UnitedHealth Group, in April 2021.

Following the attack, UnitedHealth and several other health insurers including CVS Health and Centene took down pictures of executives from their corporate websites in an apparent tightening of security measures.

Centene said late on Thursday it would no longer hold an in-person investor day next week, and that the event would be streamed.

The words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” were carved into shell casings found at the scene, police sources told several media outlets. A New York City Police Department spokesperson would not comment on the report.

The words evoke the title of Jay Feinman’s 2010 book critical of the insurance industry “Delay Deny Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.”

Feinman, a professor emeritus at Rutgers University Law School, declined to comment.

Detectives believe the perpetrator was experienced with firearms based on how he slowly and deliberately carried out the shooting, CNN reported, citing police sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

Security video showed the shooter, wearing a hooded jacket, ski mask and a gray backpack, walking up behind Thompson, raising his handgun fitted with a silencer and firing at his back. Police said the gunman arrived outside the hotel several minutes before Thompson and waited for him to walk past before firing, ignoring other passers-by.

Before the report about the backpack, CNN, whose reporter John Miller is a former NYPD deputy commissioner, said police found a phone in an alley that the gunman ran through and also recovered a water bottle the shooter bought just minutes before the attack.

Miller said the best picture of the suspect’s face was captured when the man lowered his balaclava at the request of a hostel desk clerk in a flirtatious moment when she asked to see his face.

“He lowers the mask and gives that big smile. That little flirtation between the two of them in some good-humored way actually yielded what is so far the most significant clue to identifying him,” Miller said.


Europe must combat antisemitism as thousands of Jews abandon the continent, top Jewish leader says

Europe must combat antisemitism as thousands of Jews abandon the continent, top Jewish leader says
Updated 20 sec ago
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Europe must combat antisemitism as thousands of Jews abandon the continent, top Jewish leader says

Europe must combat antisemitism as thousands of Jews abandon the continent, top Jewish leader says
  • Margolin said 2025 will be a “critical year” for European Jews because the course of action that governments will take to combat antisemitism will determine the future of Jewish communities on the continent

LARNACA, Cyprus: Governments across Europe need to immediately take action against a precipitous rise in antisemitism that’s driving thousands of Jews to abandon the continent, the leader of a prominent European Jewish organization said Monday.
Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chairman of the European Jewish Association (EJA), said some 40,000 Jews have already left Europe in recent years with no intention of returning as a result of a rise in antisemitic sentiment.
Instead of a wave of solidarity with Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered a war now in its 15th month, Margolin said antisemitism has skyrocketed by 2,000 percent, according to statistics he says have been collated by organizations that monitor antisemitism.
Margolin said 2025 will be a “critical year” for European Jews because the course of action that governments will take to combat antisemitism will determine the future of Jewish communities on the continent.
“There’s still a chance that Jewish people will be living in Europe,” Margolin told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of a gala dinner honoring former Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades for his efforts to foster closer Cyprus-Israel relations during his tenure.
“But if the governments of Europe will not take serious measures that we are demanding from them in this year this is the beginning of the end of Jewish presence in Europe,” he said.
His said the EJA, the largest Jewish organization in Europe representing several hundred Jewish communities, brought together Jewish leaders from across the continent for a summit on tackling rising antisemitism.
He said European governments need to move beyond mere verbal condemnations of antisemitic behavior and take effective action to ensure the safety and security of Jewish institutions and Jews practicing their customs in Europe.
Authorities also need to establish a “code of conduct” by which demonstrations against Israel don’t devolve into antisemitic protests, Margolin said.
These immediate steps should be accompanied by “strong and swift” punishment of individuals found guilty of antisemitic actions.
Over the long term, Europe needs prosecutors who have a clear understanding of the many forms antisemitism can take, as well as programs introduced in schools to educate people against antisemitic attitudes.
“But more important is the willingness of the government to combat antisemitism,” said Margolin.
The EJA chairman said antisemitism is “coming from all sides of the political spectrum” as Russia’s war in Ukraine fuels concern and uncertainty within Europe that’s compounded by “demographic change.”
Margolin attributed political shortsightedness to European elected officials who “pretend to think that everything is just alright” and “do not understand the emergency of combating antisemitism.”
He said his organization chose to hold the summit in Cyprus because Jewish people on the eastern Mediterranean island nation feel “very, very welcome” and secure while the government has close relations with the state of Israel.
According to Margolin, opposition to the Jewish state is the prime reason for antisemitism in Europe.
“The moment the government is friendly toward Israel and understands and defends Israel’s right to defend itself, it reduces a lot of tension against Jewish people,” Margolin said.

 

 


Head of hostage NGO believes US journalist Tice still in Syria

Head of hostage NGO believes US journalist Tice still in Syria
Updated 17 min 4 sec ago
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Head of hostage NGO believes US journalist Tice still in Syria

Head of hostage NGO believes US journalist Tice still in Syria
  • Zakka said he had no information on Tice’s precise location but suspected that a deal, possibly involving pressure from Assad’s ally Russia, could see the American journalist released

DAMASCUS: The head of an American organization focused on hostage releases said on Monday he believes US journalist Austin Tice was still being held in Syria by people loyal to toppled leader Bashar Assad.
Speaking to Reuters in Damascus, Nizar Zakka said he believed Tice was being held by “very few people in a safe house in order to do an exchange or a deal.”
Zakka, a Lebanese businessman with US permanent residency who was held in Iran for four years until 2019 on charges of spying, is the president of Hostage Aid Worldwide.
He has traveled to Syria multiple times following Assad’s ouster by rebels on Dec. 8 in a bid to track down Tice, a former US Marine and a freelance journalist who was abducted in 2012 while reporting in Damascus on the uprising against Assad.

Debra Tice, mother of journalist Austin Tice who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, holds a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, U.S., May 2, 2023. (REUTERS)

Zakka said his group’s own investigation had revealed Tice was still in Syria, and that “a lot of progress” had been made in his hunt in recent weeks. But he added that Syria’s new rulers, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), had not provided much assistance.
“We were hoping that HTS would help us more, but unfortunately HTS did not help us because they had their own concerns,” he said.
Zakka said he had no information on Tice’s precise location but suspected that a deal, possibly involving pressure from Assad’s ally Russia, could see the American journalist released.
Tice was detained at a checkpoint in Daraya, near Damascus, in August 2012. Reuters was first to report that Tice managed to slip out of his cell in 2013 and was seen moving between houses in the streets of Damascus’ upscale Mazzeh neighborhood.
He was recaptured soon after his escape, likely by forces who answered directly to Assad, current and former US officials said.
Tice’s mother Debra has voiced hope that upheaval in Syria will lead to freedom for her son and has expressed gratitude for efforts by journalists and other civilians searching for him, including from Hostage Aid Worldwide.
Zakka said he was in regular touch with Debra.
“She gave us all the power and the support for us to make it happen, to find Austin and to work for Austin,” he said.

 


France’s Marine Le Pen ‘will never forgive’ herself for expelling father

France’s Marine Le Pen ‘will never forgive’ herself for expelling father
Updated 14 January 2025
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France’s Marine Le Pen ‘will never forgive’ herself for expelling father

France’s Marine Le Pen ‘will never forgive’ herself for expelling father
  • Jean-Marie Le Pen declared in 1987 that the Nazi gas chambers used to exterminate Jews are “just a detail in the history of World War II”

PARIS: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said she will never forgive herself for expelling her father Jean-Marie Le Pen from her party, after he died last week aged 96.
Nicknamed “the devil of the Republic” by opponents, Jean-Marie Le Pen was often openly racist, made no secret of anti-Semitic views, for which he received criminal convictions, and boasted of torturing prisoners during the war against Algeria.
Marine Le Pen took over as head of the National Front (FN) in 2011 but rapidly took steps toward making the party an electable force, renaming it the National Rally (RN) and embarking on a policy known as dediabolization (de-demonization).
She slung her father out of the party for his anti-Semitic views in 2015. But the pair had reconciled in recent years.
“I will never forgive myself for this decision, because I know it caused him immense pain,” he told the Journal du dimanche (JDD) newspaper in an interview published on its website late Sunday.
“This decision was one of the most difficult of my life. And until the end of my life, I will always ask myself the question: ‘could I have done this differently?’,” she said.
Jean-Marie Le Pen declared in 1987 that the Nazi gas chambers used to exterminate Jews are “just a detail in the history of World War II.”
In 2014, he said of Patrick Bruel, a Jewish singer critical of Le Pen, that he would be part of “a batch we will get next time.”
Addressing such remarks, Marine Le Pen said: “It’s somewhat unfair to judge him solely on the basis of these controversies.”
After his long political career, “it is inevitable to have subjects that arouse controversy,” she argued, while saying it was “unfortunate” that Jean-Marie Le Pen “got bogged down in these provocations.”

The interview marked a rare insight from Marine Le Pen into her relationship with her father, who was buried on Saturday in a quiet family ceremony in his home region of Brittany in western France.
Marine Le Pen, who stood three times for the Elysee and is likely preparing another run in 2027, is extremely discreet about her private and family life.
News magazine Paris Match posted a picture of Marine Le Pen in tears on being informed of the news of her father’s death, but deleted the image following protests from the RN.
Jean-Marie Le Pen’s death was announced to AFP on Tuesday in a statement signed “Le Pen Family.”
But Marine Le Pen, who was on a plane taking her back from the cyclone-ravaged French island of Mayotte to mainland France, only learned of the news afterwards, during a stopover in Nairobi.
Some French media have interpreted this as a sign of conflict within her family and with her two sisters Marie-Caroline and Yann.
“At the time, I didn’t believe it (his death). Then... knowing that he was in very fragile health, I called my sister to find out what was going on. And she was the one who told me,” she said.
 

 


Zelensky says discussed idea of Western troops in Ukraine with Macron

Zelensky says discussed idea of Western troops in Ukraine with Macron
Updated 14 January 2025
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Zelensky says discussed idea of Western troops in Ukraine with Macron

Zelensky says discussed idea of Western troops in Ukraine with Macron

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he spoke with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Monday and discussed the idea of Western “contingents” being deployed to Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader did not say whether he was talking about the West sending combat troops or peacekeepers as part of a settlement to end the nearly three-year war with Russia.
“Today I spoke with the president of France. It was a rather long and detailed conversation. We discussed defense support — various forms of defense, arms packages for Ukraine,” Zelensky said in his evening address.
“We also discussed the deployment of partner contingents and the training of our military,” he added.
Macron has floated the idea of sending Western troops to Ukraine before, including last month when he and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk discussed the possibility of stationing peacekeepers there in the event of a ceasefire.
Moscow accelerated its advances in Ukraine last year, as Kyiv’s overstretched army suffered from exhaustion and a lack of manpower.
US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to bring a swift end to the fighting when he enters office next week, raising fears in Ukraine that it will be forced to make major territorial concessions in exchange for peace.


Several Daesh fighters killed in Somalia’s Puntland state

Several Daesh fighters killed in Somalia’s Puntland state
Updated 14 January 2025
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Several Daesh fighters killed in Somalia’s Puntland state

Several Daesh fighters killed in Somalia’s Puntland state
  • “The security forces are advancing onto key hideouts of the terrorists to flush them out”

MOGADISHU: Somali security forces said they killed several Daesh fighters and seized eight terrorist outposts during ongoing military operations in the semi-autonomous Puntland region.
Daesh has a relatively small presence in Somalia compared to the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab, but experts have warned of growing activity.
A United Nations counter-terrorism official last year warned of increased attacks by Daesh affiliates in Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.
Somali military officials said Monday’s operation in the northern province was centered around the Cal Miskat mountains in the Bari region.
“The security forces took control of eight Daesh military outposts including a major one in the Cal Miskat mountains; several gunmen including foreign fighters had been killed in the military operations” the Puntland army said in a statement.
“The army shot down around nine drones loaded with explosives which Daesh tried to attack and detonate on the security forces during the fighting,” it said.
“The security forces are advancing onto key hideouts of the terrorists to flush them out.”
According to Ahmed Rage, one of the military commanders in the area, heavy fighting was underway as the Daesh “militias took positions inside a cave in the mountain,” but he added that the army was making “progress and continues to advance onto the stronghold positions.”
According to experts and officials, Daesh in Somalia is run by Abdul Qadir Mumin, a Puntland native.
“He is the most important person, the most powerful one, he is the one controlling the global Daesh network,” said Tore Hamming from the International Center for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR).