Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot outside a hotel in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning, according to a person briefed on the investigation. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the investigation. Police did not release the victim’s name, but said a 50-year-old was shot around 6:45 a.m. outside a Hilton before the shooter fled. He was taken to a nearby hospital but could not be saved. UnitedHealthcare is the insurance arm of the health care giant UnitedHealth Group Inc. The company was scheduled to have its annual meeting with investors Wednesday morning in New York City, according to a company media advisory.

Georgian police on Wednesday raided the offices of an opposition party and arrested its leader in an apparent attempt to squelch a wave of mass protests triggered by the governing party’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union. During the past six nights, riot police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, who threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the Georgian capital’s central boulevard. More than 300 protesters have been detained since Thursday and over 100 people have been treated for injuries. On Wednesday, the Coalition for Change opposition party said that police raided its offices and detained its leader, Nika Gvaramia. It shared a video showing several officers dragging Gvaramia into a car.

President-elect Donald Trump dialed in to what was described as a “love fest” Tuesday with Senate Republicans as they begin laying the groundwork for control of government in the new year, and a potential first-30-days agenda. Trump’s brief call was more celebratory than a prescriptive policy agenda, according to those attending the private GOP retreat, encouraging the senators to confirm his Cabinet nominees as they launch an agenda of tax cuts, deportations and other priorities. “It was a love fest,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo. “There was a real sense of unity in the room.” The virtual visit comes as Congress is finishing up the final weeks of what, by most measures, has been among the more chaotic sessions in modern times.

An IDF investigation has determined that six hostages abducted by Hamas were likely executed by their captors amid an airstrike on a Hamas tunnel in Khan Younis, Gaza. As YWN reported at the time, the bodies of the hostages were recovered on August 20, over three months after their deaths. YWN had reported at the time that they had been executed as their bodies were found riddled with bullets, and the IDF is releasing confirmed details now. The victims, identified as Alex Dancyg, 75, Yagev Buchshtav, 35, Chaim Peri, 79, Yoram Metzger, 80, Nadav Popplewell, 51, and Avraham Munder, 78, were taken hostage during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

New Jersey interim Sen. George Helmy, a Democrat appointed when Bob Menendez resigned after a federal corruption conviction, is stepping down this weekend so Sen.-elect Andy Kim can be sworn in early. The move was expected and confirmed what Helmy and Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy announced during his appointment this summer — that Helmy would resign early so the winner of November’s election could get into office before the start of the new session of Congress next month. Murphy explained the arrangement, saying he wanted the “democratically chosen winner” of this year’s election to have a smooth transition into office. Kim defeated Republican businessman Curtis Bashaw on Election Day. He’ll become the first Korean-American in the Senate when he is sworn in on Monday.

South Korea’s main opposition party on Wednesday urged President Yoon Suk Yeol to resign immediately or face impeachment, hours after Yoon ended short-lived martial law that prompted troops to encircle parliament before lawmakers voted to lift it. Yoon didn’t make any immediate public response to the opposition’s demand. But his office said senior presidential advisers and secretaries for Yoon offered to resign collectively and the president also put off his official Wednesday morning schedule. In the capital, tourists and residents walked around, traffic and construction were heard, and other than crowds of police holding shields, it seemed like a normal sunny, cold December morning.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary, spent a second day Tuesday on Capitol Hill, meeting privately with Republican senators amid rising questions about his ability to effectively lead the Pentagon. Hegseth told reporters he was planning to sit down with senators, even with those potentially skeptical of his nomination. “We’re going to meet with every senator that wants to meet with us, across the board,” Hegseth as he went from office to office Tuesday.

Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, was recently informed by the bureau that he had been targeted in a cyberattack by Iranian hackers, according to a report by CNN on Tuesday that also said the hackers may have gained access to some of Patel’s communications during the breach. The incident is part of a broader pattern of Iranian hacking efforts aimed at Trump associates. In September, the Justice Department charged three members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for a series of cyberattacks targeting Trump campaign staffers during the 2020 presidential election.

Chad Chronister, Donald Trump’s pick to run the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Tuesday he was withdrawing his name from consideration, becoming the second person selected by the president-elect to bow out quickly after being nominated for a position requiring Senate confirmation. Sheriff Chronister, the top law enforcement officer in Hillsborough County, Florida, said in a post on X that he was backing away from the opportunity, which he called “the honor of a lifetime.” “Over the past several days, as the gravity of this very important responsibility set in, I’ve concluded that I must respectfully withdraw from consideration,” Chronister wrote. He did not elaborate, and Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers formally asked a judge Monday to throw out his hush money criminal conviction, arguing that continuing the case would present unconstitutional “disruptions to the institution of the Presidency.“ In a filing made public Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers told Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan that anything short of immediate dismissal would undermine the transition of power, as well as the “overwhelming national mandate” granted to Trump by voters last month. They also cited President Joe Biden’s recent pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of tax and gun charges. “President Biden asserted that his son was ‘selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,’ and ‘treated differently,’” Trump’s legal team wrote.