← The Headlines
The Headlines
Police Track C.E.O.’s Killer, and Biden Aides Consider Blanket Pardons
00:10:01
Plus, the spectacular rebirth of Notre-Dame.
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- [00:00]
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- [00:34]
Tracy Mumford
From the New York Times, it's the Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, December 6th. Here's what we're covering the hunt for the man who gunned down the CEO of United Healthcare in midtown Manhattan is now in its third day. He managed to disappear into Central park shortly after the shooting, and investigators still don't know his identity. But details about his movements before the attack are coming into focus. He appears to have arrived in New York by bus 10 days before the shooting. He stayed in a hostel using a fake New Jersey id, and he shared a room there with two strangers. Police have released photos that appear to be from surveillance footage at the hostel showing the clearest view yet of the man they say is the shooter. He's got a hood on, but nearly his whole face is visible. As for his motive, that's still unknown, though law enforcement officials say bullet casings collected at the scene had the words delay and deny written on them. It's not clear what that signals, but it could be a reference to the strategies insurance companies use to avoid paying claims. As one of the Nation's largest insurers, UnitedHealthcare has battled a barrage of complaints over the years, including accusations that it used an algorithm to deny some patients requests for treatment. Meanwhile, the brazen killing of Brian Thompson has other business leaders on edge.
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Emma Goldberg
In the past few years, we have seen S&P 500 companies spend more and more on executive security. But just since the shooting this week, security firms told me that their phones have been ringing off the hook.
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Tracy Mumford
Emma Goldberg is a business reporter for the Times. She says companies are asking about everything from stationing security outside their offices to getting personal bodyguards for executives and their families.
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Emma Goldberg
A Harvard Business School professor I spoke with pointed out that people are angry at corporate America for all sorts of reasons, including Purdue Pharma's role in the opioid crisis, BP's oil spill. But social media is making some of this really targeted toward the people who lead these companies. I think what struck a lot of people about the shooting this week is that Brian Thompson was not someone who was really a household name or super well known. So it's put even less prominent CEOs kind of on hyper alert about what they could do to protect themselves.
- [03:15]
Tracy Mumford
The Times has learned that staffers in the Biden administration are debating whether the president should issue a wave of pardons to people they think could be targeted by Donald Trump. Trump has repeatedly vowed to seek retribution against people he sees as his enemies. His pick to lead the FBI has also vowed to come after Trump's critics to head that off, some Biden staffers think the president should preemptively issue blanket pardons to a range of people, not because they believe they did anything wrong, but to shield them from what they fear could be unwarranted investigations or even prosecutions under Trump. Some of the names that have been floated include Liz Cheney, who helped lead the House committee investigating Trump's role in January 6th Dr. Anthony Fauci, who became a target of the far right during the pandemic, and Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who brought charges against Trump. But as the White House debates the idea, some are concerned that the plan would give the impression that the people who get pardons have actually done something wrong. One potential name on the list, Senator Adam Schiff, who played a central role in Trump's first impeachment trial, said he doesn't want a pardon, telling npr, I think it would seem defensive and unnecessary. The discussions are happening as the administration finalizes its broader list of pardons, which traditionally get issued in the final days of a president's term. The price of a single bitcoin surged to a record high this week, reaching a value of over $100,000 for the first time. When the cryptocurrency launched, it was mostly popular with a fringe group of hackers and political radicals. But it's turned out to be maybe the most successful investment product of the last two decades. Back in 2010, for example, it took about 5,000 bitcoins to buy a $20 pizza. Now that same amount of bitcoin would be worth half a billion dollars.
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David Yaffe Bellany
It's really a moment of validation for people who have believed in this technology for years and years, even as the establishment dismissed it as kind of a passing fad. The 100,000 mark shows that it's really a part of the mainstream. It's sort of undeniable that bitcoin has arrived.
- [05:38]
Tracy Mumford
David Yaffe Bellany covers the cryptocurrency industry for the Times. He says the value of bitcoin was already rising this year, then skyrocketed in the past month after Trump was elected.
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David Yaffe Bellany
He used to be a kind of bitcoin denier. He said it was a scam. He said it would undermine the US Dollar. But he changed his tune on the campaign trail this year as contributions started flowing in from the crypto industry. He said that he would end the federal government' crackdown on the crypto industry, that he would create a strategic US Stockpile of bitcoin. And it's those promises and his ultimate victory that has propelled the price of bitcoin and the price of so many other cryptocurrencies to new heights.
- [06:23]
Tracy Mumford
Last night on social media, Trump announced that he's creating a new position in his upcoming administration, a crypto and AI czar. And he named David Sachs, one of Silicon Valley's most prominent conservative investors and a donor to his campaign, to fill the role. Sachs has called for both the crypto and AI industries to be less regulated. He'll be taking on the new role part time so that he's not required to leave the venture capital fund that he runs. And finally, on April 15, 2019, the City of Paris watched in disbelief as a fire tore through Notre Dame. The cathedral is the heart of the city. 14 million tourists a year came to see it, more than the Eiffel Tower. And suddenly, it was in flames. Smoke poured from the building, and the fire, whose exact cause is still unknown, spread to the structure's iconic spire before it toppled and crashed down through the ceiling.
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Aurelian Breeden
Like, I saw a lot of people crying on the streets, and it's all because it's the symbol. It's the symbol of France, it's the symbol of generations.
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Tracy Mumford
French President Emmanuel Macron immediately vowed to rebuild, and he promised to do it in five years. Some people were skeptical that was even possible, given all the damage. But this weekend, the doors of Notre Dame will reopen to the public.
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French Historian or Expert
It really was a remarkable effort over the past five years. And the first thing they had to do was secure the cathedral, stabilize it, because right after the fire, it was dangerously close to collapsing.
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Tracy Mumford
My colleague, Aurelian Breeden has been covering the reconstruction in which artisan craftsmen were brought in to try and rebuild the cathedral exactly as it was.
- [08:20]
French Historian or Expert
They had to find the right limestone in the right quarries. They had to find the right trees. And so they sourced over 2,000 oak trees from around the country. And the attention to detail, I would say, was immense. So, for example, the carpenters who hand hewed some of their beams in Normandy were using axes that were specifically forged for the project, which just kind of shows you how every single part of this project was thought out with extraordinary care, aurelian says.
- [08:46]
Tracy Mumford
They also had to clean the whole cathedral. The roof was made of lead, so toxic dust settled onto everything after the fire, including the massive organ, which is one of the oldest in the world. Cleaning it meant dismantling and then reassembling about 8,000 organ pipes. Tomorrow, the organ will be played for the first time since the fire as part of an elaborate ceremony marking Notre Dame's reopening.
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French Historian or Expert
The cathedral is obviously a very special place for Catholics, for religious pilgrims. It's also one of the most heavily visited tourist monuments in the world. But I think even just for ordinary Parisians, even those who, you know, complain about all the tourists that invade the city, it was a very central monument where people could stop, go in, take time to reflect. And this reopening is really an opportunity to do that again. There's a lot of excitement building around that.
- [09:50]
Tracy Mumford
Those are the headlines today on the Daily how one businessman in Austin, Texas, is spending millions of dollars on a social experiment to try and tackle homelessness. That's next in the New York Times audio app, where you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. This show is made by Robert Jemison, Jessica Mesker, Jan Stewart and me, Tracy Mumford, with help from Isabella Anderson. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Larissa Anderson, Michael Levinson, Jake Lucas, Zoe Murphy and Paula Schumann. The headlines will be back on Monday with my colleague Megan Spicha.