NEW YORK (AP) — Brian Thompson led one of the biggest health insurers in the U.S. but was unknown to millions of people his decisions affected. Then Wednesday's targeted fatal shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk thrust the executive and his business into the national spotlight. Thompson, who was 50, had worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group Inc for 20 years and run the insurance arm since 2021 after running its Medicare and retirement business. As CEO, Thompson led a firm that provides health coverage to more than 49 million Americans — more than the population of Spain. United is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans, the privately run versions of the U.S. government’s Medicare program for people age 65 and older. The company also sells individual insurance and administers health-insurance coverage for thousands of employers and state-and federally funded Medicaid programs. The business run by Thompson brought in $281 billion in revenue last year, making it the largest subsidiary of the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group. His $10.2 million annual pay package, including salary, bonus and stock options awards, made him one of the company's highest-paid executives. The University of Iowa graduate began his career as a certified public accountant at PwC and had little name recognition beyond the health care industry. Even to investors who own its stock, the parent company's face belonged to CEO Andrew Witty, a knighted British triathlete who has testified before Congress. When Thompson did occasionally draw attention, it was because of his role in shaping the way Americans get health care. At an investor meeting last year, he outlined his company's shift to “value-based care,” paying doctors and other caregivers to keep patients healthy rather than focusing on treating them once sick. “Health care should be easier for people,” Thompson said at the time. “We are cognizant of the challenges. But navigating a future through value-based care unlocks a situation where the ... family doesn’t have to make the decisions on their own.” Thompson also drew attention in 2021 when the insurer, like its competitors, was widely criticized for a plan to start denying payment for what it deemed non-critical visits to hospital emergency rooms. “Patients are not medical experts and should not be expected to self-diagnose during what they believe is a medical emergency,” the chief executive of the American Hospital Association wrote in an open letter addressed to Thompson. “Threatening patients with a financial penalty for making the wrong decision could have a chilling effect on seeking emergency care.” United Healthcare responded by delaying rollout of the change. Thompson, who lived in a Minneapolis suburb and was the married father of two sons in high school, was set to speak at an investor meeting in a midtown New York hotel. He was on his own and about to enter the building when he was shot in the back by a masked assailant who fled on foot before pedaling an e-bike into Central Park a few blocks away, the New York Police Department said. Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said investigators were looking at Thompson's social media accounts and interviewing employees and family members. “Didn’t seem like he had any issues at all,” Kenny said. "He did not have a security detail.” AP reporters Michael R. Sisak and Steve Karnowski contributed to this report. Murphy reported from Indianapolis. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get local news delivered to your inbox!Stock market today: Wall Street rises at the start of a holiday-shortened weekNEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose to records Tuesday after Donald Trump’s latest talk about tariffs created only some ripples on Wall Street, even if they could roil the global economy were they to take effect. The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to top the all-time high it set a couple weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 123 points, or 0.3%, to its own record set the day before, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.6% as Microsoft and Big Tech led the way. People are also reading... 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Stock markets abroad mostly fell after President-elect Trump said he plans to impose sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China once he takes office. But the movements were mostly modest. Stock indexes were down 0.1% in Shanghai and nearly flat in Hong Kong, while Canada’s main index edged down by less than 0.1%. Trump has often praised the use of tariffs , but investors are weighing whether his latest threat will actually become policy or is just an opening point for negotiations. For now, the market seems to be taking it more as the latter. The consequences otherwise for markets and the global economy could be painful. Unless the United States can prepare alternatives for the autos, energy products and other goods that come from Mexico, Canada and China, such tariffs would raise the price of imported items all at once and make households poorer, according to Carl Weinberg and Rubeela Farooqi, economists at High Frequency Economics. They would also hurt profit margins for U.S. companies, while raising the threat of retaliatory tariffs by other countries. And unlike tariffs in Trump’s first term, his latest proposal would affect products across the board. General Motors sank 9%, and Ford Motor fell 2.6% because both import automobiles from Mexico. Constellation Brands, which sells Modelo and other Mexican beer brands in the United States, dropped 3.3%. The value of the Mexican peso fell 1.8% against the U.S. dollar. Beyond the pain such tariffs would cause U.S. households and businesses, they could also push the Federal Reserve to slow or even halt its cuts to interest rates. The Fed had just begun easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high a couple months ago to offer support for the job market . While lower interest rates can boost the economy, they can also offer more fuel for inflation. “Many” officials at the Fed’s last meeting earlier this month said they should lower rates gradually, according to minutes of the meeting released Tuesday afternoon. The talk about tariffs overshadowed another mixed set of profit reports from U.S. retailers that answered few questions about how much more shoppers can keep spending. They’ll need to stay resilient after helping the economy avoid a recession, despite the high interest rates imposed by the Fed to get inflation under control. A report on Tuesday from the Conference Board said confidence among U.S. consumers improved in November, but not by as much as economists expected. Kohl’s tumbled 17% after its results for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations. CEO Tom Kingsbury said sales remain soft for apparel and footwear. A day earlier, Kingsbury said he plans to step down as CEO in January. Ashley Buchanan, CEO of Michaels and a retail veteran, will replace him. Best Buy fell 4.9% after likewise falling short of analysts’ expectations. Dick’s Sporting Goods topped forecasts for the latest quarter thanks to a strong back-to-school season, but its stock lost an early gain to fall 1.4%. Still, more stocks rose in the S&P 500 than fell. J.M. Smucker had one of the biggest gains and climbed 5.7% after topping analysts’ expectations for the latest quarter. CEO Mark Smucker credited strength for its Uncrustables, Meow Mix, Café Bustelo and Jif brands. Big Tech stocks also helped prop up U.S. indexes. Gains of 3.2% for Amazon and 2.2% for Microsoft were the two strongest forces lifting the S&P 500. All told, the S&P 500 rose 34.26 points to 6,021.63. The Dow gained 123.74 to 44,860.31, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 119.46 to 19,174.30. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady following their big drop from a day before driven by relief following Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary. The yield on the 10-year Treasury inched up to 4.29% from 4.28% late Monday, but it’s still well below the 4.41% level where it ended last week. In the crypto market, bitcoin continued to pull back after topping $99,000 for the first time late last week. It’s since dipped back toward $91,000, according to CoinDesk. It’s a sharp turnaround from the bonanza that initially took over the crypto market following Trump’s election. That boom had also appeared to have spilled into some corners of the stock market. Strategists at Barclays Capital pointed to stocks of unprofitable companies, along with other areas that can be caught up in bursts of optimism by smaller-pocketed “retail” investors. AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 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I've been building technology companies for over two decades. But my journey begins far from the glitzy headquarters and investment offices of Silicon Valley, in the fields of rural China. My early life gave few indications of the journey of discovery that lay ahead. It was simple, fraught with challenges—and perhaps counterintuitively, it planted the seeds of curiosity and boundary-pushing that have driven me right down to the present day. My family and I scratched out a living by farming rice, corn, wheat and vegetables; meat was rationed by the government. Life in the village was straightforward but challenging, and opportunities were limited. For children, there were two possible paths. Do well academically and you might leave for the university; otherwise, you would lead the same rural life as so many generations had before. The starkness of the choice sharpened my focus, and I developed an unshakable work ethic and a hunger for exploration that has fueled my journey ever since. Education became my way out. I endured the monotony of endless exams and rote lessons, ultimately earning a spot at Sichuan University to study electrical engineering. Later on, I was accepted to the graduate school at Tsinghua University, often dubbed the "MIT of China." The experience was intense but gratifying—a world where talent and hard work converged. College was my first glimpse of freedom, the first time I experienced the joy of camaraderie and exploration. It was there that I began to understand the transformative power of technology and to see learning not just as a means to escape my own poverty but as a world of possibilities in its own right. Taking the Leap And as it turned out, everything up to that point was prologue. That's because after graduation I took the great leap across the ocean to the United States. At the University of Florida, I completed my Ph.D. in computer engineering—just as the dot-com bubble was bursting. Graduating into a challenging job market, I moved to Texas to work at Verizon while pursuing an MBA at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. This period fundamentally reshaped how I viewed leadership. I had always approached team building with a technical mindset. I thought of people as fungible components of a system, resources to be optimized. The MBA experience opened my eyes to the importance of understanding people as individuals with unique motivations and potential to unlock. That paradigm shift became a cornerstone of my leadership style, influencing how I work to empower teams to achieve their best work. From Texas, I moved to Minnesota. Its people are famously friendly, but the local culture is full of nuances that can be challenging for an immigrant like me to grasp. Meetings could be minefields of cultural references I didn't understand. This experience deepened my empathy and gave me new insight I still use in motivating teams today, striving to ensure that everyone feels seen and heard. In 2008, I moved to California and joined Google . For the first time since arriving in the U.S., I felt a deep sense of belonging. Silicon Valley's culture of inclusivity and openness allowed me to thrive as a unique individual; my peers encouraged me to think big and tackle challenges others thought impossible. One of my proudest achievements was leading the engineering of Google Fi, a virtual mobile service provider that redefined the telecom industry. We dreamed of switching between networks seamlessly, auto-connecting to open WiFi with VPN enabled, and eliminating the complexities of international roaming for users altogether. Experts said our vision was impossible, both technically and commercially. But with relentless focus, we succeeded. To this day, I'm still a proud Google Fi user, and meeting others who use the service gives me a unique sense of joy and accomplishment. Not every project succeeded, though, and one of the most valuable lessons came from failure. With Google Offers, we scaled too quickly, building a large team before we had achieved product-market fit. Our core experience relied on mobile location accuracy, which wasn't reliable enough on Android or iOS in 2013. It was a costly mistake, but it taught me the importance of timing and focus. My time at Google was transformative. It wasn't just a place where I built innovative projects—it was where I built the confidence to lead, to learn from failure and to share my vision with others. Becoming a Founder I ultimately left to co-found Leap.ai, a company focused on using machine learning to match people with jobs, which was acquired by Facebook . Co-founding a successful startup gave me confidence in my leadership abilities and skills as an entrepreneur, as well as a hunger to do more. After Facebook, I joined a fintech company, Earnin, as chief technology officer. Millions of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and Earnin allowed users to access their wages before payday without predatory fees. The company's innovative model, which relied on voluntary tips, resonated deeply with me. At Earnin, I also saw the limitations of traditional finance. Despite the company's success, it struggled to access debt facilities required to scale its operations from traditional banks. This challenge planted a seed in my mind. I decided to work to transform payment financing using blockchain technologies. This vision is grounded in fairness and efficiency, inspired by both my personal journey and my professional growth. Looking Back, Pushing Ahead Blockchain represents more than just a technological breakthrough—it's a rethinking of value and ownership that in many ways ties together the different threads of my journey. In traditional tech, early users help refine algorithms and shape platforms but rarely share in the wealth they create. Web3 changes that, enabling communities to co-create and co-own the value they generate. It's not just a technological shift; it's an opportunity to build fairer systems. I knew my next step was to help develop these powerful innovations. Today, at the latest stage of my journey, I'm committed to building technology that empowers individuals and redistributes opportunity in a way that genuinely reflects the value of the contributions of the community. My journey from farm boy to founder has instilled a belief that technology is our best hope for a better future. I'm working hard to deliver that future—for everyone. Richard Liu is co-founder and co-CEO of Huma Finance, the first PayFi network, which powers financing of global payments with instant access to liquidity anywhere, anytime.None
Woman learns she’s been declared dead while trying to claim Social Security – small mistake led to 2-year nightmareThe alleged perpetrator of the deadly car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Germany had been contacted by police just weeks before the incident. or signup to continue reading The attack in the central city of Magdeburg on Friday evening, which killed five people including a nine-year-old boy, is believed to have been carried out by a Saudi national identified only as Taleb A according to German privacy laws. The number of people injured in the rampage has climbed to 235. The suspect has been living in Germany since 2006 and was granted political refugee status in 2016. He was most recently working as a doctor in the town of Bernburg, south of Magdeburg. Taleb A was detained at the scene and is being held in police custody, with investigators searching for a motive amid suggestions that authorities failed to heed warnings about the man. Tamara Zieschang, the interior minister of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, told MPs in Magdeburg on Monday that police met the man twice - in September 2023 and October 2024 - to warn him about his behaviour. Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry of the northern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern said that Taleb A became known to authorities as a potential suspect in 2015. Regional authorities had informed the Federal Criminal Police Office at the Joint Counter-Terrorism Centre, which is supported by Germany's federal and regional government, about the man's possible intention to carry out an attack on February 6, 2015, it said. The report concerned threats to carry out actions that would attract international attention against a medical association in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in April 2013 and one year later against a local authority in the northern German city of Stralsund. The Mecklenburg-Vorpommern interior minister, Christian Pegel, said the 50-year-old suspect had lived in the state from 2011-16 and had completed parts of his specialist medical training in Stralsund. He said the man had been involved in a dispute with the medical association about the recognition of examination results and had later threatened the social services in Stralsund in an attempt to obtain assistance with living costs. A district court fined Taleb A for threatening the medical association, Pegel said. However, he added, the previous investigations had not revealed any evidence of real preparations for an attack or Islamist connections. The man was warned by the police and told that he would be monitored more closely but was not classified as a threat, Pegel said. Advertisement Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date. We care about the protection of your data. Read our . Advertisement
2024 : A ROLLER COASTER YEAR FOR BOLLYWOODUS Attorney Andrew Luger prepares to leave office while GOP readies candidates for Trump to consider