News Wrap: United Healthcare CEO killed in brazen and targeted attack, New York police say

Geoff Bennett:

The day's other headlines start with what New York City police called the brazen targeted killing of a major health insurance CEO in the heart of Midtown Manhattan; 50-year-old Brian Thompson, chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, one of the nation's largest health insurers, was shot and killed just before dawn outside of a hotel where investors had gathered for a conference.

Investigators said the masked suspect waited several minutes for Thompson's arrival before shooting him and fleeing on a bike. There is no motive yet and no arrests have been made.

Turning overseas now to South Korea, opposition parties moved to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol one day after he ordered a brief, but chaotic period of martial law. The declaration came without warning late Tuesday, which Yoon said was to quash anti-state forces.

Armed troops encircled the National Assembly and lawmakers climbed walls and scuffled with soldiers to get back into the building, where they voted unanimously to lift the order. Today, members of opposition parties and their supporters gathered across the capital to demand that Yoon resign.

Lawmakers spoke of the seriousness of the moment.

Cheon Ha-Ram, Member, New Reform Party (through interpreter):

Impeaching a president is not really a fun thing to do, not even for a lawmaker. But this person, Yoon Suk Yeol, has done something crazy that violates the Constitution. He basically committed a coup d'etat. Impeachment is not a choice anymore. It's a must.

Geoff Bennett:

Impeaching Yoon would require two-thirds support in both South Korea's Parliament and its nine-member Constitutional Court. The motion could come to a vote as soon as Friday.

In Gaza, Palestinian officials say at least 21 people were killed in a nighttime Israeli strike on a tent camp along Gaza's southern coast, a humanitarian zone where thousands of displaced people were seeking refuge. The Israeli military said its targets were senior Hamas militants who were — quote — "involved in terrorist activities." More deadly strikes earlier in Central Gaza killed eight people, including four children.

The head of NATO is urging the alliance to ramp up its defense spending weeks ahead of president-elect Trump's return to office. Mr. Trump has threatened not to defend NATO members, who he says are delinquent in meeting spending targets of 2 percent of their GDP. About a third of the alliance's nations still fall short of that target.

And, today, Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that 2 percent level may not even be sufficient.

Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary-General:

I believe strongly, and I know many allies believe strongly, that 2 percent is simply not enough. It is simply not enough if longer term we want to keep our deterrence at the level it is now. Now it is OK. We can now defend ourselves and nobody should try to attack us. But I want that to stay the same in four or five years.

Geoff Bennett:

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said of the alliance today that it was, in his words, a time for every ally to lean in, not lean back.

Police in the country of Georgia arrested an opposition leader today in an apparent attempt to stamp out political dissent amid days of mass demonstrations. The pro-Western Coalition for Change Party shared this video of authorities dragging Nika Gvaramia into a car after raiding its offices in the capital city of Tbilisi.

That didn't stop thousands of demonstrators from flooding the streets for a seventh straight night. Georgians are protesting their largely pro-Russian government's decision to suspend negotiations to join the European Union. More than 300 protesters have been detained.

Millions of people across Cuba are without electricity yet again after one of the island's major power plants failed. As the sun rose over Havana this morning, the buildings remained dark. It's the third massive blackout in just over six weeks, but other smaller outages have been frequent.

Most have been caused by fuel shortages, as well as Cuba's aging infrastructure. The minister of energy says power should be fully restored by tomorrow.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell offered some optimism today, saying that the economy is in remarkably good shape. That helped to send stocks to record highs across the board. The Dow Jones industrial average soared more than 300 points to finish above 45000 for the first time ever. The Nasdaq added 1.3 percent to reach its own record, and the S&P 500 also set an all-time high.

And it's that time of the year, when the streaming service Spotify releases its annual top artists and listening trends known as Spotify Wrapped. It's become a bit of a cultural phenomenon, and, this year, listeners across the globe made one thing clear, and that's women dominated the charts.

Eight of the top 10 most-streamed albums worldwide were by female artists, and perhaps it should come as no surprise that Taylor Swift snagged the top album spot. In the U.S., the most-streamed song was "Espresso" by Sabrina Carpenter. And Joe Rogan again had the number one most-listened-to podcast for the fourth year running.