WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
NYPD hunts killer, flu cases surge, and Europe's growing wolf problem

 
today's international story

New York police hunt insurance boss killer

What happened
Police in New York have released two photos of a man they believe fatally shot the chief executive of one of America's largest health insurers. UnitedHealthcare boss Brian Thompson was killed on Wednesday morning outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan in what New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch called a "brazen, targeted attack".

Who said what
Investigators have not established a motive in the shooting, but a series of developments – including a possible link to a gun purchased in Connecticut and the discovery of bullet casings inscribed with the words "deny", "defend" and "depose" – suggest police "could be inching closer to identifying the gunman", said The New York Times.

UnitedHealth Group had recently received several threats, said CNN, although according to a source Thompson's name "was not specifically mentioned". Thompson's wife Paulette told NBC News the threats may have been tied to "lack of coverage", but she didn't "know details". People in Thompson's "much-reviled industry" are "routinely inundated with lawsuits and complaints" from customers "enraged" about being "denied medical coverage", said The Wall Street Journal.

What next?
The killing has "shocked the corporate world", said The Times. Dozens of chief security officers from Fortune 500 companies met yesterday to review their safety measures, especially for executives working and travelling in New York, said Dave Komendat, a retired chief security officer at Boeing who attended the meeting.

 
 
today's politics story

Reform UK overtakes Labour in national poll

What happened
Reform UK has leapfrogged Labour in a national opinion poll for the first time, pushing Keir Starmer's party into third place. The voting intention poll conducted by Find Out Now shows the Tories on 26%, Reform UK on 24% and Labour on 23%, a dip of two points since last week.

Who said what
Sharing news of the poll on his X account last night, Reform leader Nigel Farage wrote: "And we're just getting started."

The findings are "currently an outlier", cautioned The Daily Telegraph. Labour has led Reform by between seven and 11 points in polls conducted by BMG, JL Partners and More in Common in recent weeks.

What next?
"This is just one poll," said Neal Lawson, the director of Compass, a progressive campaign group. But Labour slipping into third place "should send alarm bells ringing".

"The trend is becoming increasingly clear," added Lawson. "Without a plan to deliver real and lasting change – and a mandate for it – Labour will fall prey to the incumbency curse we're seeing across the world."

 
 
Today's health story

Flu cases pile pressure on strained NHS

What happened
The NHS in England is busier than it has ever been heading into winter, according to Professor Stephen Powis, the country's medical director.

About 95% of beds are already occupied at the start of December in England, "rates normally only seen in the depths of winter", said the BBC.

Who said what
The number of people in hospital with flu has more than quadrupled compared with last year, said Powis, while there have also been rises in the number of cases of Covid, norovirus and respiratory syncytial virus.

Rory Deighton, of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, said: "These figures are deeply worrying as they provide yet more evidence that the NHS is already under considerable strain before the pressures of winter have peaked."

What next?
NHS bosses are urging people to take up the flu vaccine if they are eligible. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said an annual winter NHS crisis had become "the norm" and that this must change.

 
 

It's not all bad

A mile-long network of tunnels in central London, dug during the Blitz, is being refurbished into what is projected to become one of the capital's leading tourist attractions. The tunnels, which sit between the British Museum and Tate Modern, were built as bomb shelters in 1941, then later used by British spies. Now they are being renovated at a cost of £220 million in a development that Angus Murray, the Australian banker heading up the project, hopes will one day be "a rival for the London Eye".

 
 
under the radar

Europe's growing wolf problem

In 2022 a grey wolf in Germany's Lower Saxony region killed a pony called Dolly. It is not unknown for wolves to kill other animals, but this one had messed with the wrong pony: Dolly was the beloved pet of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

Dolly's death-by-wolf set in motion a chain of events that culminated in a historic vote in Strasbourg this week that modified the protection status of wolves. It's seen as a "major win" for farmers who want "more freedom to shoot animals that threaten their livestock", said Politico.

In the wake of Dolly's death, von der Leyen campaigned for a rethink of the European Union's protected status policy on wolves. Many rural communities shared her anger at not being able to take action against the estimated 21,000 wolves running in packs across Europe, killing 40,000 sheep, goats and cattle every year, said The Times.

There have also been reports of attacks on humans. Last month a school student "was reportedly harassed by a wolf pack" in a Dutch national park just months after a toddler had been attacked by a wolf in the same area.

At a meeting in Strasbourg this week, members of the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats voted to change the status of wolves from "strictly protected" to "protected". This "clears the way" for the EU to "modify their own directive and make it easier" for member states to grant permission to kill wolves "deemed to pose a threat to farmers' livestock", said Politico.

Conservationists maintain that, rather than seeking to kill wolves, farmers should use "electric fences, livestock guarding dogs and a human presence", said Euronews, but Niall Curley, a senior policy advisor at the EU farmers' association Copa-Cogeca, said those sorts of measures were "just not good enough".

 
 
on this day

6 December 1240

Mongols led by Batu Khan occupied and destroyed Kyiv after an eight-day siege. Out of 50,000 people in the city, only 2,000 survived. This week Vladimir Putin said Russia could use its new Oreshnik hypersonic missile to attack "decision-making centres" in Kyiv in response to Ukraine's firing of Western missiles at Russian territory.

 
 
Today's newspapers

The prime minister's speech setting out key benchmarks to judge the government by gets a mixed reception in this morning's papers. The i Paper says Keir Starmer is "gambling the next election on making voters feel better off". The Daily Mail describes Starmer's speech as a "bingo hall parade of buzzwords and political nerdspeak". Meanwhile, says The Guardian, the NHS is facing a "quad-demic" as cases of flu, Covid, norovirus and respiratory synctial virus are soaring. "We're four it now", says The Mirror.

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Habitual offender?

A nun has been arrested as part of an investigation into the ‘Ndrangheta mafia in the northern Italian city of Brescia. Sister Anna Donelli, a volunteer in Milan's San Vittore prison, is suspected of acting as a go-between for the criminal group and its jailed gang members. According to Rai news, the nun has been volunteering at the prison since 2010 and has also worked in prisons in Pavia and Rome. Donelli is well-known for her service in Milan's rundown districts and received the city's annual "Golden Panettone" civic award earlier this year.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Jamie Timson and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: New York Police Department handout; Benjamin Cremel / AFP / Getty Images; Mike Kemp / In Pictures / Getty Images.