Arts & Lifestyle

UnitedHealth Group on Wednesday canceled its investor day after reports that the CEO of its insurer unit, Brian Thompson, was fatally shot in Manhattan.

Thompson led UnitedHealthcare, the largest private health insurer in the U.S.

A spokesperson for the New York Police Department’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information confirmed that a 50-year-old male was shot in midtown Manhattan at 6:46 a.m. ET on Wednesday. But the spokesperson did not confirm the identity of the man.

UnitedHealth Group was hosting its investor day at the New York Hilton hotel in midtown. UnitedHealth Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Eli Lilly on Wednesday said its obesity drug Zepbound led to more weight loss than its main rival, Novo Nordisk‘s Wegovy, in the first head-to-head clinical trial on the weekly injections. 

The findings suggest Zepbound may be a superior treatment for weight loss, helping obese or overweight patients lose 20.2% of their body weight, or roughly 50 pounds, on average after 72 weeks in the phase three trial. Meanwhile, Wegovy helped people lose 13.7% of their weight, or about 33 pounds, on average after the same time period.  

Eli Lilly said Zepbound provided a 47% higher relative weight reduction compared with Wegovy in the trial. The company added that more than 31% of people taking Zepbound lost at least a quarter of their body weight, compared to just about 16% of those on Wegovy who lost that much weight.

Separate studies on the drugs, along with a recent head-to-head analysis of health records, have similarly implied that Zepbound outperforms Wegovy in terms of weight loss. A late-stage study on Zepbound showed that it helped patients lose more than 22% of their weight on average over 72 weeks, while a separate study on Wegovy showed that it led to 15% weight loss on average over 68 weeks.

But the Wednesday data appears to be the most concrete evidence of Zepbound’s edge, as the trial randomly assigned 751 patients to receive the maximum dose of either drug. The study specifically followed patients who were obese or overweight with at least one weight-related medical condition, not including diabetes.

“Given the increased interest around obesity medications, we conducted this study to help health care providers and patients make informed decisions about treatment choice,” Dr. Leonard Glass, senior vice president of global medical affairs at Eli Lilly Cardiometabolic Health, said in a release.

Eli Lilly is still evaluating the results, which it plans to publish in a peer-reviewed journal and present at a medical meeting next year.

The most common side effects of both drugs were gastrointestinal and generally mild to moderate in severity.

Zepbound’s greater weight loss is a huge advantage for Eli Lilly, which is competing with Novo Nordisk for a larger share of the booming weight loss drug market. Some analysts expect the space to be worth $150 billion a year by the early 2030s. 

Wegovy entered the market around two years before Zepbound, which won approval in the U.S. in late 2023. Still, some analysts believe Zepbound has a strong shot of becoming the best-selling drug of all time after more years on the market.

Data analytics firm GlobalData forecasts Zepbound will generate $27.2 billion in annual sales by 2030 and Wegovy will book $18.7 billion in annual revenue by the same year, according to data from November. 

Demand has far outstripped supply for Zepbound, Wegovy and their diabetes counterparts over the last year, forcing Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to pour billions into expanding their manufacturing capacity for the injections. Those efforts appear to be paying off, as the Food and Drug Administration now lists all doses of those treatments as “available” on its drug shortage database. 

Still, some patients struggle to access the drugs due to the spotty insurance coverage of weight loss treatments in the U.S. Without insurance or other savings, Zepbound and Wegovy both cost around $1,000 per month. 

The treatments work differently. 

Zepbound tamps down appetite and regulates blood sugar by activating two gut hormones, called GIP and GLP-1. Wegovy activates GLP-1 but does not target GIP, which some researchers say may also affect how the body breaks down sugar and fat.

U.S. airline executives are set to defend their seating fees before a Senate panel Wednesday after the subcommittee accused the industry of charging “junk” fees to bring in billions in revenue.

American, Delta, United, Spirit and Frontier brought in $12.4 billion in seating fees between 2018 and 2023, according to a report released Nov. 26 by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Those extra charges are for seats with additional legroom, as well as those in “preferred” locations that are closer to the front of the plane, or window or aisle seats, the report noted.

“Our seat selection products are all voluntary,” Stephen Johnson, American’s chief strategy officer, said in written testimony ahead of the hearing. “For customers who value sitting in more in-demand locations, we do offer the opportunity to pay for more desirable seats.”

The Biden administration and some lawmakers have promised to crack down on so-called “junk” fees and have cited the airline industry as a target for cuts.

Executives at large airlines have defended their strategy to offer several types of economy service and add-on fees for selection of certain seats or checked bags, things that used to come for free with a ticket, and have said these options are communicated to customers.

Meanwhile, carriers have been racing to add more premium seats on board to increase revenue.

“Fares that may require a fee to select a seat, for example, are clearly denoted with a symbol indicating that a seat in a different fare class or with extra legroom will need to be purchased for a fee,” Johnson said. “Similar information is included for potential bag and other fees.”

Discounters such as Spirit and Frontier, which pioneered the fee-based model in the U.S., prompted competitors to come up with their own bare-bones basic economy class. Spirit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November after a failed acquisition by JetBlue Airways, a Pratt & Whitney engine recall, increased competition and more demanding consumer tastes.

The hearing, which begins at 10 a.m. ET, will also include testimony from executives from Delta, United, Frontier and Spirit.

A trip to Egypt — the first my brother and I took as adults with our parents — quickly went off the rails.

After spending Christmas in the Sinai Peninsula, we drove our rental car back to Cairo. At the hotel, a well-dressed man, whom my father mistook for a hotel valet, offered to move our car. “Thank you,” my father said with a smile, handing over the keys. The only thing that the imposter left was a 10-foot skid mark.

That car heist unleashed a bewildering series of encounters. First, we had to convince the car rental agency that we were not trying to swindle a Toyota from the company. Then we had to battle the police — who arrived at the hotel at 3 a.m. — armed with dusty books filled with thousands of mug shots — who insisted on baksheesh, or a small bribe, before issuing the crime report.

Then we had to arrange for the bare necessities, like buying underwear, since our luggage was stolen along with the car. At least we could get comfortable Egyptian cotton. 

We considered going home, but instead we accelerated our visit to Kenya, the second destination on our itinerary. I will never forget the astonished reaction of the Kenya Airways staff when the four of us produced a small plastic bag of clothes as our sole check-in “luggage.” 

That first African adventure became the template for two decades of globetrotting with my parents.

We ventured to unfamiliar places at least once every year — often twice. Significant others, friends, and later my son, joined some of these vacations, which ultimately spanned more than 40 countries.

The only rule we followed was to do something new every time. In doing so, we soon noticed a pattern: We Millers are magnets for mishap.

In Zimbabwe, we decided to raft the mighty Zambezi below Victoria Falls. This area is considered among the biggest and baddest whitewater rafting destinations in the world, with multiple Class V rapids with names like “The Mother” and “Oblivion.” 

We were hanging on with white knuckles and clenched teeth as our raft navigated a nasty section called “Stairway to Heaven,” which drops 30 feet over a 50-foot distance.

Then our raft capsized. The only thing worse than going down the Stairway of Heaven in a raft is going through them without one. My stepmother and I were swept downstream. I was too preoccupied with avoiding the boulders scattered throughout the churning river to care about the crocodiles that populated the waters.

Then it got hyper real. Pulled into the powerful whirlpool, I gasped for air and struggled to stay afloat in the swirling vortex. I did not think that death was inevitable, but I instantly acknowledged it as a possibility. 

I don’t know how but somehow the vortex spit me out. I then swam to calmer waters and found the raft and the rest of my family.

That episode happened 25 years ago. Forever seared into my brain is the memory of my father atop the capsized raft, his angelic white buttocks shining high above the water, which had stripped him to the ankles.

The bed linens were stained dark beige and sweat rings adorned the pillows. It was decrepit — a shock amplified by our last hotel, the luxe Blancaneaux Lodge in the Belize rainforest and former retreat of film director Francis Ford Coppola.  

I covered every surface area on my body, head to toe, with clothing before going to bed that night — noting yet another Miller misadventure in the making.

Billionaire and public health advocate Mike Bloomberg on Tuesday excoriated Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. health secretary, over his anti-vaccine record and urged the Senate to reject his bid to lead the nation’s top health agencies.

“Just imagine if RFK Jr. had been in office during Trump’s first term,” Bloomberg said at the Bloomberg American Health Summit in Washington D.C.

“Would Operation Warp Speed have even happened? And if it did, how long would the vaccines have been delayed? How many fewer people would have gotten the shot? How many more people would have died?”

“All we can say for sure is this: It would have made Covid even more deadly and even more economically painful,” he said.

Giving RFK Jr. the power to steer U.S. health policy, he warned, would be “beyond dangerous, it would be medical malpractice on a mass scale.”

The former New York City mayor devoted nearly all of his 19-minute speech to slamming Kennedy’s spread of disinformation about vaccines, including his “outrageous false claim” that the Covid-19 vaccine was the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”

Bloomberg, who ran for president as a Democrat in 2020, has long advocated for public health reforms, both as mayor and through his philanthropic efforts.

RFK Jr. initially ran for president in 2024 as a Democrat, but switched to an independent bid and later dropped out to endorse Trump.

An environmental lawyer and the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, RFK Jr.’s campaign provided him with a prominent national platform and gave oxygen to his conspiracy theories about vaccines.

Bloomberg in Tuesday’s speech appealed directly to U.S. senators not to confirm RFK Jr. to the Cabinet role in the next Trump administration.

“We can’t allow Kennedy or Trump or anyone else to bring unimaginable suffering to the American people,” he said.

Bloomberg expressed hope that Senate Republicans will convince Trump to reconsider nominating RFK Jr. before they are asked to weigh in. But if Trump stands by his choice, then the Senate “has a duty for our whole country, but especially to our children, to vote no,” he said.

Bloomberg also admonished Democrats who appear open to letting RFK Jr. lead the Department of Health and Human Services because of his advocacy against junk food and processed foods.

“We don’t need to choose between someone who is pro-healthy food and pro-vaccine. Americans deserve both,” he said.

Bloomberg noted that he had fought for numerous restrictions on unhealthy products while he was mayor, including an effort to ban large sugary drinks. Those fights garnered backlash from conservatives and affected consumer industries at the time.

But RFK Jr. has taken a similar tack, endorsing a plan that he says is intended to “Make America Healthy Again” alongside Republicans.

Bloomberg credited his own efforts with raising New Yorkers’ life expectancy, and touted the investments his philanthropic foundation continues to make to combat ailments like diabetes and heart disease.

“But if the federal government steps back from vaccines, all of that progress will vanish,” he said, suggesting that doing so could result in millions of needless deaths.

And if the government starts to invest in “nutty conspiracy theories,” then funding for researching cures for other diseases could be set back by years, Bloomberg argued.

“It boggles the mind that the Senate would even consider giving Kennedy any power whatsoever over American health policy,” he said.

“Whatever one may think of his positions on food policies, it’s nowhere near enough to overcome his opposition to vaccines.”

J.P. Morgan Private Bank is out with its list of recommended holiday books and experiences for wealthy clients, and this year’s offerings include a George Clooney Broadway debut, an expanded art museum in São Paulo, Brazil, a wellness center in Manhattan and books about leadership and artificial intelligence.

The “NextList2025,” picking the most buzz-worthy books and experiences of the holiday season, includes four museums, two wineries, four Broadway shows and 10 books. To build the list, the bank received more than 1,000 submissions from client advisors based on their clients’ tastes and interests. A review committee then researches the submissions and creates the list (similar to its popular J.P. Morgan Private Bank Summer Reading List).

While the list is released by the Private Bank, it’s used across J.P. Morgan divisions with wealthy and affluent clients.

One of the chief themes of the NextList is the “next generation,” looking at how families can engage and inspire younger investors as an unprecedented number of fortunes and businesses are set to be passed down in the coming years.

“A lot of our clients are focused on their next generation, whether they’re thinking about their family business or whether they’re thinking about their operating committee,” said Darin Oduyoye, chief communications officer of JPMorgan Asset & Wealth Management. “We also just think about what’s next. We are helping our clients think about their investments, their tax planning, what the next great idea is or the next great strategy.”

Here is the full J.P. Morgan NextList2025, including the bank’s descriptions of recommended items. The entries have been lightly edited for style.