Israel’s Syria strikes, UnitedHealth suspect’s extradition and TikTok
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Today, an angry outburst from a UnitedHealth shooting suspect who will oppose extradition to New York. Israel says it's destroyed most of Syria's strategic weapons stockpiles. And TikTok prepares to ask the Supreme Court to block a law that could ban the platform in the U.S. It's Wednesday, December 11th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the frontlines in 10 minutes every weekday.

I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool.

Luigi Mangione, yelling to reporters as he's led into the county courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. The 26-year-old is accused of gunning down UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson in Manhattan last week. His defense lawyer says Mangione intends to fight his extradition to New York to face murder charges.

Julio Cesar Chavez was in the courtroom and explains what's next. They are planning to fight the extradition. Tom Dickey, Mangione's attorney, said in court that the defense is working to make sure that the states and the prosecutors go through every step of the legal process needed

in order for Mangione to be extradited from Pennsylvania over to the state of New York. If you're an American, you believe in the American criminal justice system, you have to presume him to be innocent. And none of us would want anything other than that. Mangione and his attorney are planning to plead not guilty.

to the Blair County charges, which is what he was arrested for, including fraud because of what police are alleging are falsified identification documents.

The second trial is the one that prosecutors in New York are requesting that be started, the murder trial in the state of New York. Another point of contention inside the courtroom was whether or not Mangione would be allowed bail when it comes to the extradition case. Tom Dickey said that because the charges don't rise to the level of life without parole in Pennsylvania,

he should be allowed bail. - Since the crime, at least what was set forth by the district attorney, was alleged to be a second degree murder, that's not life without parole. So I believe that bail should have been set. - But the argument that won out before the judge was from Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks, who said that no matter how high bail might be, Mangione would still be a danger to society if he had the chance to be released.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is saying he has no intention of intervening in Syria's internal affairs, but will take every step to ensure Israeli security. It's been a busy 48 hours for him, splitting his time between the courtroom, where he testified for the first time in his corruption trial,

and the war room from which the Israeli military has made more than 350 strikes on Syrian military targets since the weekend collapse of the Assad dynasty. Here to unpack Israel's positioning for us is Bureau Chief James McKenzie.

Israel has generally been very pleased by the fall of Assad, obviously. He was a major ally of their main enemy, Iran. I think they're very cautious about the new regime, for want of a better word, in Damascus. They're very well aware of their origins in the

the radical Islamist world, the connections with Al-Qaeda and Islamic State, even though in the period since their creation they've moved distinctly away from that and they're presenting themselves in much more

moderate force. I think the Israelis aren't entirely convinced of that. So what have they been doing in the past 48 to 72 hours? They've basically destroyed as much of the infrastructure of the Syrian military as they could. They've conducted hundreds of airstrikes. They've destroyed planes on the ground, tanks, ships, pretty much everything you can think of to prevent it getting into the hands of any regime.

which they're still seeing as a sort of jihadist power A US judge has blocked a $25 billion merger of US grocery store giants Kroger and Albertsons The Federal Trade Commission argued in court that the merger would eliminate competition leading to higher prices for shoppers and hurt unionized workers

South Korean police have raided President Yoon Suk-yeol's office It's a dramatic escalation of the probe over the surprise martial law declaration that plunged Asia's fourth largest economy into a constitutional crisis Officials say the defense minister at the time, the close confidant of Yoon, also tried to take his own life while being held at a detention center He's now reportedly under observation and his life is not currently in danger

A federal congressman was assassinated late on Monday in Mexico's Gulf Coast state of Veracruz. It's the latest killing in an outbreak of political violence in the country. Boeing is restarting production of its best-selling 737 MAX jetliner. The move comes about a month after the end of a seven-week strike by tens of thousands of factory workers and is seen as essential to Boeing's financial recovery.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has met with Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago. The prime minister announced a visit on the social media platform X. An intense wildfire is burning northwest of Los Angeles, forcing some residents in Malibu to evacuate as it knocked out power and closed roads. A US bankruptcy judge has stopped the parody news site The Onion from buying conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' InfoWars website.

ruling that a bankruptcy auction did not result in the best possible bids. Investors are gearing up for inflation data out today that will determine whether the Fed will cut or hold rates next week.

Carmel Crimmins is in New York for the Reuters' next summit and has been gauging the mood among Wall Street executives on the ground. So financiers at the summit were positive about the prospects for the U.S. economy under President-elect Donald Trump. We had the CEO of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, saying he was quite optimistic that the next administration would be very, very pro-growth. His words...

On the European side, Ferrari CEO Benedito Vigna is taking the threat of tariffs in his stride. He says the brand will never make cars in the US. Maranello, Ferrari's home base in Italy, is where they make their cars, period. And Reuters Next continues today with a host of speakers, including Spain's foreign minister, the president of the New York Stock Exchange, and the CEOs of BNY and Lazard.

Now that federal appeals court has upheld a US law requiring Chinese-owned ByteDance to spin off TikTok, the fate of the social media site, which boasts 170 million US users, is up in the air. Here to walk us through what might be ahead is Mike Scarcella. He's one of our legal reporters based in DC. Things are going to probably move fairly quickly here.

TikTok asked the court months ago, "Hey, let's get this order out by December 6th, because that will allow us to go to the US Supreme Court to ask for what's called emergency relief." So now that the appeals court has ruled, big blockbuster order last week, TikTok wants to go to the Supreme Court to do exactly what it said it would do. And you only do that, of course, if you are on the losing side.

But there's a quick step before that. ByteDance, which is the China-based owner of TikTok, has asked the D.C. Circuit to put its order on hold, recognizing it has to get to the Supreme Court really quickly. And that's because the law goes into effect on January 19th.

one day before the inauguration. So on January 19th, absent any relief by the DC Circuit or more likely the Supreme Court, ByteDance, if it hasn't divested TikTok, its asset, there will be no more TikTok in the United States. So what could the highest court in the land do now? The Supreme Court will be the court of last resort. In this case, ByteDance and TikTok had hired one of the country's most prominent veteran appellate lawyers, Noel Francisco,

It's notable because Noel Francisco formerly was the Senate-confirmed Solicitor General during the first Trump administration. So clearly, I mean, you could infer that ByteDance and TikTok have brought on a veteran lawyer who knows the Supreme Court, but also who simultaneously knows the Trump administration. The justices are going to be asked likely to issue what's called an administrative stay, an emergency stay, essentially to pause the

the lower court's order while the court debates whether to take up a fuller, more robust appeal. They also could try to resolve the case on the merits by January 19th.

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And for today's recommended read, we look at whether a U.S. missile defense system shield can protect its Pacific stronghold of Guam from a Chinese onslaught. The technical challenges are considerable, and people on the island are worried that missile defenses could make their home more of a target. There's a link to the story in today's pod description. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app.

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