THE SHOW NOTES: Daniel Penny NOT GUILTY, Fall Out In Syria, & UnitedHealthcare Suspect Detained

Welcome! Juan Soto just signed the richest deal in all of sports.

🚨 BREAKING: Daniel Penny found NOT GUILTY.

UNITED HEALTHCARE: Police are investigating a suspect in Pennsylvania in connection to the murder of Brian Thompson.

NEW: Trump says he will not try to replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

🚨 DISTURBING: Jay-Z accused in a civil lawsuit of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000 along with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs - NBC

🚨 SAN FRAN: A 20-year-old UCLA student has sued two California doctors, saying they inappropriately rushed her “down a life-altering … and irreversibly damaging” gender transition beginning at age 12 that she regrets. - San Francisco Chronicle

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BREAKING: NOT GUILTY

Details from Fox News:

Syria

After more than 50 years, Bashar al-Assad's brutal regime in Syria has fallen as a loose coalition of rebel forces has toppled the government after a stalled 13-year civil war. Here’s a video from The Wall Street Journal of how quickly control of Syria changed:

What happened: Rebel forces initiated a lightning strike against the Syrian government and toppled Hama, Aleppo, and finally, Damascus in a shocking weeklong campaign that forced Bashar al-Assad and his family to flee to Moscow.

The rebels - known as HTS - are designated as a terrorist group by the United States with its leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani having spent time in a US military prison in Iraq in 2008. However, al-Jolani has worked to separate himself from terrorism by renouncing his longtime ties to al-Qaida and building a coalition with religious and ethnic minorities in northern Syria.

When Damascus fell, rebels immediately opened the doors to the notorious Sednaya prison that held more than 20,000 of Assad’s political prisoners in disturbingly inhumane conditions. Thousands of prisoners were seen fleeing the site as families searched for loved ones who had been wrongly imprisoned for years. Amnesty International estimates that 15,000 innocent Syrians were tortured and murdered between the years of 2011 and 2015 alone.

🚨 Syria’s longest prisoner, Raghid Tatari, was freed last night from Sednaya after being held since 1981. Tatari was imprisoned for defeating the former President’s chosen heir in an equestrian competition.

ISIS: The United States launched a weekend strike in Syria targeting ISIS infrastructure to "ensure that ISIS does not seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria."

Here are extra regional details from The New York Times:

• Israel: Israeli forces entered Syrian territory over the weekend, taking up what officials described as temporary defensive positions. Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, also said Israel had struck Syrian chemical weapons and missile sites in an effort to keep extremists from seizing them. While many in Israel are concerned about who will succeed Mr. al-Assad, his fall is also seen as the crowning consequence of a yearlong Israeli campaign against Iran and its interests.

• Al-Assad in Russia: Moscow will not publicize Mr. al-Assad’s location in Russia, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told Russian news agencies on Monday. He added that President Vladimir V. Putin had made the decision to offer exile to Mr. al-Assad and his family, but there were no immediate plans for the two men to meet.

• Iran: Iranian officials and commentators are rushing to distance their country from Mr. al-Assad, a tyrant they once considered a close ally. Some officials admitted on state television that Iran had misjudged regional dynamics and overlooked his domestic unpopularity.

• Turkey: Turkey backed the rebel group that toppled the al-Assad regime. Its military also fired on U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northern Syria over the weekend. That illustrates how the interests of Ankara and Washington diverge over support for the Kurds, who have been instrumental U.S. partners in fighting the Islamic State.

🚨 NEW: Person of Interest Held in Murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO

A suspect was apprehended moments ago in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Law enforcement sources claim the individual was detained at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, possibly while attempting to use a fake ID.

Details: When taken into custody, he was allegedly found with a manifesto, a firearm equipped with a silencer, four fake IDs, and other items matching what investigators were seeking, according to sources.

Customers at the McDonald’s reportedly found the man’s behavior suspicious and alerted the police, leading to his arrest, three law enforcement sources confirmed.

Full story at NY Post and NBC.

NYT: How Some Voters Moved From Bernie Sanders to Donald Trump

The number of Sanders supporters who have gone MAGA is most likely a sliver of the electorate. But they illustrate an important pattern in American politics, political scientists say, one that might help explain Mr. Trump’s success with young men in particular. For certain voters, political preferences are defined not by party, but by their attitudes about the ruling class — whether they trust people in power, or think they’ve rigged the system against ordinary people.

In the final New York Times/Siena College national poll in late October, nearly two-thirds of voters said the government was “mostly working to benefit itself and the elites,” rather than “the people and the country.” Eighty-two percent of Trump voters said so, twice as many as Kamala Harris voters.

The idea resonated in particular with men and younger voters, the poll found — groups that Mr. Trump especially courted in this election and that Mr. Sanders did well with in his Democratic primary campaigns in 2016 and 2020.

Full story at NYT (paywall) or NYT (free).

WSJ: Manhunt for UnitedHealthcare CEO Killer Meets Unexpected Obstacle: Sympathy for the Gunman

As they search for the man who assassinated a top health-insurance executive in Midtown Manhattan last week, authorities are contending with an unanticipated challenge: an outpouring of popular sympathy for the killer.

From online forums and social media to the streets of Manhattan, people have been celebrating the suspect as a quasi-folk hero who struck a blow against a detested institution—the nation’s for-profit healthcare system.

In most instances, they were rooting for the killer to evade capture and defending his actions—or remarking on his good looks. But in some cases, expressions of support have crossed over into calls to stymie a police manhunt that, on Sunday, entered its fifth day with the suspect yet to be named.

Full story at WSJ (paywall).

Tweets that caught my eye:

Trending news:

• Juan Soto signing with Mets on gargantuan $765 million contract as Yankees miss out

• Democrats roll out long wish list for Biden’s final six weeks - Washington Examiner

• Lara Trump steps down from RNC as speculation swirls of DeSantis Senate appointment - Florida Voices

• Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour ends by shattering own record, grossing an estimated $2.2B - AP

• How Does Caffeine Wake You Up? - Science Alert

• Passenger arrested after trying to divert flight in Mexico to United States - ABC

• Is Bill Belichick going to coach at North Carolina? - ESPN

• Haiti Gangs Kill More Than 180 Mostly Elderly People in Capital - WSJ (paywall)

Market snapshot: