The Update- December 9th

The Update with Brandon Julien

Picture it — Sicily, this coming August. Sure, the island’s dramatic coastline will be perfect for swimming and sunbathing, but you’ll be sharing some pretty tight real estate with half of Europe, too. Welcome to travel’s famous “shoulder season” — you’ll love it here. In fact, a growing number of travelers to Europe are rearranging their vacation calendars in order to sit out the crowding and heat waves of summer, waiting patiently for some time in the sun, with less of the insanity — not to mention lower prices — during September and October.

In the headlines on #TheUpdate this Monday, they have seen him smiling on a hostel security camera, but don’t know his name. They found the backpack he discarded while fleeing, but don’t know where he’s gone. As the search for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer goes on, investigators are reckoning with a tantalizing dichotomy: They have troves of evidence, but the shooter remains an enigma.

Elsewhere, a jury will begin weighing whether to convict Marine veteran Daniel Penny of criminally negligent homicide in the death of a man he placed in a chokehold on a subway train, after the jurors said last week they couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict on a more serious charge. And hip-hop legend Jay-Z has been accused of allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl with Sean “Diddy” Combs at a VMAs afterparty in New York two decades ago, a bombshell lawsuit claims.