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Luigi Mangione could face the death penalty over the killing of UnitedHealthcare boss Brian Thompson.

The 26-year-old has pleaded not guilty to New York state charges of murder as an act of terrorism and weapons offenses.

New York does not have the death penalty for state charges, and so he could face life in prison without parole if convicted in that case.

But he also faces federal charges over Mr Thompson’s killing – and US attorney general Pamela Bondi has directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

Mangione has not yet been asked to enter a plea to the federal charges.

Here’s what we know about him.

Wealth, private school and Ivy League education

Mangione was born and raised in Maryland and has links to San Francisco and Hawaii.

His social media lists him as being from Towson, a well-to-do area to the north of the city of Baltimore.

He is the grandson of a wealthy property developer and philanthropist and the cousin of a current Maryland state legislator.

He attended Gilman School – a private all-boys school in Baltimore. The school’s annual fees are up to $37,690 (around £29,000) and it boasts alumni including NFL stars and former senators.

After graduating in 2016, Mangione went to the University of Pennsylvania, one of America’s elite Ivy League schools.

According to his social media, he studied computer science and launched a group named UPGRADE (UPenn Game Research and Development Environment).

A university spokesperson said he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees there.

He later co-founded his own computer game company, which focused on small, simplistic games.

Luigi Mangione Pic: LinkedIn
Image:
Mangione went to a prestigious Ivy League university. Pic: LinkedIn

‘No complaints – a great guy’

According to his LinkedIn page, Mangione moved to California in 2020 and worked for the car-buying website TrueCar. The firm’s boss said he left last year.

Mangione currently lists himself as from Honolulu on LinkedIn, with pictures on Instagram showing him on the Hawaiian island.

In the first half of 2022, he reportedly lived at Surfbreak, a co-living space aimed at remote workers in Honolulu’s Waikiki neighbourhood.

“Luigi was just widely considered to be a great guy. There were no complaints,” Josiah Ryan, a spokesperson for Surfbreak’s owner, told the AP news agency.

“There was no sign that might point to these alleged crimes they’re saying he committed.”

Mr Ryan said Mangione left to get surgery on the US mainland for chronic back pain he suffered from since childhood.

Document reveals back condition

Mangione wrote about his health issue online, saying he has spondylolisthesis – a condition where one of the bones in the spine slips forwards.

Sky News’ Data and Forensics team obtained a 14-page document uploaded to his Google Drive account in 2021.

He details the severity of his “injury” as “low grade two” and goes into fitness goals, diet advice and notes about the condition.

Image:
The suspect’s notes say he has back condition spondylolisthesis

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His X banner image shows a back X-ray

It’s unclear if the condition is linked to the motive, which police have not publicly identified, but it gives context about his health issues.

Analysis of his Goodreads profile also shows he read books including Crooked: Outwitting The Back Pain Industry and Getting On The Road To Recovery, and Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic At The Root Of Most Chronic Disease – And How To Fight It.

A banner image on his X account also features an X-ray of a lower back with screws.

Law enforcement officials told NBC News they are looking at whether the X-ray is Mangione’s or from a relative and whether it’s connected to the shooting.

‘Violence is necessary to survive’

Mangione appears to have had an active social media presence.

His X account regularly shared and reposted pieces about topics such as artificial intelligence (AI), philosophy, and the future of humanity.

His Goodreads account also gave a four-star review to Industrial Society And Its Future – by notorious US terrorist Theodore Kaczynski.

The piece, which rails against technological advancement, became known as the Unabomber Manifesto after its author began a mail bombing campaign which lasted nearly 20 years.

Three people were killed and dozens were injured before Kaczynski’s arrest in 1996.

The Goodreads review said: “When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive. You may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it’s not terrorism, it’s war and revolution.

“‘Violence never solved anything’ is a statement uttered by cowards and predators.”

Luigi Mangione. Pic: Facebook
Image:
Luigi Mangione. Pic: Facebook

Why are some calling Mangione a ‘hero’?

A search of social media sites such as Reddit reveals a thread of people who are sympathetic to the suspect.

Highly rated comments on the site include: “Screw the McDonald’s employee that ratted him out” and “Only a matter of time till shirts with #FreeLuigi start popping up”.

To many, these are shocking comments about someone accused of carrying out a cold-blooded killing. But what’s behind them?

Many in the US pay thousands in expensive insurance premiums to cover themselves and their family, while others rely on the Medicare federal insurance programme.

Support for Mangione appears to come from resentment over this and accusations that companies go to great lengths to avoid paying for treatments in order to maximise their profits.

“He got charged with murder quicker than insurance companies deny claims”, said a comment on Reddit with nearly 7,000 likes.

One post that went viral on X before the suspect’s arrest was from Anthony Zenkus, a Columbia University professor.

He wrote: “We mourn the deaths of the 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company execs like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires.”

Read more from Sky News:
Shooting prompts US healthcare debate

The attacker was then filmed walking up slowly behind Mr Thompson and opening fire outside the Hilton hotel.
Image:
Police shared this picture of the suspect following the shooting. Pic: NYPD


A chart shared widely on X claims to show denial rates by UnitedHealthcare exceed those of competitors, using data from consumer finance website ValuePenguin. This is consistent with publicly available data from 2023 analysed by Sky News.

Other people online appear to be angry about what they say is the disparity between the resources put into Mr Thompson’s case and how less well-off people are treated.

One comment on Reddit with 4,000 likes says: “The murdered guy in death, like in life, is still sucking up a huge undeserved and unwanted portion of resources.

“How many underprivileged people’s murders are going unsolved because NYPD and the feds are spending millions on this overpaid, rich, morally questionable millionaire’s murder.”

Arrested in McDonald’s with ‘ghost gun’

Mangione was detained in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s after a five-day search, carrying a gun that matched the one used in the shooting and a fake ID, police said.

He was arrested in Altoona, around 230 miles (370km) west of New York, after a tip-off from a McDonald’s employee who recognised him from the police appeals.

Mangione also had a fake New Jersey ID matching one used by the suspect to check into a hostel before the killing, said New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch.

He was found carrying a “handwritten document” that Ms Tisch said “spoke to both his motivation and mindset”.

Joseph Kenny, New York’s chief of detectives, said it appeared to show “some ill-will towards corporate America”.

Pennsylvania prosecutor Peter Weeks said Mangione was found with a passport and $10,000 (£7,840) – $2,000 of it in foreign currency.

‘Message’ on bullets

Brian Thompson, 50, was chief executive of UnitedHealthcare – the fourth-largest public company in the US behind Walmart, Amazon, and Apple – and was paid about $10m (£7.8m) a year.

It’s the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans and manages insurance for employers and state and federally funded programmes.

Mr Thompson – who was married with two sons – was shot on 4 December as he was walking to a New York hotel where his company was holding an investors’ conference.

SN screengrab from CCTV showing murder of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson outside the New York Hilton Midtown on Sixth Avenue Pic: NYPD/Reuters
Image:
CCTV showed a person shooting Mr Thompson from behind. Pic: NYPD/Reuters

As Mr Thompson walked towards the Hilton hotel on Sixth Avenue, a gunman appeared behind him from between parked cars.

He was shot in the back and calf and died from his injuries.

The words “defend”, “deny”, and “depose” were written on the cases of bullets found at the scene – similar to the title of a book that criticises health insurance companies.

Mr Thompson’s wife said he was an “incredibly loving father to our two sons” and a “loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest”.

UnitedHealthcare called him a “highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him”.

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Donald Trump announces 30% tariff on imports from EU

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Donald Trump announces 30% tariff on imports from EU

Donald Trump has announced he will impose a 30% tariff on imports from the European Union from 1 August.

The tariffs could make everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the US.

Mr Trump has also imposed a 30% tariff on goods from Mexico, according to a post from his Truth Social account.

Announcing the moves in separate letters on the account, the president said the US trade deficit was a national security threat.

In his letter to the EU, he wrote: “We have had years to discuss our trading relationship with The European Union, and we have concluded we must move away from these long-term, large, and persistent, trade Deficits, engendered by your tariff, and non-Tariff, policies, and trade barriers.

“Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from reciprocal.”

In his letter to Mexico, Mr Trump said he did not think the country had done enough to stop the US from turning into a “narco-trafficking playground”.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said today that the EU could adopt “proportionate countermeasures” if the US proceeds with imposing the 30% tariff.

Ms von der Leyen, who heads the EU’s executive arm, said in a statement that the bloc remained ready “to continue working towards an agreement by Aug 1”.

“Few economies in the world match the European Union’s level of openness and adherence to fair trading practices,” she continued.

“We will take all necessary steps to safeguard EU interests, including the adoption of proportionate countermeasures if required.”

Ms von der Leyen has also said imposing tariffs on EU exports would “disrupt essential transatlantic supply chains”.

Meanwhile, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on the X social media platform that Mr Trump’s announcement was “very concerning and not the way forward”.

He added: “The European Commission can count on our full support. As the EU we must remain united and resolute in pursuing an outcome with the United States that is mutually beneficial.”

Mexico’s economy ministry said a bilateral working group aims to reach an alternative to the 30% US tariffs before they are due to take effect.

The country was informed by the US that it would receive a letter about the tariffs, the ministry’s statement said, adding that Mexico was negotiating.

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How ‘liberation day’ unfolded

Trump’s tariff threats and delays

On his so-called “liberation day” in April, Mr Trump unleashed “reciprocal tariffs” on many of America’s trade partners.

The US president said he was targeting countries with which America has a trade imbalance.

However, since then he’s backed down in a spiralling tit-for-tat tariff face-off with China, and struck a deal with the UK.

The US imposed a 20% tariff on imported goods from the EU in April but it was later paused and the bloc has since been paying a baseline tariff of 10% on goods it exports to the US.

In May, while the US and EU where holding trade negotiations, Mr Trump threated to impose a 50% tariff on the bloc as talks didn’t progress as he would have liked.

However, he later announced he was delaying the imposition of that tariff while negotiations over a trade deal took place.

As of earlier this week, the EU’s executive commission, which handles trade issues for the bloc’s 27-member nations, said its leaders were still hoping to strike a trade deal with the Trump administration.

Without one, the EU said it was prepared to retaliate with tariffs on hundreds of American products, ranging from beef and auto parts to beer and Boeing airplanes.

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Donald Trump plans to hit Canada with new tariff – while warning of blanket hike for other countries

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Donald Trump plans to hit Canada with new tariff - while warning of blanket hike for other countries

Donald Trump has said he plans to hit Canada with a 35% tariff on imported goods, as he warned of a blanket 15 or 20% hike for most other countries.

In a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the US president wrote: “I must mention that the flow of Fentanyl is hardly the only challenge we have with Canada, which has many Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers.”

Mr Trump’s tariffs were allegedly an effort to get Canada to crack down on fentanyl smuggling, and the US president has expressed frustration with Canada’s trade deficit with the US.

In a statement Mr Carney said: “Throughout the current trade negotiations with the United States, the Canadian government has steadfastly defended our workers and businesses. We will continue to do so as we work towards the revised deadline of August 1.”

He added: “Canada has made vital progress to stop the scourge of fentanyl in North America. We are committed to continuing to work with the United States to save lives and protect communities in both our countries.”

Mr Trump has sent a series of tariff letters to 23 countries so far, including one putting a 50% tariff on Brazil in part for the ongoing trial of its former president Jair Bolsonaro for trying to stay in office after he lost the election in 2022.

Mr Trump was similarly indicted for his efforts to overturn his election loss in 2020.

The higher rates would go into effect on 1 August.

Shortly after Mr Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariffs on 2 April, there was a huge sell-off on the financial markets. The US president later announced a 90-day negotiating period, during which a 10% baseline tariff would be charged on most imported goods.

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But in an interview with Sky News’s partner network NBC News, Mr Trump said he plans to impose higher blanket tariffs on most US trade partners.

“We’re just going to say all of the remaining countries are going to pay, whether it’s 20% or 15%. We’ll work that out now,” he said.

He added: “I think the tariffs have been very well-received. The stock market hit a new high today.”

The US and UK signed a trade deal in June, with the US president calling it “a fair deal for both” and saying it will “produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income”.

Sir Keir Starmer said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, adding: “So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength.”

Read more:
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The US president also teased a “major statement” he will make on Russia over its war with Ukraine.

“I’m disappointed in Russia, but we’ll see what happens over the next couple of weeks,” he said.

“I think I’ll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday.”

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It comes as Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said a new round of talks between Moscow and Washington on bilateral problems could take place before the end of the summer.

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Palestinian activist detained by ICE suing Trump administration for $20m

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Palestinian activist detained by ICE suing Trump administration for m

A Palestinian activist who was detained for over three months in a US immigration jail after protesting against Israel is suing Donald Trump’s administration for $20m (£15m) in damages.

Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil have filed a claim against the administration alleging he was falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted and smeared as an antisemite as the government sought to deport him over his role in campus protests.

The 30-year-old graduate student at Columbia University told Sky News’s lead world presenter Yalda Hakim being detained by ICE agents in March “felt like kidnapping”.

He described “plain-clothed agents and unmarked cars” taking him “from one place to another, expecting you just to follow orders and shackled all the time”, which he said was “really scary”.

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Mahmoud Khalil reunites with family after release

Mr Khalil said he was not presented with an arrest warrant and wasn’t told where he was being taken.

He said the detention centre he was taken to was “as far from humane as it could be” and “a place where you have no rights whatsoever”.

“You share a dorm with over 70 men with no privacy, with lights on all the time, with really terrible food. You’re basically being dehumanised at every opportunity. It’s a black hole,” he added.

Mr Khalil said he would also accept an official apology from the Trump administration.

The Trump administration celebrated Mr Khalil’s arrest, promising to deport him and others whose protests against Israel it declared were “pro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American activity”.

Mr Khalil said after around 36 hours in captivity he was allowed to speak to his wife, who was pregnant at the time.

“These were very scary hours, I did not know what was happening on the outside. I did not know that my wife was safe,” he said.

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‘Absolutely absurd allegations’

Mr Khalil said administration officials had made “absolutely absurd allegations” by saying he as involved in antisemitic activities and supporting Hamas.

“They are weaponising antisemitism, weaponising anti-terrorism in order to stifle speech,” he said. “What I was engaged in is simply opposing a genocide, opposing war crimes, opposing Columbia University’s complicity in the war on Gaza.”

A State Department spokesperson said its actions toward Mr Khalil were fully supported by the law.

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Asked about missing the birth of his son while he was in prison, Mr Khalil said: “I don’t think there’s any word that can describe the agony and the sadness that I went through, to be deprived from such a divine moment, from a moment that my wife and I had always dreamed about.”

Meanwhile, the deportation case against Mr Khalil is continuing to wind its way through the immigration court system.

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