Luigi Mangione speaks to his attorney, Jacob Kaplan, during a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 18, 2025 in New York City. (Luiz C. Ribeiro-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione asked a judge on Wednesday to postpone his federal trial from September 2026 to January 2027.
Mangione argued he could not properly prepare for his federal trial — which is set to begin with jury selection on Sept. 8 and opening statements on Oct. 13 — while he is on trial in the state case, which begins June 8.
The state trial would be ongoing while hundreds of potential jurors for the federal case begin filling out questionnaires on June 29.
“Mr. Mangione is now in the impossible position of having to review 800 jury questionnaires during the week of June 29, 2026, while on trial for second-degree murder in state court,” defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo wrote in a letter to the judge. “As a practical matter, this would not be possible.”
She also argued potential jurors would be “bombarded” by news accounts of the state trial.
“As a result, forcing Mr. Mangione to start the state trial on June 8, 2026 — three weeks before potential federal jurors start filling out juror questionnaires a few blocks away in Mr. Mangione’s federal case — guarantees that the fairness and impartiality of Mr. Mangione’s federal jurors will be negatively impacted by weeks of media reporting,” the defense said.
Federal prosecutors are expected to oppose moving the trial date.
Mangione pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges after he was arrested for allegedly gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan in December 2024.
In January, U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett took the death penalty off the table in the federal case.
Christy Luna went missing in 1984 at the age of 8 in Greenacres, Florida. (Palm Bach County Sheriff’s Office)
(PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla.) — Christy Luna disappeared without a trace over 40 years ago at the age of 8. Now, authorities in Florida say they have identified a new person of interest in the cold case.
Christy went missing on May 27, 1984, while going to a general store less than two blocks from her home in Greenacres to buy cat food, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. No one knows what happened to her after she bought the food for her two cats, and a massive search at the time didn’t turn up anything.
The sheriff’s office has followed multiple leads over the decades since and has named several persons of interest in the case, but no one has been charged in connection with her disappearance.
On Wednesday, authorities announced they are looking for information on a new person of interest — Warren Gilbert Williams Jr., a convicted child sex offender who died in 2016.
Sgt. Chris Karpinski, with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office’s cold case unit, said they received an anonymous tip last year that Williams was remodeling a home near the general store the day Christy went missing.
“He left that home and his remodeling efforts to go buy cigarettes at Belks General Store and he never returned,” Karpinski said during a press briefing on Wednesday.
“That alone, interesting information, but we have a lot of that information through the years where somebody was seen in the area, and this and that,” he continued.
But Williams, he said, has a “peculiar past of sexual activity with children.” He was convicted of sexual battery on a child under 12 and lewd and lascivious molestation and was imprisoned in Florida from 2007 to 2013, according to Karpinski. After finishing that sentence, he went to prison in Alabama, where he was wanted for sexual abuse of a child, Karpinski said.
“The suspicion existed through this circle of people that Mr. Williams knew through the years, and they had discussed the possibility of him being involved with Christy’s disappearance,” Karpinski said.
Detectives also learned through the anonymous tip that Williams, who lived in what is now known as Lake Worth Beach at the time, installed a concrete pad in his backyard a week after Christy went missing.
Authorities got permission from the current homeowners to search the property and last month excavated the yard, Karpinski said.
“Unfortunately, we found nothing,” Karpinski said, saying there were “mixed emotions” on the development.
“We wanted to find something, but yet, finding something meant that, you know, we had bad news, at least it was for me,” he said. “So there is still hope that Christy either is out there or somebody is out there that knows where she is, whether she is still with us on Earth or has passed.”
Karpinski said there currently is no physical or testimonial evidence that links Williams to Christy’s disappearance.
“We want to learn more about him,” Karpinski said. “I know it’s a long time ago. People, friends, neighbors, witnesses that day who think maybe they saw him, please come forward.”
Williams, who was 46 years old at the time Christy disappeared, died in prison in 2016, according to Karpinski.
Authorities haven’t ruled out any other persons of interest named in the case, according to investigator Bill Springer, who has been investigating Christy’s disappearance since the sheriff’s office assumed the case in 1984.
Springer also urged anyone with information to come forward, even after all this time.
“I want people to come forward. I’m not going to question why you didn’t come forward, because I don’t care,” he said. “My job is to find Christy, not to judge people because they didn’t come forward.”
“So if you’ve got information and you’ve been sitting on it for 30 years, 40 years, I don’t care,” he said. “Bring it out and we’ll look at it, see what we can do with it.”
Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition figure and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, attends a press conference on December 11, 2025 in Oslo, Norway. (Rune Hellestad/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said Friday she was “absolutely grateful” to President Donald Trump after meeting with him Thursday and presenting him with her Nobel Peace Prize medal. The president called it a “wonderful gesture of mutual respect.”
“María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. He also said that Machado was a “wonderful woman who has been through so much” and that it was a great honor to meet her.
Machado, in turn, said Friday it “took a lot of courage” for Trump to take action against Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Following the Thursday meeting, a White House official confirmed to ABC News that Trump did accept the medal.
Further details about the closed-door meeting were not immediately revealed by the White House. Asked about the meeting by ABC News’ Mary Bruce, Trump said it went “great.”
Machado told reporters as she was exiting the White House that she presented Trump with her prize and reflected on the history between the two countries.
“I told him this … Listen to this — 200 years ago, General Lafayette gave Simon Bolivar a medal with George Washington’s face on it. Bolivar, since then, kept that medal for the rest of his life,” she told reporters.
“Actually, when you see his portraits, you can see the medal there. And it was given by General Lafayette as a sign of the brotherhood between the United States, people of United States, and the people of Venezuela in their fight for freedom against tyranny. And 200 years in history, the people of Bolivar are giving back to the heir of Washington, a medal, in this case a medal of a Nobel Peace Prize, and a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom,” she added.
Simon Bolivar liberated Venezuela and several other Latin American countries from Spanish rule in the 1800s. The Marquis de Lafayette was a French national who volunteered to fight with American colonists during the Revolutionary War and eventually rose to be one of George Washington’s most trusted generals.
Machado didn’t offer any more details about her meeting with Trump.
She won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for her work “promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela” and her push to move the country from dictatorship to democracy.
Machado dedicated the prize to Trump, along with the people of Venezuela, shortly after it was announced in October 2025.
She said last week that she would like to give or share the prize with Trump, who oversaw the successful U.S. operation to capture Maduro. Maduro faces drug trafficking charges in New York, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
“I certainly would love to be able to personally tell him that we believe — the Venezuelan people, because this is a prize of the Venezuelan people — certainly want to, to give it to him and share it with him,” Machado told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday. “What he has done is historic. It’s a huge step towards a democratic transition.”
The Norwegian Nobel Institute issued a statement last week saying that once the Nobel Peace Prize is announced, it “can neither be revoked, shared, nor transferred to others. Once the announcement has been made, the decision stands for all time.”
When asked earlier this month whether Machado could become the next leader of Venezuela, Trump said it would be “very tough for her” because she “doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country.”
Trump said Wednesday he had a “great conversation” with Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez, their first since authoritarian Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was seized by the U.S. on Jan. 3.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump said during a bill signing in the Oval Office. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
The president said last week on his social media platform that he had “cancelled the previously expected second Wave of Attacks” on Venezuela after the government released several political prisoners, but he added that “all ships will stay in place for safety and security purposes.”
Trump has coveted and openly campaigned for winning the Nobel Prize himself since his return to office. White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung slammed the Nobel Committee for its decision after Machado was announced as the most recent winner.
“[Trump] has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will,” Cheung said in an X post. “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”
Jorgen Watne Frydens, the Nobel Committee chair, was asked about Trump’s “campaign” for the prize last year but denied it had any impact on the decision-making process.
“We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say what, for them, leads to peace,” Frydens said. “This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates and that room is filled with both courage and integrity. We base only our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel.”
In a screen grab from a video released by Secretary Kristi Noem, the US Coast Guard apprehends an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela, on Dec. 20, 2025. (@Se_Noem)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. is still actively pursuing a sanctioned oil tanker linked to Venezuela, but that he’s confident the vessel will be seized.
“It’s moving along and we’ll end up getting it,” Trump said while unveiling a new class of battleships from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. “Yeah, we’re actually pursuing it. Can you imagine? Yeah, because it came from the wrong location. It came out of Venezuela, and it was sanctioned.”
The U.S. Coast Guard over the weekend was “in active pursuit of a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion,” an official told ABC News.
“It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order,” the official said at the time.
The tanker, named Bella 1, was not filled with cargo and en route to get oil when U.S. authorities attempted to board it, an official told ABC News on Monday.
Trump said the United States will keep the oil and ships after seizing sanctioned tankers.
“We’re keeping it. We’re keeping the ships also,” he said.
On President Nicholas Maduro, Trump said it would be “smart” for him to step down when asked if the administration’s ultimate goal in Venezuela is to force him from power.
“Well, I think it probably would. I can’t tell him. That’s up to him what he wants to do. I think it would be smart for him to do that. But again, we’re going to find out,” Trump said. Though the president also warned, “if he plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’s ever able to play tough.”
The Bella 1 tanker fled into the Atlantic Ocean and was not flying a legitimate national flag, giving the Coast Guard the jurisdiction to attempt to seize it.
These details were first reported by the New York Times.
The action came after the U.S. Coast Guard seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Saturday, just ten days after the seizure of a sanctioned oil tanker.
Unlike that first vessel seized, the tanker seized Saturday is not on any sanctions list maintained by the U.S., EU, U.K. or U.N., according to Kpler, a data firm that tracks transportation and logistics networks.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed Saturday’s operation in a post on social media, saying that the Coast Guard “apprehended” the tanker with support from the Department of Defense in a pre-dawn action. She said the tanker had last made port in Venezuela.
“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,” Noem said in the post. “We will find you, and we will stop you.”
Last week, President Trump threatened to impose what he called “a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers” traveling to and from Venezuela – a move that could devastate the Venezuelan economy, since oil exports are the lifeblood of Maduro’s regime.
In response to Trump’s announcement, Maduro said Venezuela would continue to trade oil and that Trump’s “intention” is regime change.
“This will just not happen, never, never, never – Venezuela will never be a colony of anything or anyone, never,” Maduro said.
The U.S. has amassed the largest military presence in the Caribbean in decades, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier.
The Pentagon also has so far struck 28 alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing at least 100 people, without providing any public evidence that the boats were carrying illegal drugs or identifying those killed.
