Luigi Mangione returns to federal court for pretrial hearing over potential death penalty
A multi-storey apartment block in the Darnytskyi district is damaged by a Russian drone strike during a massive overnight attack on the capital, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 9, 2026. (Photo by Danylo Antoniuk/Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)NO USE RUSSIA. NO USE BELARUS. (Photo by Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(KYIV, Ukraine) — Russia attacked Ukraine overnight with a massive barrage of 242 drones and 36 missiles, including one that was nuclear-capable, the Ukrainian Air Force said Friday morning.
The missile types used in the attack, which began Thursday night, included 22 cruise, 13 ballistic and one medium-range ballistic, according to the country’s air force.
Ukraine’s air defense system destroyed or suppressed 226 drones, 10 cruise missiles and 8 ballistic missiles. However, strikes from 18 missiles and 16 drones were recorded at 19 locations across the country, the air force said.
The capital, Kyiv, was among the hardest-hit areas, where 40 facilities were damaged, including 20 residential buildings, officials said. At least four people were killed and 25 others were injured there, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, which said rescues were ongoing. The wider Kyiv region as well as the regions of Lviv, Kirovohrad and Cherkasy were also targeted.
The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that the Oreshnik intermediate-range ground missile system was used in the “massive strike” on Ukraine’s “critical facilities” overnight.
The Oreshnik, used only for the second time by Russia, is capable of flying at hypersonic speeds and delivering multiple warheads.
The ministry said this was in response to an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state residence in the Novgorod region of northwestern Russia last month, which Ukraine has denied.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia used the intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) on the Lviv region in western Ukraine.
“Such a strike close to EU and NATO border is a grave threat to the security on the European continent and a test for the transatlantic community. We demand strong responses to Russia’s reckless actions,” Sybiha wrote in a post on X “We are informing the United States, European partners, and all countries and international organizations about the details of this dangerous strike through diplomatic channels.”
Sybiha called it “absurd” that Moscow justified the strike as a response to “the fake ‘Putin residence attack’ that never happened.”
“Another proof that Moscow does not need any real reasons for its terror and war,” he added. “Putin uses an IRBM near EU and NATO border in response to his own hallucinations — this is truly a global threat. And it demands global responses.”
Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The family of a Colombian fisherman who died in a U.S. military boat strike in September has filed a formal complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights alleging the U.S. government illegally killed him.
Alejandro Carranza was killed in a strike in the Caribbean on Sept. 15, according to the petition, filed on Tuesday.
“From numerous news reports, we know that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was responsible for ordering the bombing of boats like those of Alejandro Carranza and the murder of all those on such boats,” according to the petition. “Secretary Hegseth has admitted that he gave such orders despite the fact that he did not know the identity of those being targeted for these bombings and extra-judicial killings.”
In the petition, Carranza’s lawyer Dan Kovalik said the fisherman’s family “has no recourse to adequate and effective remedies in Colombia to obtain redress for the injuries they have suffered due to the actions of the United States.”
While the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights can investigate the complaint and issue findings, any ruling it makes would not be legally binding on the U.S.
A Pentagon official told ABC News the department does not comment on pending litigation.
The filing comes after Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused the U.S. government of committing murder for the strike that killed Carranza.
“U.S. government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters. Fisherman Alejandro Carranza had no ties to the drug trade and his daily activity was fishing,” Petro said on X last month. “The Colombian boat was adrift and displaying the distress signal due to having an outboard motor. We await explanations from the U.S. government.”
Three people total were killed in the Sept. 15 strike in the Caribbean, U.S. officials said.
President Donald Trump said at the time that he ordered the military strike against a boat that he insisted was carrying illegal drugs from Venezuela to the U.S., telling reporters the operation left “big bags of cocaine and fentanyl” floating around in the ocean.
Since September, Trump and Hegseth have ordered more than 20 military strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The Trump administration has alleged with little evidence that the boats were smuggling drugs from Venezuela and Colombia. The controversial campaign so far has killed more than 80 people, according to officials.
Hegseth has maintained that the strikes are all legal and claims that the military has evidence that the boats were carrying drugs.
On Capitol Hill, some leaders from both parties have questioned the legality of the strikes and whether the president has the constitutional power to authorize them.
The first such incident, which occurred on Sept. 2, has been under scrutiny following a recent Washington Post report that cited two people with direct knowledge of the operations saying a second strike was ordered on the boat that killed two survivors.
One person familiar with details of the incident confirmed to ABC News that there were survivors from the initial strike on the boat and that those survivors were killed in a subsequent strike.
Democrats say that alone could be enough to suggest a war crime occurred. The laws of war require either side in a conflict to provide care for wounded and shipwrecked troops.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who oversaw the initial attack, has defended the strike as legal.
The defense secretary told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that he watched the first strike unfold before leaving for meetings. He says he did not see survivors or any strikes that followed and said the admiral who, he said, ordered the second strike made the “right call.”
The Greenlandic flag flies over houses, Jan. 17, 2026, in Nuuk, Greenland. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The leaders of all 27 European Union nations will meet for an “extraordinary meeting” later this week, European Council President Antonio Costa said on Sunday, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalating pressure campaign to acquire Greenland.
European leaders are mobilizing after Trump on Saturday announced a 10% tariff to be imposed on all goods sent to the U.S. from eight NATO nations — Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands and Finland — that recently sent small contingents of troops to Greenland to take part in military exercises there.
On Sunday, Trump sent a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store in which the president again expressed his desire to take control of Greenland. Store’s office confirmed to ABC News on Monday that Oslo received the message from Trump. The details of the letter were first reported by PBS.
“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump wrote.
“Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also,” the president continued. “I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”
Costa said he had called the meeting due to the “significance of recent developments.”
European leaders are mobilizing after Trump on Saturday announced a 10% tariff to be imposed on all goods sent to the U.S. from eight NATO nations — Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands and Finland — that recently sent small contingents of troops to Greenland to take part in military exercises there.
Costa said recent conversations with European leaders had reconfirmed their “strong commitment” to international law, Arctic security through NATO and solidarity with Denmark and Greenland in the face of Trump’s continued effort to acquire the Arctic island.
European leaders also agreed that “tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and are incompatible with the EU-U.S. trade agreement,” Costa said, noting the bloc’s “readiness to defend ourselves against any form of coercion” and to engage “constructively with the US on all issues of common interest.”
An EU Council spokesperson confirmed to ABC News that the summit would be an in-person meeting in Brussels.
Trump said the new tariffs will come into force on Feb. 1 and will increase to 25% on June 1. The president said the measures would remain in place until the U.S. is able to purchase Greenland.
Greenland is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Trump first raised the prospect of acquiring the minerals-rich island in his first term. Danish and Greenlandic politicians have repeatedly rebuffed such proposals.
Trump’s new tariffs raise the risk of a fresh transatlantic trade war. A French official confirmed to ABC News on Monday that French President Emmanuel Macron “will request the activation of the EU’s anti-coercion instrument in the event of new U.S. tariffs.”
That mechanism, colloquially known as the bloc’s “trade bazooka,” would allow the EU to impose severe restrictions on U.S. goods and services. Among the available measures would be restrictions on U.S. investment in EU nations, blocks on access to public procurement schemes and limits on intellectual property protections.
Trump has repeatedly suggested that U.S. sovereignty over the world’s largest island is necessary to ensure American security and blunt Chinese and Russian influence in the Arctic region. On Sunday, the president again claimed that only the U.S. can ensure the security of Greenland.
A 1951 defense agreement grants the U.S. military access to Greenland. Danish politicians have repeatedly expressed willingness to work with Washington to expand the American and NATO presence there.
Danish officials have also sought to head off concerns about the supposed vulnerability of the Arctic. Last year, Copenhagen announced a $6.5 billion Arctic defense package in response to U.S. criticism that it had failed to adequately protect Greenland.
But such steps do not appear to have deterred Trump, who has said he would consider taking Greenland by force if other means to acquire the land fail.
Indeed, it was the recent deployment of more NATO forces to the Arctic territory that prompted Trump to threaten a new raft of tariffs. The troops traveled to Greenland to take part in the Danish-led Operation Arctic Endurance.
Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt are scheduled to visit NATO’s headquarters in Brussels on Monday for a previously planned meeting with the alliance’s Secretary General Mark Rutte, NATO said in a press release.
On Monday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged “calm discussion” between allies. “The security of Greenland matters and it will matter more as climate change reshapes the Arctic,” he said, noting the need for “greater attention, greater investment and stronger collective defense.”
“The United States will be central to that effort, and the U.K. stands ready to contribute fully alongside our allies through NATO,” Starmer said, adding that any decisions about the territory’s future should be left to Greenlanders and Danes.
Trump’s use of tariffs against allies, Starmer continued, “is completely wrong. It is not the right way to resolve differences within an alliance. Nor is it helpful to frame efforts to strengthen Greenland’s security as a justification for economic pressure.”
ABC News’ Victoria Beaule, Tom Soufi Burridge and Kevin Shalvey contributed to this report.
Jimmy Lai, Apple Daily founder, arrives at the Court of Final Appeal ahead a bail hearing on February 9, 2021 in Hong Kong, China. (Photo by Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)
(HONG KONG) — China critic and media mogul Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong for national security offences, a penalty his son Sebastien called “heartbreaking.”
Lai was found guilty on charges of sedition and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces. He had pleaded not guilty.
It is the harshest sentence delivered to anyone under the sweeping national security law since Beijing introduced it as part of crackdowns in 2020. Lai’s family has been worried their 78-year-old dad would die in prison, and given his age and this 20-year-penalty, there is now a real chance that will happen.
It was a tense morning at the court in Hong Kong. Where there would once be huge lively crowds gathering in support of Hong Kong’s democracy figures, the mood was subdued and yet at the same time on edge. There was a heavy police presence outside the court, where officers were tightly controlling the media and the supporters who were queueing up outside of the court.
Lai’s wife, Teresa, walked out of the court holding back tears behind her large black glasses after seeing her husband in the dock, expressionless as he received his sentence.
Jimmy Lai is a U.K. citizen, and his son Sebastien said he is hoping, now that the case has worked its way through the Hong Kong judicial system, that China may release his father as a way to appease the U.K. and the U.S., especially ahead of President Donald Trump’s scheduled visit to China in April.
“Even though it was expected, it’s still quite a hard reality to have to deal with,” Sebastien Lai said. “There’s no upside in what China is doing to dad and there are very real consequences if he dies in there. That April visit is key.”
“I’m sure many Americans would want to have done what my father did in standing for freedom and defending his people. And for that heroism he is being tortured and sentenced to life in prison,” he added.
When ABC News interviewed Lai at his home while he was on bail in September 2020, Lai explained why he was willing to risk it all. He said he escaped from China at the age of 12 with just a dollar, “This place gave me everything. My reward is to pay back. It’s my redemption.”
U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Hong Kong should free Lai “on humanitarian grounds” and the UK government has also pledged to “rapidly engage further” with Beijing. Trump said back in December that he asked President Xi Jinping to consider Lai’s release, and the U.S. ambassador to China David Perdue has said Lai’s case is part of “ongoing discussions” with the Chinese side.
The sentence has been widely condemned by human rights groups, with Human Rights Watch calling the length of the sentence “effectively a death sentence.”
Amnesty International said it was “another grim milestone in Hong Kong’s transformation from a city governed by the rule of law to one ruled by fear.”
Meanwhile, Beijing and Hong Kong officials welcomed the penalty, with Hong Kong’s leader John Lee saying Lai deserved the 20-year prison sentence for his “evil deeds.”
China’s foreign ministry on Monday called the punishment “legitimate and reasonable.”
