Global News Podcast - Murder suspect Luigi Mangione faces charges in New York court

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

Luigi Mangione, the suspect accused of fatally shooting a US healthcare insurance executive, has been extradited to New York to face new federal charges. Also: the ground squirrels in California that are hunting voles.

This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jackie Leonard and in the early hours of Friday, the 20th of December, these are our main stories. Luigi Mangione, who's accused of killing the head of America's biggest health insurance company, has appeared in court in New York for the first time after being extradited from Pennsylvania. The French prime minister has praised the courage of Giselle Pellicot, the woman at the center of the mass rape trial that has ended with the convictions of her husband

and 50 other men. And President Putin says he's ready to compromise on the war in Ukraine. Our Russia editor talks us through his end of year news conference. Also in this podcast. This behaviour is completely shocking to us. I have been watching these animals year after year for over a decade. We've never seen any active hunting from the species. A surprise discovery about the diet of squirrels. We begin in New York. The man accused of gunning down the head of America's biggest health insurance company has made his first court appearance in the city after being extradited

from Pennsylvania. Luigi Mangione is facing new US federal charges, including murder with a firearm and stalking, in addition to previous state charges. Brian Thompson, UnitedHealthcare's chief executive, was shot dead outside a hotel in Manhattan earlier this month. Our correspondent, Neda Taufik, spoke to us from outside the court in New York. This was Luigi Mangione's formal arraignment on these new federal charges. So the judge read out all four of the charges, which included murder and also using interstate transport with the intent to murder. And he responded and nodded along and then when he was asked if he understood the charges, he said yes. His lawyer did try to argue that there was confusion about

why there was a federal case at the same time as a state case on different charges, but prosecutors quickly said it wasn't the time to discuss that. Now I about why there was a federal case at the same time as a state case on different charges. But prosecutors quickly said it wasn't the time to discuss that. Now, I just have to add that he was brought here directly from Pennsylvania in what was a very dramatic transfer, being brought here to New York, made to be an example really, paraded in front of the cameras, being flanked by heavily armed law enforcement on his way to this federal courthouse. And you mentioned the overlapping federal and state cases. Tell us a bit more about the significance of federal charges. Well, the significance here is that this federal case is really going to take precedent over the state case.

Now, these are, of course, serious charges and while he was already facing life without parole under the state case. Now, these are, of course, serious charges. And while he was already facing life without parole under the state charges, here he could actually also face the death penalty if prosecutors choose to pursue that. Speaking with legal experts, they also just think the federal case is a bit more straightforward because just of the wealth of evidence that has been laid out about Luigi Mangione's movements and investigators feeling like they have a strong case, whereas the state case has some

terrorism components that really gets into his mindset and might be a bit more difficult to prosecute just from that standpoint. So many legal experts say this federal case could be far more straightforward for a jury. This was the formal arraignment. What happens next? Talk us through the process and the sort of timeframe we're looking at. Yeah, I should note that he didn't make a plea because this was, you know, there wasn't a need for him to do that here. It was a simple, you know, formal reading of the charges. What's going to happen next is that both prosecutors and his defense team are going to file different motions,

flagging any issues they see with the case. They have to exchange evidence so that his defense team can go thoroughly through that evidence. And obviously there's going to be perhaps a request for bail. That didn't happen this time around. A hearing is next happening in mid-January.

We'll see if his defense team try to get him released from federal detention though in a case like this that might be a very hard sell to the judge. That was Neda Taufik in New York and staying in the US where the last outstanding criminal case against Donald Trump has been thrown into disarray. That's after the prosecutor bringing the case Fannie Willis in the state of Georgia was disqualified. Our correspondent in Washington, Rowan Bridge, explained what the case against Mr Trump was about. This all dates back to a phone call that Donald Trump made to Brad Raffensperger after the 2020 election. Brad Raffensperger oversaw elections in the state of Georgia.

And in that call, Mr Trump could be heard cajoling and pressurising Brad Raffensperger to recalculate as he put it the vote tally. And he asked him to find more than 11,000 votes. And the reason that number was significant was it was the number that were needed to overturn the result of Joe Biden winning the state of Georgia. Now that call was taped and the audio leaked to the media and that ultimately led to the charging of Trump and 18 other people over the call. And why did it end up in the Court of Appeal for Georgia? What then happened was that Fanny Willis, the district attorney who was bringing the prosecution, it emerged, had a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired for the case

and that led to the case being taken to court by some of those charged by Fanny Willis, saying that she should be thrown off the case and that led to the case being taken to court by some of those charged by Fanny Whitler saying that she should be thrown off the case. And what's happened now is that the Georgia court has ruled that that romantic relationship created a significant appearance of impropriety and the majority of the court ruled that in order for the confidence of the public to be restored in the proceedings, she had to be disqualified from handling the case. But it was a two to one ruling, there was a dissenting judge who said that actually you needed an actual conflict of interest or actual impropriety rather than just removing to one because of the appearance of it.

I introduced you by saying that the case had been thrown into disarray, but where does this actually leave things? I mean, it's not really clear. I mean, Fanny Willis could appeal this decision to the state Supreme Court. It's possible another prosecutor could take over the case, but if you talk to legal experts, they say any prosecution is unlikely to be brought until after Donald Trump leaves office. And this, interestingly, was the last outstanding sort of criminal case that Donald Trump faced. If you remember, he was convicted in New York of hush money payments. But two other criminal

charges that he was facing were stopped by the federal government over a legal precedent that he couldn't prosecute a sitting president. And obviously Donald Trump takes office January 20th. His campaign have issued a statement saying people are calling for the end of what they called the political weaponization of the justice system. Donald Trump's been fairly outspoken about how he feels about the way these prosecutions have been handled. Rowanbridge in Washington. The French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has praised the courage of Giselle Pellicot following a mass rape trial in which her ex-husband and 50 other defendants were found guilty. Dominique Pellicot was jailed for 20 years for organising the repeated drugging

and rape of his former wife by dozens of strangers over a decade. The Prime Minister said everyone in society should take up the struggle of Gisele Pellicot to eradicate violence against women. Ms Pellicot says she does not regret making the trial public and throughout she has received widespread support. Our Paris correspondent Hugh Schofield sent us this report on the last day of proceedings. Vigil Pellico arrived at the court just like on every other day with lawyers, TV crews and supporters all in attendance. But today was different. Today marked the end of the trial and of her trial. At half past nine, the judge began the long list of verdicts, beginning with Dominique

Pelico, the husband who for 10 years used to drug her to sleep and then invite in other men to rape her. He was guilty. The sentence, 20 years. And then the other 50 accused the men who abused her as she lay in her bed comatose, all of them guilty. Their sentences were lesser, three to 15 years, shorter than what had been demanded by the prosecution.

Six were able to leave the court free because of time already served in pretrial custody. Outside the courthouse, opposite the old walls of Avignon, Giselle Pellico's supporters cheered the verdicts, but were less happy with the sentences, which many felt were too lenient. It's really not what we expect. It's like a shame. They are all, OK, they are all guilty, but it's really short time in jail, or maybe some will leave the trail and be free because they won't sleep tonight in jail so this is really shame. Like someone gets only five years, eight years, with what they did it's impossible. Back inside the courthouse, Dominique Pelico's lawyer said that he took note of the verdict

and would decide in the coming days whether or not to appeal. The lawyer said that, for her part, she hoped the trial result would bring some level of peace to Giselle. And then, finally, it was the moment to hear her reaction. She was in a state of emotional turmoil, she said, so she'd written down her few words. She thanked her family and her lawyers and all those who'd helped her to bear with the last three months of strain. I wanted to open the doors of this trial on September 2.

By allowing it to be in public, I wanted society to take ownership of the trial. I have never regretted this decision. I now have confidence in our ability to collectively build a future in which everyone, women and men, can live in harmony, in respect and mutual understanding. Thank you. Surrounded by a crush of supporters and journalists, Gisèle Pellica was escorted by police down the front steps of the courthouse. Thank you Giselle, they shouted from the crowd. Then she was driven away for the last time.

Her ordeal over, an unwitting icon. Hugh Scofield reporting. It lasted about four and a half hours. In Moscow, President Putin used his end-of-year news conference and phone-in, as he always does, to try to reinforce his authority. He said Russia had become much stronger since it invaded Ukraine in 2022, and there had been progress in what the Kremlin always calls the special military operation.

I have to say that the situation is changing drastically. You know that very well, I just want to confirm that. We see movement all along the front line every day. And as I have already said, it's not about moving 100 or 200 or 300 meters ahead. Our military men are regaining the territory by square kilometers every day. Warfare is complicated. Therefore, it's hard to think ahead and to foretell the future. But we are moving forward, and as I said,

we are getting closer to solving our primary tasks that we have outlined at the beginning of the special military operation. Our Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg, gave us this assessment from Moscow. As ever, in his speeches, in the comments he makes, he was upbeat in his assessment of Russia's progress in what he still calls the special military operation, Russia's war in Ukraine saying that the Russian army was taking more and more territory in Ukraine and would soon achieve its preliminary targets. He did however suggest that he was open to

compromise and suggest that he would be willing to to meet President-elect Trump at any moment. But you have to ask the question what is compromise in Vladimir Putin's mind. From everything he has said in recent months, compromise I think he understands as a deal on Russia's terms which equals the capitulation of Ukraine Vladimir Putin has been talking about Russia having to keep what it calls new regions land occupied by Russian troops also he has talked about Western sanctions would have to be scrapped against Russia and Ukraine would not be able to join NATO, which would add up to pretty much a capitulation by Kiev.

He also spoke about the killing of a senior Russian general in Moscow, didn't he? Yes, he was asked about this. This is Igor Kirillov, who was assassinated this week. He spoke of him in very positive terms and said that this wasn't the first attack of its kind carried out by Ukraine. The main message, I think, from this marathon four and a half hour press conference slash phone in was that, OK, there are some problems in the country, but I'm the man to solve them. As far as Syria goes, we heard his first comments on the dramatic events in Syria and the fall of Bashar al-Assad,

which is a big blow to Vladimir Putin. Assad was Putin's key ally in the Middle East. But no, he turned that upside down and said this was not a defeat for Russia. So as I say, the main message, I think, for the Russian people was things are sort of going OK. Now, obviously, you were there, Steve, and you've seen many of his speeches over the years. What's your assessment? Do you pick out anything that's changed?

My overriding impression was that Vladimir Putin is someone who refuses to admit any mistakes. You know the last three years, just look at what's happened, what was supposed to have been a very fast operation in Ukraine that would last days or weeks maximum, went completely wrong for Moscow. We had then Putin being forced to declare partial mobilization. We saw a mutiny by Russian mercenaries who started marching on Moscow. And yet Vladimir Putin was able to get through all of that and now has the initiative on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine.

And that I think adds to his sense of confidence, almost his feeling of invincibility. And I suppose if you've been in power as long as he has, for 25 years, as president mainly, sometimes as prime minister, then I suppose you do start to feel that you can do anything. That was Steve Rosenberg in Moscow. In November there were two mysterious acts of vandalism under the Baltic Sea. Two fibre optic cables were severed, one linking Finland with Germany, the other connecting Sweden and Lithuania. The German defence minister declared it must have been an act of sabotage,

and quickly suspicions zeroed in on a Chinese ship, a bulk carrier, which had been in the area. On Thursday, the Chinese authorities, who said they're conducting their own investigations on the vessel, invited officials from four of the affected European countries on board to observe those investigations. Torsten Benner is the director of the Berlin-based think tank the Global Public Policy Institute and has been looking into the director of the Berlin-based think tank, the Global Public Policy Institute, and has been looking into the security of submarine cables. Tim Franks asked him first, what does he make of the visit

to the Chinese ship? It's a resolution of a long-standing diplomatic standoff. In mid-November, two vital submarine data cables between different European countries had been cut and immediately the suspicion fell on a Chinese cargo ship, the Epang 3. And unlike a year ago, where there was another suspected Chinese vessel that then sailed away to Russia and China, this time around European authorities reacted quickly and held

up the ship and made it anchor in Danish waters. So they negotiated with the Chinese authorities. And this is the resolution. The Chinese conduct an investigation and the European countries involved observe what comes out of this is unclear. But there's a promise that after this investigation the Chinese vessel can then sail on back to China. Obviously one doesn't know, but it seems unlikely that there are going to be any sort of sanctions, any criminal sanctions as a result of this. I mean, it's difficult to run this in a way which ends up with, if it were, EEPUNG 3 that were responsible for

the severing of these cables, either accidentally or deliberately, that there's going to be any comeback? Funnily enough, in criminal code, punishment for accidentally severing these cables or even intentionally is somewhat negligible. So that's not really the issue. The issue is political responsibility. I mean, it is clear from circumstantial evidence, and the German defense minister has said this, this was no accident, not two cables cut, not in such a kind of seemingly deliberate way.

So the question is, who is behind this? And the working hypothesis of the prosecutors right now, that is indeed Russia that may be behind, that may have bribed or blackmailed the captain and incentivized the captain to do this sabotage operation. But we just don't know whether there's any evidence that European prosecutors have for this hypothesis. We're unlikely to know the exact details anytime soon. And just in terms of the vulnerability of undersea cables, in particular these fibre optic data cables,

are there lessons to be drawn about how they can be better protected? The lessons are we need to invest in both better deterrence and also resilience. Deterrence means our ways to actually do surveillance to make it more likely that any perpetrator gets caught and that we can do attribution of who did it that would deter future, even gray zone aggression. And then once we know who did it, you know, those also need to pay a price. There's ways to get back at Russia for other Grayson aggressions. The Skripal case was not negotiated in court, but there were political and other reactions, some publicized and some non-publicized. To deter future aggression.

That's the first thing we need to invest in. But the second thing we need to invest in is much more resilience of these cable networks. And we also need much more capacity to then repair cables quickly. Torsten Benner, Director of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin. Now, it's long been thought that the staple diet of squirrels was mainly seeds, nuts, fruits and acorns. But now scientists in California have made a remarkable discovery observing ground squirrels hunting, killing and eating voles. Dr Jennifer Smith, the lead author of the study in Contra Costa County, California, told Evan Davis what she observed.

This behaviour is completely shocking to us. I have been watching these animals year after year for over a decade. We've never seen any active hunting from the species. This past summer though in June when they started doing this behaviour they just kept going. I mean I find it so surprising because I just wouldn't have thought that the squirrel could change that quickly. Well, it's actually in keeping with some of the biology that we know about these animals, they are opportunistic omnivores. It was really this active hunting that was quite striking and different from what we've

seen in the past. And there are these accounts of other squirrels, including the red squirrels, the gray squirrels, European ground squirrels that have taken a sparrow on an occasion and that's been published before. So there's some inklings of this behavior happening, but never on this extent, this large scale. Tell us, what does a squirrel do when it hunts? What did you observe?

So I've actually spent a great deal of my adult life studying hunting behavior in large carnivores. And I never in a million years thought that we might see a similar kind of behavior in ground squirrels that are cute and fuzzy and cooperative and all of these things. What they do is there's two styles of hunting behaviors that we see in the wild. And one is to sit and wait stock like a cat might do. And that is not what they're doing. They're actually taking this other strategy of hunting behavior, which is to just target an animal, chase it down. It's a little bit clumsy. They go after, in this case, a California bull, another small rodent, and they often go for the head. They bite down on the neck and if they're successful then they start

crunching down onto the skull and they eat the entire animal, picking off meat from the bones etc. It sometimes takes a couple of goes. They might chase after the bull and the bull may get away and the bull also has teeth so it may bite back and then they're successful then they will start eating their prey item. They're not hunting in packs though, they're doing this individually, are they? Right, we're really, really curious to see whether they're cooperative in this. We had a couple of cases where some young animals

were doing this. Looked a little bit more like play behavior at first, and then one of them would actually take down the vole and start eating it. We did often see competitive interactions after the kill happened, but it didn't last for terribly long because the vole is a pretty small snack

and they'd often just eat it very quickly or take it down into their burrow. It's interesting because I think of a vole as being quite a big snack for a squirrel, I mean compared to an acorn or something like that. Absolutely. It's all relative. So for us, a vole is about the size of our finger for a ground squirrel. That's about the size of a New York City rat or something. For them that is an amazing pulse of nutrition coming in and so we're really interested in

understanding if that actually is going to influence their reproduction because in rodents more food going in means more babies coming out. So that's what we're really excited to see next. Behavioral biologist Dr. Jennifer Smith. Still to come. When I heard them practice, I thought, well, I do like to sing. I love choral music. A group of care home residents set a new record as the world's oldest choir.

oldest choir. President Macron has promised to rebuild the French island territory of Mayotte where a cyclone caused widespread destruction last Saturday. He's on a visit to the territory to assess the destruction wrought by the storm. More than 30 people are known to have died and thousands are still missing. Mr Macron promised to tackle the crisis as quickly as possible. Between tonight and tomorrow, we are going to organise both the emergency response of today and the next few weeks to rebuild Mayotte. We must take back control of the ability to access land, the ability to eliminate precarious and therefore dangerous housing more quickly, while at the same time re-establishing schools, rebuilding housing

and rebuilding the hospital. Our correspondent Mayeni Jones is in Mayotte. I'm in a neighbourhood called Banlabas. It's one of the few neighbourhoods on the island that has electricity because we need electricity to broadcast. But the vast majority of the island is still plunged in darkness. A lot of people don't have somewhere to broadcast. But the vast majority of the island is still plunged in darkness. A lot of people don't have somewhere to sleep. They're sheltered tonight. They're living in makeshift accommodation.

Some are sleeping in the open air. And a lot of people are gradually starting to rebuild their houses. As we drove around today, we spoke to lots of people who had started trying to find some corrugated iron roofs, some bits of wood to try and rebuild their houses because they say they don't know when reconstruction work will start properly. Thousands are still missing, aren't they? Are there still hopes of finding survivors?

Yes, that's what's worrying a lot of people is that many people are still missing and because most of the missing live in informal settlements, they don't know exactly how many, they don't know exactly where they are. A lot of the efforts have been focused on trying to get food and water to the survivors, but many of the residents have spoken to describe whole neighbourhoods that have completely collapsed, particularly in some of the biggest slums in the capital. So there's a lot of concern still about the death toll and that it may still rise further once food and water has been distributed to people and some power has been restored and

that the work of trying to find some of these bodies starts. They're worried that the death toll may go much higher. Mr Macron is there. We've heard a little from him. He was promising to tackle the crisis as quickly as possible. Tell us a bit more about what he's doing and what sort of response, what sort of welcome he's received there. He was only initially meant to be here for the day but he's decided to stay on overnight and I think that it's in an effort to show the people of

Mayotte that he isn't somebody who just kind of flies in and flies out when there's a crisis, but that he's willing to kind of sit in the crisis with them. I think the gesture has been appreciated, but I think a lot of people are still very frustrated at the response. It's been five days still and lots of people are complaining that they're hungry as we were driving around, people were asking for food, lots of people still don't have access to water and lots of people also blame him for the situation because they say if he had met his promises of improving the infrastructure of Mayotte, which is France's poorest department,

that they wouldn't be in the situation now. That was Mayani Jones in Mayotte. To Nigeria next and an update on a deadly crush that we told you about in a previous edition of the podcast. The police now say 35 children are known to have died and six others are critically injured. It's thought more people than expected turned up at the high school in Ibadan after organisers had promised free food and money. The BBC's Chris Sawoko reports from Abuja. Pictures and videos shared on social media showed what appeared to be the aftermath of reports from Abuja. for. It was an end-of-year fair where it's reported everyone had been promised more than £2 in cash and food. Police say that seven people, including the investment sponsor and the school's principal, have been arrested in connection with the crash. Nigeria is faced

with a cost of living crisis and it's believed this led to the high turnout at the fair. Chris Ewokor. In football, the takeover of Everton by the Texas-based Friedkin Group has been completed. The deal is thought to be worth in excess of £400 million or $500 million and makes Everton the 10th club in the Premier League to be under majority American control. It also ends a turbulent time for Everton and its supporters, as the BBC's chief football writer, Phil McNulty, explains. It's been nine years of largely chaos under the previous owner, Farhad Mashiri. There's been a lengthy takeover process, if you like, first involving an American group, Seven-Seven

Partners, who agreed a deal but then got mired in financial and legal difficulties. Crystal Palace owner John Tector declared an interest. But then the Friedkin Group, who had initially walked away after a period of due diligence, came back to the table and on the surface, as they buy 99.5% of the club, I think this looks the best outcome for Everton as far as we can see. That was Phil McNulty. A group of care home residents in Britain, many with dementia, have set a new Guinness World Record for being in the world's oldest choir. The average age of the group is 94

and they were crowned after performing at a Christmas carol concert in Stratford-upon-Avon in central England. The singer, Tony Christie, who is best known for his song, Is This the Way to Amarillo, performed as the warm-up act. But at 81, he was too young to be in the choir. The BBC's Phil Mackie was in the audience. There was a bit of stage fright at first. The 17 non-agenarians, who all live in care homes, found themselves in a packed hotel ballroom

with an audience of more than 100 people and camera crews recording every moment but they gradually warmed up. Chris Wrighton who at 91 is one of the youngest members of the group hadn't sung in public for more than 80 years. In the first place when they sort of talked about it in the home I thought do I want to be part of the oldest anything and then when I heard them practicing I thought well yeah I do like to sing I love choral music and so I decided to come along and enjoyed it it's been good fun to win the record the group known as Prime Timers, not only had to perform live,

they had to release a song, which they did last week, and have an average age greater than 91 to beat the previous holders. Jasmine Kessie from the residential care group Runwood Homes had come up with the idea of the choir a few months ago. She said it had been a wonderful experience, especially for those with dementia. One thing that people always say is they might forget your name, they might forget your face, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. And music is something that everybody feels.

The Guinness World Record adjudicator checked all the relevant documents and announced that with an average age of 94 they'd done it. That report by Phil Mackey. And that's it from us for now but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you'd like to comment on this edition or the topics covered in it do please send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.com at bbc.co.uk.

You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Javid Gilani. The producer was Liam McShephy. Our editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jackie Leonard and until next time, goodbye.