Amna Nawaz: In the day’s other headlines: Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed federal prosecutors to pursue the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the accused shooter of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO. That is in line with President Trump’s day one executive order compelling DOJ to seek capital punishment whenever possible.
Mangione faces both state and federal murder charges. His state trial is expected to go first and would carry a maximum punishment of life in prison. President Trump’s first term saw more federal executions than under any president in modern history. His predecessor, Joe Biden, prohibited federal executions.
In Lithuania, the fourth and final U.S. Army soldier who went missing in Lithuania last week along with three others has been found dead.
Their armored vehicles submerged in a swamp during a training exercise near the Belarus border, spurring a difficult weeklong recovery operation. The U.S. army is notifying next of kin and investigating what caused the incident jointly with Lithuanian authorities.
In the Middle East, Israel struck the Lebanese capital of Beirut today for the second time since a cease-fire with Hezbollah took effect last November.
It hit a building in the city’s southern suburbs, killing four people. Israel says its target was a Hezbollah member who was helping to plan an attack against Israeli civilians. Residents of the area say the strike came without warning.
Mohammas Nasserddine, Beirut Resident (through translator): We were sleeping. We hear a sound and a powerful strike hit. My daughters asked me what was going on.
I told them, “Don’t be afraid.” You can’t tell a child these are strikes. They have lived through them. We asked around what had happened. They said the strike hit our neighbor next to us.
Severe storms brought torrential rain and gale-force winds to several Greek islands. Roads resembled rivers in Mykonos and Crete, while floods swept cars into the sea on the island of Paros. Schools were closed and all traffic has been banned, except for emergency vehicles.
Meantime, in Iceland, a volcano began erupting in the country’s Southwest this morning. It happened just hours after the remaining residents in the nearby village of Grindavik were successfully evacuated. The volcano became active again in 2023, after lying dormant for 800 years.
Back here at home on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Mike Johnson tried to use a rare parliamentary maneuver to squash a proposal for proxy voting by two new mothers in Congress. The move failed. Nine Republicans joined all House Democrats to sink Johnson’s effort.
The bipartisan proxy voting plan by Florida Republican Anna Paulina Luna and Colorado Democrat Brittany Pettersen means new parents in Congress wouldn’t need to vote in person.
Pettersen, with her newborn in her arms, spoke on the House floor today.
Rep. Brittany Pettersen(D-CO): It is unfathomable that, in 2025, we have not modernized Congress to address these very unique challenges that members face, these life events.
To the other chamber now, Senator Cory Booker has been speaking on the Senate floor in a marathon speech that’s lasted all night and continues to this hour. The New Jersey Democrat said he’s responding to the — quote — “grave and urgent threat” the Trump administration poses.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ): In just 71 days, the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety, financial stability, the core foundations of our democracy. These are not normal times in America.
Amna Nawaz: It’s not a filibuster. It’s a floor speech. And Booker approaches the record of 24 hours for that kind of speech, held for nearly 70 years by Strom Thurmond, who was arguing against the Civil Rights Act. Booker has yielded questions from fellow Democrats, but he’s stayed standing the entire time to comply with Senate rules.
On Wall Street today, stocks finished mixed ahead of President Trump’s anticipated tariff action tomorrow. The Dow Jones industrial average barely budged, while the Nasdaq posted a gain of more than 150 points, or nearly 1 percent. The S&P 500 also notched a slight increase on the day.
And while we’re on the topic of money, the United States has added a few household names to “Forbes” magazine’s annual billionaire list. Music legend Bruce Springsteen made the cut at $1.2 billion. Movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger and comedian Jerry Seinfeld each tallied $1.1 billion; 103 Americans became new billionaires this year, and that is the most of any country on the list.
Still to come on the “News Hour”: the nominee to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff goes before Congress; the impact of private equity’s expansion into health care; the Trump administration slashes an agency that supports libraries and museums; plus much more.
