US prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting dead UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on Tuesday that she had directed federal prosecutors to seek capital punishment for the "premeditated, cold-blooded assassination".

Mr Thompson was shot dead outside a hotel in New York on 4 December. Police arrested Mr Mangione, 26, days later in Pennsylvania after a nationwide manhunt.

He has pleaded not guilty to state charges, and has yet to enter a plea for separate federal charges. He is awaiting trial in a New York prison.

In the press release, Bondi said Mr Thompson's murder "was an act of political violence" and that it "may have posed grave risk of death to additional persons" nearby.

Investigators say Mr Mangione was motivated to kill Mr Thompson, 50, because of anger with US health insurance companies.

A lawyer for Mr Mangione called the decision "barbaric", accused the government of "defending the broken, immoral, and murderous healthcare industry", and said Mr Mangione was caught in a tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors.

"While claiming to protect against murder, the federal government moves to commit the pre-meditated, state-sponsored murder of Luigi," said Karen Friedman Agnifilo in a statement.

Mr Mangione is facing 11 state criminal counts in New York, including first-degree murder and murder as a crime of terrorism.

If convicted of all the counts, he would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But federal prosecutors have also separately charged Mr Mangione for using a firearm to commit murder and interstate stalking resulting in death. These charges make him eligible for the death penalty.

Prosecutors have said the federal and state cases will move forward parallel with one another.

Mr Mangione is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) Brooklyn.

New York prosecutors have already shared some evidence in their case against him, including a positive match of his fingerprints with those discovered at the crime scene.

According to New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Mr Mangione arrived in New York City on 24 November and stayed in a Manhattan hostel using a fake ID for 10 days before carrying out the attack against Mr Thompson.

The healthcare boss was shot in the back by a masked assailant on 4 December as he was walking into a hotel where the company he led was holding an investors' meeting.

A nationwide search led police to Mr Mangione five days later at a McDonald's hundreds of miles away in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Police said that when they found Mr Mangione, he was in possession of a ghost gun - a firearm assembled from untraceable parts - a fake ID, a passport and a handwritten document indicating "motivation and mindset".

Mr Thompson's killing ignited a fraught debate about how the US healthcare system operates.

Some Americans, who pay more for healthcare than people in any other country, expressed anger over what they see as unfair treatment by insurance firms.

US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in December that the rhetoric on social media in the wake of the killing was "extraordinarily alarming".

"It speaks of what is really bubbling here in this country, and unfortunately we see that manifested in violence, the domestic violent extremism that exists," he told CBS's Face the Nation.

Donald Trump says tariffs are coming. That message from the US president has been consistent.

But what tariffs and when? Import taxes have come so thick and fast since he took office that it can be hard to keep track.

Trump has already raised duties on Chinese imports, steel, aluminium and some goods from Canada and Mexico. Higher levies on cars are due to go into effect this week.

We're now waiting for Trump to unveil the details of his plan for a wider set of tariffs, which his team has spent the last few weeks developing.

The White House is calling it "Liberation Day". So what might we learn on Wednesday?

The White House has not said how high the tariffs could go, although various possible rates have been floated by analysts.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump backed a 10% across-the-board tariff on all imports coming into the US, sometimes suggesting that could be 20% - even 60% on imports from China.

Once in office, he introduced the idea of "reciprocal" tariffs, suggesting the rates could vary country by country.

"Very simply, it's if they charge us, we charge them," he said in February, shortly before he ordered officials to develop such a plan.

The White House almost immediately complicated the picture, noting that their recommendations would reflect not just tariffs but also other policies they believe are unfair to American businesses, like Value Added Tax (VAT).

It has a led to a scramble, as businesses and political leaders try to get a sense of how big a new tax their products might be facing; and how whatever is announced on Wednesday will interact with other duties, such as those on steel and aluminium, already put into effect by Trump.

Officials in Europe, for example, are preparing for a double-digit tariff on their exports. Trump earlier this year said he planned to hit goods from the bloc with a 25% import tax.

The Trump administration has not confirmed which countries will be hit, although it has trailed Wednesday's announcement as a sweeping one.

On Sunday, the president said the new tariffs could apply to "all countries", suggesting a possible return to the across-the-board tariff he backed in the campaign.

It dashed hopes in some countries, such as the UK, that thought they might float under the radar, though many are still hoping eventually to work out some sort of deal.

But it is still unclear to what extent the tariffs will be universally applied or more targeted.

Last month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said efforts were focused on the "Dirty 15" - the 15% of countries that account for the bulk of trade with the US and impose tariffs or other rules that put American firms at a disadvantage.

The Office of the US Trade Representative, as it prepared to craft recommendations, identified the countries in which it was "particularly interested".

They were Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the UK and Vietnam.

Trump himself has reserved some of his harshest criticism for historic allies and major trade partners, such as Canada and the EU.

"Friend has been, oftentimes, much worse than foe," he declared last week.

Tariffs are taxes on imports. So the big question is, who will pay?

Technically, there is a simple answer: the US firms bringing in the goods are the companies that will face the bill, especially if the White House starts levying the tariffs "immediately", as spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt suggested on Tuesday.

But the larger the tariffs are, the more firms will be looking for ways to offset those costs, either by changing suppliers, pushing business partners to share the burden - or by raising prices for Americans.

Many firms have said they are already preparing for that step. But it is a risky game because if companies raise prices too much, buyers will simply stay away.

The dynamics have raised the risks of an economic recession both in the US - and far outside its borders, where many firms rely on American sales.

Trump says companies looking to avoid tariffs can simply do their business in the US, but that's not an immediate, or easy fix, given the high costs of hiring and setting up factories.

Introduce currency swings and retaliation by other countries into the mix, and the repercussions of Trump's bid to reset global trade balances are likely to prove hard to predict long after Wednesday's announcement.

Shares in the US have bounced back, despite tariff fears hitting stocks in Asia and Europe after US President Donald Trump suggested that he was planning import taxes that could hit "all countries".

Trump's comments came as he prepares to unveil a massive slate of import taxes on Wednesday, in what he has called America's "Liberation Day".

These will come on top of Trump's recent import taxes on aluminium, steel and cars, along with increased levies on all goods from China.

The tougher stance from Trump has increased nervousness about a trade war hitting the global economy.

Trump has offered conflicting signals about the scope of the expected tariffs, which have helped drive steep declines in the US stock market over the last month.

Last week, he had raised the possibility that many countries could receive "breaks". But over the weekend, he appeared to be leaning toward a more wide-ranging plan.

"You'd start with all countries," Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday. "Essentially all of the countries that we're talking about."

The UK has said it expects to be affected by US tariffs and is not ruling out retaliating.

The prime minister's official spokesman has said talks on an economic deal between the two countries have been "constructive", but are likely to last beyond Wednesday.

Other jurisdictions, such as the European Union and Canada, have already said that they are preparing a range of retaliatory trade measures.

Concerns about the impact of the measures have unsettled markets and reignited fears of a recession in the US.

In the US, the S&P 500 share index of the largest firms has fallen almost 10% since mid-February, making March the worst month for the index in years.

The Nasdaq is down more than 10%, its worst quarter since 2022.

With significant uncertainty remaining about the 2 April announcement, shares in the US opened lower but ultimately held their ground on Monday.

The Dow closed up 1%, while the S&P ended up 0.5% and the Nasdaq slipped just 0.1%.

Earlier on Monday, Japan's Nikkei 225 benchmark share index closed more than 4% lower, while the Kospi in South Korea ended down 3%.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 index fell nearly 0.9%, while Germany's Dax index closed down nearly 1.3% and France's Cac 40 fell roughly 1.6%.

Gold, which is often seen as a safer investment when the economic backdrop is unstable, rose to another record high, hitting $3,128.06 an ounce.

Shanti Kelemen, chief investment officer at M&G Wealth, told the BBC there could be "quite a lot of uncertainty" for a while given that previous tariff announcements have seen a lot of changes subsequently.

Japan, which is a big player in exports, is among those countries most at risk from the changes, Ms Keleman said.

"They have a lot of automakers and also a very big presence in the semiconductor market, something that hasn't really been targeted yet but that could change," she noted.

Trump sees tariffs - which are taxes imports - as a bargaining chip to get better trade terms, while also raising money and protecting the American economy from unfair competition.

A White House fact sheet published last week also suggested that a 10% tariff on every import could create nearly three million US jobs.

Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro has estimated that all the planned tariffs could raise $600bn annually, about a fifth of the value of total goods imports into the US.

Many firms have said they expect the cost of the new tax to be passed onto customers in the form of higher prices.

But that could lead to lower sales and fuel inflation in the US, a problem Trump had pledged on the campaign to tackle.

Conversely, if companies decide to absorb the cost, it will hit their profits.

Will Butler-Adams is chief executive of Brompton Bicycle, which makes folding bikes and relies on the US for about 10% of its sales.

Brompton's products are not facing additional taxes yet.

But Mr Butler-Adams said tariffs would make his bikes less competitive and force him to re-think his presence in the US.

"We won't continue to invest in the same way that we are now," he said. "We may even shrink; in the extreme, we might pull out."

Mr Butler-Adams said it had been hard to figure out the impact of tariffs that have already gone into effect, which require detailed accounting of how much steel in each item comes from outside the US.

"The reality is we don't [know] actually and the people who are on the borders importing goods into the US don't actually entirely understand how some of these tariffs might be put in," Mr Butler-Adams said.

Separately, Trump said a deal with TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the app would be agreed before a deadline on Saturday.

He set the 5 April deadline in January for the short video platform to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the US on national security grounds.

It had been due to take effect that month to comply with a law passed under the Biden administration.

Additional reporting by Dearbail Jordan and Mitchell Labiak

US Vice-President JD Vance has accused Denmark of leaving Greenland vulnerable to alleged incursions by China and Russia, as he asked its people to "cut a deal" with the US.

Speaking during a visit to the Arctic island, Vance minimised recent threats by US President Donald Trump to take over the island by force.

Instead, he urged Greenlanders to sever ties with Denmark, which has owned the island for more than 300 years, saying it had not invested enough to protect the semi-autonomous territory.

An overwhelming majority of Greenlanders oppose the idea of annexation, a poll indicated in January. Greenland's prime minister has said the US visit showed a "lack of respect".

The visit has also prompted sharp criticism from Denmark.

Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the Scandinavian nation's foreign minister, said Danes were "open to criticism" but "do not appreciate the tone in which it is being delivered", in a video message addressed to "American friends".

He noted the US's military presence in Greenland had shrunk from 17 bases in 1945 to one housing around 200 soldiers, adding: "We can do more, much more, within the framework we have today... Let us do it together."

Friday's visit was initially billed as a "cultural" tour by Vance's wife, Usha, where she would watch a dog-sledding race, but it spiralled over multiple days of adjustments as the visit attracted scrutiny and security concerns, with multiple protests planned.

Instead, Vance and the second lady were in Greenland for just a few hours, visiting only the Pituffik Space Base, a missile defence facility in the remote north of the island, some 930 miles (1,500km) from the capital, Nuuk.

Vance used the opportunity to take aim at Denmark, alleging it had to "keep the people of Greenland safe from a lot of very aggressive incursions from Russia, from China, and other nations", without providing further details.

He specifically called out the countries for taking interest in routes and minerals in the region, as the island of 57,000 people is believed to hold massive untapped mineral and oil reserves.

In his remarks, Vance sought to reassure the people of Greenland that the US would not use military force to take the island from Denmark. Instead, he urged Greenlanders to embrace "self-determination" and sever ties with Denmark, which has controlled the region since 1721.

"We think we're going to be able to cut a deal, Donald Trump-style, to ensure the security of this territory," Vance said.

"We hope that they choose to partner with the United States, because we're the only nation on Earth that will respect their sovereignty and respect their security," he said, adding: "Their security is very much our security."

The vice-president said the US did not have immediate plans to expand its military presence on the ground, but would invest more resources, including naval ships and military icebreakers.

"Our message to Denmark is very simple," Vance said.

"You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland. You have under-invested in the people of Greenland and you have under-invested in the security of this incredible, beautiful landmass."

In a statement to the BBC, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen took issue with Vance's comments.

"For many years we have stood side by side with the Americans in very difficult situations," she said. "Therefore, it is not an accurate way for the vice-president to refer to Denmark."

She said Denmark had significantly increased defence spending, but would further boost its investment with more surveillance, new Arctic ships, long-range drones and satellite capacity.

"We are ready – day and night – to co-operate with the Americans," she said. "A co-operation that must be based on the necessary international rules of the game."

Denmark's King Frederik has also pushed back against the US's stated intentions.

"We live in an altered reality," the monarch wrote on social media on Friday. "There should be no doubt that my love for Greenland and my connectedness to the people of Greenland are intact."

Along with his wife, Vance was joined on trip by US national security adviser Mike Waltz and energy secretary Chris Wright.

The outside temperature at Pituffik was -19C.

Back at the White House, President Trump insisted the US needed Greenland to guarantee "peace of the entire world" and that its waterways had "Chinese and Russian ships all over the place".

"We need Greenland, very importantly, for international security," he said.

"We have to have Greenland. It's not a question of: 'Do you think we can do without it?' We can't."

Trump added that Denmark and the European Union understood the situation "and if they don't, we're going to have to explain it to them".

Greenland's new prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said prior to Vance's visit that it showed "a lack of respect for the Greenlandic people".

In Greenland's capital of Nuuk, some people the BBC spoke to were not won over by the US overtures.

At a cultural centre in the city, artist Karline Poulsen said: "There are many ways to say things. But I think the way President Trump is saying it is not the way."

A woman, who gave her name only as Nina, said: "I'm concerned [about the visit]. This is kind of odd, I don't like it."

Her daughter, Anita, said the visit has caused "a lot of uncertainty and a lot of people are worried".

Since 2009, Greenland has had the right to call an independence referendum, though in recent years some political parties have begun pushing more for one.

Greenland governs its own domestic affairs, but decisions on foreign and defence policy are made in Copenhagen. Five of the six main parties who participated in this month's election favour independence from Denmark, but they disagree over the pace with which to reach it.

Trump first floated the idea of buying Greenland during his first term - and his desire to own the island has only grown with time.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he considered Trump's plans for Greenland "serious".

He expressed concern that "Nato countries, in general, are increasingly designating the Far North as a springboard for possible conflicts".

Qupanuk Olsen, a Greenland politician with the pro-independence party Naleraq, told the BBC the territory was taking the US interest very seriously.

"We're afraid of being colonised again. We've been a colony for the past 300 years under Denmark, it still feels like it," Olsen says. "Now another coloniser is interested in us."

Troy Bouffard, a University of Alaska professor focused on arctic security, told the BBC that Trump is leaning on his business sense to accomplish what he wants in the region, rather than geopolitics or diplomacy.

"If you're thinking of this issue only in terms of diplomacy, you're going to miss out on what other options the US might have to close this deal to pressure the main actors into negotiating or compromising," he said.

Prof Bouffard said the endgame for the US is to a have "much more robust relationship" with Greenland.

One of the potential scenarios could be axing Denmark from the picture, and having the US establish a relationship that replaces Denmark, he noted.

Prof Bouffard suggested it was possible the US changes the nature of the relationship and takes on some responsibilities that normally belong to Denmark.

Additional reporting by Ana Faguy

A day after US President Donald Trump said he would hit foreign cars and car parts with a new import tax of 25%, many of the world's biggest automakers appeared stunned into silence, as they took in a move expected to wreak havoc across the industry.

Investors sold off shares of carmakers in Japan, Germany and the UK on Thursday, wiping billions of value off names such as Toyota, BMW and Jaguar Land Rover.

Firms in America were some of the hardest hit, with General Motors down more than 7%.

Shares in Tesla, which is known for its US factories and whose boss Elon Musk is one of Trump's biggest donors and closest advisers, were notably spared from the hit, ending the day flat.

But Musk warned that even his company would not be immune from the tariff disruption.

"Important to note that Tesla is NOT unscathed here," Musk wrote on social media. "The cost impact is not trivial."

Tesla's Model Y, which topped Cars.com's 2024 index of American-made cars for the third year running, only sources 70% of its parts from the US, according to Patrick Masterson, lead researcher for the list.

"The major takeaway I think people should know about this is no vehicle is 100% US-made," he said.

"The consumer is going to feel it across the board and I really don't think that any automaker is going to be spared from this, Tesla included."

The latest tariffs could affect roughly $300bn-$400bn in imports, depending on what parts are affected by the order, according to Macquarie. That amounts to almost 10% of everything the US brings into the country each year.

It is expected to push up prices by roughly $4,000 to $12,000, depending on the vehicle.

Many major car companies have operations in the US, while also bringing in models, or parts from outside of the US.

Japan's Toyota, for example, has 10 manufacturing plants in the US and its Highlander SUV ranks highly on the American-made list.

But its Prius ships in from Japan.

General Motors also brings in significant parts and cars from Korea and Mexico, which Volkswagen also relies on heavily, despite assembling the Atlas SUV in the US.

Some firms may be able to redirect work to factories in the US, Oxford Economics has suggested, but it warned that such a move was likely to lead to higher prices and "significantly lower production in the US's main trading partners".

The action is likely to have a more significant impact on carmakers exporting from Germany and the UK, which are known for selling fewer, more premium and luxury brands at higher prices, such as Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.

Ferrari, which ships its cars from Italy, immediately announced a 10% price hike, to help cover the new cost of the duty.

As companies are forced to respond to the 25% tariffs, by raising prices or accepting lower profits, some may decide to pull some models out of the US entirely, leading to fewer choices for American consumers, warned Patrick Anderson, chief executive of the Anderson Economic Group.

This could also lead to carmakers without a current large manufacturing presence in the US, such as Jaguar Land Rover or Porsche, reducing production in their home countries, potentially affecting jobs.

All Mitsubishi cars sold in the US are imported, while Hyundai, which announced plans for a plant in the US earlier this week, ships most of its cars from South Korea.

Trump, who started discussing tariffs on cars in his first term, said his latest tariff enforcement would be permanent, claiming it will boost America's manufacturing base.

It follows previous moves to impose tariffs of at least 20% on goods being imported into the US from China along with 25% levies on some goods from Canada and Mexico.

A 25% import tax on all steel and aluminium entering America is also already in force.

He is also set to introduce so-called reciprocal tariffs against individual countries based on their trade balance with the US.

The White House said the car duties would start on April 3, while tariffs on certain car parts are set to come into effect a month later.

For now, parts made in Mexico and Canada - which have traditionally entered the US under a free trade agreement - will be spared, while officials get custom systems prepared.

The carve-out for parts from Mexico and Canada, which the White House said would be temporary, was a relief to some in the industry.

But General Motors is still facing potential increased costs starting at about $10.5bn, according to JP Morgan.

Ford's bill would start at roughly $2bn, more than doubling over time as tariffs on parts come into effect, according to estimates from the banking giant.

It said the added cost across the industry would amount to more than $80bn.

Jennifer Safavian, president of Autos Drive America, which represents international carmakers, said her members were still working out the repercussions of the move and other tariffs that have been recently announced or are looming.

But she warned that the measure would lead to higher prices, fewer sales, and less production across the industry.

"They're trying to digest this," she said. "But again there's no question that these tariffs are going to have an impact on the US auto industry."