Mangione terrorism charges dropped

Luigi Mangione, accused of stalking and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside his Manhattan hotel in December 2024, won’t be tried on terrorism charges. With Mangione, 27, in court handcuffed and shackled, New York Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro ruled Thompson’s killing, while no ordinary “street crime,” did not rise to the level of terrorism under state law. Charges of second-degree murder, however, will stand. Thompson’s killing revived debate about the health care industry and sparked a cult following for Mangione; dozens of spectators outside court applauded news of the dropped charges, and at least one wore a “Free Luigi” T-shirt.

Another climate ‘tipping point’?

The ocean failed to do something this year it has done every year for the past 40 years − and it has climate scientists worried. The Gulf of Panama’s seasonal upwelling − a phenomenon driven by northerly trade winds in the Pacific that brings cool water rich with nutrients to the ocean’s surface every January through April − is crucial to the health of coral reefs and the ocean's ecosystem, and its absence could signal a climate “tipping point,” according to the Smithsonian Institution’s Tropical Research Institute. Researchers will be watching to see if the same thing happens − or doesn’t happen − in 2026.

This baby stroller has hot wheels

If you think your kid has a need for speed, an Aston Martin baby stroller may be the one for you. The high-end British automaker known for its role in James Bond movies has joined with luxury car seat maker Egg to offer a stroller fit for 007 − or 007’s kid, anyway − complete with an Aston Martin-style seat and harness, adjustable headrest, five-position handlebar, multiple seating positions, concealed storage, three color options (including Aston Martin Racing Green) and an SPF50 sun-protected canopy. The price tag is not child’s play, however: It will start at more than $3,000.

Robert Redford, idol of the silver screen, dies

Robert Redford, Hollywood’s leading man with the golden good looks and movie-star charm seen in such American classics as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting,” “The Natural” and “The Way We Were,” died Sept. 16. His career in acting and directing spanned more than six decades; he also was a leading voice for environmentalism, civil rights and independent filmmaking through the Sundance Institute, which he founded, and its influential Sundance Film Festival. In Sundance’s early days, “we were only going on hope,” he said in 2015. “It grew way beyond my imagination.” Redford was 89.

Not everyone likes NFL’s ‘dynamic kickoff’

Count President Donald Trump, never one to shy away from a good sports debate, as no fan of the NFL’s reconstituted kickoff. Although the “dynamic kickoff” and its new alignment of the kicking and returning teams have been in place since 2024 and have produced the desired results of a surge in the rate of kickoff returns (almost 76% in Week 1), it’s “sissy football,” the president declared on his social media platform, Truth Social. And the setup “looks like hell,” Trump said. “The ball is moving, and the players are not.” − Compiled by Robert Abitbol

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: A farewell to Robert Redford, a climate warning, a souped-up stroller: Week in review

Reporting by Robert Abitbol, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect