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'No credible threats' on Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans following New Year's terror attack, Kristi Noem says

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'No credible threats' on Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans following New Year's terror attack, Kristi Noem says

Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday the Department of Homeland Security has “no credible threats” on Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. 

Noem spoke at a press conference ahead of the Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. While it’s all about football in the “Big Easy” this week, discussions about safety for this massive event naturally came up following the New Year’s Day terror attack on the city’s historic Bourbon Street. 

Terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar killed 14 civilians and injured 57 others after ramming his Ford F-150 truck through crowds celebrating on the famous street around 3 a.m. on Jan. 1. Jabbar was killed during a shootout with police. 

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Gov. Kristi Noem during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 17, 2025. (Getty)

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The NFL held a public safety press conference on Monday in New Orleans where Noem spoke alongside Cathy L. Lanier, the league’s chief security officer, Eric DeLaune, Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge, Col. Robert P. Hodges, Louisiana State Police superintendent, and Anne Kirkpatrick, New Orleans Police Department superintendent. 

Noem discussed the reality of the danger around the world, but when it comes to events here in the United States, she was clear with how safe the Super Bowl would be. 

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“The world is a much more dangerous place, but here in the homeland, we are safe, and I will tell you that right now we have no specific credible threats to this event at the Super Bowl, which I think should give us all a sense of security, but also knowing we will adjust that as needed,” she explained. “Today, there are no credible threats that we have that are on the radar for this event that is coming up on Sunday.”

Noem also touched on safeguarding “our traditions,” like the Super Bowl, when it comes to everyone doing their part to provide a safe environment for those traveling to the city for the big game. 

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“[It] exemplifies how we come together to safeguard our traditions,” she said. “How we come together to make sure that the public is well-informed and gets the chance to celebrate something that’s very special to us, to our culture, to our people, to our families. But we also do it in a way that is reactive to the current environment we see in the world today.”

Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the Republican National Convention, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

New Orleans is expecting upwards of 125,000 visitors to converge on its city limits, beginning Wednesday, where parties, concerts and other events will be happening throughout the week leading up to the game. 

“We’re going above and beyond what we’ve seen in the past when we’ve hosted previously,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said during a news conference. “We know we’re safer than we’ve ever been before.”

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Safety will be at the forefront with state, federal and local law enforcement officers with boots on the ground during the Super Bowl, Lanier said, though details about protocol were left unsaid. 

Agencies including the FBI and Secret Service will be around the stadium and downtown New Orleans, per DeLaune. That will include rooftop snipers, BearCat armored SWAT vehicles and more. 

Authorities patrol Bourbon Street as it is reopened in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Jan. 2, 2024, after the New Year’s Eve attack. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)

There will also be federal air marshals, who are armed, stationed around the city’s public transportation hubs scanning for suspicious people and activity, while also guarding against drones. There is a ban on drones around the Superdome and downtown New Orleans throughout the week and flight restrictions up to 18,000 feet, per the Federal Aviation Administration. 

New Orleans has already begun starting to shut down, and limit traffic, on roads near the Superdome. DeLaune also mentioned the perimeter of the Superdome will have blast barriers, requiring trucks to go through giant X-ray machines typically seen at border crossings to ensure safety around the site of Super Bowl LIX. 

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From bomb-sniffing dogs, to improved security infrastructure, to more manpower and resources, all the stops are being pulled out to ensure the safety of every individual heading to New Orleans to experience the NFL’s final game of the 2024 season. 

This security will carry over into New Orleans’ famous Mardi Gras season, which has already begun. 

Super Bowl LIX will be streamed on Tubi. (Tubi)

“New Orleans will be the safety place to be anywhere in the country,” Phillip Constantin, adviser with U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said. 

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Oba Femi vs Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam is a ‘generational matchup,’ WWE legend JBL says

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Oba Femi vs Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam is a ‘generational matchup,’ WWE legend JBL says

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Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar’s feud will come to a head at SummerSlam in August, and the showdown has the potential to be WWE’s match of the year.

Femi beat Lesnar at WrestleMania 42 and led to “The Beast Incarnate” deciding to retire – at least for a moment – at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Lesnar made a dramatic return a few weeks later, challenging and beating Femi at Clash in Italy.

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Oba Femi looks on during Monday Night RAW at Allstate Arena on July 6, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Melina Pizano/WWE via Getty Images)

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At SummerSlam, Femi and Lesnar will do battle inside a Hell in a Cell.

WWE Hall of Famer John Bradshaw Layfield called the next meeting between Femi and Lesnar a “generational matchup.”

“I’ve never seen anything like Oba – well, I have. I’ve seen Brock,” he told Fox News Digital. “It’s very much the carbon copy of Brock coming in. Brock coming in was like, oh my God, who is this guy? The guy can even talk, and he’s gonna be one of the biggest stars in wrestling. Not only could he talk, he’s a really smart guy. Brock became one of the biggest draws in professional wrestling. He came one of the biggest draws in UFC. It’s an unbelievable story, and now you got somebody who can rival that character.

Brock Lesnar in action against Oba Femi during “Monday Night Raw” at TD Garden on March 23, 2026, in Boston, Massachusetts. (Michael Owens/WWE via Getty Images)

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“This Oba Femi comes out with the silly little walk he does. Everyone kinda does it, it’s like The Bushwackers. But the whole arena does it. I was in Vegas and I didn’t want to go to the matches and deal with the traffic and deal with the backstage area, and so I kinda just watched it in a sports bar. I stood in the back where nobody could recognize me, and as soon as Oba came out, the entire sports bar was sitting there doing that Oba Femi dance. The guy is just unbelievably over.

“I really think that somewhere in the NFL this year, you’re going to see an entire NFL arena doing this dance. You’re gonna have somebody like Saquon Barkley or ‘King’ (Derrick Henry) or some of these guys do this dance, and it’s infectious. Once one of them does, one of these great running backs or wide receivers, or somebody scores a touchdown, that’s when I think you’re gonna see entire arenas doing it. I just think Oba Femi is lightning in a bottle and Brock has always been that way. This is, to me, a generational matchup.”

Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi face off during WrestleMania 42: Night 2 at Allegiant Stadium on April 19, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE via Getty Images)

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SummerSlam will take place on Aug. 1 and 2 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

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Commentary: ‘I don’t want any handouts.’ Amid the Angels’ drought, a starry homecoming for Mike Trout

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Commentary: ‘I don’t want any handouts.’ Amid the Angels’ drought, a starry homecoming for Mike Trout

Mike Trout last played in an All-Star Game seven years ago. It’s crazy, really. The best player of the previous decade, the link that ties Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols to Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, has not taken an All-Star at-bat this decade.

Injuries, mostly. And he turns 35 next month.

Next week’s All-Star Game takes place in Philadelphia, about 40 miles north of Trout’s hometown of Millville, N.J. Major League Baseball reserves a potential All-Star roster spot or two each summer for distinguished players: Bryce Harper and Justin Verlander this year, Clayton Kershaw last year, Pujols and Miguel Cabrera in past years.

That could have been Trout’s spot this summer: a worthy honor for a three-time most valuable player, a local hero feted on the national stage the Angels have failed to provide him.

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“I wouldn’t have done it,” Trout said.

Not even at home?

“It’s an honor to get voted in and represent the American League,” he said. “For me, I don’t want any handouts.”

Trout is an All-Star for the 12th time, the old-fashioned way: He earned it.

Fans voted him into the starting lineup, with the most final-round votes of any AL outfielder. His peers voted him as one of the top three outfielders in the AL.

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“It means a lot,” he said. “I’ve been through a lot of hurdles, a lot of adversity. I put some hard work in, and I did not let up. I could have easily got down on myself and not pushed through it and not come back.

“I know what I am capable of. I know I have the confidence to get back to the player I used to be.”

His .874 OPS entering play Thursday ranks second among AL outfielders, a career season for many players. In 11 of his 14 full seasons — all but the previous three — he has posted a higher OPS.

In April, in a four-game series against the New York Yankees, Trout hit five home runs and drove in nine runs.

“Everything was clicking,” he said. “When I first came up, that’s how I felt the whole season.

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“Just to be able to get that feeling back, that little spark, to know it’s still in there, it makes you feel pretty good.”

For him, so does playing in Philadelphia. The first time he played there with the Angels, Millville basically closed down for the night, and just about everyone in town boarded a bus to the game. Then Trout had an exceptionally rare experience, a visiting player cheered at the home of the boo.

Mark Gubicza can testify to that. Gubicza, the two-time All-Star pitcher and now the Angels’ television analyst, grew up in Philadelphia.

“I don’t care if you were God himself, if you were wearing a different color uniform, I was still booing you,” Gubicza said. “But he was cheered.”

Still is. Trout is a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan, with his season tickets not in some climate-controlled luxury suite but along the sideline.

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“The players all walk by him and say ‘Trouty!’ ” Gubicza said. “Before they all go out to get their heads beat in, they’re all saying hi.

“He’s not one of those guys that comes there to be seen. He’s going there to root. That’s why they love him: He’s one of us.”

Said Trout: “I know how passionate I am about the Eagles. From my experience as an Eagles fan, it’s just different.

“It’s like win or die.”

It’s not like that in Southern California, where almost no one listens to sports-talk radio, and where a nice day is always a day away.

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No one would begrudge Trout for living year-round along the Orange County coast. (OK, maybe Philadelphia fans would.)

Roy Hallenbeck, Trout’s high school coach, remembered visiting years ago on what he called “a perfect day” and asking Trout how he could ever get tired of all that sunshine.

“Yeah, coach, I couldn’t live here,” Trout told him. “‘I need my seasons.”

Trout built a family home near his boyhood home. He built his Trout National golf resort, with a course designed by Tiger Woods, in Millville.

He is as loyal to the Angels as he is to Millville. He appreciates the team that “took a chance on a kid from a little town in southern New Jersey” and signed him to two nine-figure contract extensions.

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Trout was the last Angels player to take a postseason at-bat, in 2014. Even amid baseball’s longest playoff drought, he still considers Anaheim a special place, and always will.

“It’s where it all began,” Trout said. “I think the fuel of people doubting us kind of makes it more of a fire for me to try to get back to the playoffs. I think that’s the biggest key for me.

“Could I take the easy way out and just leave? Yeah. But I think — I said this last year around this time, but it’s the same feeling I’ve been having — I really haven’t sat down and talked to anybody about it specifically, but I know there’s a time where, if things change, who knows? I don’t know. But, for me, right now, my focus is on trying to get this club back in the playoffs.”

At the All-Star Game, Trout might well hear Phillies fans beseech him to come play for the home team. However, Hallenbeck said, the hometown folks no longer are as strident in that long-held wish.

“I think the overriding sentiment of most people I talk with, even Phillies fans, is we would all — as people that know him, love him and care for him — love to watch him play relevant baseball in August and September,” Hallenbeck said. “It doesn’t matter where. It doesn’t matter who. Just being relevant late in the season would be something we would all love to see.

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“Hopefully, it’s with the Angels. They’ve been so good to him. We’d love to see it there.”

So would we. In the meantime, in the absence of a World Series, Trout deserves to enjoy his homecoming game.

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London descends into disorder as Morocco fans flood streets after World Cup elimination by France

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London descends into disorder as Morocco fans flood streets after World Cup elimination by France

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Public unrest began in parts of London late Thursday night, and it appears Morocco’s exit from the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the hands of France is the reason.

France took down Morocco 2-0, eliminating the African country for the second consecutive tournament, this time in a quarterfinal match.

As a result, many feared Paris would erupt into riots, especially after the chaos that followed Paris Saint-Germain’s UEFA Champions League victory over Arsenal in May. 

Instead, images and videos from Edgware Road in northwest London showed police clashing with large crowds as smoke billowed through the streets and debris littered the roadway.

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A police vehicle is parked in a road as people from pro-Palestinian activist groups gather near the Edgware United Synagogue during a demonstration against the “Great Israeli Real Estate Event” organized by real-estate agency My Home in Israel, which markets property in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, in London, Britain, June 14, 2026. (Toby Shepheard)

Riot police, equipped with shields and body armor, tried to contain the crowds as they clashed with people launching fireworks and throwing debris. One video also appeared to show an officer down.

KYLIAN MBAPPÉ, OUSMANE DEMBÉLÉ FIRE FRANCE INTO WORLD CUP SEMIFINALS WITH WIN OVER MOROCCO

It’s unknown what happened to the officer who was down on the asphalt or how he was injured.

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Fans waved Moroccan flags in the middle of the streets, which held up traffic. Some even jumped on top of vehicles trying to get through the area.

Moroccan fans in the stands before a FIFA World Cup 2026 quarterfinal match between France and Morocco at Boston Stadium July 9, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (Richard Sellers/SportsphotoAllstar)

Similar scenes unfolded after Egypt’s World Cup exit, when Argentina rallied for a controversial 3-2 victory that featured several disputed officiating decisions.

Paris, on the other hand, looked more like a city celebrating than one on the brink of a riot. Supporters of both France and Morocco flooded the streets, slowing traffic in several parts of the city.

One video showed horns blasting from cars with French and Moroccan flags out the windows on the L’avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Supporters on the side of the road, waving their own flags, joined in on the celebration.

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France’s Kylian Mbappé scored his eighth goal of this World Cup, which ties him for the most with Argentina’s Lionel Messi. Ousmane Dembélé also scored in the second half for France in the 2-0 win over Morocco.

It’s the third straight semifinal appearance for France, while Morocco still made World Cup history despite the loss. After becoming the first African country to reach the quarterfinals and semifinals in World Cup history in 2022, Morocco added to that by becoming the first-ever African nation to reach more than one quarterfinal.

Moroccan fans react while attending a watch party for the World Cup round of 8 match between France and Morocco in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 2026. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP)

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Morocco’s exit means there are no more African nations alive in the World Cup. France will be taking on the winner of Spain and Belgium, while England and Norway and Argentina and Switzerland face off in the quarterfinals.

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