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President Biden, first lady attend memorial service for Bourbon Street attack victims in New Orleans

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President Biden, first lady attend memorial service for Bourbon Street attack victims in New Orleans

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden attended a Monday memorial service for the victims of the Bourbon Street terrorist attack in New Orleans, paying their respects to the 14 victims who died.

The event, which was an interfaith prayer service, was hosted at the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, in the French Quarter. The church is located less than a mile away from the scene of the attack, where terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck into a crowd of celebrants on New Year’s Day.

Biden made short remarks toward the end of the service, expressing sympathy for the victims and their families.

“The shock and pain is still so very raw,” Biden, who leaves office in exactly two weeks, said. “My wife Jill and I are here to stand with you, grieve with you, pray with you, [and] let you know you are not alone — the rest of the nation is looking at you as well.”

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT VICTIMS OF NEW ORLEANS TERRORIST ATTACK

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US President Joe Biden (R) and first lady Jill Biden (2nd R), alongside the Governor of Louisiana Jeff Landry (2nd L) and his wife Sharon Landry (L), attend an interfaith prayer service with the families and community members impacted by the Jan. 1 truck attack in New Orleans, at the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Jan. 6, 2025. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

The president also noted that he recently met two officers who were injured during the attack, and commended the first responders who saved lives amid the chaos.

“New Orleans defines strength and resilience,” Biden said. “You define it. Whether it’s in the form of this attack, from this attack or hurricanes or superstorms, this city’s people get back up. That’s the spirit of America as well.”

The service came less than a week after the terrorist attack stunned the Big Easy. Jabbar died at the scene, bringing the total number of deaths to 15 as of Jan. 6, and over 30 injuries.

Many of the decedents were in their 20s and visited New Orleans from across the U.S., including Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York and New Jersey. The youngest victim who died was 18 years old, and the oldest was 63. 

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NEW ORLEANS TERRORIST, MAN IN LAS VEGAS CYBERTRUCK EXPLOSION SHARED MORE LINKS IN ATTACKS JUST HOURS APART

Bidens walking in church

US President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, alongside Archbishop Gregory Aymond (R), attend an interfaith prayer service with the families and community members impacted by the Jan. 1 truck attack in New Orleans, at the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Jan. 6, 2025. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

The incident is still under investigation, and federal and local officials are continuing to gather evidence about the terrorist attack. On Sunday, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) said its National Response Team had completed its investigation of Jabbar’s Airbnb in New Orleans.

Jabbar, who rented a house on Mandeville Street and left it hours before unleashing his attack, set a fire at the rental house to destroy evidence, but the fire eventually smoldered by the time authorities arrived. Accelerants that Jabbar strategically placed ended up not catching fire, allowing authorities to gather evidence.

Officials also found traces of the explosive RDX, or cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine, at the rental. The agency noted that Jabbar unknowingly foiled his plans by using an electric match to ignite explosive material that is typically set off by a detonator. 

 

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Bidens laying flowers

US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden lay flowers as they pay their respects to victims of the January 1 truck attack at a makeshift memorial in Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Janauary 6, 2025. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

“Jabbar used explosive material better suited for a detonator, but he didn’t have access to one, so he used an electric match to set the explosives off,” the ATF’s statement explained. “Jabbar’s lack of experience and crude nature of putting the device together is the reason why he used the wrong device to set the explosives off.”

Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.

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Video: Carter’s Coffin Transferred to Washington

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Video: Carter’s Coffin Transferred to Washington

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Carter’s Coffin Transferred to Washington

Former President Jimmy Carter’s body was moved on Tuesday from his home state of Georgia to Washington, where it will lie in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol until Thursday.

“Jimmy Carter’s work and those works speak for him louder than any tribute we can offer.” “Whether he was in the White House or in his postpresidential years, as was discussed, President Carter was willing to roll up his own sleeves to serve and get the job done.”

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Trump trolls Canada again, shares map with country as part of US: 'Oh Canada!'

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Trump trolls Canada again, shares map with country as part of US: 'Oh Canada!'

President-elect Trump on Tuesday again suggested that Canada should be added as the U.S.’s 51st state, sharing maps showing Canada as part of the U.S.

Trump shared a pair of posts to his social media platform Truth Social on Tuesday night — one with a map of the U.S. and Canada with “United States” written across the two countries and another post with the U.S. and Canada covered in an American Flag.

“Oh Canada!” he wrote in one post.

The incoming president has been pushing recently for Canada to be added to the U.S., including earlier on Tuesday.

TRUMP TROLLING CANADA AS 51ST STATE COULD BOOST DEMOCRATS WITH ‘BLUE-STATE BEHEMOTH’

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U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talk prior to a NATO round table meeting at The Grove hotel and resort in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, Dec. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

“Canada and the United States. That would really be something,” Trump said at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. “They should be a state.”

On Monday, the president-elect argued in a social media post that “many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State.”

WHAT TRUMP IS SAYING ABOUT CANADA BECOMING THE 51ST STATE

“The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat,” he wrote on Truth Social.

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“Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned. If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them,” he added. “Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!”

President-elect Trump and Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau

President-elect Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, left, CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images, right.)

Trudeau, who announced Monday that he will resign as Canadian prime minister once a replacement is chosen, said Tuesday there is no way Canada would join the U.S.

“There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” Trudeau wrote on the social media platform X. “Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner.”

Trump has been trolling Canada in recent weeks, floating the idea of it becoming the 51st state and posting a doctored photo of him standing beside a Canadian flag on top of a mountain.

Trump at a campaign event

President-elect Donald Trump arrives to speak at a news conference at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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The president-elect has also mocked Trudeau, repeatedly referring to him as “governor.” Additionally, Trump has threatened to impose massive tariffs on Canada.

Trump has also been pushing for Denmark to sell the North Atlantic island of Greenland to the U.S.

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Lawyers for security consultant say CNN report on Afghan evacuations destroyed his career

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Lawyers for security consultant say CNN report on Afghan evacuations destroyed his career

Attorneys for a U.S Navy veteran said Tuesday that their client’s reputation and earning power were destroyed by a 2021 CNN report on war profiteers following the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Zachary Young sued the network over a Nov. 11, 2021 story by chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt about how Afghans were being charged exorbitant fees for assistance in getting out of the country.

The security consultant, whose background includes a stint with the private military contractor Blackwater, says the four-minute video package falsely portrayed him as acting illegally.

Young, who heads his own Boca Raton, Fla.-based company, was hired by corporations to get their employees out of Afghanistan, advertising his services on LinkedIn. His attorneys said his annual income went from $350,000 a year to zero after the report ran on CNN’s channels and website.

The jury in the trial, heard in a Bay County, Fla., court, will be asked to determine whether CNN journalists acted with actual malice, which is defined as the publication of false information with reckless disregard of the truth. If jurors find CNN liable, they can award Young monetary damages for loss of business income and emotional distress.

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Media companies typically settle defamation trials before they get to court, even if it’s expensive to do so. Last year Fox News paid $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems over false statements made about the company while reporting on President-elect Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. Fox wanted to avoid the embarrassment of its executives being called to the stand.

But CNN is standing by Marquardt’s report. The defamation case tests how the public perceives mainstream media amid constant right-wing attacks on its credibility.

The six-person jury is from Bay County, where 73% of the votes cast in the 2024 presidential election went to Trump, a constant critic of media outlets that don’t present him in a positive light.

The core of Young’s suit is CNN’s use of the term “black market” in an on-screen graphic and in a spoken introduction before Marquardt’s report, which first aired on “The Lead with Jake Tapper.” Young, the only person mentioned by name in the segment, says the graphic gave the false impression that he was involved in illegal activity and exploited Afghans.

In opening statements at the trial, CNN’s attorney Dave Axelrod challenged Young’s claim that the report damaged his business or reputation. Axelrod said that many of the messages and contacts pertaining to Young’s activities have been deleted since the CNN story aired.

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“You’re going to see that CNN’s reporting … was accurate and you’re not going to see a single witness who will testify they thought less of Mr. Young,” Axelrod said.

Axelrod also said Young’s activities were never described as illegal. The term “black market” was used in the piece to describe unregulated activity, he added, and was not directly applied to Young.

Young’s attorney Kyle Roche argued that the dictionary defines black market as illegal.

CNN anchor Tapper delivered an on-air apology to Young over the use of the term after he objected five months after the story aired.

Roche’s opening statement also focused on the internal communications and emails between Marquardt and his producers that disparaged Young as they aggressively pursued the story.

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“I’m going to nail that Zachary Young mother———,” Marquardt wrote in one text.

“I’m going to hold you to that cowboy,” the producer replied.

Roche said emails and behind-the-scenes video footage show that “CNN took pleasure in casting [Young] as the villain for their hit piece.”

Even though CNN executives raised questions about the story — at one point saying it had “more holes than Swiss cheese” according to internal communications — it eventually passed through the network’s vetting process and was deemed ready for air, Axelrod noted.

“There is nothing false about Mr. Young in any of it,” Axelrod said.

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Although Young did not sit for an interview with CNN, he did send text messages acknowledging the high cost for his services. The text shown in the segment also made clear that Young did business with corporate sponsors.

“If someone reaches out, we need to understand that if they have a sponsor behind them to be able to pay [evacuation] costs,” said one text in the report which was shown in court.

Young took the stand in the trial and spent most of the time answering questions about his family, military background and his security work for corporations.

CNN’s Marquardt is expected to testify in the trial, which resumes Wednesday.

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