LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Super Bowl pregame will have some Louisiana flavor: Multi-talented performer Jon Batiste will hit the stage to sing the national anthem, while Trombone Shorty and Lauren Daigle are slated to perform “America the Beautiful.”

The performances will take place Feb. 9 at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans before the NFL’s championship matchup and halftime show featuring rap megastar Kendrick Lamar, the league announced Thursday.

“We’re honored to work with this year’s pregame lineup to celebrate the rich musical legacy of New Orleans and the entire state,” said Seth Dudowsky, the head of music at the NFL.

Ledisi will perform “ Lift Every Voice and Sing ” as part of the pregame performances that will air on Fox. The pregame performers are all Louisiana natives.

The national anthem and “America the Beautiful” will be performed by actor Stephanie Nogueras in American sign language.

Otis Jones IV will sign “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and the halftime show will be signed by Matt Maxey.

Jay-Z’s Roc Nation company and Emmy-winning producer Jesse Collins will serve as co-executive producers of the halftime show.

Batiste is a Grammy and Oscar winner who is the former bandleader for the “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” His documentary “American Symphony” is nominated for best music film, and his “It Never Went Away” from the documentary is up for best song written for visual media at the upcoming Grammys. He composed the score for Jason Reitman’s film “Saturday Night” and this month released “ Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1),” which reimagined the iconic German pianist’s work.

Trombone Shorty, a Grammy winner known for blending funk, soul, R&B and rock, has toured with major acts such as Lenny Kravitz, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Foo Fighters. Daigle made her way as a contemporary Christian singer, winning two Grammys for her 2018 song “You Say” from her third studio album, “Look Up Child.”

Ledisi won a Grammy for her 2020 single “Anything for You.” She also appeared in the films “Leatherheads,” “Spinning Gold” and the Oscar-nominated “Selma.”

JERUSALEM – A radical Islamist group unleashed its biggest military incursion against Syrian regime forces since 2020 in the northwest of the war-ravaged Syrian Arab Republic, triggering Russian and Syrian warplanes on Thursday to bomb the insurgent offensive.

Rebels led by the U.S-designated Islamist terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stormed a dozen towns and villages in northwest Aleppo province, which is controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The Syrian Islamist offensive started on the same day that Assad’s ally, the Lebanese-based terrorist organization, Hezbollah, reached a ceasefire agreement with Israel to end over 14 months of warfare.

The battle unfolding in Syria involves a motley crew of U.S.-classified state-sponsors of terrorism — Assad’s regime, the Islamic Republic of Iran — against a Turkey-backed Islamist terrorist movement. Vladimir Putin’s Russian regime has faced accusations of war crimes during its invasion of Ukraine. 

NEARLY 30,000 CHILDREN ARE SUFFERING HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN SYRIA, UN-BACKED COMMISSION SAYS

Former U.S. defense intel officer Rebekah Koffler, who is an expert on Putin, told Fox News Digital, “This is classic Putin’s Playbook, what’s going on in Syria, on Thanksgiving Day. He is doing what’s called lateral escalation in Syria, in response to Biden’s giving authorization to [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky to use U.S. ATACMs to strike deep into Russia, and Zelensky taking Biden up on his offer. Russia and the United States are on the opposite sides of the war in Syria. So Putin is ratcheting up support of Assad, which is counter to U.S. policy, signaling to Biden that he will be countering U.S. interests across multiple geographic areas.”

Anti-regime groups take control of some villages in the western countryside as the clashes between the Bashar al-Assad regime and the opposition armed group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) continued in Aleppo, Syria on Wednesday. (Kasim Rammah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Koffler added, “Putin is signaling pressure on Biden to withdraw authorization from Zelensky to use ATACMs against Russia. The doctrine is ‘escalate to de-escalate.’ With the recent strike of hypersonic missile Oreshnik on Ukraine, Putin climbed several rungs on the escalation ladder. With Russian air forces joining Syrian airfare bombing rebel-held northwestern Syria, he is also moving laterally on the escalation ladder, to out escalate the United States, unbalance Biden, and create as much negotiating leverage on Ukraine for himself before President Trump begins his second term. I would not be surprised if Assad strikes the rebel-held territories with chemical weapons again.”

Alex Grinberg, an Israeli expert on Russia, told Fox News Digital that the rest of Assad’s army cannot fight against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham without Russian air power. 

He said this is “usually what the Russians do” in Syria.

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Iranian regime-controlled state media said that Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Kioumars Pourhashemi was killed in Aleppo during the incursion. Pourhashemi was a senior IRGC military adviser in Syria.

Anti-regime groups took control of some villages in the western countryside as the clashes between the Bashar al-Assad regime and the opposition armed group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) continued in Aleppo, Syria on Wednesday. (Kasim Rammah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Islamist rebels say the campaign was in response to stepped-up strikes in recent weeks against civilians by the Russian and Syrian air forces on areas in southern Idlib, and to preempt any attacks by the Syrian army, which they said was building up troops near front lines with rebels.

Assad’s war against his population, which started with Syrians calling for democracy in 2011, has resulted in the murders of over 500,000 people.

Iran has sent thousands of fighters to Syria during the Syrian war. While these have included members of the Guards, officially serving as advisers, the bulk have been Shi’ite militiamen from all over the region.

Turkish security sources said on Thursday the rebels initially launched a limited operation after attacks by Syrian government forces, and expanded the operation after government forces abandoned their positions.

Reuters contributed to this report.

NATO’s senior expert on cyber and hybrid threats says the persistent attacks on undersea cables across Europe is “the most active threat” to Western infrastructure. 

Acting Assistant Secretary General for Innovation Hybrid and Cyber, James Appathurai says recent attacks on the communications cables attributed by the alliance to Russia is part of a significant growth in cyber, hybrid and other interference in Europe. 

Early in November two cables were severed in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Lithuania and another between Germany and Finland immediately alarming member states and NATO concerned about sabotage. 

‘The Russians are carrying out a program they have had for decades. It’s called the Russian Undersea Research Program, which is a euphemism for a paramilitary structure, very well-funded, that is mapping out all of our cables and our energy pipelines”, says Appathurai.

‘It has so-called research ships. They have little submarines underneath. They have unmanned, uncrewed, remotely operated vehicles they have divers and explosives’, he tells Euronews’ Europe Conversation. 

In Germany, Finland, the governments were quick to lay blame at potential saboteurs for the apparent attacks on the cables. 

“No one believes that the cables were accidentally damaged. I also don’t want to believe that the ships’ anchors caused the damage by accident,” said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorious.  

Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen said Nato needed to do a lot more to defend Western critical infrastructure. 

Sweden said an investigation into the cables is now underway. 

“Russia is systematically attacking European security architecture”, said a joint statement from foreign ministers of Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain and the U.K. 

“Moscow’s escalating hybrid activities against NATO and E.U. countries are also unprecedented in their variety and scale, creating significant security risks”, it read. 

Ninety per cent of the world’s digital communications data passes through the undersea cables. And around €10 trillion in financial transactions pass through daily. In addition to cables, critical undersea infrastructure also includes electricity connectors and pipelines supplying oil and gas.  

Appathurai says cyber-attacks, disinformation, political interference are also on the increase.  

‘They’re the baseline. And all of it higher than it used to be. What’s new is an increased Russian appetite and for a campaign of sabotage’, he says.  

‘That means arson, derailing trains, attacks on politicians’ properties, attempts to assassinate, for example, the head of Rheinmetal’, the largest German arms manufacturer which supplies Ukraine with important 155mm artillery shells. 

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US intelligence foiled the assassination plot last July which was likely a part of greater plan to target defence industry leaders supplying Ukraine.

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