Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Editorial Note: The DHS Daily Briefing is a collection of news articles related to Department’s mission. The inclusion of particular stories is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse the political viewpoints or affiliations included in news coverage.

ABC News [1/5/2025 10:35 AM, Staff, 33392K, Negative] reports Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned in an interview Sunday on ABC’s "This Week" of a "very difficult threat landscape" in the wake of the New Orleans truck attack. And Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman emeritus of the House Homeland Security Committee, noted the resurgence in the Middle East of ISIS, the extremist group which the New Orleans suspect said he was inspired by. Early New Year’s Day, 14 people were killed and dozens more were injured after Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran drove a pickup truck through a crowd on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street, authorities said. The suspect, a U.S.-born Army veteran from Texas, posted videos online before the deadly rampage "proclaiming his support for ISIS" and mentioning he joined ISIS before this summer, according to the FBI. "We have not only the persistent threat of foreign terrorism -- that, of course, created the Department of Homeland Security -- but we have adverse nation-states, and for the past 10 years, we’ve seen a significant increase in what we term ‘homegrown violent extremism,’" Mayorkas told anchor George Stephanopoulos. "It is a very difficult threat landscape, and it is why that we as a community -- not just the federal government, but state and local officials and residents -- need to be alert to it and take the precautions necessary to avoid violence from occurring.” Mayorkas said his office worked with local law enforcement and "took additional sweeping measures" to ensure New Orleans’ annual Sugar Bowl college football game could safely go on after the attack. Despite immigration being the department’s "highest responsibility," Mayorkas emphasized that the New Orleans attack was unrelated to issues at the southern border. "The assailant who perpetrated the terrorist attack in New Orleans was born in the United States, raised in the United States, and served in our armed forces," he said. "It is not an issue of the border.” The Washington Examiner [1/5/2025 1:05 PM, Jenny Goldsberry, 2365K, Negative] reports Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) called out the Biden administration for being "completely derelict in its duty." While both these suspects were American citizens, Johnson has long raised alarm bells over possible terrorists coming over the border under Mayorkas’s watch. "It is not an issue of the border," Mayorkas said of the attacks on ABC News’s This Week Sunday. "With respect to the border, our highest responsibility and one that we work to fulfill each and every day throughout the Department of Homeland Security, throughout the federal government, is the safety and security of the American people. That is what we have incredibly talented and dedicated individuals doing every day in their careers.” Mayorkas lamented that radicalization is "not limited" to the military but is a nationwide issue. Both suspects of these terrorist attacks, plus President-elect Donald Trump’s second attempted assassin, were veterans. Politico [1/5/2025 11:43 AM, Liset Cruz, Negative] reports that the DHS secretary said heightened personnel, additional screening and sweeping measures, and working with local law enforcement are some of the precautionary measures that will be taken at upcoming events such as Monday’s certification of the election, the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter and Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

Washington Examiner [1/5/2025 3:48 PM, Jenny Goldsberry, 2365K, Negative] reports Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) noted that the recent "uptick" in terrorist attacks are coming with little warning. McCaul appeared on ABC News’s This Week Sunday immediately following Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who responded to the two acts of terrorism from earlier in the week. While Mayorkas claimed that these attacks were "not an issue of the border," McCaul suggested that more attacks could be on the horizon as eight ISIS individuals entered the U.S. via an illegal border crossing. "I think it’s a rising threat," McCaul said. "So you really have two types of threats: One is operational. The other one is inspired attacks, radicalized over the internet. They’re both equally lethal, and [the new administration needs] to be focused on to stop it. There are usually warning signs, though, in these cases. I don’t really see a lot of warning signs, at least so far, other than right before the attacks. We have to pay attention to the social media and connect the dots before these events happen.” During the New Year’s Day celebration in New Orleans, Shamsud-Din Jabbar subverted a police barricade and drove through the crowds before shooting and killing fifteen people. McCaul noted that Jabbar visited Egypt before the attack, which concerned the congressman. The man who perpetrated the 2013 Boston Marathon attack similarly went to Dagestan before he detonated a bomb at the race.

The Hill [1/5/2025 11:08 AM, Lauren Irwin, 16346K, Neutral] reports Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he has spoken "substantively" with President-elect Trump’s choice to fill his seat, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R). Mayorkas joined ABC’s "This Week," where he was asked about the administration transition. Noem was nominated by Trump to lead DHS, but she must be confirmed by the Senate. "I have spoken with Gov. Noem a number of times, including on New Year’s Day and immediately thereafter, with respect to the horrific terrorist attack," Mayorkas said Sunday. He was referencing the terror attack in New Orleans, where a man rammed a pickup truck down a busy Bourbon Street early Wednesday, killing 14 people and injuring many more. "We have spoken substantively about the measures that we take, and I am incredibly devoted to a smooth and successful transition to the success of Gov. Noem, should she be confirmed as the secretary of Homeland Security," Mayorkas said. He said he appreciated Noem’s "focus" on the issues they discussed.

Yahoo! News [1/5/2025 5:58 PM, Theresa Braine, 57114K, Neutral] reports Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday called for $615 million to be included in the federal budget to shore up urban centers against terrorism in the wake of an attack in New Orleans and an explosion in Las Vegas — and the potential for copycats. With the current agreement to keep the government from shutting down lasting only through March 14, Schumer urged the incoming Trump administration to ensure the federal Urban Area Security Initiative, a rolling terrorism-preparation fund administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, would not fall prey to political games. The FBI on Friday warned law enforcement officials across the country to have an eye out for potential copycat attacks like the one in New Orleans, where an apparent lone wolf became self-radicalized and carried out an attack that killed 14 people celebrating New Year’s on the city’s famed Bourbon St. An apparent suicide in Las Vegas in which an active duty soldier blew himself up in a Tesla Cybertruck added to the tension. “On the heels of the attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and the warnings from the FBI, there is one thing the federal government must not and cannot dither on, and that is the anti-terror dollars that protect New York City, Long Island and the metro area,” Schumer said in a statement. “Today, I am announcing that I will request the federal UASI program administered by FEMA is funded with at least $615 million in the upcoming budget,” he said. “This amount will help New York City and the region tap federal dollars that help prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to and recover from acts of terrorism. Any effort to cut this anti-terror program, especially right now, cannot stand.”

The Hill [1/5/2025 4:09 PM, Lauren Irwin, 16346K, Negative] reports CBS News’s Margaret Brennan pressed President-elect Trump’s new border czar Tom Homan on the next administration’s mass deportation plans. Homan joined Brennan on "Face the Nation" on Sunday, where he was asked about Trump’s plans for the largest deportation operation in history. Brennan asked the former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director for the number of deportations that the administration would consider a success. Homan directed the conversation to the Biden administration, which took action earlier this year to limit the number of asylum-seekers entering the country through the U.S.-Mexico border. Homan argued that 80 percent of the Biden administration’s deportation numbers are from Border Patrol arrests that were moved back across the southern border. "They weren’t interior enforcement arrests," he said, adding the Biden administration is "playing a numbers game.” Brennan noted that it’s still a higher number than when Trump was in office the first time. She pressed Homan on whether success would come from arresting and deporting people already within the United States in addition to sealing off the southern border. "You can compare the number of deportations under Trump versus Biden," he said. "When you consider a 45-year low in crossings, the number of deportations [is] going to be lower because we don’t have that population to process and deport.” Brennan asked how the administration will find criminals and what a deportation plan would look like. Homan said ICE knows where "some" are but placed blame on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for the lack of arrests. He also criticized sanctuary cities, places that have said they will not target migrants, for putting communities at greater risk.

Washington Examiner [1/5/2025 9:57 AM, Jenny Goldsberry, 2365K, Neutral] reports Incoming border czar Tom Homan promised to find and deport illegal immigrants that "got away" under the Biden administration. Homan shared his concern about the over 2 million known "gotaways" that include immigrants who were never arrested, fingerprinted, or vetted. Meanwhile, over the New Year’s holiday, there were two terrorist attacks perpetrated by American citizens in Las Vegas, Nevada, and New Orleans, Louisiana. This combination has Homan more motivated to deport illegal immigrants once President-elect Donald Trump takes over. "We are trying, but this administration, even after what happened the last couple of days, they’re still bringing thousands through the CBP one app, the CHNV program from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, Venezuela," Homan said on Fox News’s One Nation with Brian Kilmeade. "They’re going to do as much damage as they can until President Trump walks back to that office. But a message to those thousands that they’re still bringing in every day: You’re going home.” Still, Homan noted Trump’s influence before he takes office on Jan. 20. Argentinian President Javier Milei and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have traveled to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has also spoken with Trump over the phone at length about the border crisis.

CBS News [1/5/2025 12:46 PM, Staff, 52225K, Neutral] Video: HERE reports Tom Homan, set to be President-elect Donald Trump’s "border czar," reiterated on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that the incoming administration will concentrate on "public safety threats and national security threats" in its plans for mass deportations starting on "day one.”

AP [1/4/2025 9:10 AM, Valerie Gonzalez, 47097K, Neutral] reports when Roselins Sequera’s family of seven finally reached the U.S. from Venezuela, they spent weeks at a migrant shelter on the Texas border that gave them a place to sleep, meals and tips for finding work. "We had a plan to go to Iowa" to join friends, said Sequera, who arrived at the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in October. "But we didn’t know how.” Dozens of shelters run by aid groups on the U.S. border with Mexico have welcomed large numbers of migrants, providing lifelines of support and relief to overwhelmed cities. They work closely with the Border Patrol to care for migrants released with notices to appear in immigration court, many of whom don’t know where they are or how to find the nearest airport or bus station. But Republican scrutiny of the shelters is intensifying, and President-elect Donald Trump’s allies consider them a magnet for illegal immigration. Many are nonprofits that rely on federal funding, including $650 million under one program last year alone. The incoming Trump administration has pledged to carry out an ambitious immigration agenda, including a campaign promise of mass deportations. The new White House’s potential playbook includes using the National Guard to arrest migrants and installing buoy barriers on the waters between the U.S. and Mexico. As part of that agenda, Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan, has vowed to review the role of nongovernmental organizations and whether they helped open "the doors to this humanitarian crisis." Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who along with Elon Musk was tapped by Trump to find ways to cut federal spending, has signaled that the groups are in his sights and called them "a waste of taxpayer dollars.” The developments have alarmed immigration advocates and some officials in border communities, including Republicans, who say those communities can collapse without shelter space or a budget to pay for humanitarian costs. Aid groups deny that they are aiding illegal immigration. They say they are responding to emergencies foisted on border towns and performing humanitarian work. "The groundwork is being laid here in Texas for a larger assault on nonprofits that are just trying to protect people’s civil rights," said Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, an advocacy group.

Roll Call [1/5/2025 9:45 AM, David Lerman, 440K, Neutral] reports Speaker Mike Johnson laid out an ambitious timeline Sunday for a mammoth budget reconciliation package that would enact much of President-elect Donald Trump’s legislative agenda in the first 100 days of his new administration. The House plans to pass a single reconciliation bill as soon as April 3 that would incorporate border security, the extension of expiring tax cuts and an increase in the nation’s borrowing limit coupled with spending cuts, among other things, Johnson said on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures” program. He said the Senate would then clear the package for Trump’s signature by the end of April or “certainly by May.” Senate Republicans and a key faction of House GOP conservatives have been urging a two-bill approach, with border security and defense spending first, coupled with energy deregulation measures and offsetting spending reductions, before turning to the tax-cut package. But Johnson made a public, emphatic case Sunday for a single-bill strategy using the reconciliation process, which could avoid a Democratic filibuster. “I think at the end of the day, President Trump is going to prefer, as he likes to say, one big, beautiful bill,” the Louisiana Republican said. While no one will like every element of the package, he said, “there will be enough elements in there to pull everyone along. So I think keeping it together is how we’ll actually get it done.” Johnson also pointed to the political imperative of passing as much of Trump’s agenda as possible in short order. “That’s why we’re going to be so aggressive about getting this through in the first 100 days, because we’ll begin to see the effects of the economy very quickly and that will be important for the midterm elections in two years,” he said. Johnson said Congress would need to adopt a budget resolution, with the reconciliation framework for various committees to fill in the legislative details, early next month in order to keep the aggressive timetable on schedule. The Washington Examiner [1/5/2025 1:20 PM, Staff, 2365K, Neutral] reports "It’ll have a lot of pieces. We’ve made a lot of campaign promises; President Trump did as well, and reconciliation is the way to get it done," Johnson told Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures. "Reconciling the budget, which we will pass in early February, is how we’ll get all of our committees, committees of jurisdiction involved on all these big issues.” Republicans have been planning for months to use budget reconciliation to secure early wins for Trump, utilizing the rare procedural tool to circumvent Democratic opposition in the Senate to advance key agenda items. There are certain rules for how often reconciliation can be used, and Republicans will only be able to utilize it for budget-related legislation such as taxes, spending, and the debt limit. But Republicans can’t start moving their spending priorities through Congress on day one. Reconciliation requires both the House and Senate to pass a budget resolution, which sets tax and spending levels that are then directed to specific committees to achieve a certain budgetary outcome. Johnson said he hopes to accomplish that by February, which would then pave the way for committees to create legislation adhering to those outcomes. Once that is finalized, the package can be brought to the floor for a vote — which Johnson says he hopes to do by the beginning of April. Bloomberg [1/5/2025 9:54 PM, Wendy Benjaminson, 6595K, Neutral] reports Johnson said Republicans would use what is known as the reconciliation process, which only requires a simple majority of 51 in the Senate. That means Republicans can pass the legislation without Democratic votes. Trump, in a Sunday evening post to Truth Social and X, said lawmakers “are getting to work on one powerful bill” covering much of his legislative agenda, and demanded that Republicans “unite, and quickly deliver” his legislative wins “as soon as possible.” Johnson said the massive bill would address issues such as border security, including money for the mass deportations of undocumented immigrants; an extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts; raising or eliminating the federal debt ceiling; reducing federal regulations and “dismantling the deep state.”

NBC News [1/5/2025 9:19 AM, Staff, 50804K, Neutral] Video: HERE reports that, in an interview with Meet the Press, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) discusses the feasibility of President-elect Trump’s mass deportation plans, but assured the incoming administration will have “the resources they need.” In 2016, Thune stated it was unrealistic to deport all illegal immigrants.

Bloomberg [1/5/2025 5:36 PM, Zoe Tillman and Hadriana Lowenkron, 1450K, Negative] reports four years after a mob attacked the US Capitol to support Donald Trump’s last-gasp effort to overturn his election loss, the events of Jan. 6, 2021, have evolved into a political and cultural flashpoint — with little lasting damage to the president-elect. The attack faced bipartisan condemnation in the immediate aftermath. But as Trump made 2020 election denialism a core part of his post-first term identity, downplaying the severity of the attack and denouncing the prosecutions that followed became a sign of loyalty and helped propel him to a second term. As Trump prepares to return to power in two weeks, expectations are high for him to reward that allegiance and fulfill his promises of swift clemency for the 1,000-plus people convicted and hundreds more with pending cases. Any early action on Jan. 6 pardons would set the tone for how he might wield the presidency to reward loyalists and, critics fear, punish opponents. This year’s Jan. 6 election certification has been designated a “national special security event” to be overseen by the US Secret Service. It’s the first time the vote-counting event has been given this classification, according to the agency, and allows for vast resources from the federal government and state and local partners to be used in the security plan. Another risk for Monday’s event is heavy weather that’s expected to arrive in Washington overnight. “We’ve got a big snowstorm coming to DC and we encourage all of our colleagues: do not leave town,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. “So whether we’re in a blizzard or not, we are going to be in that chamber making sure this is done.” Major General John C. Andonie, commanding general for the Washington, DC National Guard, told reporters Friday that 500 soldiers would be on standby to support the certification. President Joe Biden drew fresh criticisms from Trump after he granted Presidential Citizens Medals on Thursday to Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson, the bipartisan duo who headed a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

Washington Post [1/5/2025 9:44 PM, Matt Viser, 40736K, Neutral] reports President Joe Biden, who has attempted to oversee a smooth transition by withholding criticism of President-elect Donald Trump, has grown more animated about their differences ahead of the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. “I think it should not be rewritten, I don’t think it should be forgotten,” he told reporters at the White House on Sunday afternoon, which he expanded upon at an evening event and in a new opinion piece published Sunday night by Washington Post. “But I don’t think we should — if you notice, I’ve reached out to make sure the smooth transition, we’ve got to get back to basic, normal transfer of power. I don’t think we should pretend it didn’t happen,” he said, referring to the mob of Trump supporters who staged a deadly assault in the U.S. Capitol in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Speaking about Trump specifically, Biden added: “I think what he did was a genuine threat to democracy, and I’m hopeful that we’re beyond it.” It was his latest effort to remind Americans of how perilous he views the country’s democratic norms. He also in recent days awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal to former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, honoring her for speaking out against Trump and for investigating his actions in the Jan. 6 attacks. Trump attacked Cheney on social media over the award and has suggested that she and other members of the House committee that investigated the attacks “should go to jail.” Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday will take the gavel for what has largely been a ceremonial afterthought through much of history, as members of Congress gather to officially certify the election results ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration.

CBS News [1/5/2025 2:01 PM, Emily Mae Czachor, 52225K, Negative] reports five days after a pickup truck flying the ISIS flag rammed through a crowd celebrating New Year’s Eve in New Orleans, investigators say they are learning more about the background and possible motives of the driver who carried out the deadly attack. While following leads that have cropped up in several United States cities outside of Louisiana, federal agents are also looking into a series of trips the driver took to New Orleans and Cairo, Egypt, in 2023, said Lyonel Myrthil, the special agent in charge of FBI New Orleans, at a briefing Sunday. The FBI previously identified the perpetrator as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas. He was fatally shot by police during the rampage on Bourbon Street, in New Orleans’ French Quarter, which left 14 people dead and dozens more injured. Authorities have characterized the attack as an act of terrorism, pointing to social media videos where Jabbar aligned himself with ISIS, and believe he was likely radicalized online. Federal agents have not found evidence of any accomplices in the attack and reiterated Sunday that it appears Jabbar acted alone. ISIS has not claimed responsibility for the attack and officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said there is no established link to foreign actors, but investigators are examining potential connections between Jabbar’s past travels and what happened last week in the French Quarter. "Our agents are getting answers as to where he went, who he met with and how those trips may or may not tie into his actions here in our city of New Orleans," Myrthil told reporters. The agent said Jabbar traveled to Cairo from June 22 to July 3, 2023, and to Ontario, Canada, from July 10 to July 13 of that year. Jabbar had visited New Orleans at least twice in the months leading up to the attack, in October and November last year, according to Myrthil. The FBI on Sunday shared video footage that Jabbar recorded using Meta glasses during one of those trips, which showed him riding through the French Quarter on a bicycle. Investigators are conducting interviews with hundreds of people who they identified as having knowledge of "key pieces of this complex, evolving case," Myrthil said. They are pursuing leads in Houston, Texas, where Jabbar lived, as well as Atlanta, Georgia, and Tampa, Florida. Although the FBI believes Jabbar was the sole attacker on New Year’s Eve, the agency said it is continuing to probe for "potential associates" within the U.S. and abroad. The FBI did not provide details Sunday about who those potential associates could be. But Joshua Jackson, the special agent in charge of the New Orleans field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said the probe did identify a man who sold Jabbar the rifle found in his possession after the attack, in an illegal private sale in Texas.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [1/5/2025 8:57 PM, Kanishka Singh, 48128K, Negative]

AP [1/5/2025 8:24 PM, Jack Brook, Stephen Smith And Sara Cline, 47097K, Negative] reports the man responsible for the truck attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day that killed 14 people visited the city twice before and recorded video of the French Quarter with Meta smart glasses, an FBI official said Sunday. Shamsud-Din Jabbar also traveled to Cairo and Canada before the attack although it was not yet clear whether those trips were connected to the attack, Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said at a news conference. Federal officials believe Jabbar, a U.S. citizen and former U.S. Army soldier, was inspired by the Islamic State militant group to carry out the attack. Police fatally shot Jabbar, 42, during an exchange of gunfire at the scene of the deadly crash of the rented pickup truck on Bourbon Street, famous worldwide for its festive vibes in New Orleans’ historic French Quarter. Federal investigators so far believe Jabbar acted alone, but are continuing to explore his contacts. “All investigative details and evidence that we have now still support that Jabbar acted alone here in New Orleans,” said Raia. “We have not seen any indications of an accomplice in the United States, but we are still looking into potential associates in the U.S. and outside of our borders.” Lyonel Myrthil, FBI special agent in charge of the New Orleans Field Office, said Jabbar traveled to Cairo in the summer of 2023 and then to the Canadian province of Ontario a few days later. “Our agents are getting answers to where he went, who he met with and how those trips may or may not tie into his actions here,” Myrthil said.

Reported similarly:
CNN [1/5/2025 7:27 PM, Eric Levenson, 987K, Negative]

The New York Times [1/6/2025 5:01 AM, Kate Selig, 161405K, Negative] reports President Biden will travel to New Orleans on Monday to meet with local and state officials, the families of victims and others affected by the deadly Jan. 1 terror attack in the city, according to the White House. Mr. Biden’s visit will be one of his final acts as the nation’s “consoler in chief.” He will be accompanied by the first lady, Jill Biden, the White House announcement said. The attack occurred early on New Year’s Day, when a man sped a rented pickup truck through a New Orleans street crowded with revelers, killing 14 people and injuring dozens more. He was killed in a shootout with police officers. Among the victims of the attack were a young mother who had just received a promotion at work, a teenager who had sneaked out to celebrate the New Year and a lifelong city resident who loved spending time on Bourbon Street, where the attack occurred. The authorities have identified the attacker as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen who they said was inspired by the Islamic State terrorist group. The F.B.I. has classified the attack as an act of terrorism and said he was believed to have acted alone. Mr. Biden spoke about the attack in a televised address from Camp David on Thursday. “To all the families of those who were killed, to all those who were injured, to all the people in New Orleans who are grieving today, I want you to know I grieve with you,” he said. “Our nation grieves with you.” Mr. Biden has frequently taken on the grim role of trying to comfort grieving communities after attacks or other disasters. In October, he visited states hit hard by Hurricane Helene’s devastating sweep through the Southeast. This will be his first trip to New Orleans in that capacity. He last visited the city in August to announce funding for a cancer treatment project at Tulane University. VOA News [1/5/2025 3:27 PM, Ken Bredemeier, 2717K, Negative] reports that on the day of the attack, Biden, speaking from the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, offered condolences to the victims’ families in a national address. "I want you to know I grieve with you," he said. Biden said investigators told him the suspect had a remote detonator in his truck that was meant to set off two explosive devices placed inside ice coolers along Bourbon Street.

Yahoo! News [1/5/2025 4:08 PM, Greg LaRose, 57114K, Negative] reports Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Sunday she has asked the Biden administration to provide a "tactical expert" who can evaluate vulnerable areas of the city ahead of the major events, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors, it will host in the coming weeks. Super Bowl LIX will take place Feb. 9 at the Superdome, but Carnival season officially starts Monday. Several parades will roll through New Orleans streets through Mardi Gras (March 4), and larger-than-average crowds are expected regularly in the French Quarter, where a terrorist raced down Bourbon Street in a pickup truck early Jan. 1, killing 14 people and injuring 37 others. The mayor and Gov. Jeff Landry joined officials with the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to provide an update to reporters Sunday morning on their investigation of Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, of Texas, who was killed in a shootout with police after his deadly attack. Cantrell was asked about multiple news reports that indicate the new traffic barriers, or bollards, the city is installing in the French Quarter are not strong enough to prevent an attack similar to what happened Wednesday morning. The stainless steel posts that are being replaced had been removed ahead of New Year’s Eve and the Sugar Bowl, which had been scheduled for Jan. 1, allowing Jabbar to lethally speed through three blocks of Bourbon Street before crashing into a lift vehicle. City contractors have already installed the receptacles for the new bollards at several intersections along Bourbon Street. Cantrell also said the city, in conjunction with the governor, wants to have Mardi Gras given a federal level-one Special Assessment Event Rating (SEAR). The designation would bring with it "extensive federal interagency support, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Minnesota Public Radio [1/5/2025 12:00 PM, Staff, 63K, Negative] reports the two defendants convicted in a human smuggling case continue to argue for their innocence, filing separate motions for acquittal or new trials to the U.S. District Court in Fergus Falls on Friday. Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand stood trial on charges they were involved in the operation that resulted in a family of four from India freezing to death as they attempted to cross the U.S-Canada border in January 2022. A federal jury found Patel and Shand guilty on all four counts related to human smuggling in November. The defendants argue there is insufficient evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. “The evidence submitted in Court at trial was woefully deficient and the government has failed to meet its burden of proof,” reads Patel’s motion. Both defendants allege the government did not share materials in a timely manner that may have impacted the credibility of prosecution witnesses, preventing their right to a fair and just trial. Patel and Shand are currently scheduled for sentencing on March 31. They face up to 10 or 20 years in prison on each count.

Wall Street Journal [1/5/2025 4:31 AM, Christopher Richardson, Neutral] reports President Trump can’t change what happened four years ago on Jan. 6, when a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an impossible effort to undo his 2020 election loss. Soon, though, Mr. Trump will get the power to extricate the riot’s participants from the legal consequences of their actions. How far will he go? “A vast majority should not be in jail,” he said recently. Scanning the latest case activity, what jumps out isn’t sympathetic characters. On Dec. 20 a prison sentence of 48 months was given to 31-year-old Joshua Lee Atwood, who pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement. He emptied a can of pepper spray at police, beat them with a pole, and pelted them with objects such as a “metal scaffolding pipe.” He yelled that the cops were “pieces of s—” and “betraying your country.” The prosecution’s sentencing memo says his criminal history includes a pending felony case for an alleged 2023 stabbing. On Dec. 17 a 60-month sentence was given to Michael Bradley, 50, who apparently went to the Capitol on Jan. 6 with his own metal baton in a hip holster. He swung it at police more than once, though video at his trial couldn’t conclusively prove whether he made contact. The government also says he lied to the FBI and at trial. He claimed it was really a flashlight holster on his hip, but the one he brought to court didn’t match the footage. His list of priors includes a 2002 conviction for meth trafficking. Also in December: A 24-year-old man got nine months for having thrown an “equipment container lid” that beaned a cop, causing momentary loss of consciousness and a suspected concussion. A 41-year-old man, who wore body armor on Jan. 6, pleaded guilty to scuffling with police, including trying to seize an officer’s baton while shouting, “Come out here b—.” Other active cases include accusations of ramming the police line, punching cops, and walloping riot shields with a baseball bat. This was the brutal reality of the Capitol riot that many want to forget. At times Mr. Trump suggests his pardons for Jan. 6 defendants won’t extend so far, and at times he’s less clear. He was pressed last month by an NBC host, who said that many of them “have pleaded guilty to assaulting police.” Mr. Trump’s reply was that a tough federal justice system gave them “no choice” but to plead out. Well, if they were innocent, they could have told a jury.

Wall Street Journal [1/5/2025 4:08 AM, Christopher Richardson, Neutral] reports Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have called for an increase in visas for skilled immigrants, angering some of President-elect Trump’s supporters. According to the two entrepreneurs, the U.S. has too few skilled workers, and our outdated immigration system is to blame. Democrats have mostly sat on the sidelines during this debate, but they shouldn’t. They should take a page out of Mr. Trump’s “The Art of the Deal” and make an offer of their own: Ditch the green-card lottery and increase the number of employment-based visas granted every year. The lottery, formally known as the Diversity Immigrant Visa program, provides up to 55,000 immigrant visas annually. It aims to attract applicants from countries with otherwise low immigration rates to the U.S. Unlike most visa programs, it requires no job offer or familial tie for entry. Two years of work experience or a high-school diploma suffices, and the winners are chosen at random. When the diversity visa was created in 1980, it wasn’t for altruistic reasons. It was more of a political boondoggle. Hundreds of thousands of Irish immigrants were flocking to the U.S. Many didn’t qualify for amnesty or employment green cards. Irish-American congressmen offered a solution: the diversity green card. In its early stages about 40% of the lottery winners were Irish. In Ireland and the U.S., community leaders organized application parties where attendees filled out applications, sometimes creating hundreds of forms for a single applicant. The Irish government even chartered planes to deliver applications to Washington. Today, no country dominates the selection process, but fraud still abounds. Meanwhile, the U.S. is suffering from a backlog of employment-based green-card cases. Some 1.8 million skilled foreigners with job offers are waiting to receive visas, and only 140,000 are granted each year.

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos [1/5/2025 9:54 AM, Staff, 2379K, Neutral] reports Alejandro Mayorkas reaction to the threat level in America. "It’s something that we’ve been discussing publicly for quite some time, George. We have a heightened threat environment as Director Wray and the attorney general both articulated, and we’ve been saying this for quite a number of months. We have not only the persistent threat of foreign terrorism that, of course, created the Department of Homeland Security, but we have adverse nation states, and for the past 10 years, we’ve seen a significant increase in what we term homegrown violent extremism. It is a very difficult threat landscape and it is why that we as a -- as a community, not just the federal government, but state and local officials and residents, need to be alert to it and take the precautions necessary to avoid violence from occurring," Mayorkas comments.

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos [1/5/2025 10:00 AM, Staff, 2379K, Negative] reports in the wake of the New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans, security officials across the country are on high alert for a series of high-profile events now feared to be targets. The Golden Globes in L.A. tonight. The certification of the 2024 election at the Capitol tomorrow. Jimmy Carter’s state funeral in Washington later this week, followed by Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20th. And the Super Bowl back in New Orleans on February 9th. Chief justice correspondent Pierre Thomas starts off with what security experts are calling the most dangerous threat environment since 9/11. "This joint intelligence bulletin from October 19, 2023, flatly states that in response to the Middle East conflict, radicals here in the U.S. “likely would employ unsophisticated tactics,” among them, firearms, knives, and “vehicle ramming attacks, due to easy weapon access.” Intelligence analysts say by January ISIS sought to capitalize on the violence in Israel. One of its leaders issuing an audio recording calling on supporters and sympathizers to “kill Christian and Jewish targets wherever you find them.” Sources telling ABC News the ISIS calls to action stoked an already volatile threat environment, perhaps the most dangerous since 9/11," Chief justice Thomas comments.

NBC’s Meet the Press [1/5/2025 10:50 AM, Staff, 5130K, Neutral] reports There’s been a lot of talk about whether President Biden should issue pre-emptive pardons to those who’ve served on the committee. Senator Schiff has been very public about saying that he doesn’t want a pre-emptive pardon. Has you conveyed that directly to President himself, to his administration? "Not directly to the President, but I have conveyed it to the administration and the concern that I have and what I have conveyed is the precedent it would set; that you have an outgoing President giving a broad group of pardons to members of his party or others. I think the precedent can be abused, and people have rightly pointed out that Donald Trump may abuse that precedent regardless, but the idea that each administration hereafter gives broad pardons to people who worked in administration or aligned with administration, I don’t think that’s a road that we want to go down but the President will do what the President does and if he goes forward, I’m sure it will be responding to these baseless arguments of Donald Trump, and of threats to retaliate against people," Senator Schiff comments.

NBC’s Meet the Press [1/5/2025 10:50 AM, Staff, 5130K, Neutral] reports the latest information that Senator John Thune has on the latest terror attack in New Orleans. Senator Thune says that hearts and prayers go out to all the victims’ families and those still injured. He says what a horrible way to start the New year. Senator Thune says that the incident points to the need to get answers and make sure it doesn’t happen again. He goes on to say that the attack is a reminder that "we need to be doing everything we can at every level to keep the American people safe."

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos [1/5/2025 9:54 AM, Staff, 2379K, Neutral] reports Congressman Mike McCaul reaction to the threat level in America right now. "I think it’s a rising threat. When I chaired the Homeland Security Committee, we had a lot of external operations like, you know, explosives on airplanes. Then it morphed into radicalization on the internet. I think you asked that question earlier about the evolution of the threat. And so particularly the – I would say the New Orleans case was radicalization online. But what we’re worried about, in that case, is his travels to Egypt and what was going on there. He was involved with a rare bombmaking material that was not available in the United States. So, I know that they’re saying this is a, you know, kind of a lone wolf type of situation, but there are some – seem to be some real ISIS connections her that need to be followed up," Congressman McCaul comments.

FOX News [1/6/2025 1:13 AM, Landon Mion, 57114K, Negative] reports an illegal migrant from Guatemala was arrested after allegedly molesting a five-year-old girl inside her home in two separate incidents, accusations the suspect is denying. Nicolas Jose Francisco, 25, faces two counts of sexual battery of a child under 12. He is being held without bail at the Palm Beach County jail. Francisco had been working for the young victim’s family for more than a year when he allegedly molested the girl on two separate occasions in the garage and bathroom of the family’s home, WFLX reported. The girl first spoke to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Children and Families on Dec. 13 about the alleged abuse. On both occasions, the child said Francisco had her go into the garage or bathroom where he touched her inappropriately, investigators said. The child told investigators that in the first incident, Francisco called her into the garage and "touched her flower," which is what she called her private area, WPEC reported. In the second instance, the girl said Francisco took her to the bathroom where he allegedly exposed himself to her and touched her again. Francisco said when he was interviewed by deputies on Thursday that the allegations were false and that the family was only making the accusations because he "was an undocumented immigrant." He said he touched the girl "by mistake both times" while he was in the garage and bathroom. He said he was attempting to help the girl go to the bathroom, but investigators said that there was no bathroom anywhere in the garage. Deputies said Francisco later "apologized and admitted his behavior and actions were wrong." Francisco appeared before a judge on Friday morning.

Reuters [1/5/2025 9:12 PM, Jeff Mason, 48128K, Neutral] reports U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday he thought it was awful that President-elect Donald Trump was trying to do away with birthright citizenship in the United States. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Biden said the transition to Trump’s government seemed to be going smoothly, though he said he thought there was a problem with Trump’s team internally related to the handover. Asked ahead of the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol whether he still thought Trump was a threat to democracy, Biden said he thought what Trump did was a "genuine threat to democracy." Trump falsely claimed he had won the 2020 election and urged his supporters to go to the Capitol that day. "It should not be rewritten," Biden said about Jan. 6. "I don’t think it should be forgotten." Biden said white supremacy was one of many threats to the United States. "We are the most extensive multicultural nation in the world. It’s the reason why we’re so strong. It’s the reason why we’re who we are," Biden said. Trump told NBC last month he plans to take executive action on his first day in office to try to end birthright citizenship, which confers citizenship on anyone born in the U.S. regardless of their parents’ immigration status. "The idea we’re going to change a constitutional birthright - if you’re born in the country ... you’re not a citizen? What’s going on?" Biden said. Biden, a Democrat, criticized Trump, a Republican, for encouraging lawmakers not to vote for a bipartisan immigration bill Biden supported to strengthen border enforcement. "It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous," Biden said.

The Hill [1/5/2025 1:07 PM, Lauren Irwin, 16346K, Neutral] reports Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Democrats would "love" to work with President-elect Trump on a deal for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. Schumer joined NBC News’s "Meet the Press" on Sunday, where he was asked about potential areas in which Democrats could work with Trump and his next administration, particularly as the president-elect plans to crack down on immigration. Despite Trump’s wide deportation plans, he’s expressed interest in allowing DACA recipients, also known as Dreamers, to remain in the country. "Well, we’d love to do that," Schumer said Sunday. "Our party has been strongly fighting for the Dreamers for a decade.” Still, Trump’s plan for immigration remains largely unknown. On the campaign trail, he provided few specifics on how he intends to carry out the deportation of millions of people, though he’s threatened to use the military to do so. With the future uncertain for many people and immigration advocates bracing for what may come, Schumer stated that the recipients have long been in the country. "Look, these are people, they were little, tiny children when they were brought over the border," he continued. "Many of them have been here for decades. Some have served in the armed forces. Many of them are working very productively and have families.” "Yes, if we can find a solution so that the Dreamers could stay here, we’d welcome it," Schumer continued.

Bloomberg [1/6/2025 10:57 AM, Cliff Venzon, 1450K, Neutral] reports up to 300 Afghan nationals seeking to resettle in the US arrived in the Philippines on Monday to process their visas, part of an earlier agreement between Manila and Washington. The Afghan nationals, including women and children, arrived via a chartered fight, according to photos released by the US Embassy in Manila. In August, Washington said it reached a deal with Manila allowing a limited number of Afghans to transit to the Southeast Asian nation to complete their special immigrant visa processing. Senator Imee Marcos, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s sister and chair of Senate’s foreign relations committee, had questioned the agreement, citing risks to national security and public safety. President Marcos earlier said he would like to “manifest the Filipino instinct of hospitality.” All visa applicants completed extensive security vetting by the Philippines’ national security agencies, Manila’s Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Monday.

FOX News [1/5/2025 2:52 PM, Pilar Arias, 57114K, Negative] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection is repeating a warning about a phone scam "targeting residents nationwide to gain personal information that would bypass financial security protocols.” The agency said in a post to X on Sunday that scammers are posing as CBP officers and Border Patrol agents while promising money for information or threatening that law enforcement is on the way. The social media post directed to a previous warning from November that followed a "spike of phone calls from concerned citizens about scammers.” "If CBP suspects illegal activity, we will not call a suspect or a victim requesting money or social security numbers," CBP Houston Acting Director of Field Operations Rod Hudson said in a statement. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says scammers are looking for banking information while impersonating agents. "To be clear, CBP will not make telephone calls threatening citizens that law enforcement is on the way or promising money for information. Anyone receiving a call from U.S. Customs and Border Protection about a shipment of drugs or money should recognize that it is a scam regardless of how authentic the caller may sound," the statement continued. Scammers even went as far as providing an actual CBP employee’s name and phone number available on the internet for the victim to identify, the agency says. Some went so far as to give their targets fake case and badge numbers, according to CBP.

Yahoo! News [1/5/2025 4:02 PM, J.D. Gallop, 57114K, Negative] reports a 22-year-old Fort Pierce man has been charged with the shooting death of his former girlfriend, whose body was found in early November lying along a road in West Melbourne. Travion Demetrius Dean was arrested last week in connection with the Nov. 4 shooting death of 20-year-old Aniya Sheppard, also of Fort Pierce. Both had been in a previous relationship that Sheppard’s family described to investigators as "toxic and violent," including a history of the two pointing weapons at each other during past confrontations, court records show. Dean, taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Fort Lauderdale after returning from Jamaica, was charged with first-degree premeditated murder. He is being held without bail at the Brevard County Jail Complex in Sharpes. The case was one of 38 reported homicides to take place in Brevard County during 2024. "As Agents went to work, they determined that Sheppard had been staying with Dean at a local hotel and were observed on surveillance video the morning of the incident, leaving together," Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said in a statement released following the arrest. Investigators said Sheppard and Dean, who had been in a relationship, were staying at the Extended Stay America motel on U.S. 192. The pair then left the motel in a rideshare that dropped them off on Hollywood Boulevard, the sheriff’s office reported. The case unfolded early Nov. 4 after a resident alerted a Brevard County sheriff’s deputy about an unresponsive person seen lying near the road along Eber Boulevard just east of Buddy Drive in West Melbourne. The deputy went to the site and found Sheppard lying unresponsive along the shoulder of the road. Six bullet casings were found nearby.

FOX News [1/5/2025 9:40 AM, Staff, 49889K, Neutral] reports Heritage Foundation visiting fellow Joseph Humire joins ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ to discuss his reaction to the discovery of a secret drug tunnel near Yuma, Arizona, and the cartel reportedly becoming Mexico’s fifth largest employer. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [1/6/2025 12:16 AM, Staff, 48128K, Negative] reports a winter storm brought snow, ice and freezing temperatures to a broad swath of the U.S. on Sunday, with some 60 million people across more than a dozen states from Kansas to New Jersey under winter weather warnings and advisories. The storm was moving toward the mid-Atlantic, where Washington, D.C. was bracing for heavy snow and bitter cold on Monday, the same day the U.S. Congress is set to meet and formally certify Republican Donald Trump’s election as president. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News on Sunday the weather would not prevent lawmakers from carrying out their duties. But federal offices in the nation’s capital will be closed, the Office of Personnel Management announced. Kansas and parts of northwestern Missouri were enduring blizzard conditions, the National Weather Service said. Roadways were blanketed in snow and ice, and officials urged residents to avoid travel. Much of the main artery in Kansas, Interstate 70, was closed throughout Sunday due to heavy snow and ice. In Missouri, the state police were sweeping a shut-down stretch of more than 50 miles on Interstate 29, searching for stranded motorists. As of late Sunday afternoon, troopers had responded to nearly 600 stranded drivers and 285 crashes, the agency said on X. Total snowfall of between six and 12 inches (15 to 30 cm) was expected from southern Ohio to Washington. Hundreds of schools announced in advance that they would not open on Monday due to the storm, including public schools in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Washington and Philadelphia. Yahoo! News [1/5/2025 7:21 PM, Brian Lada, 57114K, Negative] reports that interstate 70 was one of the many roads closed in Kansas over the weekend due to what started as ice but transitioned to heavy snow. Blizzard warnings were also in effect as gusty winds reduced visibility, making travel even more dangerous. All state highways were closed in northeastern Kansas on Sunday due to the wintry conditions, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation. Kansas Highway Patrol added that motorists may be stuck on the closed roads for extended periods of time, as the weather conditions are making it extremely difficult for emergency responders to assist those in need. In St. Louis, a mix of snow and ice caused mayhem on the roads on Sunday, where AccuWeather National Reporter Tony Laubach captured footage of cars stuck everywhere he was traveling. Similar scenes unfolded around Louisville, Kentucky, where over half a foot of snow clogged highways. "We see far too many wrecks out there for people that do not have to be on the roads, so I want to ask: stay inside. Stay safe with your family," Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said on Sunday, according to The Associated Press. Travel headaches ensued at airports across the country amid the widespread weather disruptions, with more than 1,000 flight cancellations and over 3,000 flight delays on Sunday. This could have a ripple effect at airports across the country through the start of the new week. On the southern side of the storm, cold air clashing with warm, moist air ignited severe thunderstorms from eastern Texas through Mississippi, the same area that was struck by deadly storms and tornadoes at the end of December. Sunday’s severe weather was not as potent as the previous severe weather outbreak, but a tornado reportedly touched down in southern Arkansas while strong winds caused damage in areas of eastern Texas and northern Louisiana.

New York Times [1/6/2025 3:00 AM, Nazaneen Ghaffar, 161405K, Negative] reports a major winter storm will finish carving a path from the central United States and the Midwest to the nation’s capital by Monday morning, after having punished multiple states with a mix of sleet, snow, blizzards and freezing rain. Kansas was particularly hard hit. Most of the state was under winter storm and blizzard warnings on Sunday. In the Kansas City metropolitan area, residents hunkered indoors amid ice- and snow-covered driveways, and roads deemed too treacherous for travel. Rapidly falling snow accumulated more than four inches in two hours on Sunday morning. Some areas experienced lightning and booming thunder along with wind gusts of up to 35 miles an hour as the storm moved across the region. “This is a rare blizzard for Kansas City,” Gary Lezak, a longtime meteorologist in the area, said on Sunday. “It is insanely cold. This storm still has 12 hours to go as the blizzard intensifies.” The storm caused numerous crashes over the weekend. West of Salina, Kan., a fire truck, multiple tractor-trailers, and passenger vehicles overturned. Several trucks went spiraling into ditches as icy roads became impassable. On Sunday morning, Ben Gardner, a trooper with the Kansas Highway Patrol, shared on social media that he was at the I-135 and I-70 interchange in Saline County, where Kansas Department of Transportation crews and emergency responders were battling treacherous weather and road conditions. “If you don’t need to travel, please stay home,” he urged. The National Weather Service warned that up to 15 inches of snow (the highest accumulation in a decade) was expected from the storm, reducing visibility to dangerous levels and making travel “extremely hazardous.”

CNN [1/6/2025 4:52 AM, Michelle Watson, Robert Shackelford and Karina Tsui, 987K, Negative] reports millions of Americans from the Ohio Valley to the mid-Atlantic are bracing for a wintry Monday with heavy snowfall, ice, rain and storms, which are forecast to disrupt morning commutes, delay the start of school, and snarl airline schedules across the East Coast. Meanwhile, the nation’s eyes will be focused on Washington, DC, Monday as the US House and Senate will meet in joint session to count each state’s electoral votes and formally declare Donald Trump and JD Vance the president-elect and vice president-elect, in the midst of a winter storm warning expected to bring snow mixed with sleet, with accumulations between five to 10 inches and isolated amounts of up to 16 inches. Businesses and government agencies in the region are announcing closures, while just to the west, multiple states have already been dealing with inclement weather, shutting down major highways, like I-29 in Missouri, leaving people stranded. All told, the treacherous weather encompasses a 1,300-mile swath of the United States and has left more than 55 million people from Missouri and Arkansas to New Jersey and Delaware under winter weather alerts. US federal government offices in Washington, DC, will be closed Monday due to the weather, according to the Office of Personnel Management, but the closure will not affect Congress. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser told a news conference Sunday afternoon the top priority is getting the city fully opened as soon as possible and urged people to give snowplow teams space to work. “If you don’t need to be on the roads tonight and tomorrow, stay home. Please stay off our roads,” she said. Behind the storm, bitterly cold air is settling across the Central US. Over 45 million people from Nebraska to Texas and east to Louisiana are under cold weather alerts, where low temperatures below freezing and wind chills below zero are possible. By Tuesday, temperature drops of as much as 30 degrees below normal for the eastern two-thirds of the US will lock in whatever snow and ice fall from the storm. NPR [1/5/2025 7:40 PM, Chandelis Duster, 8K, Neutral] reports that heavy snowfall and wind gusts more than 40 miles per hour will lead to blizzard conditions across parts of Missouri and Kansas, according to the National Weather Service. "The snow will significantly reduce visibilities, and snowfall amounts will surpass 15 inches (the heaviest in a decade), which will make travel extremely hazardous, with impassable roads," the NWS says. "Additionally, a band of 8-14 inches of snow is expected to extend from northeast Missouri through the Central Appalachians, with a few inches of sleet likely in southern Illinois and Indiana." The storm will also bring a quarter to a half inch of freezing rain over states in the middle Mississippi/Ohio Valley region such as Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. Through Monday, there will also be "significant icing/freezing rain" across central Kansas through parts of the Central Appalachians that will lead to "dangerous travel conditions, widespread tree damage, and prolonged power outages," the NWS says. Snow, sometimes moderate to heavy, on Monday will move from southern Illinois into the mid-Atlantic region where areas surrounding Washington, D.C., and Baltimore could receive up to 12 inches of snow and "ice accumulations up to two tenths of an inch," according to the NWS.

Reuters [1/5/2025 5:37 PM, Doina Chiacu, 2717K, Neutral] reports a massive winter storm moving across the United States will not keep the U.S. Congress from meeting on Monday to formally certify Republican Donald Trump’s election as president, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday. "The Electoral Count Act requires this on January 6 at 1 p.m. - so, whether we’re in a blizzard or not we’re going to be in that chamber making sure this is done," Johnson told Fox News’ "Sunday Morning Futures" in an interview. Johnson said he hoped there would be full attendance despite the storm and that he had encouraged lawmakers to stay in the city. Forecasts called for heavy snow and high winds from the Central Plains to the mid-Atlantic states, the National Weather Service said. Severe weather advisories were issued across the eastern half of the country, including blizzard warnings in parts of Kansas. In Washington, mixed snow and sleet accumulations were expected to be between three and seven inches (7 to 18 cm), promising a difficult commute and possible closings of schools, government and businesses. Bad winter weather can wreak havoc in the Washington metropolitan area, which has seen mild winters in recent decades and has at times been unprepared for accumulations of snow or ice. The city ordered public schools closed on Monday and school cancellations were also announced in several suburban Virginia counties. School systems in neighboring Maryland were likely to follow suit. Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives returned to Washington on Friday after the winter break and Republicans gathered on Saturday with Johnson to discuss legislative priorities. Republicans won control of both the chambers in November’s election. Other leaders stressed they were not contemplating a weather delay. "No change to the schedule," said Lauren Fine, communications director for Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. The certification process, usually a formality, was upended four years ago when supporters of Trump violently stormed the U.S. Capitol in a bid to halt the transfer of power to Democrat Joe Biden, who won the 2020 election.

Washington Post [1/5/2025 5:42 PM, Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, 40736K, Neutral] reports D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser declared a weather emergency through at least Tuesday as the Washington region prepares for the winter’s first major snowfall. “Our priority, of course, is the safety of everyone in our city,” Bowser (D) said in a Sunday news conference. “Between the snow and the cold, these are life-threatening conditions.” The region could see more than half a foot of snow overnight into Monday, according to forecasts, which would mark the region’s largest snow event since at least January 2022 and possibly 2019. Freezing temperatures are also expected for much of the week. Bowser urged drivers to move their vehicles off snow emergency routes, warning that they would be towed starting after 9 p.m. Sunday if they did not. Residents whose vehicles are towed can call 311 to find where to retrieve them. The mayor also said that D.C. schools would be closed Monday and that the city government would be in a “modified posture.” That means some city services will be closed Monday, including recreational centers, indoor pools and the Department of Motor Vehicles. The predicted snowstorm comes at the beginning of a busy week across D.C. On Monday, Congress is scheduled to meet to certify the results of the presidential election. On Tuesday, the casket of former president Jimmy Carter will be flown to Washington, and his body will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda ahead of a state funeral at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday. District officials said Sunday that those two “national special security events,” events with the highest federal protective status, will not change how resources are allocated to address the snowfall. D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said the snow will not affect the city’s security resources. Bowser said both events are expected to proceed as planned.

Reported similarly:
ABC News [1/5/2025 3:53 PM, Staff, 33392K, Negative] Video: HERE

NBC News [1/6/2025 5:00 AM, Ryan J. Reilly, 50804K, Neutral] reports four years after supporters of Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in support of his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, members of Congress will be under heavy security Monday as they certify Trump’s 2024 election victory, ensuring the first president to face federal felony criminal charges will return to the White House in two weeks. On Jan. 20, Trump will walk through the lower west tunnel — the location of some of the worst violence of the attack on Jan. 6, 2021 — to take the oath of office as the 47th president of the United States. Trump, who himself faced four felony charges in connection with Jan. 6 and his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, has vowed to pardon some untold number of Jan. 6 defendants when he takes office. (Special counsel Jack Smith dropped the charges against Trump after his election, with his team writing that while it stood by the case and while the evidence against Trump was strong, the dismissal was necessary in light of the Justice Department’s long-standing position that the Constitution forbids prosecuting a sitting president.) But details of Trump’s plans are uncertain even as the final days of President Joe Biden’s term tick away and even as Jan. 6 defendants involved in the Jan. 6 investigation agree it is clear Trump is not up to speed on the details of the cases. “Even people familiar with the day-to-day J6 prosecution, it’s difficult to keep up with what is happening,” a Trump ally previously told NBC News, adding that Trump needed to develop a "very succinct and compelling argument for these pardons." More than 1,580 defendants have been charged and about 1,270 have been convicted in a sprawling investigation that has resulted in more than 660 prison sentences, according to statistics released Monday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Prison sentences have ranged from a few days behind bars to 22 years in federal prison, a sentence imposed on former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio after he was convicted of seditious conspiracy. Hundreds more Jan. 6 defendants have been sentenced to probation, most of whom were convicted of low-level offenses like unlawful parading.

Washington Examiner [1/6/2025 5:00 AM, Kaelan Deese and Ashley Oliver, 2365K, Neutral] reports many defendants are pinning their hopes on Trump’s repeated promises to issue pardons, though the details of how he will fulfill these pledges remain uncertain. A group that calls itself a federal watchdog and "anti-lawfare legal group" is hosting a conference Monday to commemorate the anniversary and demand pardons for the nearly 1,600 defendants who have been charged, a sign of the pressure Trump is facing to deliver for them. "The January 6 Community of persecuted patriots stands united in a single goal: to ensure every J6 Hostage is Pardoned by President Trump on Day One," the group’s website states. On the conference’s guest list are those from a right-wing faction of Trump’s base, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, influencer and defendant Isabella DeLuca, Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft, and Herneitha "Silk" Richardson of Diamond & Silk. Another guest attending the panel is Jan. 6 defendant Daniel Goodwyn, a self-proclaimed Proud Boys member who received a 60-day prison term for briefly entering the U.S. Capitol and was subjected to internet monitoring by a judge who found he engaged in spreading misinformation. "We’re only accepting Trump J6 pardons if we ALL get them—regardless of the sham charges," Goodwyn said in a video posted to X in November. "No man left behind! Free ALL J6ers! Before we elected him, he promised them for Day 1!". Jonathan Mellis, another member of the Proud Boys, is also among the group asking Trump to act swiftly. Facing up to 10 years in prison for his involvement in the riot, Mellis has implored Trump to pardon all Jan. 6 defendants, particularly high-profile figures such as Enrique Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes, the former Proud Boys leader and Oath Keepers leader, respectively. "Enrique Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes need to be pardoned, and every other J6 defendant needs to be pardoned too because we’ve been persecuted and treated inhumanely by a government that has been weaponized against patriots," Mellis told the Washington Examiner.

KCCI [1/5/2025 3:27 PM, Staff, 847K, Negative] reports Marshalltown police say they have arrested three people in connection with a credit card fraud investigation. Alieski Perez Hernandez, Yohannis Bacardi Bague and Oscar Rodriguez Alcaraz are all facing numerous charges ranging from misdemeanor to felony. Police say all are from out of state. Officials say their investigation started on Dec 23. They say around 30 people had reported fraud on their credit cards, leading officials to believe a skimmer was involved. On Dec. 31, investigators found the skimming device at a gas pump at the Casey’s on Lincoln Way in Marshalltown. Police say the suspects used credit card information from multiple victims at a Walmart and Git N Go. Officials were able to obtain surveillance footage that led them to their suspects. Marshalltown police say this investigation is ongoing and more arrests are expected. If you have any information, call the Marshalltown Police Department at 641-754-5725. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Yahoo! News [1/6/2025 1:31 AM, Cameron Macedonio, 57114K, Neutral] reports the Coast Guard and their partners rescued a 34-year-old woman in the water off the shore of Kauaʻi shortly before noon Sunday. Coast Guard Sector Honolulu watchstanders were alerted by Kauaʻi County Dispatch at 11:48 a.m. that the woman was in distress while 500 yards off the shore in Kalapaki Bay. A 45 foot boat was launched from Kauaʻi’s Coast Guard Station to assist in the rescue. Kauaʻi Fire Department also arrived on scene with two members on paddleboards at the same time as the boat from Station Kauaʻi. The woman was located and removed from the water, as well as the KFD members who were assisting her. The woman was transferred to local emergency medical services and is reportedly in stable condition.

Reuters [1/5/2025 9:48 AM, Kanishka Singh, 48128K, Neutral] reports a Chinese hack compromised even more U.S. telecoms than previously known, including Charter Communications (CHTR.O), Consolidated Communications (CCII.UL) and Windstream, the Wall Street Journal reported late on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter. Hackers also exploited unpatched network devices from security vendor Fortinet and compromised large network routers from Cisco Systems (CSCO.O), the newspaper reported. In addition to deep intrusions into AT&T (T.N), and Verizon (VZ.N), hackers pierced other networks belonging to Lumen Technologies (LUMN.N), and T-Mobile (TMUS.O), according to the report. China denied engaging in such actions and accused the United States of peddling disinformation. There is growing concern about the size and scope of the reported Chinese hacking into U.S. telecommunications networks and questions about when companies and the government will be able to assure Americans about the issue. The report added that U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told telecommunications and technology executives at a secret White House meeting in the fall of 2023 that Chinese hackers had gained the ability to shut down dozens of U.S. ports, power grids and other infrastructure targets at will.

AP [1/6/2025 5:01 AM, Elaine Kurtenbach, 14282K, Negative] reports China has slammed a decision by the U.S. Treasury to sanction a Beijing-based cybersecurity company for its alleged role in multiple hacking incidents targeting critical U.S. infrastructure, while the Chinese cyber security agency complained Monday of attacks on Chinese networks. Asked about the sanctions against Beijing-based Integrity Technology Group, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said the country has cracked down on cyber attacks and that Washington was using the issue to “defame and smear China.” “For some time now, the U.S. side has been playing up so-called Chinese cyber attacks and has even initiated illegal unilateral sanctions against China,” Guo said. “China firmly opposes this and will take necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.” Integrity Technology Group said the move by Washington had “no factual basis.” “The company firmly opposes the U.S. Treasury Department’s unwarranted accusations and Illegal unilateral sanctions on the company,” the company, also known as Yongxin Zhicheng Technology Group, said in a statement Monday to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The China National Cyber Security Information Center said it had discovered attacks from various malicious websites and foreign IP addresses, including some in California and Florida. It also reported attacks from the Netherlands, Singapore, Mexico, Turkey and Vietnam using Trojan programs, botnets, phishing, theft of intellectual property and violations of privacy. “They pose a major threat to China’s domestic networked units and internet users and some activities have been suspected of criminal offenses,” the center said in a notice on its WeChat social media site. On Friday, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control hit Integrity Technology with sanctions that block access to U.S. property and bank accounts and prevent the targeted people and companies from doing business with Americans. It cited alleged multiple hacks against U.S. victims, including incidents attributed to Flax Typhoon, a Chinese state-sponsored campaign that targets U.S. critical infrastructure.

The Hill [1/5/2025 5:04 PM, Ellen Mitchell, 16346K, Negative] reports China’s decision this week to slap several major U.S. defense firms with penalizing trade measures is being viewed as a "shot across the bow" ahead of President-elect Trump’s inauguration. The move — targeting defense contractors Raytheon, Boeing, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin — adds to U.S.-China tensions heading into Trump’s second term, though experts say it’s unlikely to greatly affect bottom lines. But it could be a sign of a brewing tit-for-tat as the two superpowers jockey for economic and military leverage. Firms that are primarily weapons companies, including Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Raytheon, already do little business with China given U.S. law bars the sale of all military items to Beijing unless the sitting president waives the ban. While such companies have non-weapons-related parts, it’s not central to the business, making China’s recent sanctions mostly symbolic, according to Bill Reinsch, a former Commerce Department official and now the Scholl chair in international business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. "I think that’s why they’re doing it, it’s a shot across the bow," Reinsch told The Hill. "These are things that are designed to remind the current administration and the next one that they have a lot of influence on supply chains, and they have a lot of influence on the global economy, in part, by virtue of their interaction with us.” Beijing last week added 28 companies to an export control list to "safeguard national security and interests," and it banned the export of items that serve both civilian and military situations, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce.

Newsweek [1/6/2025 4:28 AM, Ellie Cook, 56005K, Negative] reports nearly a third of the estimated number of North Korean soldiers deployed with Russian forces to fight Ukrainian troops have been killed or injured, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. U.S., Ukrainian and South Korean estimates have put the number of North Korean soldiers sent to Russia somewhere between 10,000 and 12,000, at a time when Russian troop losses have been high. Newsweek has yet to verify these figures. The soldiers, some of whom are thought to belong to Pyongyang’s special forces, were sent by Kremlin ally Kim Jong-un, arrived in the country in October 2024, and were assessed to have entered combat in early December. The North Korean forces have been fighting in Russia’s Western Kursk region, where Moscow has been battling Kyiv since Ukrainian troops launched a surprise cross-border offensive into Kursk in August 2024. Kyiv still holds roughly half of the land it captured in the late summer, and Russia is eager to peel back their hold on internationally recognized Russian soil entirely. The Ukrainian leader told U.S. podcaster Lex Fridman in an episode aired on Sunday that roughly 3,800 North Korean soldiers had been injured or killed in fighting in Kursk so far. On Saturday evening, Zelensky had said in his nightly address that Moscow "lost up to a battalion of infantry, including North Korean soldiers and Russian paratroopers," in fighting around one Kursk village across Friday and Saturday, citing Kyiv’s army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi. The size of a battalion can vary, but could be as many as 1,000 soldiers. White House and Pentagon officials said in late December that North Korean troops in Russia had sustained approximately 1,000 casualties, amounting to a "significant amount" of fighters killed and injured. A total put forward by Zelensky in late December put the number of North Korean casualties at 3,000. The Ukrainian leader also said last month that Kyiv had captured "several" North Korean soldiers, but they were "seriously wounded and could not be resuscitated.”

VOA News [1/6/2025 3:55 AM, Staff, 2717K, Negative] reports U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that North Korea and China are the “biggest ongoing drivers” allowing Russia to carry out its war in Ukraine, and that security assurances will need to be a part of potential future negotiations ending the conflict. Speaking during a visit to South Korea, Blinken said North Korean supplies of artillery, ammunition and troops, along with Chinese support for Russia’s military industrial base are giving the Russian military the backing it needs to continue carrying out the fight it started in February 2022. He said North Korea is already seeing a return on its involvement in the conflict in the form of Russian military equipment and training for North Korea troops. “We believe it has the intent to share space and satellite technology with the DPRK,” Blinken said. With only two weeks left in the Biden administration, the United States has been rushing to send remaining authorized aid to Ukraine amid uncertainty about how President-elect Donald Trump may approach the war. Blinken said Monday the U.S. has been trying to make sure Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself, and to have the “strongest possible hand” at a future negotiating table with Russia. "If there is going to be, at some point, a ceasefire, it’s not going to be, in Putin’s mind, ‘game over’," Blinken said. "His imperial ambitions remain, and what he will seek to do is to rest, to refit, and eventually to re-attack.” Blinken said it is necessary to have an "adequate deterrent in place so that he doesn’t do that, so that he thinks twice – three times – before engaging in any re-aggression.”

CNN [1/6/2025 2:45 AM, Helen Regan, Alex Stambaugh, Gawon Bae and Mariya Knight, 57114K, Neutral] reports Russia may be close to sharing advanced satellite technology with North Korea after the isolated nation supplied troops to help bolster Moscow’s war in Ukraine, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Monday. “The DPRK is already receiving Russian military equipment and training. Now, we have reason to believe that Moscow intends to share advance space and satellite technology with Pyongyang,” Blinken said from Seoul, using North Korea’s official name. Blinken is visiting the key US ally as part of his last foreign tour ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration, and his comments came as North Korea test-fired what appeared to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile into the waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The US’s top diplomat also reiterated an earlier warning by the US ambassador to the United Nations that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be close to accepting North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, reversing its decades-long commitment to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. The US has repeatedly expressed concern over the growing alliance between Pyongyang and Moscow since Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a landmark defense pact in June last year. Putin’s visit to Pyongyang was widely seen to be about securing ongoing support from Kim for his grinding war in Ukraine as weapons stockpiles dwindled and huge numbers of young Russian men were killed or wounded in the invasion he began nearly three years ago. Since then, munitions and missiles have flowed from North Korea to Russia, though Moscow and Pyongyang have both denied the weapons transfers, despite significant evidence. North Korean troops have also joined the fight on Russia’s side according to Ukrainian and Western intelligence assessments.

New York Times [1/5/2025 5:58 PM, Ephrat Livni, 161405K, Negative] reports the Israeli military said on Sunday that it has been conducting “operational raids” in recent weeks on Mount Hermon in Syria, continuing a military campaign on Syrian soil that is drawing increasing international condemnation. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based Syrian war monitor, on Sunday also reported airstrikes around the Syrian capital, Damascus, attributing them to the Israeli military. The strikes targeted an ammunitions warehouse used by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted in a rebel offensive last month, the observatory said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the airstrikes. Israel’s continued military operations in Syria, which it said on Sunday are intended to “strengthen the defense of Israel’s citizens,” have drawn accusations from the United Nations and some member states that Israel is violating a decades-long cease-fire by sending its troops within and beyond a buffer zone between the countries. The raids come just days after Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said he had met with members of the U.N. peacekeeping mission on the border between Syria and Israel. The U.N. Disengagement Observer Force, known as UNDOF, was established by the Security Council in 1974 to maintain a cease-fire between Israeli and Syrian forces after a 1973 war and to supervise the buffer zone that agreement established. After rebel forces in Syria last month suddenly toppled the Assad regime, Israeli ground forces advanced into and beyond the demilitarized zone, marking their first overt entry into the country in a half century and prompting the U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, to decry Israel’s violations of the 1974 agreement.

Yahoo! News [1/5/2025 3:25 PM, Kieran Kelly, 57114K, Negative] reports Taiwan has accused a Chinese-owned ship of severing a critical data cable off its northern coast on Friday. Officials in Taipei discovered that four cores of an international submarine cable, which transmits data to America’s AT&T, were left ruptured early on Jan 3. Tracking data revealed the Shunxing39 cargo vessel had dropped its anchor around the rupture site near the port of Keelung, according to Taiwan’s coast guard. Chinese-owned vessels have previously been accused of deliberately damaging critical sea cables in the Baltic Sea in October 2023 and November 2024. The Shunxing39 sails under the flag of Cameroon, but officials in Taiwan have pointed out it is owned by Jie Yang Trading Ltd, which is registered in Hong Kong, and owned by Chinese citizen Guo Wenjie. Chunghwa Telecom said vital connections were immediately restored after it diverted data towards other subsea cables on Friday morning. However, fears remain in Taiwan that Beijing could target critical sea infrastructure during any attempt to annex the country, which sits off China’s southeastern coast. Beijing, which claims Taiwan is Chinese, says it would rather integrate the country through diplomacy, but has not ruled out using force.

CBS News [1/6/2025 2:32 AM, Staff, 57114K, Neutral] reports North Korea on Monday test fired a ballistic missile as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited South Korea, where he warned that Pyongyang was working ever closer with Russia on advanced space technology. Blinken also said that while he believed a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas would end the war in Gaza, it may not happen until after President Biden’s term, under returning President-elect Donald Trump. Blinken visited Seoul as investigators were trying to arrest conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has entrenched himself in his residence after being impeached for a failed attempt to impose martial law, but he declined to wade into the domestic political turmoil that has gripped the close U.S. ally. In a reminder of common challenges that go beyond the South’s politics, North Korea on Monday fired a ballistic missile to sea as Blinken held meetings in Seoul, pushing him to rebuke Pyongyang and its ally Russia. Both Blinken and his South Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yul condemned the launch at a joint press conference, with Washington’s top diplomat calling it "another violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions." The outgoing diplomat also took aim at Russia, saying Moscow was expanding space cooperation with Pyongyang. "The DPRK is already receiving Russian military equipment and training. Now we have reason to believe that Moscow intends to share advanced space and satellite technology with Pyongyang," he told the news conference. His warning echoed concerns first voiced by officials more than a year ago, before North Korea started provided weapons and, later, even troops, to help Vladimir Putin’s ongoing war effort in Ukraine. Since then, the U.S. and South Korea say Kim Jong Un has sent at least 10,000 North Korean soldiers to help shore up Putin’s forces, who have been stretched thin after almost three years of intense fighting in eastern Ukraine and, more recently, in Russia’s border region of Kursk, which Ukrainian forces invaded late last year.

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