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International

FBI identifies Texas man as Bourbon Street attacker

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Sugar Bowl playoff game delayed to Thursday due to ‘terrorist incident’

The FBI has identified the driver of a truck that plowed into a crowd of people celebrating New Year’s on Bourbon Street early Wednesday, killing at least 10 people and injuring 35.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen and U.S. Army veteran from Houston, rented the F-150 Lightning truck, the FBI said. Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, said the agency doesn’t believe he acted alone.

The law enforcement agency said in a news release that he had improvised explosive devices that were found in both the truck and two in different locations in the French Quarter, body armor and an ISIS flag hanging from the tailgate.

The FBI said it’s investigating whether Jabbar acted alone or had accomplices and has closed Bourbon Street, treating it as an active crime scene.

Wednesday night’s Sugar Bowl, a College Football Playoff semifinal pitting Georgia and Notre Dame, was postponed until Thursday, the bowl game said. A kickoff time, originally 8:45 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, did not accompany the announcement.

The Caesar’s Superdome is in the Central Business District, about 20 blocks from the crime scene. It was also the site of the first Super Bowl after 9/11.

Jabbar drove into a group of revelers at 3:17 a.m. and got out of the truck, exchanging gunfire with New Orleans Police Department officers, injuring two of them, before Jabbar succumbed from his wounds, lawmen say.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, the city’s police chief, said on Wednesday at a news conference that three officers engaged Jabbar with gunfire.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a news briefing in New Orleans despite their injuries, the officers shot by Jabbar were doing well.

She also said there were malfunctions with some of the retractable bollards, the devices which prevent vehicles from accessing streets like Bourbon Street when open to only pedestrians.

She also said the bollards were to be repaired for the upcoming Super Bowl, which will be played in New Orleans on Feb. 9.

The FBI is directing those with tips for law enforcement, especially those who had interactions with Jabbar in the past 72 hours, to an FBI tip line website or via phone at 1-800-CALL-FBI.

“It’s all hands on deck, if you saw something, say something,” U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., said at the news conference. He also said the delay of the game was justified for safety reasons.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said at a Wednesday news briefing that the city and state had been working around the clock to secure the city after he got the call from Cantrell at 3:45 a.m.

“We have made public safety a priority from day one,” Landry said. “We intend to be transparent to assessing any defects that might have existed in the system and make sure any mistakes are corrected. This city will have the resources necessary to protect our citizens and our guests. We’ve got an active investigation and we’re also working on enhanced security.”

The first-term Republican governor also said he’s issued a more expansive emergency declaration and mobilized a military police company of 100 guardsmen from the Louisiana National Guard to assist the New Orleans Police Department, the FBI and other agencies with investigating the incident.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said “we will bring them to justice” and that she’d provide resources to both the city and the FBI to help with the investigation.

Kirkpatrick said the city has a plan and “we’re going to get these people. Very pleased that we will be back to having a wonderful game tomorrow night.”

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International

Trump shuts down USAID HQ as Elon Musk calls it a “criminal organization”

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MXM logo MXMNews 

Quick Hit:

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) shut down its Washington headquarters on Monday, locking staffers out of its internal systems. Elon Musk indicated that President Trump supports eliminating USAID, calling it a “criminal organization.”

Key Details:

  • USAID staffers were locked out of the agency’s headquarters and computer systems overnight, with an internal email confirming the closure.
  • Elon Musk, leading the government efficiency push, said Trump agrees USAID should be dismantled, calling it beyond repair.
  • Former USAID officials warn the move will have global consequences, including disrupting disease outbreak responses and cutting key humanitarian efforts.

Diving Deeper:

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) effectively shut down its Washington headquarters on Monday, locking employees out of the agency’s systems overnight. An internal email confirmed the closure, citing a directive from leadership, sources told Fox News Digital.

Elon Musk suggested the shutdown is part of a broader effort to dismantle the agency, an idea he claims President Donald Trump supports. During an X Spaces discussion, Musk doubled down on his criticism of USAID, calling it “a bowl of worms” that is “beyond repair.”

“There is no apple,” Musk said. “It’s beyond saving.”

Musk has been vocal in his attacks on USAID, going as far as calling it a “criminal organization” on X. He claimed the agency was run by radical-left operatives who were undermining American interests. The agency’s website was also taken offline Saturday.

The move has sparked outrage among former USAID officials and global health experts. Atul Gawande, who led the agency’s global health division under President Biden, warned that the shutdown is catastrophic for international disease control efforts.

“This is a gift to our enemies and competitors,” Gawande told Fox News Digital. “We were actively managing 21 serious outbreaks worldwide just two weeks ago. Now, three of those have escalated into crises—Ebola in Uganda, a bird flu outbreak spanning 49 countries, and another major threat.”

Gawande added that the agency’s abrupt closure is a blow to morale, claiming employees have been treated with “enormous disrespect and fear.” Reports indicate that the USAID Memorial Wall, which honored staff killed while serving overseas, has been removed. Additionally, entire departments, including malaria prevention and child immunization teams, have been gutted.

“The top three layers of experienced employees are gone,” Gawande continued. “All contract workers are being terminated. Two-thirds of our malaria staff and child immunization experts are gone. This is not reform. This is destruction.”

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Liberals, globalists flip out after Trump orders USAID freeze

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From LifeSiteNews

By Stephen Kokx

How many Americans even knew what USAID was until this week? I’m guessing less than one percent. 

For the uninformed: USAID was started by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Officially named the United States Agency for International Development, it spends over $40 billion in taxpayer dollars every year on various initiatives overseas; most of which are a complete waste of money, as Elon Musk and others have pointed out in recent days. See here:  

Whatever good intentions Kennedy may have had for the program, it has morphed into a slush fund for the Deep State to spread wokeism and to spark revolutions in countries that resist its tyrannical decrees. All of this is done in the name of “defending democracy” mind you. 

Under Joe Biden, USAID was run by World Economic Forum functionary Samantha Powers, who weaponized the agency to funnel boatloads of cash to Ukraine, among other futile projects.   

That fact was pointed out by Balázs Orbán, the son of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, on X this week. 

 

A CIA front group that promotes LGBT ideology overseas 

President Trump has had enough of this. In his continued effort to drain the swamp, he signed an executive order empowering the newly created Department of Governmental Efficiency to dismantle USAID. 

“I love the concept, but they turned out to be radical left lunatics,” he said about the agency in the Oval Office on Monday.   

USAID’s website has already been shut down, and many of its liberal employees have been fired or barred from entering its headquarters in D.C., causing Democrats to hold a rally outside of it; because nothing shows the American people that you care about them more than defending a program designed to spend their money in foreign lands. Talk about being out of touch.  

 

 

Oddly enough, left-wing Jesuit priest James Martin also defended the agency by claiming that Jesus would support it as well. He was rightly called out by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò on X.  

 

Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been named USAID’s interim director. He told the media this week that its rogue behavior has come to an end.  

“USAID has a history of ignoring [the national interest of the United States] and deciding that they’re a global charity. These are not donor dollars, these are taxpayer dollars,” he said. 

 

Other lawmakers and mainstream pundits have jumped on the bandwagon as well. 

“To my friends who are upset, call somebody who cares. You better get used to this. It’s USAID today, it’s gonna be Department of Education tomorrow,” GOP Senator John Kennedy said.  

 

“It’s not foreign aid — it’s a foreign slush fund,” Fox News’ Laura Ingraham has argued, as has Glenn Beck 

Trump’s “Rapid Response” X account joined in on the fun by highlighting some of the many ways the agency has wasted your and my money on LGBT and DEI causes abroad. 

 

Democrats melt down as Trump takes aim 

Liberals have been unable to control themselves. News that fewer tax dollars will be spent promoting their woke religion has left them apoplectic.  

This is a “coup,” thundered an emotional Joy Reid on MSNBC. 

Fellow MSNBC anchor Jen Psaki ludicrously claimed that the agency helps with “humanitarian” causes and “works to combat corruption.” 

Van Jones said on CNN the rolling back of funding is Trump telling the world to “go die.” 

Total nonsense.  

Like Freemasonry, USAID may feed the poor and help some impoverished people, but that is just cover to hide its true aim, which is to sow discord in countries that reject the NATO and U.S. empire.  

USAID has done this for decades, primarily by funding non-governmental organizations (and even extremists) that cause headaches for leaders who refuse to be slaves to the West. This has been the case in the nation of Georgia over the past several years. See here:  

 

 

CNN’s Scott Jennings, a Republican, made a comment about how USAID has been appropriated by liberals that really hits the nail on the head with what has gone wrong with it. 

“There is a difference between soft power and soft stupidity. So whether you’re funding DEI musicals in some country or transgender surgery somewhere or whatever, that is not what most Americans would say is an effective part of U.S. foreign policy.” 

USAID funded the Wuhan lab in China 

Perhaps the most attention-grabbing headline that has emerged with the USAID story is the revelation that the agency funneled $40 million to a lab in Wuhan, China, to study bat coronaviruses. 

“Records prove that Ben Hu — COVID’s likely ‘Patient Zero’ — is a Wuhan white coat funded directly by Fauci, NIT & USAID to conduct dangerous coronavirus gain of function experiments on animals!” watchdog group White Coat Waste Project posted on X today.  

Fauci has long denied being involved in such measures, but GOP Senator Ran Paul has never backed down from disputing his claims. He likewise challenged Samantha Powers about USAID money going to Wuhan as well.  

 

Last week, Paul announced his intention to continue digging into the matter, given Biden’s preemptive pardoning of Fauci.  

 

Today, Paul re-shared an X post from political activist Matt Kibbe that suggested he is on the cusp of blowing the whole thing wide open.  

“NIAID and USAID were money-laundering puppets for agencies prohibited from doing dangerous gain-of-function bioterrorism research. Now, Rand Paul and Elon Musk are poised to expose the whole scheme,” Kibbe said.  

 

USAID has misspent taxpayer money in countless other ways as well. Many of the downright bizarre programs are being shared on X. Here are a few of them:  

 

 

 

It should be noted that Rand Paul’s father, former Congressman Ron Paul, has been a critic of the Deep State for decades. In a recent video message, he called on the government to audit USAID and then shut it down. Elon Musk re-shared the video, calling it an “interesting” proposal.  

 

That’s good advice. I hope Elon and Trump will take it and follow through on it. Ending USAID is long overdue. 

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