New Orleans pays tribute to New Year’s attack victims with ‘outpouring of love’ at vigil
New Orleans has held a vigil to mourn the lives of the 14 people killed when a truck was driven into revellers celebrating the new year.
Some of the relatives of those killed were among those who gathered on Saturday night on Bourbon Street, the famous French Quarter thoroughfare where the attack took place,
The vigil began near a makeshift memorial with pictures of the victims, candles, teddy bears and flowers carefully laid out on the street.
The families held each and cried – but when a brass band began playing, the sorrow transformed into celebration as the crowd danced and followed the music.
People crowding Bourbon Street near the intersection of Canal Street. Pic: AP
A second-line brass band performing at the vigil. Pic: Reuters
The New Orleans coroner’s office has identified 13 of the 14 victims, including British citizen Edward Pettifer.
The 31-year-old, from west London, was the stepson of Tiggy Legge-Bourke, who was Prince William and Prince Harry’s nanny between 1993 and 1999.
William yesterday paid tribute to Mr Pettifer, saying he was “shocked and saddened” by his “tragic” death.
Husband and wife Louis and Cathy Tenedorio beside tributes to the victims, including their son. Pic: Reuters
A mourner places a candle at the vigil Pic: Reuters
Cathy Tenedorio, whose 25-year-old son Matthew died in the New Year’s Day attack, said she felt moved by the condolences and kindness at the vigil.
“This is the most overwhelming response of love, an outpouring of love,” she said. “I’m floating through it all.”
Autrele Felix, whose friend Nicole Perez was killed, said: “It means a lot, to see that our city comes together when there’s a real tragedy. We all become one.”
Read more:
Suspect’s half-brother speaks out
How the atrocity unfolded
A woman pays her respects. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Others said getting into the party spirit was the best way to honour the victims.
“Because that’s what they were down here to do, they were having a good time,” said Kari Mitten, a life-long New Orleans resident.
The cause of death of all 14 victims has been listed as “blunt force injuries” by the coroner’s office.
Around 30 other people were injured in the attack, which saw former US army solider Shamsud-Din Jabbar drive a rented truck into crowds of people in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
Jabbar proclaimed his support for the Islamic State in videos posted online hours before the incident. He was shot dead in a firefight with police at the scene.
Of those injured, 13 remain in hospital and eight are in intensive care, a spokesperson for the University Medical Center New Orleans said.
The man accused of killing right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk has appeared in person at court for the first time.
Tyler Robinson, 22, from Utah, is charged with aggravated murder in relation to the shooting of Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem.
Charlie Kirk pictured in December 2024. Pic: Reuters
Video of the incident showed Kirk, 31, and a staunch ally of Donald Trump, reaching up with his right hand after a gunshot was heard as blood came out from the left side of his neck. He died shortly after.
Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.
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How the Charlie Kirk shooting unfolded
On Wednesday’s appearance at Fourth District Court in Provo, Utah, Robinson arrived in court with restraints on his wrists and ankles and wearing a dress shirt, tie and slacks.
Read more: What we can learn about suspect from charging document
According to the Associated Press, he smiled at family members sitting in the front row of the courtroom, where his mother teared up and wiped her eyes with a tissue.
He made previous court appearances via video or audio feed from jail.
Pic: AP
The shooting happened during Kirk’s “prove me wrong” series, which saw the father of two visit campuses and debate contentious subjects; in this case, he was discussing mass shootings.
Prosecutors say the bullet which struck Kirk’s neck “passed closely to several other individuals”, including the person questioning him as part of the event.
President Trump comforts Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika at his memorial service in Arizona in September. Pic: Reuters
A charging document about Robinson from September includes incriminating texts sent between the alleged shooter and his roommate after Kirk’s death.
Read more from Sky News:
Analysis: The real reason for Trump’s Venezuela exploits
FBI release Luigi Mangione ‘to-do list’ before alleged assassination
Judge Tony Graf also heard arguments on Wednesday about whether cameras and media should be allowed in the courtroom, with Robinson’s lawyers and the Utah County Sheriff’s Office asking for them to be banned.
Mr Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, has called for full transparency and said “we deserve to have cameras in there”.
The judge has already made allowances to protect Robinson’s presumption of innocence before a trial, agreeing that the case has drawn “extraordinary” public attention
US
US won’t ‘stand by and watch sanctioned vessels’, warns White House after tanker seized off Venezuela
The US will not “stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas”, the White House has warned, after American forces seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.
Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters she would not speak about future ship seizures, but said the US would continue to follow Donald Trump‘s sanction policies.
“We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narcoterrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world,” she said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt briefing the media. Pic: Reuters
The US is gearing up to intercept more ships, six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
One source said several more sanctioned tankers had been identified by the US for potential seizure.
Two of the people said the US Justice Department and Homeland Security had been planning the seizures for months.
American forces were monitoring vessels in Venezuelan ports and waiting for them to sail into international waters before taking action, one source added.
It comes after a crude oil tanker, named Skipper, on Wednesday was stormed by US forces executing a seizure warrant.
The ship left Venezuela’s main oil port of Jose between 4 and 5 December after loading about 1.1 million barrels of oil, according to satellite information analysed by TankerTrackers.com and internal shipping data from Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
A still from a video of US forces seizing a Venezuelan oil tanker, posted by Pam Bondi. Pic: X/@AGPamBondi
The real reason for Donald Trump’s Venezuela exploits
Donald Trump wants you to know that there is one leading reason why he is bearing down militarily on Venezuela: drugs.
It is, he has said repeatedly, that country’s part in the production and smuggling of illegal narcotics into America that lies behind the ratcheting up of forces in the Caribbean in recent weeks. But what if there’s something else going on here too? What if this is really all about oil?
In one respect this is clearly preposterous. After all, the United States is, by a country mile, the world’s biggest oil producer. Venezuela is a comparative minnow these days, the 21st biggest producer in the world, its output having been depressed under the Chavez and then Maduro regimes. Why should America care about Venezuelan oil?
For the answer, one needs to spend a moment – strange as this will sound – contemplating the chemistry of oil…
US attorney general Pam Bondi said on X, formerly Twitter, that the ship was “used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran”.
“For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organisations,” she added.
Ms Leavitt said that “the United States does intend to get the oil” that was onboard the vessel.
The government in Caracas, led by President Nicolas Maduro, branded the ship’s seizure a “blatant theft” and an “act of international piracy”.
Read more:
Analysis: Is this what the beginning of a war looks like?
US-Venezuela crisis explained
Why tanker seized by US was ‘spoofing’ its location
The US has been ramping up the pressure on Mr Maduro and is reportedly considering trying to oust him. It has piled on sanctions, carried out a military build-up in the southern Caribbean, and launched attacks on suspected drug vessels from Venezuela.
Now America has issued new sanctions targeting Franqui Flores, Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, and Carlos Erik Malpica Flores – three nephews of Mr Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores – as well as on six crude oil tankers and six shipping companies linked to them.
Skipper. Credit: TankerTrackers
By seizing oil tankers, the US is threatening Mr Maduro’s government’s main revenue source – oil exports.
The sources said the US was focusing on what’s been called the shadow fleet – tankers transporting sanctioned oil to China, the biggest buyer of crude from Venezuela and Iran.
They said one shipper had already temporarily suspended three voyages transporting six million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil.
“The cargoes were just loaded and were about to start sailing to Asia,” a source said.
“Now the voyages are cancelled and tankers are waiting off the Venezuelan coast as it’s safer to do that.”
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