The U.S. is reeling from a pair of New Year’s Day attacks in Nevada and Louisiana that have taken multiple lives and injured dozens.
Authorities said the suspect in the New Orleans terror attack, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, acted alone when he plowed a rented Ford pickup into a crowd, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens more. Hours later in Las Vegas, Matthew Livelsberger, a Green Beret, died in a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in front of the Trump Hotel. The vehicle had fireworks and gas canisters while Livelsberger, according to law enforcement, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound right before the blast went off.
In the nation’s capital, the 119th Congress hit the ground running. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was reelected to the highest post in the lower chamber in a lengthy first-round vote Friday afternoon. The Senate, which gavelled in on Friday, was less contentious as Vice President Harris swore in new chamber members. The new Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) already made a vow, contending he would make sure to preserve the Senate filibuster. The body’s oldest and longest-serving senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was sworn in as president pro tempore…