Eagles parade: Philadelphia fans prepare for big Super Bowl celebration
Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images
(PHILADELPHIA) — Philadelphia Eagles fans will flock to downtown Philadelphia on Friday to celebrate the team’s massive 40-22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday’s Super Bowl.
The city expects 1 million people to attend the parade and ceremony — including kids. Philadelphia city offices and Philadelphia public schools are closed for the citywide celebration.
“We look forward to joyfully celebrating the Eagles’ victory as a community, and we hope that you do so safely and responsibly with friends and family,” the school district said in a statement.
The Eagles players’ parade begins at 11 a.m. More than 15 Jumbotron screens will be along the parade route to broadcast the celebration live.
The parade will be followed by a ceremony at 2 p.m. on the “Rocky” Steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
But if you’re heading to Philadelphia on Friday, make sure to layer up with your Eagles gear.
When the parade begins, gusty winds could reach 20 to 25 mph. The wind chill — what temperature it feels like — will be only 22 degrees.
By 2 p.m., the wind chill is only expected to rise to 27 degrees — much colder than normal for mid-February.
This is the Eagles’ second Super Bowl championship; the team’s first win was in 2018.
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration has removed a career Justice Department official from his role as the acting head of the DOJ’s National Security Division after the longtime prosecutor served in the position for less than a month, sources told ABC News.
Devin DeBacker, who in that role was an acting assistant attorney general, served for only a few weeks in the position, which helps oversee the Justice Department’s efforts to fight global terrorism, root out domestic extremism, stop foreign espionage operations, enforce U.S. sanctions, and investigate leaks of classified information.
In the first few days of the new Trump administration, as previously reported by ABC News, DeBacker tried to ease concerns within the department’s National Security Division after two of its most experienced prosecutors were removed.
But on Monday, Justice Department leadership told DeBacker that he would no longer be leading the division, according to sources familiar with the matter. It’s unclear why DeBacker was removed, and a Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment about the matter.
Under the first Trump administration, DeBacker served in the White House counsel’s office and then the Justice Department. He left at the start of the Biden administration, but rejoined the Justice Department a year later, becoming chief of the National Security Division’s foreign investment review section.
Sources said he is expected to continue in that role.
On his LinkedIn page, DeBacker describes himself as “a strategic counselor and senior government executive with deep experience in national security, complex litigation and investigations, and crisis and risk management.”
(LAS VEGAS) — The suspect who drove the rented Cybertruck that exploded outside of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on New Year’s Day has been identified as Master Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger, a U.S. Army Special Operations soldier on leave, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Livelsberger was killed when the truck, which was filled with fireworks-style mortars and gas canisters, exploded around 8:40 a.m. PT. Seven people suffered minor injuries, officials said.
Investigators believe the explosion was intentional, but hadn’t determined a motive or how it was detonated as of Thursday afternoon, according to sources.
As they continue their investigation into the blast, a profile of Livelsberger is emerging from the Army and people who knew him.
Livelsberger’s wife told investigators her husband had been out of their Colorado Springs, Colorado, residence since around Christmas after a dispute over allegations of infidelity and said he would not hurt anyone, an official who had been briefed on the investigation told ABC News. Livelsberger allegedly supported President-elect Donald Trump, the official said.
Livelsberger enlisted in the Army as a Special Forces candidate and served on active duty from January 2006 to March 2011 then joined the National Guard that month and served until July 2012, followed by a stint in the Army Reserve from July to December 2012, according to the spokesperson. He went back on active duty in December 2012 as a Special Operations soldier, the spokesperson said.
He was on approved leave from the Army at the time of his death, according to U.S. Army Special Operations Command.
“USASOC is in full cooperation with federal and state law enforcement agencies, but as a matter of policy, will not comment on ongoing investigations,” the spokesperson said.
Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck using the car-sharing app Turo, the same app used to rent a truck by the suspect in the New Orleans attack on New Year’s Day, though investigators said they have not established any links between the two attacks.
Livelsberger told the truck’s owner that he was going camping at the Grand Canyon, the official said.
Tesla has been cooperating with the probe and provided investigators with data and other information, the company’s owner Elon Musk said.
The main gate at the prison in Guantanamo at the US Guantanamo Naval Base on October 16, 2018, in Guantanamo Base, Cuba. (Photo by SYLVIE LANTEAUME/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — When Jose, a Venezuelan migrant who was seeking asylum in the United States, was awoken by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official at 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 8, he sensed he was being sent to Guantanamo Bay, home of the notorious U.S. prison camp that administration officials said would house the most violent “worst of the worst” migrants apprehended on American soil.
“When we got on the [military] plane, they put restraints on our hands, feet, and waist,” said Jose, who requested that his last name not be used out of fear of retribution. “They searched us and then sat us in a chair, tying us to it and binding our feet together. We hoped it wouldn’t be Guantanamo but in the end, that’s where we ended up.”
Jose is one of the more than 170 migrants who spent two weeks at the naval base before being sent to Venezuela. He told ABC News that while he had a suspicion he was being sent to Guantanamo, he claims U.S. officials never told him and the other migrants where they were being sent.
“Our minds were racing, thinking we were kidnapped, wondering who would get us out of there,” said Jose. “Because no one tells you anything.”
Jose told ABC News that he had traveled to Mexico’s northern border to wait for an asylum appointment that he requested through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection app, prior to it being shut down by the Trump administration. After three weeks of waiting and “no food or a place to stay,” he decided to surrender to authorities at the U.S. southern border. He was detained at a detention center until he was transferred to Guantanamo.
ABC News spoke with Jose and another Guantanamo detainee, Jhoan Bastidas Paz, in Spanish, and reviewed court testimonies from three other detainees about their experience on the naval base before they were released. They allege U.S. officials transferred them to Guantanamo despite their having no criminal records, and several claim they were denied phone calls with their attorneys and relatives despite repeated demands.
“From the moment we were there, we tried to kick the doors, we went on countless strikes,” Jose said. “We clogged the toilets and protested, we covered the cameras because the confinement is unbearable.”
Jose told ABC News the room in which he was placed had “cobwebs and a disgusting smell.” He said that he spent 10 days without a mattress.
“They give you food … but it’s like they don’t give you any, [it’s] very little food,” Jose said. “There came a point where I would lick the plate. The food had no salt, but I would still eat it as if it were very tasty, because I was hungry.”
Jose said he and the other detainees were only allowed outside twice in two weeks and were denied phone calls with their relatives and families.
“There are four cages outside,” Jose said. “That’s the yard. You leave one room to go into another cell.”
Representatives from the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Bastidas Paz had surrendered to authorities after crossing the U.S. southern border from Mexico in 2023. He was charged with “improper entry” to which he pleaded guilty, and was in a detention center in El Paso, Texas, until he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
Both Jose and Bastidas Paz told ABC News they are not members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, despite the U.S. government saying they are.
“We’re not from Tren de Aragua or anything, we’re not criminals, we’re immigrants,” Bastidas Paz said. He said that officials never told him he was being sent to Guantanamo and then to Venezuela.
“I don’t think it’s fair that they’re taking us there, like that, with lies, because practically we’re being taken there, kidnapped, without telling us anything, and when we realize it, they leave us there, and I don’t think it’s fair,” Bastidas Paz said.
Bastidas Paz told ABC News that he went on a hunger strike with other detainees while they demanded information from officials. He also claims he was only allowed to shower three times during the time he was in Guantanamo.
“We are immigrants and we haven’t committed any crime to be taken to that very ugly prison,” Bastidas Paz said.
Jose said he has not been able to sleep since he arrived in Venezuela.
“I haven’t slept at all because of the fear that I might fall asleep and … I’d wake up back there,” he told ABC News. “That’s the terror I feel.”
