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4:05 PM PT -- President Biden confirmed, just hours before the attack, Jabbar made a series of recordings in which he pledged his allegiance to ISIS and expressed his desire to kill.

Authorities now say the terrorist who killed at least 15 people and injured dozens more by plowing his truck through a huge crowd of New Orleans revelers had help ... and the accomplices are still on the loose.

42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar was killed in a shootout during the attack on the famed Bourbon Street. CNN obtained surveillance video of his pickup truck as Jabbar maneuvered it around a police car and then sped up into the crowd. A large poll is attached to the back of the truck.

The FBI is reportedly on the hunt for 3 men and 1 woman who were caught on surveillance video apparently planting explosives. They have not been apprehended.

The Sugar Bowl -- one of the most anticipated football games of the year -- has been postponed twenty-four hours after a horrific New Year's Day attack left scores dead in the city of New Orleans, the location of the big CFB quarterfinal tilt.

Jeff Hundley, CEO of the Sugar Bowl, announced Wednesday morning that the football game between 2-seeded University of Georgia and 7-seeded Notre Dame University would kick off Thursday night just before 8 PM local time, instead of Wednesday night as planned, after consulting with the teams, TV network, and others.

"All parties and all agree that it's in the best in the best interest of everybody and public safety that we postpone the game for 24 hours," Hundley said.

An unsuspecting man in New York waiting for a subway train was thrown in front of it ... with the brutal incident caught on security footage.

Video is circulating online showing the incident which took place mid-day Tuesday ... where an unidentified 45-year-old man -- who appears to be looking at his phone -- was standing near the edge of the track at the 18th Street station.

The clip is somewhat graphic ... it shows a hooded individual walk behind the victim, before circling around and shoving him in front of the train. The train then runs over the man.

The only two survivors aboard the plane carrying 181 passengers that crashed in South Korea lucked out and had their lives spared because of their seating arrangement, according to news reports.

The fortunate flight attendants -- a man and a woman -- were reportedly seated in the tail section of the Jeju commercial airliner, which was landing at Muan International Airport after taking off from Bangkok, Thailand on Sunday.

When the plane touched down on the runway, it veered off and rammed into a wall, exploding into flames.

Robert Brooks died allegedly at the hands of New York State Corrections employees -- and perhaps even more shocking is that some of the officers rake in whopping six-figure salaries ... TMZ has learned.

Brooks -- an inmate at Marcy Correctional Facility in upstate NY -- died of asphyxia due to compression of the neck during the December 9 attack by the guards and other prison workers, according to a preliminary autopsy report.

Bodycam footage worn by staff showed the violent attack on Brooks, during which the inmate was viciously beaten while restrained and gagged. Before his death, Brooks was serving a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault.

A charter jet carrying the Gonzaga men's basketball team was just yards away from being wiped out by an outbound plane over the weekend ... and the near collision was all captured on video.

Check out footage from LAX at around 4:30 PM on Friday ... you can see as the Bulldogs' Embraer E135 aircraft was taxiing to its gate after landing in Los Angeles, a Delta flight was taking off on a nearby runway, and the two planes got so close to each other, an air traffic controller actually had to tell the Zags' pilot to stop.

Thankfully, the two avoided one another ... but the FAA still said in a statement to TMZ Sports on Monday it's investigating the situation.

The Boeing passenger jet that crashed over the weekend killing hundreds was reportedly warned of a bird strike minutes before it attempted an emergency landing.

According to the country's Transport Ministry, air traffic controllers alerted the crew the aircraft had experienced a bird strike before the fatal accident on Saturday that killed 179 people.

News1 Agency also reports a passenger allegedly sent a text message to a family member minutes before the crash claiming there had been a bird strike somewhere near or on the plane's wing.

The fatal beating of Robert Brooks -- which was captured on horrifying body cam video from NYC corrections officers -- is being investigated by the FBI, TMZ has learned.

The federal agency said in a statement to TMZ ... “The FBI Albany Field Office and the Department of Justice are reviewing the facts and circumstances surrounding the death of Robert L. Brooks to determine the appropriate federal response. As this is an ongoing review, we are not able to comment further at this time.”

The major development comes one day after body cam footage of corrections officers brutally beating a restrained Brooks -- who died hours later -- was released by the New York State Attorney General ... showing officers hitting the bloodied man repeatedly.

A person in California walked into a gas station and walked out a billion dollars richer ... they just didn't know it until last night!

Here's the deal ... a Mega Millions player in the Golden State won the estimated $1.22 billion jackpot -- ending the lottery’s three-month drought of having no grand prize winners.

The lucky duck bought the life-changing piece of paper at a Sunshine Food and Gas station in Cottonwood, located in northern California -- about 146 miles north of Sacramento.

Comedian Tim Dillon has a new motto for the healthcare industry ... joking as the ghost of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson that the company will "deny, defend, decompose."

The star appears in Netflix's "Torching 2024: A Roast of the Year" -- which dropped Friday on the streaming giant -- hopping onstage in a get-up reminiscent of what Thompson wore when he was shot in Manhattan earlier this month ... with chains added to the ensemble.

Dillon's ghoulish gray appearance was met with a pretty mixed reaction from the audience -- some cheers, some groans. Dillon clearly picked up on the tension ... breaking character for a moment and joking he's "going to hell for this, you might as well laugh."

John Bennett Ramsey has plans to meet with local police once again ... in hopes of convincing them to use new DNA-testing technology to solve his daughter's killing.

The father of JonBenét is expected to speak with the Boulder Police Department in Colorado again in January, along with representatives from a leading DNA lab, to push for a new approach to evidence authorities collected nearly three decades ago.

John explains there is new DNA tech that could separate mixed samples ... a major issue with DNA collected at the time, he says. Ramsey's hopeful the police will allow an independent lab to conduct testing on the old crime scene items. JonBenét was killed on Christmas night in 1996, and her body was found hours later, after she had been reported missing.

Suspected Idaho murderer Bryan Kohberger could have had more practice than anyone thought before he allegedly killed 4 University of Idaho students ... turns out he was under investigation for a home invasion that had many of the markings of the savage murders.

The home invasion went down in Pullman, Washington in late 2021, a little more than a year before the Univ. of Idaho murders in a town just a few miles away.

A woman in the house told cops, "I heard my door open and I looked over, and someone was wearing a ski mask and had a knife."

A collective sigh of relief is sweeping through airports across the country right now after American Airlines resumed flights early this morning, ending a brief but chaotic nationwide ground stop on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

The carrier halted operations early Tuesday saying in a statement on X, American said, "We’re currently experiencing a technical issue with all American Airlines flights. Your safety is our utmost priority, once this is rectified, we’ll have you safely on your way to your destination."

According to the FAA, American requested the ground stop. The grounding caused last minute panic amongst travelers hoping they'd reach their destination in time for the holiday.

The Federal Aviation Administration is now officially investigating a holiday drone show in the Orlando area that went absolutely haywire, injuring a 7-year-old and sending the crowd running for cover.

Videos from the weekend event captured the drones whirring across the sky Saturday night before several started colliding and plummeting toward spectators below, including the little boy who ended up having to be hospitalized.

The feds are jumping into the investigation, pointing out, "Drone arrays and light shows are subject to FAA regulation. Typically, these events require a waiver to the regulation that prohibits operating more than one drone at a time. We thoroughly review each drone show application to make sure the flying public and people on the ground will be safe."

3:15 PM PT -- At least 2 people are dead and nearly 70 people are injured, 15 seriously, ABC News reports ... and the incident is suspected of being an act of terrorism. A doctor from Saudi Arabia who's lived in Germany since 2006 has been arrested, and the vehicle used in the suspected attack is a rental car, according to ABC News.

A Christmas market in Germany erupted into chaos when a driver plowed through a crowd of people.

The terrifying moment happened in Magdeburg -- a city between Hanover and Berlin -- with local reports saying it kicked off a few minutes after 7 PM Friday ... when a BMW drove through the market.

Multiple outlets report a car zoomed down a corridor of the market and left many people on the ground in clear pain.

2:30 PM PT -- The federal U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said in a press release ... the state of New York's separate prosecution against Luigi Mangione is currently expected to proceed to trial before the federal case.

Luigi Mangione just arrived in New York City after he waived extradition in Pennsylvania today, and was promptly slapped with a federal criminal court complaint.

According to the complaint filed by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of NY, Mangione is charged with murder through use of a firearm, two stalking charges, and a firearms offense.