Global News Podcast - FBI says New Orleans attacker appeared to act alone

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

The FBI says the man who carried out a deadly attack in New Orleans was acting alone, and he had declared his support for ISIS militants. Also: do you use traditional maps or an app to find your way around a city?

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. I'm Nicola Cochlan and for BBC Radio 4, this is history's youngest heroes, rebellion, risk and the radical power of youth. She thought, right, I'll just do it. She thought about others rather than herself. 12 stories of extraordinary young people from across history. There's a real sense of urgency in them. That resistance has to be mounted, it has to be mounted now. Follow History's Youngest Heroes wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Jonnette Jaleel and in the early hours of Friday the 3rd of January these are our main stories. The FBI says it now believes the man who killed 14 people in a car ramming attack in the US city of New Orleans on New Year's Day acted alone. 1500 migrants have set off for the United States from southern Mexico hoping to get there before Donald Trump becomes president and tightens border controls. Syria's new rulers carry out a crackdown in the city of Homs, targeting what they say are pro-Assad war criminals. Also in this podcast, the cow that's been bred to produce less of the greenhouse gas

methane. So Hilda will produce one percent less methane, her daughters will present one percent less of the one percent and so on and so on and so on and over 20 years it could well be 30 percent less methane. We begin in New Orleans where a minute's silence was held at the Superdome Stadium on Thursday before the Sugar Bowl football match to remember the 14 people who died after a man drove a truck into a crowd in the city. The FBI has now said it's confident that the suspect, Shamsuddin Jabbar, was acting alone. He died in exchange of gunfire with the police.

Initially in the hours after the attack on crowds celebrating the new year investigators said they feared he'd had accomplices. The 42 year old from Texas is believed to have converted to Islam. An Islamic state or ISIS flag was found in his vehicle. From New Orleans Tom Bateman sent this report. Footage has emerged from the moment of the attack, showing the white Ford pickup truck careering down Bourbon Street. People scramble out of its path, some only just escaping with their lives. The FBI probe is now focusing on Shamsuddin Jabbar, an American born in Texas who spent more than a decade in the US military including a year-long deployment in Afghanistan. Police say he planted two explosive devices in cooler

boxes at the scene before the attack but they have changed one of their assessments now saying they do not believe he had accomplices. Christopher Rea from the FBI gave the latest update. Let me be very clear about this point. This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act. We do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved in this attack except for Shamsa Dinn Jabbar. He also said that Jabbar posted videos

to Facebook before the attack. In the first video, Jabbar explains he originally planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the quote, war between the believers and the disbelievers, end quote. Additionally, he stated he had joined ISIS before this summer. Investigators have been scouring an Airbnb in New Orleans where they say a fire broke out before the attack. They believe it may have been used to make explosives. They are also searching Jabbar's home in Pasadena, Texas, focusing on his electronic devices.

While President-elect Donald Trump has tried to link the incident without evidence to immigration and open borders, footage that's emerged of Jabbar himself makes his background clear. In 2020, he posted a YouTube video pitching his services as an estate agent. I just want to say hello and let you know a little bit about me. So I'm born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and now live in Houston. And I've been here all my life, with the exception of traveling. More details have been emerging about the victims.

Most of those names so far were in their 20s or late teens. Among the dead were Matthew Tenadorio, a 25-year-old audio visual technician, aspiring nurse, Nekaira Cheyenne Doudoe, who was 18, and out with her cousin who ran out of the truck's path. Also named is Martin Tiger Beck, who was a former American college football player. Meanwhile in Las Vegas, police have been investigating after a man blew himself up in a Tesla cyber

truck outside the Trump International Hotel. It fuelled speculation of a connection with the New Orleans attack, but police say there is no definitive link. The city of New Orleans says it is moving ahead with its New Year plans, including a major college football game. It does so on edge and still searching for answers. Tom Bateman, while President Joe Biden has said the attack was likely inspired by the Islamic State group. James Menendez spoke to Seamus Hughes from the University of Nebraska Omaha, an author of Homegrown ISIS in America. So what are his thoughts on Shamsuddin Jabbar, the suspect in the new audience attack? The individual took inspiration from what they read online and the

propaganda they looked at and then committed an attack without the direction of an ISIS leadership. Aidan McCullen Is the group currently active in the US, though? Jason Kuznicki It's been interesting in the last few years. It's been generally a steady state. The FBI director has talked about a thousand active investigations in all 50 states. So clearly in 2016, when ISIS held territory the size of the UK, that was a banner year for Americans that tried to join that group. But consistently it stayed there, meaning that we have about a dozen to two dozen arrests,

federal arrests every year of individuals who are interested in attacks. That includes two individuals in Oklahoma who are arrested for an election day plot, an individual who came to New York with a plan to attack Jewish Americans, a Maryland man who tried to travel to Somalia to join ISIS just last month. So it's kind of always been there in the background noise of the threat picture. But is it fair to say that perhaps in the past few years, intelligence agencies have taken their eye off the ball when it comes to IS, or at least they've had to devote resources to other things? That's exactly right. So if you look at how policymakers and law enforcement have looked

at the threat in the US, they've clearly moved around priorities. You've seen domestic terrorism, so white supremacy, neo-Nazism, that be a focus, a large focus for the Biden administration. I've been working on these type of things for the last two decades. And a lot of the FBI agents that I knew five years ago working in ISIS were now working white supremacist cases. And some of that is a reflection of the threat. So you still have thousands of investigations for domestic terrorism and thousands of investigations for ISIS and you've got to rack and stack how you prioritize things. Yes, I mean, not just of course, because of what's happened in New Orleans, but presumably

there are fears about a resurgence given the turmoil in Syria and the wider Middle East. That's exactly right. What happens overseas usually affects the US jihadism scene. We may see and we have seen an uptick of Americans trying to travel to join groups like ISIS, particularly in Africa. If you have unrest or uncertainty overseas and the ability to reconstitute, you're going to see a resurgence in the US.

Now in context, you know, you're talking about 250 arrests in the last 10 years for ISIS-related activities here. And so it's a relatively small number from a population size of 330 million, but it has an outsized effect on public perception and government policy. Seamus Hughes. In New Orleans Orleans police superintendent Anne Cook-Patrick said the city will recover from this attack. This city is amazing. This city is known for its resiliency. This is a city that is still impacted from 20 years ago with Hurricane Katrina. This city knows pain but this city also knows how to recover and they were waiting for recovery and you can recover and not ever forget the

scars of pain. Well in the shadow of that truck attack and just before the city was getting ready to host the Sugar Bowl football game I spoke to our reporter Anna Adams there. So I'm right in the heart of the French Quarter just city was getting ready to host the Sugar Bowl football game, I spoke to our reporter Anna Adams there. Anna Adams I'm right in the heart of the French Quarter, just walking now on Bourbon Street. Local politicians and law enforcement have pulled back the barriers. Pedestrians are certainly swarming now into the symbolic heart really of New Orleans. Bands have set up and the tourists are heading to the bars.

Georgie Tunny Yes, it's a difficult time for people there. How are they feeling given that they now have these official assurances that the attacker acted alone? Well, I came with some surprise because we were initially led to believe that there were up to three accomplices, which had people slightly on edge. And I do now think that this now acting as a so-called lone wolf has made people feel a lot safer. But the atmosphere here, certainly in the French Quarter, which is the historic center of town, it's beloved by tourists and locals alike, there is a sense here, and it is slightly jarring when given what's just happened meters from where I'm standing, is the sort of show must go on. I'm surrounded by tourists in

college football shirts who are now making their way to the bars and restaurants. And even as early as nine o'clock this morning, the restaurants here were full of people having brunch and cocktails. This sort of sense that, you know, we'll just get on with it has come. There's a sort of very much a sense that's come from on high from the governor, Jeff Landry and the police that this is safe. People should start coming back to the French quarter, should basically, to be honest, start spending more money and get the city back on its feet. It's a city that's beset by lots of economic problems. Are the security bollards back in operation? The original security bollards that would have stopped this happening or would have

certainly made it more difficult are not back up. They have put some new ones down the side streets, different side streets leading up to Bourbon Street, but they're not up as it speaks. There are police cars blocking the entrances instead. Anna Adams in New Orleans. A procession of more than 1500 migrants is walking towards the United States border having left southern Mexico. It's what's known as a migrants caravan and it's the first of this year.. Organizers say they're hoping to reach the US border before the inauguration of Donald Trump later this month. Jonathan Manuel is from Venezuela and is one of those making the journey.

We just want the Mexican officials to support us and let us move on. We don't want to stay here. We want to reach a future, the American dream where we are treated like people, where we can live and take care of our families, our children and the people we leave behind who are our family. Our America's regional editor is Leonardo Ruscha. Those caravans are organized by people sometimes in the United States and in Mexico and in Central America, human rights activists

and in people who basically told migrants to travel together because they used to go in small groups that were very vulnerable to attacks from organized crime and from other people. So they say look let's make a big caravan of people we all travel together it's easier and that's the idea. A few years ago we heard a lot more about them because they were getting huge numbers and they've been reduced a bit because of pressure from the United States in the Biden administration. They say you have to stop there. So initially they beefed up the security on the border between Guatemala, which is

the last country before Mexico and Mexico. But this caravan started in southern Mexico in Chapas, very near the Guatemalan border, and people are moving north. Most of those are people from Honduras. I saw the picture, some of them were carrying flags of Honduras, lots of people, children, young people, carrying bags. They're not going to walk all the way up to the border. They are going to walk some of the paths. There's a big train that also goes on buses.

So that's the idea that they'll get there and they're trying to go there to get there as fast as possible. Before Donald Trump comes in, will they be able to, do you think? Well, in theory, yes. These caravans, they take about 10 days, a week, 10 days. They stop, they sleep in some places, they're already prepared for them. Donald Trump is taking office on the 20th of January. So in theory, yes. But what we have to look here is at Mexico. The president of Mexico, new president, left-wing president, Claudia Schoenbaum, she is under pressure from the United States and from Donald Trump to stop mass migration and basically

to stop those caravans before they reach the US border, before they go to Texas and the border with Texas, the border with California. So she promised Donald Trump that the caravans are not moving forward, don't worry about that. So that's a test of what she's going to do. Her relations with Donald Trump are not good, they haven't visited each other as yet.

And what Donald Trump has said is, if Mexico doesn't stop mass migration and the influx of fentanyl, of drugs, he will impose 25% tariffs on Mexican products. So we have to see what will happen. But whatever happens, even if those people reach the border, once they get there, they are processed or they are blocked. This is just the last caravan before Trump comes in and I think things will be very different after that.

Leonardo Russia. Since these in power last month, Syria's new leaders have repeatedly tried to reassure minorities that they will not be harmed as they seek to integrate members of the army that backed the toppled President Bashar al-Assad. But the former Islamist rebels are now reported to be carrying out raids in the city of Homs targeting former soldiers and pro-Assad militias. At the same time, Syria's new rulers have faced a backlash over planned changes

to the school curriculum. Sebastian Asher in the Syrian capital, Damascus, told us more. What we're hearing is that the armed forces belonging to the new authorities here are mounting a big operation. They're searching for what they call war criminals and also people who have had handed in their weapons. I mean, what the authorities have offered is militias and members of the former regime's army. If they hand in their weapons, they can be given a civilian

pass essentially instead of a military one, and they can be reintegrated into what might transpire with the new system that's being set up. Two neighborhoods, majority Alawite, which is the community to which the Assads belonged, seem to be where the main focus of these raids are happening. And there are concerns that the sort of tactics that are being used are not that dissimilar from what was seen under the former regime and concern that that kind of violence might be starting again under a different name. There

have been some very disturbing videos that have appeared. Now the authorities, the new leadership in public have very much conveyed a message that there should be transparent justice, a proper process of justice, and that no one should take revenge into their own hands. And they've also been concerns voiced since HTS took power in Syria about what direction they would take when it comes to education, particularly with girls because their takeover was welcomed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. And there has been a bit of a backlash, hasn't it, to the new school curriculum that HDS has announced in Syria? Yes, I mean civil society activists, I mean many of whom have kind of flocked back here

in the past week since the Assad regime was toppled, are very much seeing this as the kind of first stand that they need to make. You know, Syrians here have been combing through it and seeing changes such as in Science the teaching of evolution the teaching the big band theory that's gone I mean nothing absolutely earth-shattering as yet, but indications that belies some of the promises of inclusivity that the new authorities have made Sebastian Asha in Damascus.

Well, with war still raging in Gaza, turmoil in Lebanon, and then the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, the Middle East last year was wracked by devastating conflict and massive geopolitical change. Our international editor, Jeremy Bowen, looks at what could lie ahead this year for this turbulent part of the world and what it means for the rest of us. The Middle East yet again is going to be a big global preoccupation in the next 12 months, not just for Donald Trump when he re-enters the White House but for all of us. History shows

that trouble in the Middle East gets exported. It is a fair bet that Iran will be in the headlines on many mornings in 2025. One theory is that Donald Trump, master of the unpredictable, will make a deal with the Islamic regime in Tehran. He might want one but I suspect the deal he'd like might seem more like a surrender to the clerics in Tehran. So the other pole of the argument is the possibility that US troops might attack Iran in 2025. That might be the preferred option

for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He sees Iran as his country's most dangerous enemy. Under his leadership, the war in Gaza has expanded from a response to the Hamas attacks of the 7th of October 2023 into a project to change the balance of power in the Middle East in Israel's favor. Gaza is mostly in ruins. The Lebanese militia Hezbollah has suffered a serious defeat and Israel has already destroyed Iran's air defenses. Netanyahu has said that Israel is going to do some serious damage to the Houthis in Yemen who continue to fire missiles at Israel. Some in Israel though argue that now is actually the moment to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. As for the Iranians

they've seen their network of allies, proxies and clients, known as the Axis of Resistance, collapse under joint Israeli and American pressure. Now that might lead to concessions and a deal, but there's also an open debate in Tehran about whether the time has come to build a nuclear weapon as the ultimate deterrent against their enemies. One veteran leader of their nuclear program was quoted saying that building a bomb would be like a car for which Iran possesses all the necessary parts. The Iranians also know that proof they'd taken

that step would lead to an attack by Israel and most likely the United States. What about Gaza? I thought the war would have ended by now. Talk of a New Year ceasefire has faded away. Something approaching 2.5 million Palestinians in Gaza are living in abject misery and danger. Israel is systematically forcing the remaining civilians out of northern Gaza and destroying the few buildings still standing. It is a dreadful equation. Out of the long unresolved and bloody Palestinian-Israeli conflict came the 7th of October attacks on Israel.

Out of those attacks came suffering and death in Gaza which Israel will not let foreign journalists witness and report first-hand. Out of the war came accusations of war crimes against both sides and of genocide against Israel and over the next 12 months we'll still be watching the terrible consequences unfold. The thoughts there of our international editor Jeremy Bowen. A police officer in Zambia has been arrested after being accused of getting drunk and then freeing 13 suspects from custody so that they could celebrate the new year, our Africa regional editor Will Ross reports.

According to Zambia's police spokesperson, Detective Inspector Titus Pirri seized the keys from a constable and then unlocked both the male and female cells at the police station in Lusaka. He told the inmates they were free to leave. Two of them stayed put and a manhunt has been launched for the 13 who left. They are accused of crimes such as assault, robbery and burglary. Mr Pirri also fled the scene but perhaps because of the alcohol it didn't take long for him to be arrested. We'll Ross there.

Still to come. Too many of us rely on apps like Google Maps to get around and that as a result many people don't really know their way around their local area. We look at why using a traditional map printed on paper might be better than using an app. For just as long as Hollywood has been Tinseltown, there have been suspicions about what lurks behind the glitz and glamour. Concerns about radical propaganda in the motion pictures. And for a while, those suspicions grew into something much bigger and much darker. Are you a member of the Communist Party?

Or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? I'm Una Chaplin, and this is Hollywood Exiles. It's about a battle for the political soul of America and the battlefield was Hollywood. All episodes of Hollywood Exiles from the BBC World Service and CBC are available now. Search for Hollywood Exiles wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to the Global News Podcast. The prime minister of Montenegro has said he will tighten the country's gun laws after 12 people, including two children, were killed in a series of shootings. A gunman shot dead four people at a restaurant in the town of Sertinia

before then carrying out other attacks, including on members of his own family. Here's our Balkans correspondent Guy Delaney. The violence started on New Year's Day with an argument at a bar and restaurant. A 45-year-old customer called Azo Martinovich initially left, but then returned with a gun and started shooting. Martinovich moved on to four other locations, targeting the bar owner's family, as well as some of his own relatives. In all, he killed 12 people, including two children. When police eventually tracked him down, Martinovich shot himself and died on the way to hospital.

The Prime Minister Milojko Spajic will chair an emergency session of the National Security Council. A new weapons law is on the way to hospital. The Prime Minister Milojko Spajic will chair an emergency session of the National Security Council. A new weapons law is on the agenda. Votive candles are being lit in Sertinia's main square. This is the second mass shooting in the small town in just over two years. Music and sports events across Montenegro have been cancelled. Instead of continuing with its New Year celebrations, the country has begun three days of national mourning. Guy Delaney, the world's oldest Olympic champion Agnes Kaletti has died at the age of 103.

The Hungarian gymnast escaped being deported to Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. Our sports news correspondent Laura Scott looks back at her life. Age was never a barrier for Agnes Coletti. Five years ago as she approached her hundredth birthday she was still able to do the splits. She hadn't made her Olympic debut until the age of 31, winning four medals in Helsinki in 1952. Four years later she dominated the in Helsinki in 1952. Four years later she dominated the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, winning four golds and two silvers, the most successful athlete of the entire games. But her resilience was tested more than most during her long life.

Coletti's fledgling gymnastics career was stalled when a rival competitor had her banned for being Jewish and the Second World War prompted a desperate fight for survival. Her father and other relatives were killed at Auschwitz but she survived by assuming a false identity. I was Agnes Klein, Paroshka Juhasz was a maid and I swapped my clothes and papers. Of course she didn't need papers they just had to look at her to know she was a good little Christian girl. Her haul of 10 Olympic medals would surely have been even greater had she not missed three Olympics. The 1940 and 1944 games were cancelled because of the war,

and she missed the 1948 edition with an ankle injury. But she more than made up for lost time, becoming one of the most successful Jewish athletes of all time and a national treasure in Hungary. She said however that her motivation to do sports was not to chase glory. I was competing not because I liked it but I did it because I wanted to see the world. Asked by the International Olympic Committee a few years ago for her secret, she replied, you've got to love life and always look at the good side. Laura Scott looking back on the life of Olympic gymnast and Holocaust survivor Agnes Coletti.

Dairy cows have long been bred to improve their milk yield and their health but here in the UK a cow called Hilda is the first of a new generation that has been specifically bred through IVF to fight climate change by producing less methane. Cows typically produce a lot of methane from burping and passing wind. As a greenhouse gas it's many times more potent than carbon dioxide. Sarah Montague heard more from Mike Coffey, a professor of livestock informatics at Scotland's rural college, who was involved in the project.

We do know that selection for production and health and welfare over the last 30 years or so has led to about a 1% reduction in methane just through cows lasting longer and being better at doing what they do. They do it more efficiently and farmers have been doing this for a long long time and what Hilda is is the result of adding direct selection for methane emissions into that overall index. Genetic improvement is permanent and cumulative so Hilda will produce 1% less methane, her daughters will present 1% less of the 1% and over 20 years it could well

be 30% less methane. Is there any reason to worry about a car that perhaps doesn't belch as much as others? I mean there's no side effects. No, that's a good question. A lot of people are doing research into the potential side effects, but in this particular case, because we're doing selection at the whole animal level, all of the elements that keep the cow healthy and fertile and in good welfare are selected for at the same time. We're just selecting cows that coincidentally produce less methane. If you think, well, this is obviously presumably the way forward, we're satisfied this is going to work. How quickly could Hilda become a whole herd?

Well that's a really good question. An analogy is how quickly can we move from petrol cars to electric cars. There's a long lag, there's lots of existing cars that have got to be got rid of, there's lots of people who would otherwise buy a petrol car have got to be convinced to buy an electric car, and it's the same with cows. Farmers have ways of doing things, they have practices and habits and now we've established the principle that we can do it. The question is now how do we roll that out to get as many farmers selecting for improved methane as practically possible. It is very important and is part of the contribution that agriculture is making to the reduction in methane emissions to the whole of the UK. Professor Mike Coffey, when was the last time you used a map to get around? The use of traditional

maps printed on paper has been in decline for years as many of us turn to apps like Google Maps to find our way around towns or cities. But the group British Orienteering is warning that this heavy reliance on our smartphones means we're losing touch with our surroundings. Luke Mintz went to his town in southern England to learn how things used to be done. I'm in Reading and my task is to find my way around without the help of a smartphone. I'm taking part in a map reading class with British Orienteering.

They warn that too many of us rely on apps like Google Maps to get around. And that as a result, many people don't really know their way around their local area. I'm off to meet my guide for the day. Hello, Howard. I see you. Yeah, yeah. My name is Howard Blackman.

I work for British Orienteering and I'm the club support manager. So Howard, I'll be honest, I've already slightly cheated because I was in a rush on the way here and so I used Google Maps to get from the train station. But from now on you're going to teach me the joys of reading an old fashioned paper map. Absolutely and in Orienteering we like to call it traditional map reading and it allows you to really connect with the environment in a far greater way than a digital map would do.

Okay great. So there's a tall brown building right in front of us, how could I find that on the map? So we're going to move the map around and what I can see is that's outlined there, in front of us we can see some steps and on the map I can see the steps there. It's quite hard to see because it's quite detailed. I can't actually see the whole line. If I was using a Google map on my smartphone I wouldn't be looking up as I am right now at this beautiful building with these really ornate roofs and the brickwork is

absolutely stunning. So we've really connected with our environment and we're actually feeling quite enthralled by this which It just makes me feel good, makes me happy. The orienteers I speak to make that point again and again. They say the more we rely on smartphone navigation, the less connection we feel with our surroundings. And that is something that may have implications for our emotional well-being. Kate Jeffrey is a leading neuroscientist at the University of Glasgow. She's spent years studying the brain's cognitive map, commonly known as our sense of direction. She thinks

it's possible that in order to feel at home somewhere, we need to know our way around it. I do believe that people are more comfortable in an environment where they know where they are. They have a kind of a mental map of their surroundings and they're not just following signs or arrows or lines painted on the floor or something. Back in Reading, I am just about managing to get around without a smartphone, but it's clearly a concept that is alien to some of the young people I speak to. Excuse me, could I just ask, when was the last time you looked at a paper map?

Probably when I was a kid. So it was mostly a case of using your phones? Yeah, always, yeah. Luke mince with that report. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Jack Wilfern. The producer was Liam McSheffrey. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Junaid Jaleel. Until next

time, goodbye. For just as long as Hollywood has been Tinseltown, there have been suspicions about what lurks behind the glitz and glamour. Concerns about radical propaganda in the motion pictures. And for a while, those suspicions grew into something much bigger and much darker. Are you a member of the Communist Party?

Or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? I'm Una Chaplin, and this is Hollywood Exiles. It's about a battle for the political soul of America, and the battlefield was Hollywood. All episodes of Hollywood Exiles from the BBC World Service and CBC are available now. Search for Hollywood Exiles wherever you get your podcasts.