NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-02-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Schiavone. In New Orleans, the FBI is now saying investigators believe the suspect in a deadly New Year's morning truck attack was indeed acting alone. The death toll from the rampage through the French Quarter is now 14, with dozens wounded. The driver, 42-year-old Shamshuddin Jabbar, a U.S.-born citizen from Houston, Texas, died in a shootout with police. Deputy Assistant FBI Director Christopher Rea told reporters this morning that investigators are still piecing together the suspect's movements.

At this point, investigators believe Jabbar picked up the rented F-150 in Houston, Texas on December 30th. He then drove from Houston to New Orleans on the evening of the 31st and he posted several videos to an online platform proclaiming his support for ISIS. The city hopes to reopen Bourbon Street in New Orleans by 2.30 this afternoon. Raya told reporters in New Orleans today that at this point there appears to be no definitive link between yesterday's attack in New Orleans and the Tesla cyber truck that exploded in front of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas hours later. And PR's Frank Langford has more.

The two events have some things in common. They both involved trucks and occurred in tourist towns on New Year's Day. And both vehicles were obtained using the same car rental app, Turo. However, police in Las Vegas say they're still investigating whether the explosion, which killed the driver, is an act of terror. And they point out that, unlike in New Orleans, the Cybertruck did not have an ISIS flag. If police determine the explosion was a terror attack, they suggested an obvious question will be whether the figurative targets were Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, and President-elect Trump, whose name adorns the hotel.

Frank Langford, NPR News. The first transgender U.S. official to be confirmed by the Senate will resign on Inauguration Day. NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin tells us Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Rachel Levine, reflected on representing public health, the federal government, and the transgender community. Levine says she's proud of the work her office has done on nutrition, climate change, and the HIV epidemic. She also reacted to the fact that the Trump campaign's anti-trans

advertisements used her image. It was very challenging, you know, but I'm a resilient person and I'm fine. And she reflected on what it has meant to live and work as a transgender woman. For anyone, having a secret is not a healthy thing to do. And so transitioning and coming out and, you know, being my true authentic self has been liberating to me. She says serving for nearly four years as a top health official in the Biden administration has been quote, truly an honor. Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News, Washington.

On Wall Street on this first trading day of 2025, the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 60 points. This is NPR. January 1st is a traditional day for college football, two quarterfinal games and the newly expanded college playoffs took place. But Steve Futterman reports the day was affected by the tragedy in New Orleans. In the Rose Bowl game here in Pasadena, Ohio State beat number one and previously undefeated Oregon

41 to 21. It was no contest. Ohio State jumped out to a 34-0 lead in the second quarter. The game was never in doubt. Oregon coach Dan Lanning. You know sometimes it's not your day and I think that was that was us today, right? It wasn't our day today. In the day's first game, Arizona State overcame a 16.4th quarter deficit to tie Texas, forcing the game into overtime. In the second overtime, Texas finally prevailed. Meanwhile in New Orleans, the Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Notre Dame was postponed one day following the deadly truck attack in the French Quarter. For NPR News, I'm Steve Futterman in

Pasadena, California. Dangerously cold weather is moving into the eastern United States over the coming days, creating lake effect precipitation in the northeastern states. A couple of feet of heavy snow could fall in upstate New York. By the weekend a wave of Arctic air is expected to put much of the US in freezing or sub-freezing temperatures from the plain states to the Midwest to the East Coast in both northern and southern states. Weather conditions could affect holiday return travel. Cold air systems are affected to affect much of the United States through mid-January.

I'm Louise Schiavone, NPR News, Washington.