WSJ What’s News - New Orleans Attack Shows Renewed Risk of Terrorism Inside U.S.

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

P.M. Edition for Jan. 2. Experts have been warning about an increase in attacks from people affiliated with Islamic State and lone attackers. WSJ reporter Alan Cullison tells us why, and what is being done about it. And details emerge about the suspects behind the vehicle attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas. Plus, WSJ White House economic policy reporter Brian Schwartz and economics reporter Rachel Wolfe discuss the challenges the U.S. economy might face in 2025. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three, two, one. What will the world look like 10 or 20 years from now? The Wall Street Journal's Future of Everything podcast is here to give you a peek. And we can't wait to show you what's coming. Subscribe now. The FBI says that the suspect in yesterday's attack in New Orleans likely acted alone. This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act. And the attack highlights a revived terrorism risk in the U.S.

Plus what challenges might the economy face in the year ahead? It's Thursday, January 2nd. I'm Alex Osola for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. Investigators believe that Shamsadeen Jabbar, the US Army veteran who drove a pickup truck into a New Orleans crowd, acted alone. They've also found no link between that terrorist attack and the deadly explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas that was driven by another service member.

Christopher Rea, Deputy Assistant Director at the FBI Counterterrorism Division, speaking at a news briefing earlier today. We do not assess at this point that anyone else involved in this attack is involved in this attack except for Shamsa Dinn Jabbar. The officials said that Jabbar was inspired by Islamic State. Police said that he flew an Islamic State flag on the pickup truck

that he drove into the crowd. While the belief that Jabbar acted alone in the attack brought some margin of relief to New Orleans, developments in Las Vegas raised new questions about the blast there. U.S. officials said the man who rented a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in Las Vegas was 37-year-old Matthew Allen Littlesberger, a U.S. Army service member from Colorado. The Las Vegas Police Department said authorities haven't yet confirmed with 100% certainty that Littlesberger was the man killed in the blast because the body was burned beyond recognition.

But investigators found items including a military ID, passport, and credit cards indicating the driver was Lovlesberger. The attack in New Orleans highlights the revived risk of terrorism from affiliates of Islamic State in the U.S., one that experts have been warning about for more than a year. Wall Street Journal reporter Alan Cullison joins me now with more on this. Alan, have there been signs of increased militant activity recently? Yeah, there have been warnings that there will likely be some attacks or at least encouragements or desires for attacks since the events in Israel, the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel's

response when the invasion of Gaza and lately operations in Lebanon. Basically, a lot of the Islamist groups, once they see a successful attack that draws publicity and money, they often imitate one another or compete for recruits by staging their own spectacular attacks. So there's been quite a bit of propaganda out there encouraging what we call lone wolf actors to go after targets in the West. The FBI and counterterror work has broken up most cells and so the main danger for the past decade

have been lone wolf attackers who really don't have any direct communication with the center. And what's being done about it? The way that law enforcement has worked in the past was often to set out traps for them. But frankly, one of the main ways to stop such attacks is really only when a family member or a member of the community reports somebody like this. It's going to be a problem likely in the future, experts say, because there have been quite a few immigrants from specifically Afghanistan,

which is where one of the groups, ISIS-K, has been very active and has succeeded in mounting transnational attacks. And there's just a lot of chatter from Islamist groups encouraging people to mount these things. So that's why there are expectations that this will continue. That was Wall Street Journal reporter Alan Cullison.

Thanks Alan. Thank you very much. Coming up, from inflation to consumer spending, what might the economy have in store for 2025? That's after the break. What then will the future reveal? There's one thing we know about the future. It's being built now. We all have a stake in the future.

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Well, that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. The New Year is here. So what are the challenges in 2025 for the economy and for consumers who last year struggled with inflation? I'm joined by White House economic policy reporter Brian Schwartz and economics reporter Rachel Wolf. OK, guys, let's level set. How is the economy looking right now coming out of 2024? Brian, let's start with you.

All indicators are things are going well. There's questions about the Fed and what they're going to do with cutting interest rates. But there are still questions as to how this is going to carry on with the new Trump administration. Not to say this won't be a strong economy, but there are questions exactly. How are Donald Trump's policies going to impact the economy? What's going to happen when he likely places tariffs on Chinese imports? Same with questions around Canada and imports coming from Mexico. These are things that I think economists are watching very carefully. Rachel, how about from the consumer side?

Consumers are still spending. There are some indications that spending could slow down in the spring, but as for now, anything consumer spending actually pushed inflation up a little bit in last month's reading and what economists think in part was happening was that people were stocking up in advance of those expected tariffs and trying to get ahead on some big purchases. Brian, what is Trump likely to do when it comes to inflation? He's promised to cool it off. What does that actually mean? Well, I don't think he really knows how he's going to do it to tell to inflation. He's promised to cool it off. What does that actually mean?

I don't think he really knows how he's going to do it, to tell you the truth. In recent statements, he's questioning how he's going to go back and bring down the price of groceries. Not to say he won't do this, but to be clear, I don't know if he has the concrete plan set up yet. But economists are looking at what's happening here with Donald Trump and his policies and asking that very same question. There are questions now as to how are the Republicans going to go in through Congress

and make some of these tax cuts that are expiring in 2025, how are you going to make them permanent? And how is that going to impact the economy, inflation, on top of the fact that Trump is also discussing widespread tariffs on various goods coming from around the world. For Trump, politically, this first year or two is going to be absolutely critical. Forget the fact that the midterms are going to come up in the two years. It's just that he has been running around the country saying he is going to bring grocery prices down. Now he really does have to deliver some sort of notable change somehow that could bring down the price of groceries.

And that's a tall order for any president to go about that because so many factors have played here. COLLEEN O'BRIEN Definitely. And Rachel, we talked about continuing to feel the effects of inflation, but you mentioned that consumers are still spending. So how do those two things actually fit together? RACHEL BADER Consumers can be a study in contradictions. For sure, economists have asked how long can it possibly continue at first. together. Consumers can be a study in contradictions for sure.

Economists have asked how long can it possibly continue at first. People were spending down pandemic savings. Now those savings are mostly gone. I have a theory that it's because people aren't so much saving to buy houses. They're not saving to have kids in the same way, especially younger Americans. But yeah, I mean, people are definitely looking to see what Trump does as far as prices are concerned. That is something to keep an eye on for sure. Rachel, what are you going to be watching for this year?

I do think that if Trump goes through with tariff plans and it does bring prices up, then that really will have an impact on spending because I just can't see how it's possible for spending to continue like it has been. Also I was interested in how the economy affects people's decisions on whether to get married and have kids and have been writing a lot about younger Americans turning away from these things, in part because of how expensive they've become, just more people feeling like these milestones are out of reach. And so I'm interested to see if that trend continues or turns around. And Brian, what about you?

My prediction is that Donald Trump's going to come into office and he's going to slap more tariffs on goods coming from China. I feel like the market's going to take a quick dive, but then I feel Trump's going to come back and try to negotiate maybe not with China, but the other countries he's alluded to, like Canada, Mexico, and try to come to some sort of deal, they'll avoid tariffs. My other part of the prediction is involving Elon Musk and Vivek Gramaswamy and the Department of Government Efficiency. And I think they're really going to face a challenge in what they want to do.

Remember, they're just kind of an advisory commission. So you're going to see kind of battles between Elon, Vivek, and members of Congress over spending situations and policy. That's something to watch out for in the coming months ahead. That was White House Economic Policy Reporter, Brian Schwartz and Economics Reporter, Rachel Wolf. US markets picked up in 2025, right where they left off late last year.

US stock indexes veered slightly into the red today. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ each slipped 0.2 percent. The Dow ticked lower by 0.4 percent. And in business news, Tesla's annual vehicle deliveries fell in 2024 for the first time in more than a decade. The world's most valuable automaker posted a slight 2% increase in deliveries for the fourth quarter, leaning heavily on promotions such as interest-free financing deals and free supercharging to enticed buyers. But it fell short of the vehicles it needed to sell to top its performance from 2023.

For all of 2024, Tesla delivered 1.79 million vehicles worldwide, down about 1% from a year earlier. The company plans to report earnings later this month. Tesla stock closed the day down about 6%. And Apple has agreed to pay $95 million in cash to resolve a class action lawsuit. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit alleged that Apple's Siri voice assistant was activated unintentionally and went on to share confidential or private discussions that it heard with Apple. The proposed settlement requires Apple to confirm

it has permanently deleted individual Siri auto recordings obtained prior to October 2019, and that the company published details explaining to users how they may opt in to improve Siri. Apple, which denied wrongdoing, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Pierre Bienimé and Anthony Bansi with supervising producer

Michael Kosmitis. I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.