WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
New Orleans suspect unmasked, Russian gas flow halts, and snow forecast for UK

 
today's US story

FBI identifies New Orleans truck attacker

What happened
The man accused of driving a pick-up truck into a crowd of people in the French Quarter of New Orleans, killing 15 and wounding dozens more, has been named as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar. He was killed in a firefight with police.

Who said what
Many people were out celebrating New Year's Eve on Bourbon St, "famous for its night life", when the revelry turned into "horror", said CNN. The driver "rammed into a crowd" at about 3.15am local time before reportedly opening fire on police officers.

"This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could," said Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick at a news conference. "He was hell-bent on creating the carnage and damage that he did."

The FBI, which is investigating the incident "as an act of terrorism", said Jabbar was a US army veteran from Texas and that an Islamic State flag had been found in his Ford pick-up. Potential IEDs were also found in the truck and in the French Quarter.

In a speech Joe Biden said the suspect posted videos suggesting he was inspired by Islamic State and had a "desire to kill". The president added that "the spirit of our New Orleans will never, never, never be defeated".

What next?
The FBI has said it doesn't believe Jabbar was "solely responsible" and has appealed to the public for any information as it investigates the attack.

 
 
Today's EUROPE story

Ukraine turns off natural gas from Russia to Europe

What happened
The flow of Russian gas to EU states via Ukraine has been stopped, causing shortages for a number of eastern European countries. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has refused to renew a pre-war deal with Russian company Gazprom, meaning gas exports stopped at 8am local time on Wednesday.

Who said what
The move to turn off the taps marks "the end of a decades-long arrangement", said the BBC, and "while the immediate effects are light, the strategic and symbolic impact for the whole of Europe is enormous".

The EU said it had already reduced imports of gas from Russia from about 40% in 2021 to less than 10% in 2023. But several member states, such as Slovakia and Austria, "still depend largely on the supplies, making Russia about €5 billion (£4.2 billion) a year".

What next?
The decision has already "sown trouble in the continent's east", said Euractiv, with the situation "at its most critical in Moldova". The "tiny nation" has introduced a 60-day state of emergency due to the cut while Slovakia has been threatening Kyiv with retaliation.

 
 
TODAY'S WEATHER STORY

Cold snap forecast to bring three days of snow

What happened
Much of the UK could see heavy snowfall over the weekend, with the Met Office issuing a yellow weather warning for all of England and Wales, and parts of Scotland. It will be in place from noon on Saturday until 9am on Monday and there is a risk of school closures, power cuts and travel disruptions.

Who said what
The warning was issued amid what was already a "miserable start to 2025 for much of the UK", said The Guardian. A major flooding incident in Greater Manchester saw people evacuated from buildings and cars, and heavy winds and rain led to the cancellation of New Year's Eve events.

What next?
About 5cm of snow is forecast across the Midlands, Wales and Northern England, with up to 30cm predicted for high ground in Wales. But not everywhere in the large warning area will necessarily see snow, said Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan. "It's just a heads-up that there could be some impacts."

 
 

It's not all bad

Last year was "the year of women in music", said The Times. Female artists spent the most weeks at No.1 in the UK singles charts since the charts began in 1951, according to the British Phonographic Industry. Six of the top 10 and half of the 20 biggest artist albums of the year were by women, headed by Taylor Swift's "The Tortured Poets Department" – just one of four by the megastar to make it on to the list.

 
 
under the radar

Have we reached peak population?

As the new year begins, we could be one step closer to peak population. According to the UN's latest projections, the global population is expected to peak at about 10.3 billion in the mid-2080s, earlier than previously predicted. It is then expected to plateau at about 10.2 billion by 2100.

Experts say lower birth rates and falling fertility levels – especially in "ultra-low" fertility countries like China, Italy and Spain – are to blame for the more imminent peak.

Fertility rates are falling worldwide and governments' pronatalist policies have "almost totally failed to alter that fact", said Vox. As a consequence, UN predictions might miss by a fair amount, but "the changes are generally baked in".

The overall population, before it peaks, will continue to get older. And because of a pandemic-induced dip in global life expectancy, "that's in part a success story". The end result, though, is "global greying", with more elderly people than children by the 2070s.

The population will eventually peak, but "one after another the projections keep missing", said John Burn-Murdoch in the Financial Times. Forecasts from the UN and others tend to underestimate how quickly birth rates are falling and often do not account for minor fluctuations in global trends.

Predicting the global population’s trajectory is no easy task and "even tiny perturbations today can compound into yawning gulfs". Some experts believe we will see a peak as soon as 2054, 30 years ahead of schedule, with a global population of about nine billion.

Maybe the next round of projections "should come with a health warning". "These estimates are extremely fuzzy and based on frameworks that were true in the past, but may not be today. Use them with caution, and probably err on the low side."

 
 
on this day

2 January 1492

Granada, the last Moorish kingdom in Spain and site of the Alhambra Palace, surrendered to the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand II and Isabella I. This marked the end of the Reconquista, a series of campaigns waged by Christians against Europe's Muslim kingdoms.

 
 
Today's newspapers

"Cops probe 2 terror strikes", says The Mirror, leading on the truck ramming that left at least 15 people dead in New Orleans. Later a driver died as a Tesla exploded in a "fireball" outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. "Covid courts", originally intended to deal with pandemic-era backlogs, will stay operational for at least another 12 months, says The i Paper, after delays in the justice system led to "distressed victims" pulling out of prosecutions. Meanwhile, says the Daily Star, Hilda, a "fart free" IVF calf, might "save the world".

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Emergency stats not just a hiccup

The number of people turning up at A&E departments for hiccups has increased by 18%. Some 963 cases of hiccups were reported in England's emergency rooms in 2023-24. The departments also had a 15% spike in attendance for insomnia and an 11% rise for nasal congestion. NHS tips for hiccups include sipping ice-cold water, holding your breath for a short time and breathing into a paper bag ("do not put it over your head", it adds).

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Sarah Collins, Hollie Clemence, Chas Newkey-Burden, Harriet Marsden and Abby Wilson, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Michael DeMocker / Getty Images; Genya Savilov / AFP / Getty Images; Adam Vaughan / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images.