Guard soldier dead, another critical in DC ambush; Hong Kong fire toll climbs

A National Guard member ambushed near the White House has now died

Who she was and the latest on the soldiers still fighting to survive. Boss, the death toll rises in that Hong Kong high-rise fire

and how investigators believe the inferno spread so fast. And President Trump is not being subtle

telling U.S. troops a land attack in Venezuela against drug cartels could be coming soon

The stories that matter, clear and credible. from across the country to around the world

These are your unbiased updates from Straight Arrow News. Good morning, I'm Craig DeGrelli

We begin this morning on a somber note. One of the two West Virginia National Guard members

shot in an attack near the White House Wednesday has now died

In a Thanksgiving call with troops, President Trump announced that 20-year-old specialist Sarah Beckstrom

died from her injuries. 24-year-old Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe remains in critical condition

The president called the suspect, identified as 25-year-old Ramanula Lackanwal, an Afghan national, a monster, and labeled the attack an act of terrorism

He also blamed the Biden administration for bringing Lackanwal into the country

As you may know, DHS has confirmed that the suspect is an Afghan national, flown here by the previous administration, who was such a bad administration

And I have a picture of a plane. This is what it looked like when they came in

It was total bedlam. Do you remember that period of time? Total bedlam. People crammed onto the plane

And the toughest, meanest, most capable physically got on the plane, not the people that we were looking for

This heinous atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority

than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remain in our country Lackenwall served in a CIA Afghan army unit before coming to the U in 2021 as part of the mass Afghan evacuation He applied for asylum in 2024 and that asylum was

approved this year under the Trump administration. While President Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel

say Lackenwall was not properly vetted, a senior U.S. official tells ABC News he was vetted by the

National Counterterrorism Center and, quote, he was clean on all checks. In the wake of that

shooting, the White House is ordering a wide-ranging re-examination of U.S. immigration

records, and that move begins with green cards. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says it

will review every green card issued to immigrants from 19 so-called countries of concern. Those

countries include Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Venezuela, Haiti, and more. The director of U.S

Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joe Edlow, said he's acting at the president's direction

posting on X, I have directed a full-scale, rigorous re-examination of every green card

for every alien from every country of concern. In a statement to CNN, DHS Assistant Secretary

Trish McLaughlin said, effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting

protocols. In a video address Wednesday night, the president said the shooting underscores the need

to recheck anyone who entered through the program that the suspect came through. No timeline for how

long this re-examination could take or how many people could be affected. A horrific scene is

still unfolding in Hong Kong, where a high-rise fire has now become the city's deadliest in more

than half a century. The death toll has surged to 128, with officials warning it's likely to rise

About 200 people are still unaccounted for as crews spend a third day picking through charred remains of an eight apartment complex in the Tai Po District Firefighters saw them still doused in ash are going unit by unit flashlights in hand

as parts of the building continue to smolder. The fire department confirms one of their own died

after collapsing at the scene. Investigators say the inferno started in bamboo scaffolding

and flammable construction netting, then raced up the outside of the building

Officials say fire alarms in all eight buildings were not functional. Three men from the construction company overseeing the renovation are now under arrest, accused of gross negligence and manslaughter

Officials are now launching a citywide inspection of all buildings under renovation and say they may finally move away from bamboo scaffolding, a practice used there for generations

This is now Hong Kong's deadliest fire since 1948. In the strongest signal yet that the U.S. might soon launch a ground operation inside Venezuela

President Trump told American troops that land action against the Maduro regime is coming very soon

The president made the comment during his Thanksgiving call with U.S. troops

praising the Air Force's 7th bomb wing for destroying suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean

The military has hit nearly two dozen vessels since September, killing more than 80 people accused of working with cartels

Trump said maritime trafficking is now 85 percent stopped and claims a ground operation would be, quote, easier

The U.S. has already moved the USS Gerald Ford into the region as part of a broader military buildup

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, who you see here, denies any ties to drug cartels and says the U.S. is fabricating a war against him

A fleet of UPS cargo planes grounded after this month's deadly crash in Louisville, Kentucky

will now be parked longer than anyone expected, and it could squeeze holiday deliveries

A leaked internal memo not Wednesday says the company entire McDonnell Douglas MD fleet will be down for months not weeks These aircraft make up 9 of UPS fleet and 11 of FedEx A small slice on paper but they represent hundreds of daily flights and thousands

of packages. Boeing, which now owns McDonnell Douglas, reportedly told UPS the required

inspections and structural repairs are far more extensive than first thought, and that every

single aircraft will need to be torn down to identify and remove aging parts. The remaining

109 MD-11s for UPS are all more than 30 years old on average. Finally this morning, after a brutal

news cycle, we're ending with something shinier. Literally, take a look. Meet Winter Egg. It's a

rare crystal and diamond Fabergé masterpiece, one of only seven left in private hands, and it's

hitting the auction block in London next week. This little four-inch egg is carved out of rock crystal

wrapped in platinum snowflakes, and encrusted with, get this, more than 4,500 diamonds

Wow. Inside, Handle with Care, by the way, a tiny basket of jeweled quartz flowers

because even the Romanovs loved a surprise. Christie's calls it the Mona Lisa of decorative arts

Commissioned in 1913 by Tsar Nicholas II as an Easter gift for his mother

The egg vanished for decades, resurfaced in the 1990s, broke price records twice, and is now expected to fetch, get this, more than $26 million

Bidding starts on Tuesday. It almost sounds like one of those holiday commercials coming out, right

You know, the Christmas ones? This Christmas, tell her you'd love her all over again by getting her a Lexus

Or Zales, the diamond store. This fits right in. All right, hey, we're the fastest, fairest few minutes of news

We hope you agree. Tell your friends about us. You can always watch us on SAN.com or the app or stream us on Spotify

Those are unbiased updates for this Friday. We'll see you back here on Monday. For all of us at Stradio News, I'm Craig DeGrelli

Have a great weekend