Good morning. Here’s the Up First roundup.
Top stories
Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old member of the West Virginia National Guard, has died after being shot while on duty in Washington, D.C. President Trump announced her death during a Thanksgiving call with service members. Beckstrom and 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe were on patrol a few blocks from the White House when the alleged shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, opened fire. Wolfe remains in critical condition.
Authorities say Lakanwal served in Afghanistan alongside U.S. forces in an elite counterterrorism unit connected to the CIA and the military. He applied for asylum during the Biden administration and was granted protection in April. The Trump administration has responded by ordering a broad reexamination of thousands of refugees and migrants admitted to the U.S. and is pursuing efforts to denaturalize and deport some migrants. Experts and advocacy groups note that Afghan applicants faced repeated scrutiny before arriving — vetting was imperfect but extensive — and they stress that most Afghan refugees live peacefully in the United States.
In Hong Kong, at least 128 people have died after a massive fire swept through a high-rise housing complex that shelters roughly 4,600 residents. The blaze, which burned from Wednesday into Friday, is one of the region’s deadliest in decades, and officials warn the death toll could rise. Police have arrested three men on alleged manslaughter charges related to the fire.
Books We Love
Andrew Limbong of NPR’s Book of the Day introduces Books We Love, NPR’s year-end recommendation engine with more than 380 titles and a filterable tag system. A few staff picks:
– The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami — a dystopian novel about mass surveillance and the costs of escape through collective risk-taking.
– King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby — gritty crime fiction about a family-run crematorium tangled with a local drug gang.
– Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy — a memoir about the complicated, turbulent love between a daughter and her mother.
– Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green — a witty, clear-eyed look at TB as an ongoing public-health challenge.
Subscribe to NPR’s books newsletter for recommendations year-round.
Black Friday stories you may have missed
The children’s-safety nonprofit Fairplay and other advocates are urging shoppers to avoid AI toys this holiday season, warning that interactive dolls and robots that mimic friendship can exploit children’s trust and interfere with human relationships.
Muralist Maxx Moses is hosting the Black Friday Artists Market in San Diego for a second year, a community-driven event that celebrates Black culture and local artists.
Retailers are expected to offer deep discounts as they chase cautious shoppers. The National Retail Federation projects Americans will spend more than $1 trillion this season on gifts, food and decorations, about a 4% increase from last year.
Other notes
Millions of people are traveling after Thanksgiving; NPR’s How To Do Everything podcast offers tips to reduce car sickness. Weekend picks from NPR culture include the film Sentimental Value, coverage of Stranger Things’ final season, four new books released this week, holiday music streams on the NPR app, and recipes for transforming leftovers from chef Kathy Gunst.
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.