National Guard member dies after shooting in Washington DC

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

New school year, new routines, and somehow your calendar is already full. When life gets hectic, Colli Power's got your back.
We make the food you crave made better for you.

Like thin and crispy cauliflower crust pizzas, all-natural chicken tenders, and nostalgic pizza snacks. Ready in minutes and something the whole family can agree on.

Caulipower is available in freezer aisles nationwide. Visit eatcollypower.com to find a store near you.
Black Friday at Abercrombie Kids is here with 40% off everything.

And iHeart listeners are getting an extra 15% off with code iHeartAF. This is your time to shine and finish holiday shopping on sale.
Shop in the app online and in stores.

40% off everything valid in stores and online November 24th, 2025 to December 1st, 2025 in U.S. and Canada.
Excludes clearance and gift cards. Online price reflex discount.

Use code iHeartAF to get an additional 15% off everything in stores and online at checkout from November 24th, 2025 to December 1st, 2025 in U.S. and Canada.
Exclude clearance and gift cards.

See details online.

This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Janet Jalil, and in the early hours of Friday, the 28th of November, these are our main stories. President Trump says one of the two U.S.
National Guard soldiers shot in Washington, D.C.

on Wednesday has died from her injuries. Video has emerged showing Israeli security forces shooting dead two Palestinians who appeared to have surrendered in the occupied West Bank.

More than 90 people are now known to have died in Hong Kong's worst fire in decades.

Also in this podcast. What we love about cats is that they look amazing and they act amazing.

And in this case, we just had to murder them first in order to sort of celebrate that loveliness about them.

Surprising and rather gruesome new evidence has been found about how cats became domesticated.

Thanksgiving in the U.S. has turned to tragedy for the family of a member of the National Guard who was shot just yards from the White House on Wednesday.

President Trump announced that the soldier, who was just 20 years old, had died from her injuries.

Right now, I heard that Sarah Beckstrom of West Virginia, one of the guardsmen that we're talking about, highly respected, young, magnificent person,

started service in June of 2023,

outstanding in every way. She's just passed away.
She's no longer with us. She's looking down at us right now.

Her colleague, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, is still fighting for his life after being left in a critical condition.

A suspect has been named as Ramanullah Lakamwal, an Afghan national who was shot by other National Guard members at the scene and detained.

It's since emerged that he worked with the CIA in Afghanistan before being granted asylum this year in the US.

The authorities say he drove thousands of kilometres from the west coast to launch an ambush-style attack on the two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C.

Our North America correspondent is Sean Dilley.

It's the worst news the President could have delivered today at Thanksgiving when the nation is celebrating a very American and Canadian, it has to be said, tradition, marking this very sad news of an incredibly young soldier, National Guard, standing in the Capitol.

And we obviously heard that she'd served with the National Guard since June of 2023. We were also aware of an interview her father, Gary, had given to the New York Times earlier in the day.

And during his interview, he said that he was holding Sarah's hand.

He was with her in the hospital, that he felt that her injuries were mortal and it wasn't something that he felt she could survive from. So indeed, she hasn't.
She's succumbed to her injuries.

And it's an incredibly bitter pill to swallow on Thanksgiving of all days for Americans to be told that the suspected killer once stood shoulder to shoulder with US forces in Afghanistan.

Sarah was a specialist. She'd been serving since June of 2023.
And Sergeant Andrew Wolfe had been serving since 2019. They've both been with a mission here in Washington, D.C.
since August.

And the Trump administration says it's going to review the permanent residency status of every person from 19 countries, including Afghanistan, in the wake of this shooting.

There's something called a green card. It's a certain category of immigrant visa that lets people permanently live and work.

Now, what they haven't done is given any detail or even actually specific list. We do have a bit of an idea of countries that would be included.

That would be Iran, that would be Afghanistan itself, the Republic of Congo, Chad, quite a few countries that had previously been mentioned in proclamations by the White House.

But how they would be further vetted, we don't know. But it wasn't just today that the White House and the US government under Donald Trump have spoken about national security risks.

They spoke about it in June in the proclamation, and there was a separate executive order in January of 2025.

So it's been an ongoing situation, and now the US government has linked their announcement, which is fairly sweeping, to review the green card status of people from these 19 countries.

But what they haven't done is gone into any detail as to what that review process might look like.

Sean Dilley, video has emerged that shows Israeli security forces shooting dead two Palestinians after they'd surrendered in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

This comes as the Israeli military has been stepping up its operations in the north of the territory. Our Middle East analyst Sebastian Usher described the video.

It shows an operation by the Israeli border force in Jenin. This has been a hotbed of violence for months and months.
And you see two Palestinian men emerge crouching from a building.

They then kneel down. At least one of them raises his shirt to show his bare chest.
One would assume to show that he doesn't have weapons, he's not armed.

There seems to be some communication between them and the border officers. And then after a short time, one of the men starts to go back inside.

This is a very small opening, so he's crouching down again. And then the other follows, and then shortly after that, they open fire, the border police, shooting at them point blank.

Now, it looks when you see the video as if they're being directed to go back inside, but Army Radio in Israel has published what it says is the border police involved, giving their version of events.

And they seem to be, at least for now, taking a very different defence,

saying that the men, the two men, had gone against their instructions, but they'd gone back into the building despite what the border police wanted. And that's why they opened fire.

So a huge discrepancy there. But as I say, what you see on the video doesn't seem to back that version up.

And the Palestinian Authority is calling this a summary execution, a war crime. What are the Israelis saying?

Well, they said that it's under review. The Israeli military and the Israeli police saying that this was an operation that went on for hours, that it was

in an effort to get these two wanted men, as they describe them, to surrender, and that it was at the end of that process that this happened.

The National Security Minister, Itamab Ben-Gavir, who emerged from the settler movement, very much on the far right, he has said that he fully backs the officers and that terrorists must die.

And Sebastian, in a separate development, a 16-year-old Palestinian American who's been in Israeli detention for nine months without charge has been freed after intense pressure pressure from US lawmakers.

Yes, that's Mohammed Ibrahim. He was arrested back in February when he was 15 years old.
He's a US-Palestinian national. He was visiting his family in the West Bank when there was a raid.

In the middle of the night, he was taken away. He was accused essentially of throwing objects, throwing stones at settlers' vehicles.

There's some discrepancy about whether he was actually charged or not.

The Guardian newspaper, which broke the story, says that actually he was charged and that in order to get released, he gave a guilty plea and made a suspended sentence.

But I think that's unclear. He's saying he never threw stones, he was just forced to commit.

He denied it throughout. And what his family has found particularly shocking, besides obviously his detention for nine months, is his condition, his physical condition when he was released.

They say that he's lost a quarter of his body weight. He has had various sicknesses and he was taken straight into hospital after being released, where he's being treated.

I mean, Palestinians will point to it as emblematic of the plight of many young Palestinians there.

It comes to light essentially because he is American, and that pressure, as you say, from the Americans made it that it was a case where he was going to get released.

Obviously, there are many other cases where that doesn't happen.

Sebastian Usher,

as we record this podcast, it's nearly 48 hours since flames began spreading through multiple high-rise apartment buildings in Hong Kong in what has now become the deadliest fire in the territory for decades.

The inferno, which tore through seven of eight tower blocks, has killed more than 90 people, but it's feared that number could rise even higher, as hundreds are still missing.

The fires have now largely been put out, and firefighters are moving from floor to floor of the scorched, smouldering tower blocks as they search for residents who may not have been able to escape in time.

The Hong Kong Deputy Director of Fire Services, Wong Ka Wing, says it's still a very dangerous situation for the emergency services.

Our major challenge is the temperature is very high in the fire gran, and the inside layout is very complex because the scaffolding is collapsed.

Our firefighters need to conference the high temperature to proceed to the fire gruang layer by layer. It is very difficult for us.

The tower blocks had been undergoing extensive renovations and police say construction materials on the outside of the buildings may have been why the fire spread so far and so rapidly.

A criminal investigation is being launched following the arrest of three executives who were in charge of the renovation works. Our correspondent in Hong Kong, Danny Vincent, told me more.

We know that the firefighters said they hope to finish the checking of the apartments this morning. We know that hundreds of people are still considered missing.

On the ground, when I visited the scene, there are fears that the missing people, the people unaccounted for, sadly possibly may not have been able to survive or escape.

So there's fears now that that death toll will continue to rise. And 48 hours on, it now seems that the fires are mostly under control.
That's right.

The authorities say that the firefighters have most of the fires under control now. I was at the scene for most of the day and late until the night yesterday.

And even at that stage, more than 24 hours after the flames originally engulfed the building, there were still many apartments that were still on fire.

And you could see firefighters spraying large streams of water, literally non-stop at windows to try to get the flames out. So it was an absolutely huge fire.

It's been a huge tragedy for people in Hong Kong, but the fear now is that this situation hasn't ended. People expect the death toll to rise.

And there's also now many questions being asked about why this fire escalated so quickly. The authorities said it escalated in an unusual way.

And there are now people, at least on the ground and especially online, asking for people to be accountable.

There's many questions that still need to be answered. People are now getting increasingly angry.
There's been several arrests. There's now an incorruption inquiry going on.

People are saying, how could this have happened? Why weren't there at least alarms going off when the fire started? That's right.

On the ground, there are still a large number of people just looking on at the scene of the fire. I've spoken to many of them, and the feeling on the ground is still one of mourn and of sorrow.

But online, there are huge calls about the questions revolving around why this started. There have been three arrests of construction company executives.

The authorities say those arrests are connected to suspicion of manslaughter. They've connected that to possible flammable material.

Hong Kongers are definitely becoming increasingly angry, essentially, about this incident and they want to know what has happened.

Much of the speculation has been around two pieces of building material. The first is bamboo scaffolding.

Some people claim that that is flammable and that might have been the reason why the flames spread so quickly.

There's also a lot of speculation about some of the leashing that's used across all of the buildings during this renovation period.

One person I spoke to yesterday, they said they think this is a real big test for the government.

People on the ground seem to have a level of patience about getting the answers to those questions, but online, you can definitely feel that anger is growing and at some point the authorities are going to need to have clear answers and quite quickly for the Hong Kong public.

Danny Vincent in Hong Kong.

Now, cat lovers the world over may be surprised to hear how and when their feline friends first became domesticated.

Gregor Larson, who is a professor of evolutionary genomics at the University of Oxford, busted a few myths while compiling his new study.

It found that cats didn't become domesticated at the dawn of of agriculture, as previously thought in the Levant, but in Egypt and other parts of North Africa a few thousand years later, and for rather gruesome reasons.

Professor Larson was talking to Paul Henley.

Over the last couple of decades, a new narrative has taken hold, which starts in the Levant, at the time when people are settling down and practicing agriculture.

They're creating large grain storage pits, and those grain stores are attracting rodents, and then the rodents are attracting the cats, and the cats get attracted to the people, and then people start moving those cats around.

And that sort of narrative has been pretty much the dominant one for at least the last decade or so. It describes how maybe cats, unlike dogs, are not really attracted to us.

It's only because we are providing the grain that provides for the mice that brings the cats in. And so it kind of makes sense.

And the narratives that make the most sense are often the least likely to be true.

What's really curious in this case is that through a study led primarily by Claudio Ottoni, where he was looking at the ancient genetics of cat remains across North Africa, the Levant, and Europe, is it it turns out that what we were all learning multiple decades ago about it really being the fault of the Egyptians is much more likely to be true.

I suppose it's not true either that the Egyptians worshipped cats. They worshipped a goddess named Bestet, or Best, and she embodied catness, as it were.

When you first see her depicted, she has a human body and a lion head for a good thousand years or so.

And then there's a transition period where she's depicted and sculpted as a human body and a head that looks a lot like a cat.

And people would make pilgrimages to pay homage to her and were required to make votive offerings of mummified cats.

You would usually buy one on site and then present it as an homage to Best, and that would be part of your pilgrimage. It's not a very cute story, and not one that cat lovers will celebrate.

What we love about cats is that they look amazing and they act amazing. And in this case, we just had to murder them first in order to sort of celebrate that loveliness about them.

But ancient Egyptians got hold of them to sacrifice them. They weren't exactly pets.
No, they weren't.

But in order to kill that many on such a large scale, you have to kind of industrialize that process of murder, as it were, which means you need a whole lot in close proximity.

And what's really intriguing is that wild cats do not like mating in close proximity to other wild cats.

So you have to overcome that behavior and select for the behavior in cats, which allows them to mate and reproduce, not just in close proximity to other cats, but also in what is relative captivity.

And those are the traits that then allow cats to start to thrive in much closer proximity to people, which is that first stepping stone, which then gets them incorporated into cities and towns and then eventually into our houses.

Those relationships have basically allowed the human population to balloon from maybe a couple of 10 million 20,000 years ago or so to more than 8 billion now.

And it's all because we have these ridiculously close relationships with animals. Professor Gregor Larson.

Still to come.

Don't worry about him.

He's just a snake.

We hear about a church in the U.S. where worshippers are encouraged to hold venomous snakes.

Black Friday at Abercrombie Kids is here with 40% off everything. And iHeart listeners are getting an extra 15% off with code iHeartAF.
This is your time to shine and finish holiday shopping on sale.

Shop in the app online and in stores. 40% off everything valid in stores and online November 24th, 2025 to December 1st, 2025 in U.S.
and Canada. Excludes clearance and gift cards.

Online price reflex discount. Use code iHeartAF to get an additional 15% off everything in stores and online at checkout from November 24th, 2025 to December 1st, 2025 in U.S.
and Canada.

Excludes clearance and gift cards. See details online.
With markets changing and living costs rising, finding a reliable place to grow your money matters now more than ever.

In the WealthFront Cash account, your uninvested cash can earn up to 4.15% APY. That's a 0.65% boost over an already high rate for three months just for being a new client.

There are no monthly account fees or minimums, and you get free instant withdrawals to eligible accounts 24-7. So you always have access to your money when you need it.

And when you're ready to invest, you can transfer your cash to one of WealthFront's expert-built portfolios in just minutes.

More than 1 million people already use Wealthfront to save and build wealth with confidence. Get started today at WealthFront.com.
3.5% base APY via Program Banks as of November 7th, 2025.

It is representative variable, requires no minimum, and is earned on funds web to Program Banks. Instant withdrawal subject subject to conditions boost up to $150,000.

Cash account offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC member FINRA SIPC, not a bank. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal.

Investment advisory services provided by Wealthfront Advisors LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. Homes.com knows having the right agent can make or break your home search.

That's why they provide home shoppers with an agent directory that gives you a detailed look at each agent's experience, like the number of closed sales in a specific neighborhood, average price range, and more.

It lets you easily connect with all the agents in in the area you're searching so you can find the right agent with the right experience and ultimately the right home for you.

Homes.com, we've done your homework. The wait is over.
The NYX Black Friday sale is on now at knix.com. Shop early and save up to 60% off site-wide.

Plus, all kinds of limited-time daily deals from the number one leak-proof brand in North America.

Don't miss your chance to save big on innovative intimates like leak-proof underwear, wireless bras, shapewear, and more. Everything is on sale.

Millions have made the switch to NYX's revolutionary period underwear, and there's never been a better time for you to try them too.

During the Black Friday sale, save up to 60% on super comfy, machine-washable, and stylish leak-proof undies. Plus, shop the best deals of the year on NYX's best-selling assortment of wireless bras.

Don't miss this chance to stock up on your NYX favorites or try something new during the NYX Black Friday event. That's KNIX.com.
The sale ends December 2nd and sizes will sell out. Go to NYX.com.

That's KNIX.com.

In what's been described as a David vs. Goliath story, 14 Kenyan farmers have won a legal battle to overturn a law which punished them for using their own seeds.

The law made it illegal for farmers to follow the traditional practice of saving seeds from their crops to to use again.

The idea was that commercial seeds would be better regulated and therefore safer. If caught breaking the law, farmers faced the prospect of being fined thousands of dollars or even going to jail.

The legislation was seen as favouring big seed distribution companies, including multinationals, and punishing small farmers like Francis and Geary.

We have to fight for our food sovereignty. Seed is one of the sources of food sovereignty.
It is a pity that we have to make it a war so that we can be given what is right for us.

And now that parts of that law have been overturned, there have been celebrations in the street. Our correspondent in Nairobi, Richard Kagoy, told us more.

A court in Kenya ruled in favor of 14 farmers who had moved to court sometime in 2022. And this is about criminalizing or restricting sharing of seeds.

So it's an age-old tradition where farmers amongst themselves would be sharing seeds just in readiness for the next planting season.

So they would be storing their seeds in a pot or just beneath the earth, covering it with ash, just to prepare themselves. So then they have enough to plant for the next season.

So now this was a restriction in the law because if anyone was found to do this, then they would face maybe a jail term of two years or have to pay up a fine of about 8,000 US dollars.

Now, there's a majority of poor peasant farmers in rural Kenya.

So, their major concern was that when they decided to formalize the seed distribution process, it would be very costly for them because they'd be forced to pay up in advance for them to get seeds.

And the seeds that

they will be getting, which are certified, it will be very difficult for them to regenerate or to propagate them for future use. So, it was really quite a moment for them.

I just saw them you know, bursting in celebration. They were jumping, they were hugging each other, they were, you know, celebrating, they were shouting, they were singing.

And some of them, I could see them on their knees, you know, just praying. I mean, because it had even a spiritual dimension to this, because it was quite emotional.

A lot of them were saying that their rights, you know, to seeds have been reinstated. And so they were very, you know, in a very joyful mood, I would say.

So it was quite a relief for them because it's been quite a long journey, close to about three years in and out of the courts.

Richard Kagoy. As U.S.

envoys prepare to head to Russia next week to try to persuade it to back the latest version of a plan to end the war in Ukraine, President Putin has once again struck an uncompromising note.

In his first public response to the latest U.S. peace proposal, he said Ukraine had to surrender territory for any deal to be possible.
When the U.S.

draft plan was revealed last week, it was viewed by Ukraine and its European allies as being a Russian wish list. They pushed back to get a revised version.
But it seems that Mr.

Putin is now simply doubling down on his core demands for ending the war. Here's our Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg.

Vladimir Putin claims that Russia is happy to talk about peace, but will he sign a peace deal to end Russia's war in Ukraine?

President Putin said there was no final version of Donald Trump's peace plan.

Referring to draft proposals, he said Russia could see that on some issues America was taking Moscow's position into account. But certain specific points, he added, would require serious discussion.

Each word was of importance. And there would be discussions next week in Moscow with President Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff.

The Kremlin leader repeated his belief that Russia has the initiative on the battlefield and his demand that Kiev hand over territory in the Donbass that Moscow has failed to seize in four years of war.

Ukrainian troops will withdraw from the territories they occupy. That's when the fighting will end.
If they don't withdraw, we will achieve this by force.

Vladimir Putin also said it was pointless signing any agreements with Ukraine's leadership, claiming those in power in Kiev had lost their legitimacy.

Another indication that Moscow is in no hurry to agree a peace deal with Ukraine's current leadership.

See Rosenberg. The former left-wing president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, has been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for attempting to disband parliament amid a political crisis in late 2022.

His sentence comes a day after another Peruvian ex-president, Martín Vizcara, was sentenced to 14 years behind bars for bribe-taking. Here's our Latin America correspondent, Will Grant.

failed spectacularly, with even members of his own government supporting steps to see Mr. Castillo impeached and arrested.

His sentence of more than 11 years in prison comes a day after another left-wing ex-president, Martín Vizcarra, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption and receiving bribes while serving as a regional governor.

Peru has been beset with political crises for years, with two other former presidents already behind bars. Following Mr.

Castillo's impeachment and arrest, there were widespread protests by his supporters, which were brutally repressed by the security forces. At least 50 people were killed in the clashes.

Will Grant Campaigners in Scotland are trying to raise £12 million or £16 million to save the farmhouse where the country's most famous poet, Robert Burns, wrote much of his work, including Old Lang Syne.

Ellisland Farm, which was built by Burns himself back in 1788, eight, is suffering from damp, decay, and structural deterioration. Graham Satchel reports.

Burns wrote many of his most noted poems at Ellisland Farm, including Tamashanta, My Hearts in the Highlands, and Old Lang Syne. He took inspiration from the rugged landscape and the nearby river.

The banks of the Nith, he said, are as sweet poetic ground as any I ever saw.

Campaigners want to fully restore the farm's buildings and plan to use the site to house the extensive Burns Collection, which includes original drafts drafts of his poems and letters, a restored flute, and even some of his shopping lists.

There are plans to create spaces where modern-day artists and musicians can come to work.

The restoration will cost an estimated £12 million, worth it, campaigners say, so Burns' work can never be forgot.

Graham Satchel.

There was a time when in hundreds of churches in the U.S., pastors and some members of the congregation held venomous snakes during services, believing that their faith would protect them.

The practice in the Appalachia region has now been banned in many areas. One of the last churches to still do this is the House of the Lord Jesus in West Virginia.

The Grammy Award-winning producer Ian Brennan has been there to record one of its services with its live music, and he's turned it into an album, They Shall Take Up Serpents.

He's been telling the BBC's Martin Bennard all about it.

Jesus said it,

so it's alright.

Jesus said it. What they have is a very literal interpretation of the Bible, and that includes they shall take up servants and not be harmed, and they shall drink deadly things and not be harmed.

And so some of the pastors will engage in that. They will take up the snakes and they will inhale things that are meant to be dangerous or deadly.

And maybe on a rational level it's something to be questioned, but the faith behind it and the emotion behind it are something that can't be denied.

And when I went there they started and within minutes a snake bite happened. You know I could hear it in the headphones, this commotion that was only a few feet away from me.

And then the next thing I looked up and there was blood and screaming and ended up right there and you know with snakes literally being waved in my face.

These snakes are poisonous, aren't they? Yes, they are poisonous. They use copperheads, they use cotton mouse and other snakes as well.
So there is danger.

And in fact, the estimate is that over 100 preachers have died in the last century since this practice has taken place. And you say it's the most heavy metal thing you've ever seen.
In what way?

You know, everything was calm, and then they started. It was just like Bedlam broke out.

You know, people are up on their feet and clapping, and the two main pastors were pacing back and forth like a rap duo.

And then not long after that, they started picking up snakes and waving snakes around.

Did you get to speak to any of the congregation and the pastors outside of the service and what were they like? Well, they were very polite people and very generous and kind and said, come back again.

This is a very rural, isolated region, and it is a county that's seen the coal mining industry being exported overseas and 80% population drop because that's what they were dependent on.

I think, in general, there's a tradition of distrust towards authority because they've been betrayed by authority for hundreds of years.

And coming to the tracks, they're all actually preaching, but there's music there in the background, and some of it is quite rock and roll type music.

Woo!

Well, you know, these churches were first founded in 1922 and you know the first rock and roll records were in the early 50s so it's a very grandiose claim but maybe there is something to that.

And the preachers and some of the musicians actually sound quite talented. Absolutely.

To hear two people playing for the joy of it, two guitar players and playing off of each other, two flat pickers, is quite incredible.

It's something that probably just a generation or two ago would have been commonplace commonplace in the region.

That was music producer Ian Brennan talking to Martin Bennard.

And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast, you can send us an email.

The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk.

This edition was mixed by Rosenwyn Durrell. The producers were Arian Kochi and Muzaffar Shakir.
The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Janat Jalil.
Until next time, goodbye.

It's time your hard-earned money works harder for you. With the Wealthfront Cash account, your uninvested cash can earn up to 4.15% APY.

That's a 0.65% boost over an already high rate for three months, just for being a new client. Plus, free instant withdrawals to eligible accounts.
Start today at Wealthfront.com.

3.5% base APY via Program Banks as of November 7th, 2025. It is representative, variable, requires no minimum, and is earned on funds wept to program banks.
Boost up to $150,000.

Cash account offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC member FINRA SIPC, Nada Bank.