Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman.
Chapter 2: Who were the National Guard members involved in the shooting in Washington, D.C.?
The two National Guard members shot yesterday in Washington, D.C., have been identified as 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe and 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom. Both underwent surgery and remain in critical condition, according to authorities. NPR's Juliana Kim reports.
The West Virginia National Guard says Sarah Beckstrom is an Army specialist who joined the service in 2023. Andrew Wolfe is an Air Force staff sergeant who entered the service in 2019. Beckstrom is from Summersville in central West Virginia, while Wolfe is from Martinsburg, which is in the state's eastern panhandle and less than a two-hour drive to Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.
Both Beckstrom and Wolfe had been deployed to D.C. since August when the troop deployment in the city began. Authorities have described the shooting as a targeted attack and it's being investigated as an act of terrorism. Juliana Kim, NPR News.
At least 65 people are dead and hundreds are missing after a fire broke out at the massive housing complex in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Cherise Pham has more.
Firefighters are going through the wreckage of apartment buildings floor by floor searching for survivors. The fire department said they rescued an elderly man from the 31st floor of one of the buildings on Thursday afternoon. Later in the evening, more than 24 hours after the fire started, they found another survivor in a staircase, according to local media reports.
The public housing complex where the fire broke out is home to about 4,600 people. The high-rise apartment towers had been under renovation and covered in bamboo scaffolding. which caught fire and collapsed. Police said the construction material found around the buildings did not meet safety standards and may have been the reason the fire spread so quickly.
Three people from the company responsible for the renovations have been arrested on suspected manslaughter charges. For NPR News, I'm Cherise Pham in Hong Kong.
The National Retail Federation says holiday sales will likely surpass $1 trillion for the first time this year. If their prediction holds, it would mean a 3.7 to 4.2 percent sales increase over 2024. Federation chief economist Mark Matthews says the increase would in part be due to President Trump's tariffs. But he also says Americans are in a spending mood. And they're shopping even earlier.
What we've seen over time is, you know, this weekend in a shopping context used to be about, you know, in-store on Black Friday. That's changed, right? People are shopping earlier than before and they're shopping across the holiday weekend, not just in-store, but online.
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Chapter 3: What caused the devastating fire in Hong Kong and its impact?
I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.