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National Guard member in DC shooting shows ‘positive sign’ West Virginia governor says
A person walks past a makeshift memorial for U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe outside of Farragut West Station, near the site where the two National Guard members were shot on Dec. 1 in Washington, D.C.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
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Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
The ambush-style attack last week in Washington, D.C. that killed one National Guard soldier and wounded another has brought grief to a West Virginia community and profound implications for refugees, while a troubling profile of the suspect emerges.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R) speaks while West Virginia National Guard Maj. Gen. James Seward (L) looks on during a news conference on Dec. 1 at the West Virginia Capitol in Charleston, W.Va.
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John Raby/AP
At a press conference on Monday, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said he received word from Andrew Wolfe’s family that the 24-year-old remains in serious condition but has shown some progress.
“We were told that Andrew was asked if he could hear the nurse who asked the question to give a thumbs up, and he did respond,” Morrisey said. “And we were told that he also wiggled his toes. So we take that as a positive sign.”
Wolfe and Sarah Beckstrom — both members of the West Virginia National Guard — were on patrol on Thanksgiving eve just blocks from the White House when a gunman came around the corner and opened fire at close-range, authorities said. Beckstrom, 20, died from her injuries on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, remains in custody and faces a first-degree murder charge. Authorities say Lakanwal drove across the country from his home in Washington state to the nation’s capital to carry out the unprovoked attack.
A refugee resettlement volunteer who worked closely with Lakanwal’s family told NPR that the suspect did not show any signs of radicalization — like some U.S. officials have suggested. Instead, the volunteer said they worried about Lakanwal’s wellbeing and feared he was suffering a mental health crisis.
Last week, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said the alleged gunman will be charged with terrorism and she will seek the death penalty if either soldier died.
Here’s what to know.
High school principal describes Beckstrom as “always willing to help others”
A photo is displayed of National Guard member Specialist Sarah Beckstrom in Webster Springs, W.Va., on Nov. 28.
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Kathleen Batten/AP
Beckstrom joined the service in 2023, but her commitment to serving others was a defining part of her character, according to Gabriel Markle, the principal at Webster County High School, which Beckstrom attended.
“She carried herself with quiet strength, a contagious smile and a positive energy that lifted people around her,” Markle said at a vigil organized at the high school on Saturday night.
He added, “She was sweet, caring and always willing to help others.”
Gov. Morrisey, who was also in attendance, said Beckstrom’s family and friends described her as having “a bright smile, a very big heart, and someone who loved to serve others.”
“She wore that uniform with pride,” he said. “And this deserves to be said a few times, she volunteered for the mission,” referring to the troop deployment in D.C.
Both Beckstrom and Wolfe were deployed to the nation’s capital in August, when President Trump first brought in troops, saying they were needed to address crime. The deployments have been met with pushback from both local Democratic leaders who said they were unnecessary and federal court judges, who have questioned their legality.

According to Morrisey, Beckstrom and Wolfe were friends leading up to the attack last week. “I’ve heard some of the stories that they talked, they liked each other, they talked fondly about each other,” he added.
The suspect was withdrawn and possibly suffering from PTSD
This photo showing Rahmanullah Lakanwal was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office on Nov. 27.
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AP/U.S. Attorney’s Office
New details suggest that Lakanwal was suffering from a personal crisis leading up to the attack, NPR’s Brian Mann reported.
A refugee resettlement volunteer who worked closely with Lakanwal’s family said the suspect spent a lot of time alone in his bedroom without speaking to his wife and kids.
“My biggest concern was that [Lakanwal] would harm himself,” the volunteer said. “I worried he would be suicidal because he was so withdrawn.” The volunteer spoke with NPR on condition of anonymity because they said they feared retaliation for having worked with Afghan refugees, including Lakanwal.
Before he moved to the U.S., Lakanwal served in one of Afghanistan’s elite counterterrorism units, which was operated by the CIA and focused on fighting the Taliban. When the Taliban seized control of Kabul in 2021, Lakanwal was evacuated by the U.S. military and later, resettled to the U.S. through Operation Allies Welcome.
According to the volunteer, Lakanwal struggled to find a stable job and adjust to life in the U.S., which led to growing isolation. The volunteer added that Lakanwal was prone to take cross-country drives without telling his family.
Trump administration toughens immigration policies
A makeshift memorial of flowers and American flags stands outside the Farragut West Metro station on Dec. 1 in Washington, D.C.
Heather Diehl/Getty Images North America
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Heather Diehl/Getty Images North America
The shooting in D.C. has also led to swift and sweeping changes to multiple immigration processes.
NPR’s Ximeno Bustillo reported that the administration has paused all visa reviews for people from Afghanistan. That includes special immigrant visas, a program specifically designed to relocate those who had helped the U.S. military and its allies, and were at risk living under Taliban rule.
Some veterans and refugee advocates criticized the policy changes, arguing that an entire community should not be punished for the actions of one person.
“Our hearts are absolutely broken for our Afghan allies, who have already endured more trauma, loss, and sacrifice than most Americans can imagine,” Shawn VanDiver, who leads #AfghanEvac, a group that supports the resettlement of Afghans to the U.S., said in a statement.
More broadly, the administration halted all asylum decisions. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said reviews will not restart until the agency has “dealt with the backlog” which is currently over a million cases.

“That backlog needs to be cleared up,” Noem said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press.“
Joseph Edlow, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, also ordered a sweeping review of green card holders from “every country of concern” — referring to a list of 19 countries that the administration previously ruled has “deficient” vetting and screening.
News
Community reacts to ICE shooting in Minnesota. And, RFK Jr. unveils new food pyramid
Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.
Today’s top stories
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis woman, yesterday. Multiple observers captured the shooting on video, and community members demanded accountability. Minnesota law enforcement officials and the FBI are investigating the fatal shooting, which the Trump administration says was an act of self-defense. Meanwhile, the mayor has accused the officer of reckless use of power and demanded that ICE get out of Minneapolis.
People demonstrate during a vigil at the site where a woman was shot and killed by an immigration officer earlier in the day in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 7, 2026. An immigration officer in Minneapolis shot dead a woman on Wednesday, triggering outrage from local leaders even as President Trump claimed the officer acted in self-defense. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey deemed the government’s allegation that the woman was attacking federal agents “bullshit,” and called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers conducting a second day of mass raids to leave Minneapolis.
Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images
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Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images
- 🎧 Caitlin Callenson recorded the shooting and says officers gave Good multiple conflicting instructions while she was in her vehicle. Callenson says Good was already unresponsive when officers pulled her from the car. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claims the officer was struck by the vehicle and acted in self-defense. In the video NPR reviewed, the officer doesn’t seem to be hit and was seen walking after he fired the shots, NPR’s Meg Anderson tells Up First. Anderson says it has been mostly peaceful in Minneapolis, but there is a lot of anger and tension because protesters want ICE out of the city.
U.S. forces yesterday seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the north Atlantic between Iceland and Britain after a two-week chase. The tanker was originally headed to Venezuela, but it changed course to avoid the U.S. ships. This action comes as the Trump administration begins releasing new information about its plans for Venezuela’s oil industry.
- 🎧 It has been a dramatic week for U.S. operations in Venezuela, NPR’s Greg Myre says, prompting critics to ask if a real plan for the road ahead exists. Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded that the U.S. does have a strategy to stabilize Venezuela, and much of it seems to involve oil. Rubio said the U.S. would take control of up to 50 million barrels of oil from the country. Myre says the Trump administration appears to have a multipronged strategy that involves taking over the country’s oil, selling it on the world market and pressuring U.S. oil companies to enter Venezuela.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released new dietary guidelines for Americans yesterday that focus on promoting whole foods, proteins and healthy fats. The guidance, which he says aims to “revolutionize our food culture,” comes with a new food pyramid, which replaces the current MyPlate symbol.
- 🎧 “I’m very disappointed in the new pyramid,” Christopher Gardner, a nutrition expert who was on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, tells NPR’s Allison Aubrey. Gardner says the new food structure, which features red meat and saturated fats at the top, contradicts decades of evidence and research. Poor eating habits and the standard American diet are widely considered to cause chronic disease. Aubrey says the new guidelines alone won’t change people’s eating habits, but they will be highly influential. This guidance will shape the offerings in school meals and on military bases, and determine what’s allowed in federal nutrition programs.
Special series
Trump has tried to bury the truth of what happened on Jan. 6, 2021. NPR built a visual archive of the attack on the Capitol, showing exactly what happened through the lenses of the people who were there. “Chapter 4: The investigation” shows how federal investigators found the rioters and built the largest criminal case in U.S. history.
Political leaders, including Trump, called for rioters to face justice for their actions on Jan. 6. This request came because so few people were arrested during the attack. The extremists who led the riot remained free, and some threatened further violence. The government launched the largest federal investigation in American history, resulting in the arrest of over 1,500 individuals from all 50 states. The most serious cases were made by prosecutors against leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. For their roles in planning the attack against the U.S., some extremists were found guilty of seditious conspiracy. Take a look at the Jan. 6 prosecutions by the numbers, including the highest sentence received.
To learn more, explore NPR’s database of federal criminal cases from Jan. 6. You can also see more of NPR’s reporting on the topic.
Deep dive
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC.
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Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Trump takes 325 milligrams of daily aspirin, which is four times the recommended 81 milligrams of low-dose aspirin used for cardiovascular disease prevention. The president revealed this detail in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published last week. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that anyone over 60 not start a daily dose of aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease if they don’t already have an underlying problem. The group said it’s reasonable to stop preventive aspirin in people already taking it around age 75 years. Trump is 79. This is what you should know about aspirin and cardiac health:
- 💊 Doctors often prescribe the low dose of aspirin because there’s no benefit to taking a higher dose, according to a large study published in 2021.
- 💊 Some people, including adults who have undergone heart bypass surgery and those who have had a heart attack, should take the advised dose of the drug for their entire life.
- 💊 While safer than other blood thinners, the drug — even at low doses — raises the risk of bleeding in the stomach and brain. But these adverse events are unlikely to cause death.
3 things to know before you go
When an ant pupa has a deadly, incurable infection, it sends out a signal that tells worker ants to unpack it from its cocoon and disinfect it, a process that results in its death.
Christopher D. Pull/ISTA
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Christopher D. Pull/ISTA
- Young, terminally ill ants will send out an altruistic “kill me” signal to worker ants, according to a study in the journal Nature Communications. With this strategy, the sick ants sacrifice themselves for the good of their colony.
- In this week’s Far-Flung Postcards series, you can spot a real, lone California sequoia tree in the Parc des Buttes Chaumont in Paris. Napoleon III transformed the park from a former landfill into one of the French capital’s greenest escapes.
- The ACLU and several authors have sued Utah over its “sensitive materials” book law, which has now banned 22 books in K-12 schools. Among the books on the ban list are The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. (via KUER)
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
News
Video: Minnesota Governor Condemns ICE Shooting
new video loaded: Minnesota Governor Condemns ICE Shooting
transcript
transcript
Minnesota Governor Condemns ICE Shooting
Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota slammed the fatal shooting of a woman by an immigration agent. President Trump said that the agents had acted in self-defense.
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This morning, we learned that an ICE officer shot and killed someone in Minneapolis. We have been warning for weeks that the Trump administration’s dangerous, sensationalized operations are a threat to our public safety, that someone was going to get hurt. Just yesterday, I said exactly that. What we’re seeing is the consequences of governance designed to generate fear, headlines and conflict. It’s governing by reality TV. And today, that recklessness cost someone their life.
By Jiawei Wang
January 8, 2026
News
U.S. to exit 66 international organizations in further retreat from global cooperation
The symbol of the United Nations is displayed outside the Secretariat Building on Feb. 28, 2022, at United Nations Headquarters.
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John Minchillo/AP
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will withdraw from dozens of international organizations, including the U.N.’s population agency and the U.N. treaty that establishes international climate negotiations, as the U.S. further retreats from global cooperation.
President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order suspending U.S. support for 66 organizations, agencies, and commissions, following his administration’s review of participation in and funding for all international organizations, including those affiliated with the United Nations, according to a White House release.

Most of the targets are U.N.-related agencies, commissions and advisory panels that focus on climate, labor, migration and other issues the Trump administration has categorized as catering to diversity and “woke” initiatives. Other non-U.N. organizations on the list include the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and Global Counterterrorism Forum.
“The Trump Administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

Trump’s decision to withdraw from organizations that foster cooperation among nations to address global challenges comes as his administration has launched military efforts or issued threats that have rattled allies and adversaries alike, including capturing autocratic Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and indicating an intention to take over Greenland.
U.S. builds on pattern of exiting global agencies
The administration previously suspended support from agencies like the World Health Organization, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA, the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO. It has taken a larger, a-la-carte approach to paying its dues to the world body, picking which operations and agencies it believes align with Trump’s agenda and those that no longer serve U.S. interests.
“I think what we’re seeing is the crystallization of the U.S. approach to multilateralism, which is ‘my way or the highway,’” said Daniel Forti, head of U.N. affairs at the International Crisis Group. “It’s a very clear vision of wanting international cooperation on Washington’s own terms.”

It has marked a major shift from how previous administrations — both Republican and Democratic — have dealt with the U.N., and it has forced the world body, already undergoing its own internal reckoning, to respond with a series of staffing and program cuts.
Many independent nongovernmental agencies — some that work with the United Nations — have cited many project closures because of the U.S. administration’s decision last year to slash foreign assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.
Despite the massive shift, the U.S. officials, including Trump himself, say they have seen the potential of the U.N. and want to instead focus taxpayer money on expanding American influence in many of the standard-setting U.N. initiatives where there is competition with China, like the International Telecommunications Union, the International Maritime Organization and the International Labor Organization.
The latest global organizations the U.S. is departing
The withdrawal from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC, is the latest effort by Trump and his allies to distance the U.S. from international organizations focused on climate and addressing climate change.
UNFCC, the 1992 agreement between 198 countries to financially support climate change activities in developing countries, is the underlying treaty for the landmark Paris climate agreement. Trump — who calls climate change a hoax — withdrew from that agreement soon after reclaiming the White House.

Gina McCarthy, former White House National Climate Adviser, said being the only country in the world not part of the treaty is “shortsighted, embarrassing, and a foolish decision.”
“This Administration is forfeiting our country’s ability to influence trillions of dollars in investments, policies, and decisions that would have advanced our economy and protected us from costly disasters wreaking havoc on our country,” McCarthy, who co-chairs America Is All In, a coalition of climate-concerned U.S. states and cities, said in a statement.
Mainstream scientists say climate change is behind increasing instances of deadly and costly extreme weather, including flooding, droughts, wildfires, intense rainfall events and dangerous heat.
The U.S. withdrawal could hinder global efforts to curb greenhouse gases because it “gives other nations the excuse to delay their own actions and commitments,” said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who chairs the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists that tracks countries’ carbon dioxide emissions.

It will also be difficult to achieve meaningful progress on climate change without cooperation from the U.S., one of the world’s largest emitters and economies, experts said.
The U.N. Population Fund, the agency providing sexual and reproductive health worldwide, has long been a lightning rod for Republican opposition, and Trump cut funding for it during his first term. He and other GOP officials have accused the agency of participating in “coercive abortion practices” in countries like China.
When President Biden took office in January 2021, he restored funding for the agency. A State Department review conducted the following year found no evidence to support GOP claims.
Other organizations and agencies that the U.S. will quit include the Carbon Free Energy Compact, the United Nations University, the International Cotton Advisory Committee, the International Tropical Timber Organization, the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, the Pan-American Institute for Geography and History, the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies and the International Lead and Zinc Study Group.
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