An Afghan citizen accused of shooting two National Guard members will be charged with first-degree murder, a US official said Friday, after one of the soldiers died of her wounds as President Donald Trump pledged to suspend migration from “third world countries.”The announcement marks an escalation in charges facing the assailant, identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who allegedly opened fire on the guardsmen just a few blocks from the White House on Wednesday, the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday.”There are certainly many more charges to come, but we are upgrading the initial charges of assault to murder in the first degree,” Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for Washington DC, told the Fox News program Fox & Friends.”It is a premeditated murder. There was an ambush with a gun toward people who didn’t know what was coming.”Pirro’s announcement comes after Attorney General Pam Bondi pledged on Thursday to seek the death penalty against Lakanwal, describing him as a “monster.”US media said Lakanwal was part of the “Zero Units” — a CIA-backed Afghan paramilitary force — and entered the United States as part of a resettlement program following the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old West Virginia National Guard member deployed in the US capital as part of what Trump called a crackdown on crime, died from her wounds, the president said on Thursday.He said the other soldier wounded in the attack, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, was “fighting for his life.””We still have hope,” Pirro said of Wolfe.”He’s still in critical condition.”Lakanwal, who was also wounded and in custody, was said to have opened fire with a .357 Smith and Wesson revolver.The shooting has brought together three politically explosive issues: Trump’s controversial use of the military on American soil, immigration, and the lingering legacy of the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan — America’s longest war.- ‘Great fear’ -Late Thursday Trump pledged on Truth Social to “permanently pause” migration from “all Third World Countries” and threatened to reverse “millions” of admissions granted under his predecessor Joe Biden, in a new escalation of his anti-immigration stance.When asked which specific nationalities would be affected, the US Department of Homeland Security pointed AFP to a list of 19 countries — including Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran and Myanmar — facing US travel restrictions under an order from Trump in June.Separately, Joseph Edlow, Trump’s director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), said on Thursday he had ordered a “full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”When asked to specify the countries, the USCIS referred AFP to the same list of 19 nations.More than 1.6 million US green card holders, roughly 12 percent of the total permanent resident population, were born in the countries listed, according to the latest immigration data available on the agency’s “Eligible to Naturalize Dashboard” analyzed by AFP.Afghanistan, which has over 116,000 green card holders, is also affected by a total halt of immigration application processing, ordered by the Trump administration after the recent shooting.Afghans across the United States were feeling “great fear” as Trump escalates his anti-immigration rhetoric, said Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, a group that helped resettle Afghans in the country after the military withdrawal.”They’re worried that the president and his team are going to use this deranged man’s actions as a cudgel to kick them out of a place that they’ve spent their entire lives serving,” VanDiver told CNN. “That’s an awful feeling.”CIA director John Ratcliffe said Lakanwal entered the United States as part of a program to evacuate Afghans allied with the agency after the Taliban toppled the American-backed government in 2021.Lakanwal had been living in the western state of Washington with his family and drove across the country to the capital, officials said.The heads of the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security and other senior Trump appointees all insisted that Lakanwal had been granted unvetted access to the US because of what they called lax asylum policies after the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan under former president Biden.However, AfghanEvac said they had undergone “some of the most extensive security vetting” of any migrants. It added that Lakanwal applied for asylum under Biden but received it later, under Trump.

Global stocks mostly rose Friday, extending a positive winning streak based in part on expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again next month.US indices completed a week of gains in a lightly traded half-session following Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday. Stocks rose all four days the market was open.”Stocks have erased November’s losses during today’s shortened trading session, as confidence of a December rate cut coincide with favorable seasonals for markets,” said a note from Interactive Brokers’ Jose Torres that highlighted the possibility of further gains in December.Earlier Friday, European bourses also pushed higher.Without direction overnight from New York, Asian markets moved with little conviction.While investors have been preoccupied at times in November with worry about excessive valuations for artificial intelligence stocks, that sentiment has been countered by growing confidence in further Fed rate cuts.Attention now turns to data releases over the next week or so that could play a role in the bank’s final decision, with private hiring, services activity and personal consumption expenditure — the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation.With the recent government shutdown postponing or cancelling the release of some key data, closely watched non-farm payrolls figures are now due in mid-December, after the Fed’s policy decision.Markets see around an 87-percent chance of a cut next month and three more in 2026.Trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, one of the world’s major operators, was halted by a technical outage first reported at 0240 GMT Friday.”Due to a cooling issue at CyrusOne data centers, our markets are currently halted,” the CME said in a statement.”All CME Group markets are open and trading,” it said in a later statement.Market participants rely heavily on CME platforms to manage risk through futures contracts tied, for example, to stock indices, interest rates and currencies.- Key figures at around 2030 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.6 percent at 47,716.42 (close)New York – S&P 500: UP 0.5 percent at 6,849.09 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.7 percent at 23,365.69 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 9,720.51 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.3 percent at 8,122.71 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.3 percent at 23,836.79 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.2 percent at 50,253.91 (close) Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.3 percent at 25,858.89 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 3,888.60 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1604 from $1.1596 on ThursdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3245 from $1.3240Dollar/yen: DOWN at 156.10 yen from 156.31 yenEuro/pound: UP at 87.60 pence from 87.58 penceBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.2 percent at $63.20 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.2 percent at $58.55 per barrelburs-jmb/des

The annual “Black Friday” kickoff to the US holiday shopping season drew crowds Friday as millions of Americans seized on the time-tested custom at physical stores and through e-commerce.A preliminary retailer assessment of the big shopping day — which falls the day after the Thanksgiving holiday — won’t be available until next week.But images from Boston, Houston and elsewhere showed the event still attracted hordes of bargain hunters, even if it has lost some luster compared with yesteryear.Consumers lured to the Big Apple for Black Friday were met with cool temperatures but a bright sun as stores of varying size and price point pulled out the stops.There were few takers early Friday morning at Target’s big-box store near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, where shoppers seemed to be outnumbered by staff who were rearranging merchandise and affixing signs boasting of 40 percent discounts.Foot traffic was heavier outside Macy’s Manhattan flagship store, where window displays featured scenes from Barbie and Lego in which characters bobbed and weaved.Windows with interactive features drew the most interest, including one that beamed out the viewer’s face in a giant star on Broadway.”We were here because we were in the city already,” said Michelle Stotts-Gillespie, after playing a game-like display on the 34th Street side of the giant department store.More glitzy features awaited customers inside Macy’s, the biggest department store in the country, with merchandise spread over 10 floors.Some moved purposely towards choice brands, while others plunked themselves in the middle of the walkway, comparing prices in the store with those on their smartphones.While Stotts-Gillespie, who lives in Florida, was thrilled by the Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day parade, she wasn’t planning to shop the day after.”In the past, Black Friday used be a big deal but now it’s kind of not because they have all the sales beforehand,” she said.- Worth waiting for -But some shoppers still view Black Friday as “that time to just get it,” Tranay Robinson explained after exiting a shop on 125th Street in Harlem. “Black Friday is a humongous day for me.”An inveterate coupon-clipper, Robinson said the discounts on Black Friday dwarf those throughout the year and are worth waiting for.Not that Robinson’s philosophy always results in brick-and-mortar purchases. Rather, her strategy is to check store prices against online offers before pulling the trigger.The approach for the 2025 holiday season is “fewer gifts but more expensive,” said Robinson, who works two jobs. “We’re doing alright.”A block or so away, Jordan Williams and his family expressed contentment with their take from the morning, which included a pair of Air Jordan sneakers, perfume and items for two young children. Williams expects to spend more this holiday season compared with last year, having relocated from Texas to New York in search of better professional opportunity.”In Texas, it was just so slow,” said Williams, who works as a bartender. “Here it’s work after work after work.”