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Eight More Arrests In Hong Kong Fire As Death Toll Reaches 128; Hong Kong Investigators Look For Cause Of Deadly Inferno; Suspect Facing Murder Charge After Guard Member Dies; Trump Ramps Up Immigration Crackdown After D.C. Shooting; Trump Says U.S. Land Action In Venezuela Will Start Very Soon; Huge Blaze Engulfs St. Louis Warehouses; Louvre To Hike Ticket Fees By 45 Percent For Non-European Visitors. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired November 28, 2025 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:30:30]
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Police in Hong Kong have arrested eight more people in the horrific high-rise apartment fire that has now killed at least 128 people, and officials expect that death toll to rise in the coming days as first responders search for hundreds of people still missing. Now, investigators are still working to figure out what sparked the fire as grieving families try to make sense of what happened. CNN International Correspondent Hanako Montgomery has more.
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HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hong Kong's worst fire disaster in decades left seven high-rise residential towers standing only as burnt out shells. Well over a hundred people are dead.
MONTGOMERY: The Hong Kong authorities said that by Friday morning local time, the fire was completely extinguished at the housing complex behind me. But they say that around 200 people still remain missing, and they fear the death toll could go up in the coming hours, if not days.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Over 48 hours after the disaster, some new detail as to how the fire at the Wang Fuk Court complex spread so quickly and so severely. With an investigation set to take up to a month, early questions have focused on construction cladding that had covered the buildings for up to a year.
CHRIS TANG, HONG KONG SECURITY CHIEF (through translator): It ignited the mesh nets and quickly spread to the polystyrene boards around the windows, resulting in the fire in other floors and buildings.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Authorities have also said they're investigating whether the fire alarms were functioning properly on the day of the blaze. Several residents who spoke to CNN said that the alarms in their buildings never rang and some only discovered there was a fire when they looked outside. Authorities believe the blaze began close to ground level on building six around 2:30 on Wednesday afternoon. Images have surfaced on social media of the early embers of what would become of raging inferno, creeping up the cladding and spreading to the other buildings.
MONTGOMERY: Have you seen a disaster like this in your careers?
WALLACE, AUXILIARY MEDICAL SERVICE VOLUNTEER (through translator): I have served in the auxiliary medical service for about 10 years. I joined a team at 16 and now I'm 26. I have never seen such a shocking scene appear in front of me.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Survivors have described their panic, many unsure of how to escape the burning buildings.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my home. Look over there, the 10th floor, that's where my home was. By the hills, that's where it used to be. I really want to go back, but my home is probably gone now. They won't let us go back. So when I look in that direction, my heart feels so heavy.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): This domestic worker watched from her employer's high-rise apartment as the fire took hold.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At first, so panic. I was so scary because the fire burn so big. At first, yeah, so scared and panic.
MONTGOMERY: And now, how are you feeling?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, when I think about it, I'm grateful because I'm still alive.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Hong Kongers will band together to help the victims of a disaster, which is not yet over.
Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Hong Kong.
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JIMENEZ: That's an awful story we're continuing to follow. Hanako Montgomery, thank you for that report. Coming up, we've got more news we're following, including after the deadly attack on National Guard members in D.C., are more troop deployments the answer? We'll discuss, right after this.
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[13:38:22]
JIMENEZ: The DOJ says the man accused of shooting two National Guard members will face first degree murder and possibly other charges. U.S. Army Specialist, Sarah Beckstrom died from her injuries yesterday. The 20-year-old joined the Guard in 2023. The other victim, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe remains in critical condition. Now, Wednesday's attack was just blocks from the White House and its fueling plans to ramp up the administration's immigration crackdown, as the President is now vowing to permanently pause migration from what he calls all third world countries, though he wouldn't elaborate what those countries were. He also wants to send an additional 500 Guard troops to D.C. in response to the shooting.
I'm going to bring in Major General William Enyart. He is a retired U.S. Army veteran and a former Adjutant General of Illinois, which is the highest ranking military official in the State's National Guard. Thank you for being here. I really appreciate you taking the time. I just want to start by getting your reaction to the news that we unfortunately learned yesterday that Sara Beckstrom had died.
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM ENYART, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, thank you for having me today, Omar. It was very difficult to hear. During my command of the Illinois National Guard, we had soldiers in combat 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for the entire duration of my time. In fact, we had soldiers in combat for 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that's 365 days a year. So while the guard is a part-time military force, it has really done way above and beyond the part-time duties. And to hear this tragic shooting really impacted me as it impacted our entire National Guard family and indeed our entire military family because when you lose a soldier, it's losing part of your family.
[13:40:00]
JIMENEZ: Yeah. And the way -- after this happened, so many different folks have put forward ideas on what they believe the response should be. The president wants to deploy 500 more Guard members to Washington, D.C. I mean, just for you, as someone again who has led the National Guard for Illinois, what was your reaction to hearing that from the president and I'm sure you assume that if someone is asked that they will send their Guard members, but I just wonder what your reaction is to that suggestion at this point.
ENYART: Well, I think unfortunately, it's more performative than it is a real answer to the problems. The National Guard is a trained, ready combat military force. We are not a trained civilian law enforcement reserve. What we do is fight our nation's battles when we're deployed overseas. And then the other mission that we have is to act as a trained ready force for the governor's use in the event of a natural disaster -- hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, blizzards, all of the forest fires, all of the terrible things that can happen. We're there to help assist, to recover, to rescue, and those are our two missions.
But what you didn't hear listed in those missions is being a law enforcement agency, which is not what we do. And so, this is at best a Band-Aid that's -- a very expensive Band-Aid, by the way. The numbers, the total so far for Portland, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. are about $0.5 billion. Now, think what $0.5 billion would do if it were applied to training law enforcement officers or intelligence analysts who could help detect these kind of lone-wolf operators.
JIMENEZ: And to that end, we're still waiting for a specific motive in this particular attack. But at the very least, investigators have said this was a targeted attack. And I don't know if you've been to D.C. lately, but the Guard members are pretty visible in various locations across the city. Do you worry about the safety of Guard members currently that are out there now? And is there anything that can be done to protect them to a higher degree if it does turn out to be the fact that this person was targeting National Guard members specifically?
ENYART: Well, that's a real multi-pronged question. I have in fact been to D.C. lately, and you do see Guardsmen out on the streets. Although interestingly enough, I didn't see many and they were kind of casually sauntering along the sidewalk in public places. In order to protect the National Guard, a lone-wolf attack like this is the nightmare of every security professional, whether you're in law enforcement or in military, or in intelligence forces. It's very difficult to detect. It's unlike a conspiracy where it's relatively easy to pick up the chatter on the internet ahead of time.
So, to protect these guardsmen, it's like protecting police officers when they're engaging in similar activities, it's a difficult thing to do.
JIMENEZ: Yeah. Well, Maj. Gen. William Enyart, I appreciate your time. Thank you for being here.
ENYART: Good to be with you, Omar.
JIMENEZ: All right. Coming up next, disturbing new details emerging about the ongoing U.S. military strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. We'll bring you those details, coming up.
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[13:48:30]
JIMENEZ: We're learning new details about one of those deadly U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. Sources tell CNN, the U.S. military carried out a follow-up strike on September 2nd after becoming aware of survivors in the water. The sources tell us that prior to the strike, Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth had ordered the military to ensure everyone on board was killed. People briefed on the "double-tap strike" say they're concerned that it could violate the law of armed conflict, which prohibits the execution of an enemy combatant who is taken out of the fight due to injury or surrender.
Now, since September, as you're seeing on your screen here, the U.S. military has carried out at least 21 known strikes on suspected drug trafficking boats, killing at least 83 people. Officials have also acknowledged though not knowing the identities of everyone on board before they are struck. And this development comes as President Trump says, the U.S. military will soon begin land strikes on alleged drug trafficking networks in Venezuela.
I want to bring in Beth Sanner, a CNN National Security Analyst and former Deputy Director of National Intelligence. Thank you for taking the time. I just want to start with getting your reaction to the reporting we have here that double-tap strikes were ordered to make sure everybody on board was killed.
BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST AND FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Right. If this is true --
JIMENEZ: Yeah.
SANNER: -- it's really shocking.
JIMENEZ: Yeah.
SANNER: You know, I was thinking about this in the context of Ukraine and right now, Russian soldiers are being accused of war crimes and their case is in the International Court of Justice because they're killing prisoners, Ukrainian armed combatants who are prisoners, and they're killing them instead of keeping them as prisoners.
[13:50:16]
So, I mean, here we have an example of an actual war and war crimes accusations. So here, what does this do in terms of U.S. moral authority? There's reporting this week of Israel, of IDF soldiers killing Palestinian prisoners, Hamas prisoners. How can we go to Israel and say, like, you shouldn't have done that, or Russia?
JIMENEZ: Yeah.
SANNER: You know?
JIMENEZ: You know, this arena has -- I mean, we've been talking a lot about Venezuela on a number of fronts. Obviously, there are these efforts that the administration says they're going after drug trafficking boats. There is the not-so-subtle pushes against Nicolas Maduro that President Trump has been leading. But the president also says that land action would now be part of the administration's effort to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers. I just wonder what you think about that threshold being crossed here.
SANNER: It's a big threshold.
JIMENEZ: Yeah.
SANNER: Right? I mean, right now, we're in international waters, but when you're talking about strikes in a sovereign country against -- I mean, these are drug traffickers, bad people, but it is still in another country. And so, there usually has to be a justification and there is a process for that. You can get authorization for use of military of force from Congress, that helps on that. But there's an entire legal international legal system too. And that's what people are worried about, kind of in this context of the video that the Democratic Senators put out recently about defying illegal orders and the question about whether people who are conducting them could be subject to being prosecuted.
JIMENEZ: Yeah.
SANNER: So I think that there's a lot involved here. I do wonder though whether President Trump actually will do it or whether we're just kind of in this game of chicken. I was thinking about this because he has this quote that he said in another context about waiting until the very last minute to make a decision about conducting such an activity because in war, things change. That's the quote. And so, sometimes we don't really know where we're up to that line --
JIMENEZ: Yeah.
SANNER: -- of the last minute, or whether we're still in this kind of pressure campaign, trying to see if something will happen inside Venezuela, whether this kind of pressure will generate activity to oust Maduro.
JIMENEZ: Well, I was going to say, a lot of people are looking at -- OK, is this all part of an encroachment effort to oust Nicolas Maduro, who President Trump has said his days are numbered. Earlier this week, the president designated Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro and his government allies as members of a foreign terrorist organization. I just wonder, we've got these individual sort of storylines popping up. What do you see as the bigger picture here? Is the bigger picture to try and get Maduro out of office?
SANNER: I mean, I think sure. I think, Lindsey Graham has said as much, very close to the president. I think that that's where we are. But I don't think that necessarily means that he's willing to use military force directly in terms of trying to do that, whether to snatch him or to kill him. So again, I think we're going to be in this ratcheting up and maybe it will entail strikes inside of Venezuela against drug facilities, but that'll be part of a process, again, to see if something will move internally. I think that's the goal.
JIMENEZ: Yeah. Beth Sanner, always appreciate your insight, especially on a story like this. Thanks for being here.
SANNER: Thanks, Omar.
JIMENEZ: Of course. All right. Coming up, we're following numerous stories. We've been following this for quite some time. Or excuse me, this one, a new fire, a massive fire engulfs multiple warehouses in St. Louis. We'll tell you why officials say it could burn for at least a day or two, right after this.
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[13:58:54]
JIMENEZ: Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. More than 200 firefighters are responding to a fire at a vacant warehouse complex in St. Louis this morning. Look at these images. According to CNN affiliate, KMOV, at least four buildings caught fire overnight, along with nearby electric lines and train tracks. One of the buildings has collapsed. Now, thankfully, no injuries have been reported, but the fire chief says the fire may not be out until Sunday because of all the combustible materials that were inside that complex.
Also, the Louvre Museum raising ticket prices for many tourists by, wait for it, 45 percent. The price hike starts in January and applies to travelers from outside of Europe. And the museum says the higher fees are expected to bring in up to $23 million, which will be used to modernize and upgrade the Louvre. Important, why? Because it's apparently, while it's been in the works for a while, it comes after investigators said inadequate security contributed to last month's heist.
And speaking of heists, a real-life Grinch caught on camera in brought daylight stealing Christmas decorations from a yard in North Miami Beach, Florida.
