NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-13-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

NPR News: 11-13-2025 12PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. With the federal government shutdown over, full SNAP food benefits are being restored. But NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports anxiety over the funding pause are expected to linger. Jacqueline Giomona and her two kids rely on SNAP for nearly all their groceries and the past two weeks without it were tough. She says depriving low-income people of a necessity like food was an abuse of power. People are going to distrust the government, and I think people are going to be really angry about it for a long time. Advocate Crystal Fitzsimons with the Food Research and Action Center would like Congress to prevent a repeat. It does make me nervous that this could be used as a negotiating tactic again.

She and others do see one positive. They say all the attention has shown just how vital snap is for so many people. Jennifer Lutton and Pierre News, Washington. The Eiffel Tower is lit in France's colors. blue, white, and red, as the country observes the 10th anniversary of terrorist attacks in Paris. Commemorations are being held at the sites where a group of ISIS gunmen and suicide bombers targeted crowds at the Bataklan Concert Hall, the stadium, and nearby cafes. 132 people died, hundreds were injured.

Tributes include a new memorial garden across City Hall. On Wednesday night, a day after Iraqis voted in parliamentary elections, initial results are in. The coalition led by the country's current prime minister has won the most seats. Here's Jane Arraf with more. Iraq's Election Commission announced that a political bloc led by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Sudani won the most seats. But in the Iraqi system, whoever can form the biggest coalition after voting chooses the prime minister. So Sudani will have to persuade other parties to join him to be able to keep the job. Sudani thank the Iraqi people.

for his election win. And he called on political parties to put the country's interests before their own. Influential Shia leader, Mukta Sutter, whose movement gained the biggest number of seats in the last parliament, boycotted this election.

For NPR News, I'm Jane Araf and Amman. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt has taken the rare step of commuting the sentence of a death row inmate shortly before he was to be executed by lethal injection this morning. A state parole board had recommended the Republican governor spare Tremaine Wood's life.

Wood was convicted for his role in the 2002 death of a 19-year-old man during a botched robbery. He maintains his brother, who died serving a life sentence in prison, killed Ronnie Wood, a migrant farm worker from Montana. At last check on Wall Street, the Dow is down 433 points or nearly 1% at 47,819. This is NPR News. The Reverend Jesse Jackson has been hospitalized in his statement the Rainbow Push Coalition founded by the 84-year-old civil rights leader says he's under observation for a neurodegenerative condition

he's been managing for more than 10 years. People in the U.S. are rapidly becoming less religious, according to a new poll from Gallup. Here's NPR's Jason DeRose. Over the last decade, Gallup has found a 17-point drop in the percentage of U.S. adults who say religion is an important. part of their daily lives. Now, just 49% say it's key. Gallup says that decline is among the largest it's recorded in any country over a 10-year period, and that such a large drop is rare

among the 160-plus countries it studies. Chile, Turkey, and Portugal have seen similar declines. Gallup's analysis finds that only a few countries have experienced larger losses in religiosity, among them Greece, Italy, and Poland. Jason DeRose, NPR News. Buristas are calling out Starbucks management instead of customers' names in dozens of U.S. cities today. The Associated Press capturing protests this morning in Philadelphia. More than a thousand unionized workers demanding stronger labor protections were expected to take part in the strike during Starbucks' Red Cup Day, one of the coffee chains busy as sales promotions of the year. Starbucks suggests most stores will not be affected.

than 4% of its sites are actually unionized. The Dow is down 436 points, nearly 1%. I'm Lakshmi-Sang, NPR News.