NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-21-2024 3PM EST

Episode Date: November 21, 2024

NPR News: 11-21-2024 3PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This is Ira Glass with This American Life, each week on our show. We choose a theme, tell different stories on that theme. All right, I'm just going to stop right there. You're listening to an NPR podcast, chances are you know our show. So instead, I'm going to tell you, we've just been on a run of really good shows lately. Some big epic emotional stories, some weird funny stuff too. Download us, this American Life. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President-elect Trump's nominee for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, is out of the running. Today, the former congressman withdrew his name

for consideration as pressure mounted for the House to release an ethics report investigation into his conduct. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the lawmakers tasked with holding confirmation hearings for Trump's nominees, reacted to Gates's decision today. I got the sense that the process was going to be challenging and he made the decision, you need to ask him. So here's what I would say, the president nominated

somebody, they chose to not go forward, now he'll nominate somebody else. Other nominees facing especially heavy scrutiny in the Senate include Pete Hexeth for Defense Secretary, Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services. As the nation heads into the traditionally busy holiday shopping season, major retailers are facing the possibility of financial hits when Trump takes office. He's talked about sweeping tariffs as NPR's Windsor Johnson reports consumers could bear the brunt. As companies prepare for an increase in the cost of importing goods shoppers could end up paying more at their favorite stores including the nation's largest retailer Walmart. Kent Smetters is a professor of economics at

the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. A lot of companies are stockpiling right now, anticipating something like this could go through. So there might be some delay, but I wouldn't be surprised come next summer, you will get some of the effect starting to show up. Trump has proposed tariffs of between 60 and 100 percent on Chinese goods and up to 20 percent on every product imported from all US trading partners. Windsor-Johnston, NPR News, Washington. Negotiators at the UN

climate conference in Azerbaijan released a draft agreement for how wealthy countries will pay developing nations to help with the effects of climate change. NPR's Jeff Brady reports many disagreements remain. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the draft largely contains countries starting points for negotiations. So now it's the moment to move from the initial positions and to find the areas of possible compromise. Developing countries which did little to emit the pollution from the fossil fuels changing the climate, want wealthier nations to detail how they will pay more than a trillion dollars

by 2035. Here's Juan Carlos Monterey Gomez from Panama. The current tax does not move us forward on ambition. It moves us forward towards extinction. Many expect the conference to last beyond its scheduled end and into the weekend. Jeff Brady, NPR News. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 545 points, or 1.2 percent, at 43,954. You're listening to NPR News.

Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro is being indicted on charges he illegally sought to stay in power after his 2022 election loss by attempting a coup. Local authorities say they're also charging three dozen additional people, including a former defense minister, with conspiring to help Bolsonaro. The embattled politician denies the charges. In the U.S., home sales ticked up last month according to the latest figures from the National Association of Realtors. But as NPR's Laura Wamsley tells us, the market remains quite slow.

Laura Wamsley, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, NPR News, were nearly 3% higher compared to a year ago, marking the first year-over-year increase in more than three years. That likely has to do with the dip in mortgage rates

in September, when rates dropped to almost 6%. They've since gone back up. More homes have been coming onto the market, which is helping to boost sales. But some types of homes are selling better than others. Sales of single-family homes are up, while condominium sales saw a decline. 2024 could end up being the slowest year for home sales in nearly 30 years.

Despite the slow market, the median sales price has continued to rise, up 4% over a year ago, to a little more than $407,000. Laurel Wamsley, NPR News. A look at weekly unemployment claims. They're down again. The Labor Department's latest look at weekly jobs numbers show the number of people to put in for assistance fell by 6,000 last week to 213,000, fewer than what was widely expected. However, the number of people who have continued to collect jobless insurance was close to 2 million for the week of November

9th. That's the highest level in three years. This is NPR News.