NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-26-2024 8PM EST

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

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This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges, nine campuses, one purpose, creating tomorrow today. More at iu.edu. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Israel's cabinet is adopting a U.S. brokered ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Word of the agreement came in that Israeli warplanes were continuing to strike targets

in Lebanon, killing at least 42 people there. President Joe Biden, speaking from the White House, Rose Garden outlined terms of the agreement between the two sides. Over the next 60 days, the Lebanese army and state security forces will deploy and take control of their own territory once again. Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon will not be allowed to be rebuilt. And over the next 60 days, Israel will gradually withdraw its remaining forces. The Israeli military today issued evacuation warnings as it continued to go after the Iranian back-militant group until the final moments of the ceasefire deal.

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu presented the proposal to cabinet ministers earlier today. After a significant delay, the Trump transition team has signed a key agreement with the Biden White House to ease the transfer of power. Here's NPR's Tamara Keith. The Trump transition signed a memorandum of understanding with the White House. In a statement, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles says this marks the start of the next phase of the transition

and will allow intended cabinet nominees to begin critical preparations needed to complete an orderly transition of power. But for now, at least, the Trump transition hasn't signed an agreement with the Department of Justice, needed to perform background checks and process security clearances. And the transition is not planning to sign a third agreement that would have given it access to public funds, office space and government email accounts. Tamara Keith, NPR News. Drugs like Ozempic and Wagovi have become

widely popular as a way to lose weight. Now the Biden administration is proposing a new rule that would possibly allow the cost of the drugs to be covered by Medicare or Medicaid, a proposal which has yet to be finalized, could cost taxpayers as much as $35 billion, would give millions access to the drug, which has been shown to reduce weight by as much as 20 percent, and help prevent type 2 diabetes. Sales of new homes fell sharply last month as NPR's Laura Wamsley reports both hurricanes and mortgage rates likely drove the slump. Sales of new single-family homes were more than 9% lower than they were a year ago, according

to October data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Sales dropped more than 17% from a month earlier. Analysts said sales figures were much lower than expected and showed hurricanes Helene and Milton taking a large toll in the south. High mortgage rates have hurt affordability, though many large home builders offer buyer incentives to bring down the cost. The median sales price of new houses sold last month was about $437,000. Economists are predicting a small decline in mortgage rates over the next year.

Laurel Wamsley, NPR News. Stocks continue their record run up on Wall Street today. The Dow was up 123 points. The Nasdaq rose 119 points. This is NPR. Demure is dictionary.com's word of the year. NPR's Elizabeth Blair says it all started with a TikTokker's lifestyle and beauty tips. Demure means reserved, quiet, or modest. But the reaction to influencer Jules LeBron's use of it was anything but. LeBron is a Chicago grocery store clerk turned influencer who shares fashion and makeup

advice on TikTok. You see how I do my makeup for work? Very demure, very mindful. Dictionary.com's lexicographers study data, including headlines, social media trends, and search engine results. According to the site, Demure had a nearly 1200% increase in usage on digital media, with the biggest surge coming in August after LeBron started using it in her catchphrase, very demure, very mindful. Dictionary.com calls its word of the year a linguistic time capsule.

Elizabeth Blair, NPR News. At their meeting earlier this month, minutes show some division among Federal Reserve Board members over how much further to go in terms of cutting interest rates, where as a group they agreed to not go too far in terms of providing guidance on how U.S. monetary policy might proceed. Minutes from the November 6-7 meeting show some uncertainty on how much the current level of rates are doing to keep the economy from overheating. It's expected the Fed could cut rates one more time before the end of the year after

two previous rate cuts. Crude oil futures prices moved lower extending yesterday's losses amid uncertainty as to whether a mid-East ceasefire will lessen risk and lead to falling prices, or it was down 17 cents a barrel to $68.77 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels, with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else.

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