NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-29-2024 4PM EST

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

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Noor Ram, NPR News. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Noor Ram. Three people died today in a crush trying to get bread from the last remaining bakery in central and southern Gaza. All bakeries there shut down for several days this week because they'd run out of flour. The UN and aid agencies say Israel needs to allow much more food, flour and fuel into Gaza. NPR's Aya Petraoui has more.

Aya Petraoui has more. People have nowhere else to turn to for food except for a few hot kitchens run by charities, but that can't feed the two million people that are in southern and central Gaza. So when this bakery opened, there was a crush of thousands of people trying to get a few loaves of the subsidized bread because there's no guarantee that this bakery will open again tomorrow. And what we heard from health officials is that a woman and two teenage girls died in this crush of a crowd trying to get bread. Bread is the lifeline of people in Gaza. It is how they have survived on just one meal a day for more than a year of war.

NPR's Aya Petraoui, the newly installed president of the European Council, the EU institution that defines the bloc's political direction, is stressing the need for dialogue with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. As Alison Roberts reports, Portugal's former prime minister is urging Europeans to listen to what the new president has to say. In an interview with Portugal's Publico newspaper, Antonio Costa argued that security and trade are inseparable in US-Europe ties. While not saying whether he expects Trump to impose tariffs on Europe, he warned that at a time of actual war, opening a trade war would pour fuel on the fire. It is in the US's interests not to weaken Europe's economy, he argued, saying trade talks with the US will be tough

but must succeed. Costa was tapped to replace Belgium's Charles Michel as council president. He's known as a bridge builder who has had productive relationships with European leaders on the left and the right. For NPR News, I'm Alison Roberts in Lisbon. It's election day in Ireland and polls suggest it's a tight contest. Voters are electing a new parliament and government. It's election day in Ireland and polls suggest it's a tight contest. Voters are electing a new parliament and government.

NPR's Fatemeh El-Kassab reports. Voters say housing and the high cost of living are the main issues in this election. Ireland is one of the richest countries in Europe, but it also has one of the worst housing crises. The party that has made fixing the housing problem its key promise is Shin Fain, a left-wing party that used to be the political wing of the Irish Republican Army. The IRA militant group fought for Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, to join the Irish Republic. But with a new leader, the party has had a makeover, and it's now neck and neck in the polls

with the two parties that have governed Ireland for more than a century. Thina Gale and Fina Fall. Fatima Al-Khassab, NPR News, Dublin. On Wall Street, all the major indexes closed higher today. The Dow gained 188 points. This is NPR News. In Paris, Notre Dame Cathedral reopens to the public next month, five and a half years after a devastating fire.

French President Emmanuel Macron toured it today. A reopening ceremony will be held December 7th with heads of state and celebrities in attendance. The cathedral is expected to attract some 15 million visitors every year. Shoppers at independent bookstores are big fans of Kristin Hannah's book, The Women, the novel published in February but is still currently at the top of the indie bestsellers list for 2024. NPR's Andrew Limbong has more. Kristin Hannah's The Women follows Frankie McGrath, a young and sheltered nurse who enlists

as an army nurse during the Vietnam War. When the book came out, critics praised Hannah's visceral writing about war and combat medicine. Coming in second so far is James, the novel by Percival Everett retelling the Huck Finn story through the eyes of Jim, Huck's friend escaping slavery. That novel just won the National Book Award for fiction, which could give it a bump on this list by the end of the year. Over in the nonfiction side, Eric Larson is so far the top seller this year with his book The Demon of Unrest about the months between President Lincoln's election and the beginning of the Civil War.

Andrew Limbong and Pure News. Today is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season. The shopping season is shorter this year with five fewer days between Thanksgiving and the unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season. The shopping season is shorter this year, with five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The National Retail Federation expects spending will increase up to 3.5 percent over the same period last year. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News in Washington.