NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-29-2024 9PM EST

Episode Date: November 30, 2024

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This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University performs breakthrough research every year, making discoveries that improve human health, combat climate change, and move society forward. More at iu.edu slash forward. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. Millions of people are packing shopping malls and stores across the nation today to take advantage of sales on this Black Friday. Online shoppers are setting records this year, spending almost 9 percent more this Thanksgiving compared to last year. NPR's Alina Seljuk reports more shoppers are also expected to hit the stores.

It's a chilly day in suburban Maryland, but this outdoor outlet mall is teeming with cars and pedestrians. In surveys this year, more shoppers said they plan to go to physical stores than they had in recent years. In fact, generally, more people are expected to shop, whether in person or online, during this year's long weekend from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. Top items are expected to be classics. Electronics, clothes, Adobe Analytics, which tracks online purchases, predicts that top

toys will include Legos, Hot Wheels, Barbies and slime kits for adults, Dice and Hair devices, fitness trackers, gaming consoles and pickleball paddles. Alina Seluch and Pierre News, Clarksburg, Maryland. Polls have closed in Ireland's parliamentary election. NPR's Fatima Al-Khassab reports one exit poll suggests a narrow lead for Sinn Fein, a party with links to IRA militants. The exit poll in Ireland puts Sinn Fein, a left-wing party which used to be the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, slightly ahead of the two traditional parties, Finnegail and Fianna Fáil. The exit poll was the first real indication of how Irish citizens voted.

Sinn Fein hailed the results of the poll, which, if correct, put it ahead of the two parties that have governed Ireland, alone or in coalitions for over a century. The exit poll reflects first preference votes only and comes with a margin of error. It can take up to several days for final results. Fatima Al-Khassab, NPR News, Dublin. Lawmakers in the United Kingdom have voted in favor of proposals that would make assisted deaths legal in parts of Britain. Villamarks reports the historic vote opens a route for new legislation to address this

highly contentious issue. The planned legislation would give terminally ill adults in England and Wales with just six months left to live the right to request medical help to accelerate their deaths. The government, the Prime Minister Keir Starmer, has not publicly supported this legislation which was introduced by an ordinary lawmaker and so faced far less pre-parliamentary scrutiny than many critics have said was necessary for such a seismic shift in society. The legislation could now face several more months of debate in both Houses of

Parliament before it can take effect. That's Phyllis Marks reporting from London. Stocks on Wall Street traded higher today. The Dow was up 188 points. The Nasdaq rose 157. This is NPR News. Shoppers at independent bookstores are big fans of Kristin Hannah's book The Women. NPR's Andrew Limbong reports the novel published in February,

but is still currently at the top of the indie bestsellers list for 2024. 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 non-fiction 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 Limbaugh and Pure News. Police are trying to figure out how a woman managed to get past security at JFK Airport

and catch a flight to Paris without a ticket. The woman was also able to board a Delta Airlines plane without a seat assignment and managed not to get noticed until the flight was in mid-air. Passenger Rob Jackson says she was noticed by others on the flight. She must have been hiding in one of the lavatories when we departed from JFK. And then during the flight, she was seen moving from one lavatory to another, never actually going to a passenger seat. The woman was taken into police custody when the plane landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. This is NPR.

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