NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-30-2024 7AM EST

Episode Date: November 30, 2024

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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. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at autographcollection.com. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. Attacks on two hospitals in northern Gaza have forced patients to be moved from their rooms and killed an ICU director at one of them. NPR's Scott Newman has more in this report that includes the sound of gunfire. In a video by the Indonesian

hospital near Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, gunfire can be heard outside amid shouts from staff trying to move patients to safety. Israel's military did not immediately respond to a request for information on the attack. Meanwhile, at Kamal Adwin Hospital, the Gaza Health Ministry says the director of the intensive care unit was killed at the front gate on his way into work. The ministry describes the attack as an Israeli assassination. Israel's military said it was unaware of a strike at the hospital. The two hospitals, some of the few still functioning in the area, are barely a mile apart and have

been frequent targets of Israeli strikes in the past. Gaza's civil defense says 75 people were killed in northern Gaza on Friday. Scott Newman, NPR News, Tel Aviv. The civil war in Syria heated back up this week with rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad making their most significant advance in years. They've reached Aleppo, Syria's second largest city. It's the first opposition attack there since 2016 when the rebels were forced out by the Syrian military with help from Russian warplanes. The holiday shopping season

underway, shopper Farron Kennedy turned up at the Lakeside Mall in suburban New Orleans a day after Thanksgiving saying Black Friday shopping is a family tradition. Me, my mom, my godmother, we always come to the sales after Thanksgiving. We used to just, they used to just do toy stores, but as we grow older, we've just talked about it, now we're like in the mall, like everyone wants to shop, look good, so we've moved past the toys. The National Retail Federation expects some 184 million Americans will likely do some shopping between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. Short week on Wall Street, but for investors it was a good one. NPR's Scott Horsley reports that both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500

end of the week in record territory. All the major stock indexes gained ground during the week. The S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq each rose about 1.1 percent, while the Dow jumped nearly 1.4 percent. Investors were cheered by President-elect Donald Trump's pick of billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Besson to serve as Treasury Secretary. Besson is considered an experienced money manager who might serve as a stabilizing force in the new administration.

Markets largely shrugged off Trump's own threat to impose new tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada and China. A report from the Commerce Department Wednesday showed inflation is still somewhat sticky. Nevertheless, markets expect the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates at PolicyMakers December meeting. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. And you're listening to NPR News. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined President-Elect Donald Trump for dinner at Mar-a-Lago last night. There's no official word on what was discussed.

But Trudeau flew to Florida after Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Canadian products. The two spoke by phone earlier in the week. The Great Lakes region is getting hit by lake effect snow this weekend. Forecasters say the storm has the potential to bury towns in New York along Lakes Erie and Ontario. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has declared a disaster emergency in the region. Forecasters say up to six feet of snow could fall in Watertown and other areas east of Lake Ontario through Monday, up to three feet possible south of Buffalo. A new genetic analysis shows that beaked hazelnuts have been cultivated for thousands of years

by the indigenous people of British Columbia. NPR's Emily Kwong reports on how this could make a difference to their land back movement. Beaked hazelnuts are sweeter, more buttery than commercial hazelnuts, and this wild food is found all over British Columbia. Their existence is not an accident. A team led by Chelsea Gralda Armstrong sampled 200 hazelnuts and traced their genetic lineage across the region, some 500 miles away, meaning First Nations tribes have actively transported

and cultivated beaked hazelnuts for generations. Attorney Jack Woodward says this new finding is important. It's very exciting evidence that it wasn't wilderness at all. It was actually a place that was quite intensively used by the indigenous people. This cultivation could be key to helping some First Nations people gain title to certain lands. For NPR News, I'm Emily Kwong.

And I'm Giles Snyder. This is NPR News.