--:-- Rob Schmitz: Aid groups warn lives will be lost in Gaza as winter settles in and people don't have protection against harsh elements and seasonal illnesses. Too little aid is coming in, and of that aid, a fraction is really distributed.
--:-- I'm Rob Schmitz and this is Up First from NPR News. It's Black Friday. As more people say they're tightening their budgets, this is expected to be a record-breaking holiday shopping season.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: So what's motivating people to spend and who are they actually shopping for? And support for third parties declined in this year's election. I personally did not feel a lot of support from the National Party. I felt like there was a lot of antagonism. What's next for people who want options beyond the two-party system? Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.
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--:-- Rob Schmitz: Israel and Lebanon agreed on a ceasefire this week to pause more than a year of fighting. But in Gaza, Israeli airstrikes continue to pound the territory, where more than 40,000 people have been killed, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry there. And now people in Gaza have this to contend with. Winter has arrived, and most families don't have a home or shelter.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: Joining us to discuss the latest in Gaza is NPR's international correspondent, Aya Batrawi, who's based in Dubai. Hey, Aya.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: Hi, Rob.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: So, Aya, temperatures dropped into the 40s Fahrenheit at night in Gaza this week, and it began to rain. How are people surviving?
--:-- Aya Batrawi: Well, Rob, many people are hardly surviving. And aid groups warn that this winter will claim even more lives from things like malnutrition, hyperthermia, flu, and other less visible consequences of this war.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: Now, NPR's producer Anas Baba met with families in Gaza who are on the very edge of survival. He went to a strip of coastline called Moesi after a night of rain, and he found families covered in seawater. The few things that they owned, some clothes, pots, and pans, were buried in the sand by lashing wind and rain.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: That sounds terrible. I mean what do people have to protect themselves with?
--:-- Aya Batrawi: Well, not very much. I mean families were able to survive the grueling summer in flimsy tents but winter is proving impossible.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: Nidala Abdelkattati's tent was made out of used flower bags and some wooden sticks, and he tried to cover it with extra tarping to prepare for winter, but then this happened. So he tells Anas that his children erupted into screams around 2 in the morning. Waves had crashed into their tent, pulling their blankets and things out to sea.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: And he says his kids were being swallowed by the sea and being pulled by the tide too. And his three-year-old daughter was crying all through the night after he pulled her ashore. And with no idea where they can go next, he says, where are our human rights?
--:-- Aya Batrawi: So, Ehe, why is it that people don't have proper shelter when aid groups have had months to prepare for winter?
--:-- Aya Batrawi: Well, I asked aid workers this question, and here was the answer. Too little aid is coming in, and of that aid... a fraction is really distributed.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: So that's Jan Egeland. He's the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. Now, this is the main group in Gaza in charge of shelters and tents. He was in Gaza this month, and he says that the destruction from airstrikes has left the entire territory in ruins.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: Now, Israel's military says it is facilitating a humanitarian response to prepare for winter in Gaza, that it has allowed tons of aid in. But Egeland says at the rate Israel is allowing in tents and other aid, It will take at least two years to get the supplies in needed just to cover people for this winter.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: And Rob Eglin says of the few hundred tents they have been able to get into Gaza, many are damaged by the time they arrive, or they end up stolen by armed gangs that have sprung up near Gaza's border with Israel.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: And these looters attacked a food aid convoy of around 100 U.N. trucks last week, taking everything.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: This just sounds like a completely dismal situation. What else do you know about the attack on the aid truck that you just mentioned?
--:-- Aya Batrawi: So this was the biggest looting of U.N. aid anywhere in the world. And armed gangs are taking advantage of the chaos right now in Gaza to attack these trucks.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: And what that's done is it's driven up prices at the same time that bakeries are shutting down because they don't have flour. People are selling their clothes, their winter jackets and shoes to buy food.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: And the World Food Program, which runs these bakeries, also had to suspend giving out parcels. And all this is happening while tents, flour and blankets are sitting in warehouses and on trucks just outside Gaza.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: Aya, thank you so much for bringing this to us.
--:-- Aya Batrawi: Thanks, Rob.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: We are officially in the busiest shopping season of the year. It is Black Friday, which can mean joy or chaos for shoppers, and financial pressure and chaos for retailers. What's in store for our budgets and the U.S. economy?
--:-- Rob Schmitz: NPR's Alina Seljuk is here to tell us. Alina, good morning.
--:-- Alina Seljuk: Hello, hello.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: So let's start with the big picture. How are shoppers feeling about the economy and holiday spending this year?
--:-- Alina Seljuk: Well, people are not feeling great about prices, but they are shopping, they are spending. We are likely in for another record holiday shopping season.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: Already so far just this month, online shoppers alone have spent almost 10% more this year compared to last year. That seems like a lot.
--:-- Alina Seljuk: It's a lot. And that's just as of Wednesday, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks online transactions.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: So is that because the prices are higher? So, I mean, we're spending more, but we're buying less?
--:-- Alina Seljuk: I think that's part of it. But there is more to the story. For this Black Friday weekend, retailers are also expecting huge turnout, a record number of people shopping.
--:-- Alina Seljuk: And of those people there a growing group saying they plan to spend more this year than they did last year Which you know how do you get more people shopping when more people say they tightening their budgets
--:-- Alina Seljuk: And the answer is deals When people feel financially squeezed to have several days known for discounts is a big draw
--:-- Rob Schmitz: So deals. Are these deals expected to be really good this year?
--:-- Alina Seljuk: You know, that's the perennial question. And the answer is always, it depends.
--:-- Alina Seljuk: Deals are not good enough for a lot of shoppers I talk to who say prices are too high to begin with and any discount is simply not enough.
--:-- Alina Seljuk: But then you have this weird calendar thing. Thanksgiving this year is quite late in November, so there are actually five fewer shopping days till Christmas, which means less time for retailers to sell you what they want to sell you, which has some experts predicting maybe rolling sales, that stores might drop prices just to clear those shelves.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: So what are people actually buying, Elena? What are the most popular things this year?
--:-- Alina Seljuk: You know, it's a lot of classics this year. Top toys are expected to include Legos, Hot Wheels, Barbies, slime kits for adults, Dyson hair devices, fitness trackers, gaming consoles, and pickleball paddles, which is a new classic.
--:-- Alina Seljuk: And one thing came up in a survey by Circana, it's a market research firm, they found almost two-thirds of shoppers saying that higher costs of food and bills, like insurance especially, it has people changing how they shop.
--:-- Alina Seljuk: People are maybe buying fewer gifts, cheaper gifts, or buying off-brand stuff.
--:-- Alina Seljuk: And there's another curious element. There's one category that shifts depending on economic vibes. Okay, what is that?
--:-- Alina Seljuk: And that is whether or not you are buying presents for yourself. It's like that famous Parks and Rec scene? Three words for you. Treat yourself.
--:-- Alina Seljuk: Clothes. Treat yourself. Fragrances. Treat yourself. Massages. Treat yourself.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: So there's this annual survey done by Deloitte that actually found people plan to buy more gifts for themselves this year compared to last year.
--:-- Alina Seljuk: The sum on average is about $44 more.
--:-- Alina Seljuk: And the reasons could be all kinds. This could be folks who are more well off, so maybe they're not really budgeting.
--:-- Alina Seljuk: Or it could be, you know, that oldest Black Friday trick in the book, which is, I got to get it because it's on sale. Merry Christmas to me.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: Alina, thank you.
--:-- Alina Seljuk: Thank you.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: President-elect Donald Trump has run for president in the past three elections. And in 2024, third-party presidential candidates got fewer votes than at any other point in the Trump era of presidential politics.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: This is despite widespread dissatisfaction with Republican and Democratic nominees for much of the campaign cycle.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: NPR's Stephen Fowler has been covering third parties this year for us, and he reports Donald Trump himself is actually a big reason for that decline.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: Good morning, Stephen.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: Good morning.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: So Trump won the popular vote but did not clear 50 percent. How many votes did third party campaigns earn in this election cycle?
--:-- Stephen Fowler: So not that many, relatively speaking, Rob. out of about 154 million ballots cast, less than 2% went to someone not named Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: Green Party nominee Jill Stein did the best with just about 800,000 votes.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: Then came Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who actually removed his name from most every competitive swing state ballot, literally told people, do not vote for me. But he earned slightly fewer votes than that.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: The Libertarian Party nominee Chase Oliver earned just about 640 votes which is notable considering the Libertarian Party is the third largest political party and usually the most common alternative
--:-- Rob Schmitz: Wow So that a sharp decline since 2016 when the Libertarian Party earned 3 of the vote
--:-- Stephen Fowler: What happened there
--:-- Stephen Fowler: Well none of this is actually surprising when you look under the hood at how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Libertarian Party apparatus both shifted to support Trump and oppose Democrats the closer we got to the election.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: At the Libertarian Party convention this summer, both RFK and Trump spoke. They tried to court the party's endorsement and favor.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: The party instead nominated Chase Oliver, a gay anti-war activist, more on the progressive end of the libertarian spectrum.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: When I talked to Oliver earlier this month, he said Kennedy's decision to leave the race also took a lot of interest in third-party candidates along with him.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: Plus, he had to deal with his own party's politics that took a hard right turn towards Trump.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: I personally did not feel a lot of support from the National Party. I felt like there was a lot of antagonism, particularly because a lot of want to just throw in our votes for Trump because he made a lot of promises to libertarians.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: And one of those promises, Rob, was to put a libertarian in his cabinet.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: I mean, so far, there are no libertarians in Trump's next cabinet, but there is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who's been tapped to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: Is his appointment of victory for voters interested in third-party options moving forward?
--:-- Stephen Fowler: Well, some of the libertarians call it a win, though RFK is not a libertarian. Beyond Kennedy, though, Chase Oliver says Trump's picks show his compatriots have been bamboozled.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: I'm going to say right now, based on his foreign policy picks and cabinet picks so far, not paying out for the libertarians, especially in terms of foreign policy.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: We are an anti-war, anti-interventionist party. The reality is Trump picking RFK Jr. is a mark of loyalty for Kennedy dropping out of the race and endorsing him.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: It's also an acknowledgment of the sizable overlap and the shared ideology between Trump's base and RFK's base around health.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: But in some ways, it does validate the idea that it is possible to exist outside of the two-party system, have your voice be heard, and gain concessions from whoever ultimately ends up being in power.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: Stephen, thank you.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: Thank you.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: And that's Up First for Friday, November 29th. I'm Rob Schmitz. And don't forget, Up First airs on the weekend, too. Ayesha Roscoe and Scott Simon have the news.
--:-- Rob Schmitz: It'll be here in this feed or wherever you get your podcasts.
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