This line in ~/.newsboat/config will allow for hitting “,d” to download the current link with dl.sh which wraps yt-dlp.

macro d set browser "~/bin/dl.sh %u 2>&1 >/dev/null &" ; open-in-browser ; set browser "xdg-open %u"

Here’s an example dl.sh file that uses notify-send so you know something is going to happen in the background and as a chance to cancel the operation. It downloads videos to ~/Videos/Downloads. Modify to taste!

#!/bin/bash
if [[ "no" != $(notify-send --app-name="yt-dlp" \
                            --urgency=low \
                            --transient "Starting download for $1" \
                            --action=no="Nevermind!") ]]; then
  yt-dlp --sponsorblock-remove all \
         --live-from-start \
         --output "~/Videos/Downloads/%(title)s - %(channel)s (%(id)s).%(ext)s" "$1"
  else
    printf "Aborted.\n"
    exit 1
fi

NOTE: if you close newsboat it will also stop the yt-dlp process.