NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-27-2024 2PM EDT

Episode Date: October 27, 2024

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Noor-Rahm 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. Noor-Rahm Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Noor Rahm. In the final nine days of the campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President

Donald Trump are making their closing arguments. NPR's Maura Liason reports they're honing their messages aimed at a small yet critical group of voters. Polls show many people simply don't believe Trump when he says he wants to terminate the Constitution or use the military against his opponents. So Harris has been calling more attention to Trump's words. She plays clips of his speeches at her rallies and warns about the danger she says the country faces if he is back in power. Meanwhile, Trump is also relying on a negative closing message. He says Harris is stupid and

lazy and will allow the country to be invaded by hordes of criminal illegal aliens. Polls show the race is still a dead heat and the candidates are competing for a tiny slice of undecided voters in just seven states. Mara Liason, NPR News. Native American voters in 2020 were key in helping Democrats win Arizona for the first time in two decades. Now the Harris-Walls campaign appears to be making the same play. Adrienne Scavalland of Member Station KNAU reports. Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz spoke below the sandstone cliffs of

Windorock, capital of the Navajo Nation, to a crowd of several hundred tribal members Saturday, arguing a President Kamala Harris will be good for Indian country. The highest law is to honor tribal sovereignty, promote tribal consultation, and ensure tribal self-determination across this country. Navajo officials say it's the first time a member of the presidential ticket has campaigned on the nation. In 1992, Hillary Clinton campaigned in the Navajo Capitol on behalf of her husband and first lady Jill Biden has made numerous visits.

With Native Americans making up 6% of the state's population, it could be the difference Democrats need to win the state. For NPR News, I'm Adrian Scabland in Window Rock. Iran's supreme leader has responded to Israel's weekend attack on key military targets. NPR's Arzut Rezvani reports. While meeting with the families of four Iranian soldiers killed in Israel's attack, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Israel exaggerated its destruction of Iran's defense system infrastructure. He refrained from calling for retaliatory strikes. Instead, he said the attack should

be neither downplayed nor magnified. It was a tempered response from the supreme leader, who now faces a choice, to hit back and risk escalation or to stand down and risk looking weak. In a letter to the United Nations Secretary General, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Arachi said Iran reserves the right to respond to Israel's quote, criminal aggression. But it is Iran's supreme leader who has the ultimate authority to order strikes. R. R. S. Vani, NPR News, Beirut. The UN Security Council may meet tomorrow to discuss the attacks at Iran's request. Iran claims they were a violation of international law.

This is NPR News in Washington. Bulgaria is holding a general election today for the seventh time in four years. The last time was in June when there was no clear winner and the seven groups elected to the legislature were unable to put together a viable coalition to form a government. Polls suggest this election may not produce a different result. Electoral officials in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia saying the ruling Georgian Dream Party won a majority in yesterday's elections.

The opposition is crying foul. NPR's Charles Maines reports from Moscow. Georgia's Central Election Commission reports the ruling party received a majority, some 54 percent of all votes, with four opposition groups garnering just 37 percent support from the electorate. The result allows its founder, the oligarch, Bidzin Ivanishvili, to maintain their hold on power. The opposition parties and democratic watchdog groups refuse to recognize the legitimacy

of the results, alleging vote tampering. They're now calling for sustained mass protests. The vote had been seen as a referendum on Georgia's European future, after the government openly embraced pro-Russian policies and anti-democratic rhetoric that put Georgia's European Union candidacy on hold. Charles Maines, MPR News, Moscow. The Marine Corps Marathon is underway. Tens of thousands of runners start in Virginia near Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon,

then cross the Potomac River into Washington, D.C., and run by the National Mall. There's no prize money. The event is organized by active-duty Marines, but it's open to everyone. It attracts runners from all 50 states and 50 countries. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News in Washington.