NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-28-2024 9PM EDT

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

NPR News: 10-28-2024 9PM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Wait, wait, don't tell me. Fresh Air, Up First, NPR News Now, Planet Money, Ted Radio Hour, Thru Line, the NPR Politics Podcast, Code Switch, Embedded, Books We Love, Wildcard, are just some of the podcasts you can enjoy sponsor-free with NPR+. Get all sorts of perks across more than 20 podcasts with the bundle option. Learn more at plus.npr.org. option. Learn more at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. The Harris campaign is unveiling a new 32nd digital ad using committee and Tony Hinchcliffe's comments at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden Sunday, which he called the island of Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage. The Puerto Rican community receiving support from Dominican American politicians, Congressman

Aspiyado Aspiyat speaking alongside other elected officials in New York City, expressed the views of many who say they'll respond at the ballot box. We don't want an apology. We will cast our opinions at the polls on November 5th. An early voting. Trump, meanwhile, is holding a rally tonight in Atlanta, where he dismissed claims that he or his supporters are comparable to Nazis,

the New York event drawing some comparison to a 1939 rally in the same venue. The former president again lashed out at immigrants who were in the country illegally, saying they are, quote, invading America. Americans are increasingly uneasy over the rapidly approaching presidential election. What might follow, that's based on a survey by the Associated Press-Nork Center for Public Affairs research,

it finds about four in ten registered voters saying they are extremely or very worried about possible violent attempts to overturn election results with a similar share concerned about legal efforts to do so. Hearings began today in a challenge to the death penalty in Kansas. Zane Irwin with the Kansas News Service reports the American Civil Liberties Union and other legal groups are asking the state to abolish it. The ACLU says the death penalty is unconstitutional and racially discriminatory. Litigants are also honing in on death qualification, a rule that says anyone who serves on a capital jury must believe

state execution is a valid form of punishment. Alex Valdez, a staff attorney with the ACLU, says black people are struck from juries at higher rates, in part because of death qualification. What we're seeing in Kansas is emblematic of the problems of the death penalty throughout the country. Valdez hopes the evidence brought here could help cases against capital punishment in other states. For NPR News, I'm Zane Irwin in Kansas City, Kansas. Aaron Ross Kentucky will join a growing list of states allowing marijuana to be grown for medical use, Karen Zorov, Member Station WKY reports.

Karen Zorov More than 5,000 businesses applied to be part of Kentucky's medical marijuana program set to start on January 1st. So numbers were drawn at Kentucky Lottery headquarters to choose who would get the first round of licenses. For cultivator tier one, the numbers are 141, 125, 164. Governor Andy Beshear signed the bill legalizing medical marijuana last March. According to the CDC, 47 states, the District of Columbia and three territories allow for

the use of cannabis for medical purposes. For NPR News, I'm Karen Zarr in Louisville. On Wall Street, the Dow is up 273 points today. You're listening to NPR. Israel's past legislation severely restricting the UN agency responsible for distributing aid to and in Gaza by 92 to 10 vote, the measure adopted by the body, banning the UN agency from conducting any activity or providing any service inside Israel. The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza now says more than 43,000 people have died there since the start of the war more than a year ago, more than half of them women and children.

Russia is rejecting charges that interfered in a weekend parliamentary election in the neighboring caucuses nation of Georgia. The official results of that vote show a sizable victory for the ruling Georgia Dream Populist Party. Now come Georgia's president says it was engineered by the Kremlin. Moscow NPR's Charles Mains says more. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed accusations Russia interfered in Georgia's elections as completely unsubstantiated.

The spokesman claimed it was in fact Western countries openly trying to sway the vote. Peskov was responding to accusations from Georgia's pro-Western president, Solomay Zorobishvili, that Moscow had conducted a special operation to deliver the election to the ruling Georgia Dream Party. The election had been seen as a referendum on Georgia's future inside the European Union and a chance to undo a series of seemingly pro-Russian policies passed by the government

that have put Georgia's EU candidacy bid on hold. Charles Maynes in PR News, Moscow. You've got time to prepare, but daylight savings time or saving time comes to an end this coming Sunday. That means this weekend before going to bed, Saturday night, you should set your clocks back an hour. Standard time then runs through March 9th. Two states, Arizona and Hawaii,

stick to standard time year round. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.