NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-29-2024 1AM EDT

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

NPR News: 10-29-2024 1AM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from MPR News in Washington, I'm Shay Stevens. The Trump campaign is seeking to distance itself from the racist comments that were made at former President Donald Trump's rally in Madison Square Garden. A comedian warming up the crowd on Sunday called the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico an island of garbage. Dominican-American Congressman Adriano Espeyot says there's no coming back from those remarks. We don't want an apology. We will cast our opinions at the polls on November 5th and early voting.

Puerto Rican congresswoman Nadia Velasquez is among the elected leaders in New York denouncing Trump's rally. The Trump campaign may claim that these comments do not reflect their views, but his track record is clear. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance says he will not comment on the joke, but says he thinks that too many Americans are overly sensitive. McDonald's is putting its quarter-pounders back on the menu following an outbreak of E. coli in 13 states.

The food poisons at least 75 people, including one in Colorado who died. NPR's Ava Pukac has the story. McDonald's says testing from the Colorado Department of Agriculture has ruled out beef patties as the source of the E. coli outbreak. The Food and Drug Administration says it believes the contamination likely stemmed from slithered onions from a single supplier. McDonald's says the onions came from the Taylor Farms facility in Colorado Springs and were distributed to 900 McDonald's restaurants across 12 states.

The chain says it has stopped sourcing onions from the Colorado Springs facility indefinitely. Restaurants that had received onions from the Colorado Springs facility will resume sales of the quarter-pounder without slithered onions. Ava Pukac, NPR News. Israel's parliament has voted to ban the UN's main aid agency for Palestinians. As NPR's Daniel Estrom reports, the Biden administration has warned Israel not to implement the move. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, has been the main UN group for decades

providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza and aiding Palestinian refugees uprooted from their homes in Israel's founding war. Israel has long seen the agency as perpetuating Palestinians' refugee status in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel has accused members of the UN agency of having ties to Hamas. The laws passed today by a vast majority of Israel's lawmakers ban the UN agency from operating in Israel and prohibits it from having official contact with Israel. The State Department says it's deeply concerned.

It says UNRWA plays a critical humanitarian role in Gaza and the Israeli ban could have implications under U.S. law. Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv. You're listening to NPR News. NATO is confirming reports that North Korean troops are in Russia for training and combat. Secretary General Mark Rutte calls it a significant escalation of the North's involvement in the war against Ukraine. Last week, a White House national security spokesman announced that thousands of North

Korean soldiers were sent to eastern Russia earlier this month. John Kirby also says Russia has already acquired North Korean missiles to use against Ukraine. More than a thousand authors, editors, and illustrators are boycotting Israeli institutions that have not spoken in favor of Palestinian rights. NPR's Andrew Limbong has details. The open letter is a response, not just to Israel's current role in the war in Gaza following the October Summit attacks, but to the quote, 75 years of displacement, ethnic cleansing and apartheid.

The letter goes on to say that authors, editors and other people working in publishing have a role to play and therefore quote, we will not work with Israeli cultural institutions that are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians. NPR has reached out to the latter organizers asking which Israeli organizations have already been blacklisted. Other names on the list include Nobel Prize winner Ani Erno, Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen, and the poet Ruby Carr.

Andrew Limbong, NPR News. The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Yankees 42 Monday to capture Game 3 of the World Series. The Dodgers are now one victory away from cinching this year's title. U.S. futures are mixed and after hours trading on Wall Street, Asia Pacific markets are also mixed up a fraction in Tokyo. This is NPR. Who's claiming power this election? What's happening in battleground states? And why do we still have the electoral college? All this month, the Throughline Podcast

is asking big questions about our democracy and going back in time to answer them. Listen now to the Throughline Podcast from NPR.