NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-31-2024 11AM EDT

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

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Do you feel like there's more on your to-do list than you can accomplish? Or maybe the world's problems feel extra heavy these days. We can't eliminate stress, but we can manage it. It's almost like I have a new operating system now. Like I tend to live more in this light. Stress Less, a quest to reclaim your calm. A new series from NPR's Life Kit podcast. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Coleman.

Many women this year have indicated that abortion is the key issue they will consider when voting for president. Abortion access will appear in some form on ballots in 10 states next week. The presidential candidates have also discussed abortion. NPR's Alyssa Nadwarni says a president might be able to take executive action on the issue. A president could use executive authority to do a lot of things, like strengthen privacy laws that would protect women from prosecution, or they could, for example, create abortion tracking requirements in the other direction.

The president also nominates who's in charge of the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates abortion pills. Nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the US are medication abortions, so getting pills through the mail has been a key way for people who live in states with bans. A new leader at the FDA could roll back that access and make it harder for providers to send pills. NPR's Alyssa Nadd warning reporting. Former President Donald Trump climbed into the cab of a Trump-branded garbage truck during

a campaign event yesterday in Wisconsin. He was doubling down on references this week to garbage. Trump is criticizing a remark made by President Biden earlier this week. NPR Stephen Fowler reports Trump said more at an earlier rally in North Carolina. Republicans say Biden called Trump supporters garbage on a video call with Voto Latino Tuesday night. Biden says he was referring to the comedian who insulted Puerto Rico at a Trump rally Sunday. But Trump used the gaffe to continue his attacks on democratic policies. You know what? The truth is they've treated our whole country like garbage, whether they're meant to or not, because they're grossly incompetent people and they've destroyed our country.

Trump regularly uses inflammatory language in reference to illegal immigration, calling the U.S. a garbage can, a quote, occupied country, and vowing to end what he calls an invasion of migrants. Stephen Fowler, NPR News, Rocky Mount, North Carolina. In Afghanistan, women are now banned from hearing each other pray. The new rule comes weeks after the country's Taliban government barred women from singing in public. And Piers Omkar-Khannakar reports.

Piers Omkar-Khannakar reports. In its latest interpretation of the Islamic law, Afghanistan's Taliban government has forbidden women from reciting the Quran in the presence of other women. Mohammad Khalid Hanifi, who heads the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, said in a speech that this rule will be implemented gradually. Women, he said, are also prohibited from clapping. This is on top of the existing bans on bearing their face or speaking in public. The United Nations has described Afghanistan's so-called morality laws

a distressing vision for the country's future. Omkar Khandekar, NPR News. Authorities in Spain say flooding has killed at least 95 people, mostly in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia. Parts of the city have been wrecked. The region got a year's worth of rain in a single day this week. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Palestinian health authorities in Gaza say that one of the last working hospitals in

the northern part of the enclave has come under attack. The officials say that badly needed medicine and medical supplies have been damaged. These were only delivered a few days ago by the World Health Organization. The Israeli military says it is continuing its campaign in northern Gaza because Hamas militants have regrouped there. New research finds that Iceland's experiments with shorter work weeks continue to pay dividends. NPR's Andrea Hsu reports Iceland first piloted a shortened work week in 2015.

The success of those early pilots, which involved mostly government workers, led to an expansion of shortened work days to more than half of Iceland's workforce. In many cases, people are working four or five fewer hours each week with no loss in pay. In surveys, about 60% of those who adopted shorter hours said they were more satisfied with their working time. 40% felt less stressed. Workplaces with more women reported far greater rates

of satisfaction than workplaces dominated by men. The drop in hours did not appear to make workers less productive. In fact, researchers found labor productivity in Iceland increased the most among Nordic countries over the past five years. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. Today is Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. It represents hope and the victory of goodness. About 1 billion Hindus around the world, including in the United States and in India, will light clay lamps to mark the holiday. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News in Washington.