NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-31-2024 3PM EDT

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

NPR News: 10-31-2024 3PM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Jim Ewing had to get his foot amputated after a climbing accident. Thanks to a new procedure, his prosthetic feels like it's his real foot. Your brain recognizes this piece of equipment as being part of you. It just adopts it and starts using it as if it belongs there. How technology is augmenting humans. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington. I'm Lakshmi Singh. Vice President Kamala Harris is campaigning out west today, as is former President Donald Trump.

Both have stops in Arizona and Nevada, while Trump is also going to New Mexico. As NPR's Tamara Keith reports, Harris is trying to drive a contrast with Trump. At a rally last night, Trump said he's going to protect the women of this country. I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. I'm going to protect them. Harris took notice. He does not prioritize the freedom of women and the intelligence of women to make decisions about their own lives and bodies.

This race is shaping up to have a potentially historic gender gap with a significant share of women supporting Harris while Trump appears to be performing better with men. Tamara Keith, NPR News, traveling with the Vice President. As for the running mate's Governor, Tim Walz spends part of the day in Pennsylvania at a temple celebrating Diwali. Diwali, the Hindu festival of light celebrated in Indian communities worldwide and amplified in the US this year by Vice President Harris's South Asian heritage. Meanwhile in North Carolina, Trump's

running mate Senator JD Vance held a town hall at High Point University in North Carolina. The campaigns are fiercely competing for the swing state's 16 electoral votes. The Brookings Institution says the number of Democrats registered to vote in North Carolina has fallen since 2020, while the number of Republicans has gone up, cutting the Democrats' edge from nearly 400,000 in 2020 to just 113,000 this year. The Israeli military is intensifying its ground incursion in northern Gaza. It says it's battling Hamas militants who have regrouped there. Recent airstrikes have also killed and injured dozens of Palestinians. Many killed are women and children, according to health officials.

NPR's Hadil Al- shalchi reports the attacks are affecting Hospital operations as well the kamal adwan hospital in the jubilee area of northern gaza has been struck several times this week by the Israeli military an attack today destroyed the third floor of the building according to the Gaza Health Ministry The Israeli military says it was unaware of a new strike But has said Hamas militants operate out of the hospital. Health officials said the attack damaged much-needed medical supplies and medicine that had been delivered by the World Health Organization just days ago. Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in northern Gaza that are now largely inaccessible due

to the Israeli incursion. Aid agencies warned that almost no aid trucks have been allowed into northern Gaza, and the United States threatened Israel to cut off some weapons deliveries if it does not secure more aid in. Hadil Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Tel Aviv. U.S. stocks are trading lower this hour. The Dow is down 219 points, or roughly half a percent. You're listening to NPR News.

Britain has banned protests outside clinics and hospitals that provide abortion. Starting today, police are enforcing 150-yard buffer zones around those facilities in England and Wales. NPR's Lauren Frayer has more from London. Within these buffer zones, it's now a criminal offense to quote, harass, alarm or distress anyone, or to intentionally or recklessly influence their decision. Offenders face fines, but no jail time. This law passed to the UK Parliament last year, but it was delayed by an election over the summer and by the issue of silent prayer. Prosecutors say it won't necessarily be a crime to pray silently near a clinic that performs abortions, and that police will assess that on a case-by-case basis. Abortion

is legal in England, Wales and Scotland within 24 weeks of pregnancy and occasionally beyond that in rare cases. The timeframe in Northern Ireland is 12 weeks. Lauren Fraher, NPR News, London. More key economic reports are coming out just days ahead of the US election. The latest is an inflation gauge closely watched by the Federal Reserve. It has fallen to near pre-pandemic levels. Prices rose just 2.1% in September from a year earlier, down from a 2.3% rise in August. It's just above the Fed's 2% inflation target.

However, some signs of inflationary pressures linger, excluding volatile food and energy costs. So-called core prices rose 2.7% in September from a year earlier for a third consecutive month. The Dow is down 214 points. S&P has fallen 87. The Nasdaq is down 456. It's NPR.