NPR News Now - NPR News: 10-31-2024 7PM EDT

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

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We finally made it, election week. It's what this whole never-ending election cycle has been building up to. And what happens now will dictate the future of the country. Keep up with election news when it matters most with NPR's Consider This podcast. All this week we are taking major stories from the election to help you make sense of them and what they mean for you in under 15 minutes. Listen now to the Consider This podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Former President Donald Trump is taking a detour from the seven key battleground states in the final days of the campaign. The GOP presidential contender was in Albuquerque, New Mexico today and is in Nevada tonight.

NPR's Ben Jauz is in Phoenix, Arizona and details some of the key issues he'll be pushing to voters there. The Trump campaign here has been pretty consistently focused on Arizona's economy. They talk a lot about the cost of living, particularly the cost of housing and how much it's gone up, and that is top of mind for many voters here. Trump will argue the economy is worse under the Biden-Harris administration than under his four years ago. And they've also sought to tie the economy to immigration. They've done that by blaming migrants as added competition, contributing to the high demand of housing. NPR's Ben Giles, Trump makes a stop in Salem, Virginia, Saturday.

Democrat Kamala Harris says her rival, Donald Trump's comments about protecting women, whether they quote, like it or not, shows the Republican presidential nominee does not understand women's rights to make decisions about their own lives. Harris made her remarks in Wisconsin before setting out for other campaign appearances today in Arizona and Nevada. Pennsylvania has been one of the most closely watched states in this year's presidential race. Less than a week from the election, many voters have already made up their minds, but others are on the fence.

MPR's Windsor Johnson spoke to both groups. Sarah Hutchins is a registered Democrat in Bucks County, a suburb of Philadelphia. She says protecting reproductive freedom is a major concern for her. I'm a mom of two girls and I am a mom of two miscarriages. You know, women rights is really, really important to me. Alice Brodley lives in Meadville in the Northwestern part of the state. She's a registered Republican and says she hasn't decided on whether to vote.

I'm not enthusiastic about either person. It doesn't matter to me what party they belong to. It's the personality and the past history. Recent polling shows roughly 3 percent of Pennsylvania voters say they're still undecided. Windsor-Johnston NPR News. An IV fluid production plant damaged by Hurricane Helene is partially back online, NPR's Sydney Lupkin reports. A Baxter International factory in North Carolina had to shut down more than a month ago because

of flooding from Hurricane Helene. Before being knocked out of commission, the factory made 60% of the IV fluids used in hospitals around the country. The resulting shortage means hospitals are conserving IV bags for the neediest patients and postponing or canceling some procedures. The Biden administration invoked the Defense Production Act to help Baxter get materials needed to clean and rebuild the factory Now Baxter is restarting production lines of the most commonly used IV fluids It'll take time for the new supplies to reach hospitals However, the first batches of IV fluids won't be shipped until late November Baxter said Sydney Lepkin NPR News the Dow was down 378 points this is NPR

down 378 points. This is NPR. Israeli officials say a rocket barrage fired from Lebanon has killed at least seven people in northern Israel. The rocket is hitting an agricultural area along the border near the city of Haifa. Back-to-back attacks today represent the deadliest spate of strikes in Israel since the Israeli military invaded the country earlier this month. For over a year, Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group has been firing rockets, drones, and missiles into Israel. Some 1.2 million people in Lebanon have been displaced since Israel's escalation. The Bill Gates Company says plans are back on track to bring nuclear power to Wyoming to replace its retiring coal plants.

NPR's Kirk Sigler reports the highly publicized project has been delayed due to the war in Ukraine. Bill Gates' company TerraPower is building a zero emission nuclear power plant adjacent to the site of a coal plant that's slated for retirement. But supply chain disruptions caused by the war have made it difficult to get the uranium it needs. TerraPower now says it's secured contracts with a South Africa-based supplier, and the company's plan to open the plant by the end of this decade is back on. There's a lot of attention on

this Wyoming nuclear plant and whether it will be as easy as promised to retrain former coal workers. The nation's top coal producer, Wyoming, is scheduled to retire all of its coal power plants by 2039 due to utility company climate plans and overall less demand for coal. Kirk Sigler, NPR News. Good old futures prices moved in the opposite direction of stocks extending their gains. Oil rose by 65 cents a barrel to settle at 69.26 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.