NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-02-2025 1AM EDT

Episode Date: November 2, 2025

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Families around the world aren't having as many kids as they used to. Researchers say the average woman is having half as many children now than they did in the 1970s. I love having only one child. On the Sunday story from Up First, why are so many families making this choice and what exactly does it mean for our future? Listen now to the Sunday story on the Up First podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Rowan. A Will Smith home run in the 11th inning broke up in a tie game and gives the Los Angeles Dodgers a win in the deciding game seven of the World Series. The final score, Los Angeles 5, Toronto 4.

Steve Futterman has the latest from the Rogers Center in Toronto. A double play ends the game. The Dodgers celebrating on the infield right now. L.A. becomes the first team since 2000 to win back-to-back championships. The Dodgers were two outs away from elimination. In the ninth, that's when Miguel Rojas hit a home run to tie the game. And in the 11th, the Dodgers win it, a Will Smith home run, the game-winning hit. And the Toronto Blue Jays, so, so close to winning their first World Series since 1993 fall to the L.A. Dodgers.

For NPR News, I'm Steve Futterman at the World Series in 2020. Toronto. Former President Barack Obama is rallying Democrats ahead of Tuesday's off-year elections in a number of places around the country. Obama campaigned Saturday in Virginia and New Jersey on behalf of Democrats running for governor in those two states. NPR's Sarah McCammon reports. Democrats have little power in Washington, but in Virginia, the party currently controls the state legislature and hopes to take over the governor's office. Campaining in Norfolk, former President Barack Obama urged Democrats to get to the polls before voting ends on Tuesday. If we want a country that believes in free speech and the rule of law, then we have to fight

for it, even when it's hard or inconvenient. Other closely watched races include New Jersey's gubernatorial election and New York City's mayoral race. Sarah McCammon, NPR News, Norfolk. South Africa is criticizing the United States government's announcement that it is going to be prioritizing white Afrikaners. for resettlement after capping its annual refugee program. It's 7,500, the lowest level NPR's Kate Bartlett reports a prominent group of Afrikaners are also slamming the U.S. policy. The South African government has repeatedly pushed back against the Trump administration's false claims

that the white minority group are being unfairly treated and did so again on Friday. South Africa said it had taken note of the announcement last week regarding the U.S. refugee program, saying it was, quote, fundamentally flawed. Pretoria also pointed to, quote, the limited uptake of this offer by South Africans as evidence that most Afrikaners are not fleeing. Last month, a group of dozens of Afrikaner intellectuals wrote an open letter to, quote, reject the narrative that casts Afrikaners as victims of racial persecution in post-aparite South Africa and said they were staying put.

For NPR news, I'm Kate Butler in Johannesburg. This is NPR. The Pentagon Saturday said the U.S. military carried out another deadly strike against what they said were drug smugglers operating in the Caribbean. Defense Secretary Pete Hegson said the three alleged drug smugglers died, but he said the vessel was being operated by a U.S. designated terrorist group. This is the 15th such strike carried out by the military in the Caribbean or the eastern Pacific since September. Paleontologists have revealed the first reptiles with hooves in the form of mummified duck-billed dinosaurs in Wyoming. The Mountain West News Service Bureau reporter Hannah Mutzbach has more. Until now, we've only seen mammals with hooves.

But it turns out the dinosaurs called Edmontosaurus and nectins also needed them to run away quickly on dry ground. At least according to new research led by Paul Serino, a University of Chicago paleontologist. You just needed to find an upright. right reptile, the size of a big mammal. And there you go. It's got hooves. Serino says this is the clearest picture of a big dinosaur out there. All thanks to the mummy form, a thin mask of clay captured the original shape and texture of the bodies. These dinosaurs were first dug up about a century ago, but the hooves were overlooked until more recently. For I'm PR News. I'm Hannah Merzwalk in Jackson, Wyoming.

The ongoing government shutdown continues to cause major disruption. for the nation's air travel system, the aviation tracking system flight aware says there have been more than 650 cancellation this weekend because of the government shutdown and related delays. This is NPR. Support for NPR.