NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-03-2025 10PM EST

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. Tomorrow, voters will decide some races in ballot measures. They include redrawing the congressional map in California. That's a Democratic Party response to redistricting in some red states ahead of next year's midterm elections. A three-way race involving a Republican, a Democrat, and a Democrat running as an independent to replace New York City Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, and gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia. VPM's Jad Khalil is watching that. Regardless of who wins, Virginia will have its first woman governor. Democrats nominated former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger and Republicans chose Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earl Sears.

Both candidates closing arguments included kitchen table issues like affordability, health care, education, and energy. Spanberger has also spoken about being a bulwark against Trump, while Earl Sears has spent a lot of airtime opposing accommodating transgender students. VPM's Jad Khalil reporting, the Trump administration's, says it will partially fund the SNAP food aid program after two federal judges required the payments to continue, but payments will be cut in half and likely delayed. About one in eight Americans depend on the program. Before the rulings, the administration said it would not continue the funding due to the government shutdown. More than 20 Democrat-led states are suing the Trump administration for new restrictions to the public service loan forgiveness program. The rule

blocks nonprofit and government workers from the program. If federal officials determine their employer has a, quote, substantial illegal purpose, states argue the administration has overstepped its authority. The AI music platform UDio is giving users just 48 hours to save their tracks before shutting off downloads. The move follows a copyright settlement with universal music. As NPR's Windsor Johnston reports, it's a deal that's already sparking major backlash. This song wasn't written by a musician. It was created by UDio, an AI tool that lets anyone generate music just by typing in a prompt. Now, users have 48 hours to download any songs they've made on the platform. UDO is removing downloads as part of a legal settlement with universal music, which sued the company over copyright infringement.

The two companies say they'll launch a joint streaming platform, but the move is raising concerns. With dozens of AI music lawsuit still pending, artists and tech critics warned this could set a precedent for locking creative control into corporate hands. Windsor Johnston, NPR News. Famine is spreading in war-torn Sudan, according to the world's leading authority on hunger crises. Paramilitary forces rampaged through the besieged city of Al-Fasheir in the Darfur region last week, killing hundreds of people. Sudan has been torn apart by a power struggle between the military and the paramilitary, rapid support forces. From Washington, you're listening to NPR News.

A Colorado judge has rejected the plea deal of a funeral homeowner accused of stashing nearly 190 decaying bodies. Family members of the deceased say the deal's 15 to 20 year sentence for Carrie Halford was too lenient. Halford and her husband are accused of dumping bodies and giving families fake ashes between 2019 and 2023. Flight attendants for her. For Delta Airlines picketed outside Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson International Airport today in support of unionizing, the world's busiest airport are seeing delays and cancellations amid the government shutdown as Marlon Hyde of member station WABE reports.

As some passengers wait, over a dozen flight attendants are waving signs and chanting outside for union representation. Improved health care is one of the benefits that Delta's flight attendants are seeking. The airline says it prefers a direct relationship with employees. organizing Kara Wargo is one of Delta's about 29,000 flight attendants. With our flight attendants and our pilots and our air traffic controllers and our rampers, we are what keeps planes in the air and these planes don't leave without our work. Wargo says the next steps are to rally flight attendants nationwide as the campaign expects to file for an election next year to join the Association of Flight Attendants.

For NPR News, I'm Marlon Hod in Atlanta. A trial has begun for a former government attorney charged with assault. for throwing a sandwich at a federal agent in Washington, D.C. A grand jury refused to indict Sean Charles Dunn with a felony. Convicting him of a misdemeanor could still be a tough task for prosecutors done through a subway-style sandwich at a customs and border protection agent outside a nightclub in August. I'm Ryland Barton. This is NPR News from Washington.