NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-04-2024 1PM EST

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

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Hey, it's Aisha Harris from Pop Culture Happy Hour. If you love NPR podcasts, you'll want the new NPR Plus podcast bundle. Enjoy an all-you-can-eat selection of NPR Plus podcasts with sponsor-free listening and bonus episodes. Plus, you'll be supporting public radio. Check it out at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The final NPR-PBS News mayor's poll is out and finds a close race, with women more likely to say they're voting for Vice President Harris and men siding with former President Trump. NPR's Domenica Montanaro reports on how men and women also perceive Harris differently.

Harris leads 51 to 47 with likely voters, up two points from last month. When people were asked if they think Harris intends to follow through on her campaign proposals, or if she's just putting them forward to help her win votes, they're evenly split 49 to 49. There's a sharp divide by gender and education on the question. 67% of white women with college degrees say she intends to do what she's proposing, but 67% of men without college degrees say she's not. The result reflects Harris' struggle in this campaign in getting past her words and promises that

she made the last time she ran for president five years ago when she was trying to win over progressives. Domenico Montanaro, NPR News, Washington. On this Election Day Eve, former President Trump and Vice President Harris are both making another big push for Pennsylvania voters. DeSara Harris takes part in a rally in a Canvas kickoff event in Scranton, and Trump's schedule puts him soon in Reading. Massachusetts voters will choose whether to legalize certain psychedelic drugs when they head to the polls tomorrow. Walter Weithman of Member Station WBUR reports Massachusetts would be the third state in the country to allow people to grow and use hallucinogens.

The law would legalize natural psychedelic substances for use in licensed therapy centers. Advocates point to research showing psychedelics potential as a treatment for conditions like depression and PTSD. Michiu Oliveira is an activist who says she currently grows and administers psilocybin mushrooms illegally. People are already doing this. It's already happening. So now you need to have people that have experience come together and create something that is viable. Opponents argue these drugs can be harmful for certain people and fear an expanded black market of homegrown psychedelics. For NPR News, I'm Walter Wothman in Boston. Election Day is not the only big decision on tap this week.

NPR's Scott Horsley reports investors are on the lookout for another move on interest rates. Federal Reserve officials gather in Washington this week, and the central bank is widely expected to cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point. The announcement will come on Thursday, two days after voting ends, in the presidential contest. Striking machinists at Boeing are casting votes today on a tentative contract to end their walkout, now in its eighth week. The proposal calls for 38 percent pay raises over the next four years. OPEC and its allies are extending caps on oil production through the end of the year. The news gave a modest lift to crude oil prices, but retail gasoline

prices in the U.S. continue to fall. Triple A says the average price of regular gas is now $3.10 a gallon, 32 cents lower than this time last year. Scott Horsley, MPR News, Washington. It's NPR. Making headlines around the globe, Moldova's presidential election, the pro-Western incumbents prevailed over her Russian-friendly challenger. Moldovans overseas voted in record numbers. The small country is sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine. According to a June report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Moldova's

independence will ultimately rely on Ukraine's ability to withstand Russia's military aggression. Japan successfully launched a defense satellite to bolster military communications at a time of rising tensions in the region. The country's space agency says the satellite was carried by a new flagship H-3 rocket. Animals eat overripe fruit in the wild and fermentation gives that fruit a bit of a kick. NPR's Regina Barber reports on how our animal ancestors' behavior may have affected human evolution. Human interest in alcohol may have been due to the abundance of alcohol, especially ethanol, from all of the naturally fermenting fruit in the wild. A team of biologists published a review paper in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution this week claiming that

animals consuming ethanol through eating overripe fruit is common in the wild and may be unavoidable. It's likely that primate ancestors had to adapt to alcohol consumption because being intoxicated would have left them too vulnerable. The paper claims it was an evolutionary advantage to have enzymes break down alcohol, which may have led to many human civilizations consuming it today. Regina Barber, NPR News. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down more than 200 points or nearly half a percent. This is NPR News.