NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-04-2024 6PM EST

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

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Enjoying the podcast so far? Get more from shows like this one with NPR+. For a simple recurring donation, you'll get perks from over 20 NPR podcasts, including sponsor-free listening, bonus episodes, early access, shop discounts, and more. Join us in making the world a more curious and well-informed place at plus. npr dot org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. On this final day of a dizzying 2024 presidential campaign, both Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump are out trying to mobilize voters. As NPR's Asma Hawley reports, the Harris campaign is also trying to manage expectations.

On a call with reporters, Harris's campaign chair, General Malley-Dillon, tried to preemptively explain that election night results may be slow coming in. We're going to continue to see new votes being reported for many days after election day. And that's obviously not a sign of fraud. It's just the way it works. They expect most results from Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan will be in by the end of the night, but states have different rules for counting ballots. The comments come as Republicans are filing several lawsuits about voting rules that opponents

say are about setting up election challenges. Asma Khalid, NPR News. The FBI is operating a national election command post in Washington this week. NPR's Kerry Johnson reports staffers will be working around the clock to respond to threats and coordinate with state partners. About 80 people will be working at the election command post. James Barnicle is deputy assistant director of the FBI's criminal division. The purpose of the command post is to ensure the FBI is well positioned to response to threats that would come in or information that would come in that would affect our election

security. The FBI is on the lookout for criminal threats aimed at election workers, plots by foreign adversaries, cyber threats and acts of violence by domestic extremists. Officials will triage those tips and work with 55 field offices to share information with state and local partners across the country. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington. The economy has been a major issue in this race. Trump has proposed cutting taxes on Social Security and imposing sharply higher tariffs

on foreign-made goods. Harris is proposing increasing child tax credits and addressing the housing crisis to help first-time buyers. Meanwhile, the election also a big decision for many voters as well as for a big economic week. Here's MPO Scott Horsley. 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 US continue to fall. Triple A says the average price of regular gas is now three dollars ten cents a gallon, 32 cents lower than this time last year. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. This is NPR. Three Chinese astronauts have returned to Earth

after a six-month stay aboard the country's Tinggong space station. A parachute slowed their capsule's descent today, bringing it to a safe landing in China's Inner Mongolia region. Crew emerged shortly after 1.24 a.m. local time. The space station is part of China's efforts to become a global leader in space exploration. Federal officials in Brazil say they've wrapped up a two-year investigation into the murders of a journalist and an indigenous activist in the Amazon. The murders shocked

the South American country and drew global attention to the lawlessness and criminal organizations operating in the rainforest. MPR's Kerry Kahn has that story. Federal police say they've implicated nine people including the mastermind of the double homicide of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira back in June of 2022. Phillips, a British journalist, and Pereira, a well-known indigenous rights activist, were murdered in the Javari Valley, an indigenous region of the Amazon known to be under assault from illegal fishing and organized crime groups. Officials say Pereira was killed because of his activism in the region. They say the man who

directed and financed the murders, including concealing the bodies, is in custody. Police did not publish the name of the alleged mastermind, but local media has long identified him as a suspected illegal fisherman and poacher. Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Rio de Janeiro. United Arab Emirates has launched its annual Energy Summit meeting by announcing plans to increase energy output, even with pledges of it moving away from climate-warming fossil fuels after last year's COP28 climate talks. The UAE says it will increase oil production by about 5 million barrels a day. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.