NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-04-2025 4AM EST

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. Polls are opening in Virginia this morning and an election that's widely seen as a test of what voters are thinking following last year's presidential election. VPM news, John Khalil reports on the key race for governor. Democrat Abigail Spanberger and Republican Winsome Earl Sears are running to be Virginia's next governor. Earl Sears has been lieutenant governor since 2021. That's when current governor Glenn Yonkin was elected. after running on a platform of rejecting COVID restrictions and criticism of how race was taught in schools. That was a Republican sweep and in keeping with Virginians' tendency to reject governors who are in the president's political party at the time.

That logic is helpful for Spanberger, a former congresswoman and CIA officer. Looming over the race, too, is the government shutdown and reductions in force for federal workers. Virginia's home to hundreds of thousands of government employees. For NPR News, I'm Jad Khalil and Richmond. voters in New Jersey also electing a new governor in New York City. They'll be casting ballots in the closely watched mayor's race. Democrats are on Mondani as a frontrunner over former New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, and Republican Curtis Slewa. The Trump administration says it will partially fund the food aid program known as SNAP after two federal judges ordered the White House to keep the program running amid the government shutdown. The administration said Monday that it will use the money from a contingency fund for SNAP payment. but that payouts will only be half the amount recipients normally get. And I'm here Senatorford Ludden says even that could take a while. I will say this money, the way it goes out is complicated.

It goes from the federal government to states, then through contractors onto the debit-like cards that people use to buy food. And recalculating for partial payments does take time. But in its court filing, the administration said it could be weeks, if not months, especially it said in some states with decades-old systems. So it leaves this possibility that people in some states might see benefits before others. Management of the Food and Drug Administration getting shaken up again. The FDA's top drug official has resigned as NPR Sydney Lopkin reports.

Dr. George Tidmarsh, who led the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, has left the agency. He's being sued by Orinia Pharmaceuticals, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Maryland on November 2nd. The company alleges that Tidmarsh posted false and defamatory. remarks on social media about one of its drugs following a, quote, longstanding personal vendetta against one of its executives. Tidbarsh joined the FDA in late July. Before that, he was part of the pharmaceutical industry, serving as founder and CEO of several biopharma companies. HHS said Tidmarsh was placed on administrative leave Friday after it learned about his personal conduct. He resigned Sunday effective immediately. MPR couldn't immediately reach Tidmarsh for comment.

Sydney Lupkin, NPR News. is NPR News. Israel has identified the three bodies returned to Israel by Hamas as part of the U.S. brokered ceasefire. One of them is the Israeli-American soldier Omer Nuttra. He was 21 years old when he died during the October 7th attack on Monday. Israel handed over the bodies of 45 Palestinians. The Halloween weekend was scary for Hollywood studios, as Empires Neta Ulibe reports, This past weekend was the worst at the box office so far this year. To be fair, there was lots going on, college sports, trick-or-treating, and major league baseball, and no new major film releases.

Black Phone 2, and the romance, regretting you, topped a terrible box office that pulled in only around $50 million. That's not only the worst weekend of the year. It ended the worst October since 1997, not counting the year of the pandemic. audiences avoided films like the Smashing Machine, the new Tron movie, and the Bruce Springsteen biopic. It's hard to factor in K-pop Demon Hunters because Netflix, which released it, does not report its numbers. New iterations of Wicked, Zootopia, and Avatar come out just in time for the holidays. Netta Ulibe, NPR News. Actor Diane Ladd has died. Her daughter, Laura Dern, confirmed Ladd's death in a statement saying she passed away at her home in Ohio, California.

as she was 89. Dern says her mother was an amazing hero and a profound gift. That appeared in dozens of movies over her career, nominated three times for an Academy Award. This is NPR News.