NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-05-2024 11PM EST

Episode Date: November 6, 2024

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This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University performs breakthrough research every year, making discoveries that improve human health, combat climate change, and move society forward. More at iu.edu slash forward. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Even as polls continue to close in the West, many key races remain competitive. NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Gorsalis joins me now. Claudia, both House and Senate seats hang in the balance tonight. We're focusing on a number of things right now. House races, we're looking at results. We're waiting results for 435 seats in the Senate. Republicans need to flip just a couple of seats to gain outright control there. What else should we be watching tonight?

It is still early, but we do know that both chambers are basically on razor thin margins already. It will not take a lot of work for Senate Republicans to take control of the chamber. We've already seen Jim Justice, this is the Republican for West Virginia, take that Senate seat. It was once occupied by a Democrat. So we know that in terms of the Senate, Republicans are on track. We're not seeing a lot of surprises there. The House is going to be a lot harder to call and it's going to take a lot more time. Democrats are hopeful they'll take back control of that chamber from Republicans. They see the path to victory through California, and it could take days for them to return their results there. So maybe we're hopeful that we could hear by the end of the week

who controls the House chamber. Any big surprises you've seen tonight? Well, no surprises. In Florida, one thing we were hearing is that Republicans could make a stronger stand there. Democrats have really largely left the state, even though they were hopeful at the end. What we're seeing there is Republicans have really made a solid stand there and shown how much ground they've made.

Let's talk about Latino voters, not a monolith. Right, exactly. What we're seeing with Latino voters, speaking of Republicans making inroads, we're seeing them do that with Latino voters. And Florida is one of those pockets. When we look at South Florida, we look at Central Florida, for example, Cuban Americans in South Florida, by large majority support Republicans. And we also see that along the Texas border. And so this is where Republicans are making those gains on Democrats. Pauly M. R. MPR's Claudia Grisales, thank you, Claudia. While much of the election day is focusing on the top of the ticket, as we mentioned, crucial House and Senate races are

also in play. And some states have measures dealing with abortion or reproductive rights. MPR's Alyssa Nadwarni has that story. Alyssa Nadwarni Polling has showed that people, voters, are supporting these amendments. And so, the question is kind of how much and does that trickle to other things on the ballot? I mean, even in places like Missouri, the polling has shown that voters overwhelmingly support these abortion measures. That did not happen in Florida.

According to the Associated Press, measures to protect abortion or reproductive rights measures did pass in Colorado, New York, and Maryland. We have some race calls from the Associated Press. Donald Trump has won Montana and Utah, according to the AP, or Kamala Harris has won California. This is NPR. Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza have claimed the lives of at least 20 people, primarily women and children. Latest deaths come as Israel continues its months-long air and ground operations against Hamas militants. The latest strike hit a home with several displaced families. Palestinians

fleeing that area tell stories of having gone weeks with little or no food. Israel claims it was targeting a weapon storage facility. A new analysis has found false election claims by billionaire Elon Musk reviewed more than two billion times online in the lead up to election day. ZNPR's Bobby Allen reports it comes as Musk's social media platform acts as encouraging voters to report fraud and irregularities. Musk has been on a posting tear, even by his standards,

posting more than 3,000 times in the past month. And now social media research group, the Center for Countering Digital Hate finds that Musk's false claims about the election have amassed 2 billion views on X. Since Musk purchased Twitter two years ago, he has radically reshaped the platform and welcomed more conspiracies and extremist content. Researchers say it's become a primary source of false election rumors. X now has an account dedicated to compiling voter fraud and irregularities seen in the 2024 election. Before Musk, Twitter used to ban claims that could undermine the public's

confidence in an election, like a false claim of victory, but no longer. Bobby Allen, NPR News. The band's iconic Mount Fuji is nearly always pictured with snow on top, but this year for the first time in 130 years, that snow so far is a no-go. Mount Fuji has not had any snowfall since October. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. This message comes from Deal. Deal has helped over 35,000 businesses simplify global hiring, onboarding, payroll, and compliance. Visit deal.com to learn more. That's D-E-E-L dot com.