NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-05-2025 1PM EST

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The Israeli military has taken a group of international journalists into Gaza to observe the dividing line between Israeli-occupied Gaza and the area where Gaza's population lives under Hamas control. NPR's Daniel Lestrian reports from inside Gaza for the first time after two years of war. I feel like my heart sank, just climbing up to the top of this. mound of dirt, looking at this expanse of destruction, piles of cement, bombed out schools and homes. Israel, for its part, is active. The war is over, but it is still locating tunnel shafts,

demolishing them and other infrastructure, and Hamas for its side is regrouping in Gaza. We are here accompanied by Israeli troops, but Israel still, more than two years after the war began is not allowing journalists into Gaza independently to interview Palestinians and to see their lives up close. Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Gaza. American voters care about the economy. Campaign messaging about affordability helped Democratic candidates outperform Republicans in the first major elections since President Trump returned to office.

It also offers a playbook for the higher-stakes midterm elections next year. In some key outcomes Tuesday, Democrats won governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia. Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger is the first woman elected to Virginia's top office. On NPR's morning edition, she discussed her approach to immigration and customs enforcement actions in the Commonwealth. My approach will be when there is a warrant signed by a judge. Certainly law enforcement can and must work with federal agencies. That's how I always worked task force or joint issues. but I do not want local Virginia law enforcement doing the administrative actions of ICE,

particularly at a time when it drives so much fear and confusion within our communities. Democrats prevailed in three state Supreme Court contests in the swing state of Pennsylvania, who said yes to redrawing the congressional map in California to counteract Texas and other red states doing the same at President Trump's bidding. In New York City, Zaron Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist who campaign on affordability issues was elected mayor. His progressive policies have made him a target of Republican campaign committees which have begun launching new attack ads against a number of vulnerable congressional Democrats. In Maine, voters rejected a GOP-backed measure that would have required people to show their

identifications at the polls. Residents there also approved a red flag rule to make it easier to keep potentially dangerous people from accessing guns. From Washington, this is NPR News. In Colorado, voters approved a ballot measure raising taxes on higher earners to pay for food assistance. Here's KUNC's Lucas Brady Woods. The measure will increase taxes on Coloradoans who make $300,000 a year or more by an average of about $500. Most of the money collected will pay for Colorado's free school meals program. It will also help cover the state's share of SNAP.

or food stamps after Congress cut funding for the program this summer. Anya Rose is with hunger-free Colorado, which backed the initiative. More than ever, we need these state supports and we need to make sure in our communities that we don't let people go hungry. The measure is expected to raise over $27 million for SNAP in the next fiscal year and about double that for school meals. That's Lucas Brady-Wood's reporting. President Trump's renominating billionaire Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. NPR's now Greenfield Voice reports. Jared Isaacman is a wealthy entrepreneur who's been to space twice in capsules operated by SpaceX, the company run by Elon Musk.

Isaacman is the first private citizen to ever go on a spacewalk. When President Trump previously withdrew Isaacman's nomination, he said at the time he had concerns about Isaacman's political leanings. Now, though, in a social media post, President Trump has announced Isaacman is his choice to be the head of NASA, making no reference to the first. nomination. The Senate must confirm Isaacman, whose nomination comes as NASA and its contractor SpaceX, are facing delays in their efforts to return humans to the moon. Nell Greenfield Boyce, NPR News. This is NPR.