NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-05-2025 5PM EST

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. New York City Mayor-elect, Zoran Mamdani, has announced his transition team as he prepares to take office at the beginning of the year. NPR's Sarah Ventry reports members of the team have served in past New York City Mayor administrations. The five-person team is made up entirely of women and includes a former Federal Trade Commission chair, former first deputy mayor, and the president and CEO of United Way of New York City. The team will be responsible for setting the stage for the new administration to enact an ambitious agenda. Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, campaigned heavily on promises to freeze the rent, make buses free, and create universal child care. In his acceptance speech on Tuesday night, he also promised to hire thousands more teachers, cut waste from a bloated bureaucracy, and worked tirelessly to improve public housing. Sarah Ventry, NPR News, New York. Democrats won big beyond the high-profile contests in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia yesterday. NPR's Stephen Fowler has more on the results from other state and local elections across the country.

In Georgia, Democrats flipped two seats on the Public Service Commission with more than 60% of the vote. The first time, Democrats have won a non-federal statewide election there since 2006. In Pennsylvania, voters chose to retain three Democratic State Supreme Court justices and regained control of top offices in multiple swing counties. Mississippi Democrats broke a supermajority in that state Senate, while Democrats won enough seats to gain a supermajority in New Jersey State Assembly, and more than a dozen seats flipped in Virginia's House of Delegates. Stephen Fowler, NPR News. Emergency workers are searching for more victims after the fiery crash of a UPS cargo plane in Louisville, Kentucky yesterday. NPR's Joel Rose reports at least 11 people died and more than a dozen were injured when the plane crashed while taking off. Kentucky Governor Andy Bashir says first responders. are still combing through the crash site in a mostly industrial neighborhood

next to the airport in Louisville. We've got to continue to search that site, hope and pray for the best, but no, there may be more loss of life that we're going to learn about today. The McDonnell-D-11 cargo plane was bound for Honolulu with about 38,000 gallons of jet fuel on board.

Video footage of the crash appeared to show the plane's left engine on fire as it struggled to lift off from the runway before it crashed and exploded in a massive fireball. The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation. Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington. A federal judge presiding over the Trump administration's criminal case against former FBI director James Comey is ordering the Justice Department to produce materials from the investigation. The judge says he's concerned the administration's position

had been to, quote, indict first and investigate second. Comey is charged with lying to Congress. Stocks gain ground on Wall Street today after upbeat economic updates. The S&P 500 rose four-tenths of a percent. This is NPR News from Washington. Starbucks union members have voted to strike next week unless the company finalizes a contract agreement. The strike would begin on November 13th, the day Starbucks plans to distribute free reusable red cups, one of the company's busiest days of the year. Every day, more than 3,000 people die from tuberculosis, making it the world's top infectious disease killer. Many people with TB live in low-income communities where health care is difficult to access, but now AI is

helping where medical specialists aren't available. NPR's Gabriela Emmanuel reports. In more than 80 countries, mobile x-ray machines are being combined with AI models to instantly screen people for TB. It's being used for nomadic tribes in Nigeria and refugee camps in Chad. Peter Sands heads the Global Fund. There are no radiologists. So who gets to look at the thing and say, is there a problem here or not? Well, actually, AI does. It's brilliant. Advocacy groups like Stop TB have embraced this approach. But some health experts have cautioned that many low-income countries don't yet have the regulations to make sure the technology has quality control checks. Gabriela Emmanuel and PR News.

Japan is deploying troops to help contain a surge of bear attacks in the northern Akita Prefecture. Bears have been seen near schools, train stations and home. homes, over 100 people have been injured and at least 12 killed in bear attacks since April. Experts say Japan's declining rural population contributes to the problem as bears venture closer to residential areas in search of food. This is NPR News from Washington.