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Port strike pause, Harris-Cheney rally and UK decolonization

 
Today's BUSINESS story

Ports reopen after dockworkers halt strike

What happened
The International Longshoremen's Association, the union representing some 45,000 striking dockworkers at East Coast and Gulf ports, suspended its three-day walkout last night after the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies, sweetened its wage offer. The tentative deal — reportedly a 62% hourly pay increase over six years — extended the recently expired contract to Jan. 15. The 36 ports that closed Monday night, from Maine to Texas, will start reopening today.

Who said what
“With the grace of God, and the goodwill of neighbors," President Joe Biden told reporters last night, the deal is "gonna hold." In a subsequent statement, Biden said "collective bargaining works" and applauded the ILA and shipping companies "for acting patriotically to reopen our ports and ensure the availability of critical supplies for Hurricane Helene recovery and rebuilding." 

Biden had rejected pressure from Republican lawmakers and business trade groups to force the union back to work. But senior White House officials reportedly worked behind the scenes to nudge the shipping companies to up their offer from a 50% raise and urge the ILA to accept less than its original ask of 77%.

The settlement is a "big plus" for Biden and also Vice President Kamala Harris as the presidential election approaches, The Associated Press said. It pushed any "potential shortages" and resulting inflation past the November vote, without crossing union workers. Economists and big retailers didn't expect much disruption from this short of a strike.

What next?
The ILA and Maritime Alliance have three months to iron out the details of the new contract, notably the union's demand for a ban on dock automation. The dockworkers "see new technology as a killer of jobs," The Washington Post said, while shipping lines are "seeking new ways to improve efficiency at U.S. ports, which analysts say have lagged behind those in other countries."

 
 
Today's Politics story

Liz Cheney campaigns with Harris in Wisconsin

What happened
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) campaigned with Kamala Harris in Ripon, Wisconsin, yesterday as the Democratic presidential nominee ramped up her efforts to win over Republicans and GOP-leaning independents repelled by Donald Trump and his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. Standing under a "Country Over Party" banner, Cheney said she was "proudly" casting her ballot for Harris, her first time ever voting for a Democratic nominee, because "putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration" this election, "it is our duty."

Who said what
The Harris-Cheney rally in Ripon, a "small city known as the birthplace of the Republican Party in the middle of a battleground state," was an "exercise in unsubtle and unlikely campaign optics," The New York Times said. The two women "agree on little politically beyond their distaste" for Trump and "had next to no relationship" before Cheney decided to endorse Harris last month.

Trump is "petty" and "vindictive" and voters should reject his "depraved cruelty," said Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican before she jettisoned Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. "Anyone who recklessly tramples on our democratic values as Donald Trump has" must never be president. Trump called Cheney a "stupid war hawk" yesterday on Fox News, then "reiterated his familiar false claim that he had won the 2020 election" at a Michigan rally "notable mainly for his continued false statements and exaggerations on a number of subjects," the Times said.

What next?
Cheney is "set to continue campaigning against Trump next week," The Washington Post said, joining three former Trump White House aides — Cassidy Hutchinson, who endorsed Harris on Wednesday, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Sarah Matthews — for a rally in the Philadelphia suburbs.

 
 
Today's INTERNATIONAL Story

UK cedes Chagos Islands to Mauritius, minus US base

What happened
Britain said yesterday it would cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, an archipelago of more than 60 small islands in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius but retain control of Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands and home to a strategically important U.S.-U.K. military base, for "an initial period" of 99 years. The Chagos Islands lie 1,250 miles northeast of Mauritius, toward India. Mauritius has long argued it was forced to give up the cluster of islands in 1965 in return for its own independence from Britain in 1968.

Who said what
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth welcomed the "historic political agreement." They said in a joint statement that the deal, negotiated over two years, reflected their commitments to "the rule of law" and the "long-term, secure and effective operation of the existing base on Diego Garcia." Jugnauth said in a televised speech that "56 years after our independence, the decolonization is finally complete."

Britain had faced "rising diplomatic isolation" over its claim to what it called the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and others "called its 'last colony in Africa,'" the BBC said. The Chagos Islands were "one of the very last pieces" of Britain's "global empire," and if it relinquished them "reluctantly," it also did so "peacefully and legally."

What next?
Under the agreement, which must still be signed off in a treaty, Britain will pay Mauritius rent, infrastructure investments and a "resettlement" fund for the descendants of the 1,500 Chagossians kicked off the islands in the 1970s to make way for the Diego Garcia base.

 
 

It's not all bad

A Spanish microbiologist used bacteria to help restore several Antonio Palomino paintings from the 18th century. Pilar Bosch was able to remove animal collagen glue that had been stuck on the frescoes since the 1960s by training the bacteria, using samples of the glue, to produce enzymes to degrade the substance. She then spread the bacteria onto the frescoes using a special gel, and a few hours later, the glue was gone.

 
 
Under the radar

The wetlands of Colombo — described by one expert as "the lungs and kidneys" of Sri Lanka's capital — are being restored after years of neglect and pollution. And this restoration is helping to manage floods and boost biodiversity. Once "used as trash dumps," the wetlands have been "remade as flood-buffering parks," said the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Sri Lanka's ancient kingdoms "thrived in a well-managed wetland system," where the marshes were used for transport and to grow food, said the BBC. But in the British colonial period, starting in the late 18th century, the wetlands were drained to build housing and businesses. After a series of calamitous floods in 2010, which affected nearly 700,000 people and submerged the country's parliament, government policy began to shift.

Colombo is located in a river basin, so the city is naturally prone to floods, but wetlands act as a flood buffer, with 40% of floodwater draining into wetland areas. The marshes also absorb carbon, purify the air and control temperatures in the capital.

The city now has four wetland parks and a number of other recreational spaces linked by wetlands. So although the city's history is a "cautionary tale" of what can happen when authorities prioritize urban growth over "life-saving natural resources," the wetlands "could soon become the area's greatest strength," the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said. If Colombo can harness its nearly 5,000 acres of wetlands to "limit destruction wrought by floods," its victory would "provide valuable lessons for cities around the world."

 
 
On this day

October 4, 1970

Janis Joplin, one of the best-known rock singers in American history, died of a heroin overdose. Joplin was famous for her wide-ranging vocal abilities and command of the stage; her death at 27 made her one of many celebrities to die at that age, including Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

Hurricane Helene's "death toll surpasses 200," the Houston Chronicle says on Friday's front page, making the storm one of America's deadliest even as "remote areas remain cut off." Since most of the victims "died in places far from the coast," The New York Times says, the "storm shows need for emergency plans inland." Another problem is "flood insurance rare in Helene's inland path," The Washington Post says. The hurricane's wide path of destruction is a "grim" reminder that "climate change is 'here and now,'" the Chicago Tribune says. 

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Hou-DUI-ni

A Long Island man arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence slipped out of his handcuffs and stole a police car, authorities said. State troopers put the 37-year-old in the back of their car after he failed a field sobriety test, and when they were looking the other way, the man freed himself from the restraints, climbed into the front of the vehicle and drove off. He was found a few miles away, in a cemetery, and arrested again.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Chas Newkey-Burden, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Mark Felix / AFP via Getty Images; Jim Vondruska / Getty Images; USGS / NASA Landsat data / Orbital Horizon Gallo Images / Gallo Images / Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images