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Cuba goes dark, Trump makes fries and New York wins sports

 
Today's politics story

Cuba roiled by island-wide blackouts, Hurricane Oscar

What happened
Cuba's power grid collapsed yesterday evening for the fourth time since Friday, plunging much of the island nation into darkness as Hurricane Oscar made landfall in eastern Cuba as a Category 1 storm.

Who said what
Cuba's government began preparing for power problems on Thursday, ordering schools, government offices and entertainment venues to close Friday. "We have had to paralyze the economy to guarantee a minimum of electrical service," Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said on television Thursday night. Friday morning, the government announced the "total disconnection" of the national electrical system after a thermoelectric power plant shut down.

Cuba, creaking by for years with decades-old power plants "on the verge of collapse," has long been "plagued by rolling blackouts that last a few hours a day," but "this time is different," The New York Times said. Residents said it recalled "the nightmare of the so-called 'Special Period' in the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union." Cuba is now "heavily dependent" on Venezuelan oil imports, The Washington Post said, but the "socialist-run South American country is facing its own energy problems."

"Most of Havana remained dark" on Sunday, and "people resorted to cooking with improvised wood stoves on the streets before the food went bad in refrigerators," The Associated Press said. Blackouts also affect other basic services, like water, which depends on electric pumps to feed pipes.

What next?
Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said he hopes electricity service will be restored Monday or Tuesday, though he acknowledged that Hurricane Oscar would bring "additional inconvenience" since eastern Cuba is a "region of strong generation," hosting two key power plants. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Oscar, downgraded to a tropical storm last night, will bring "rainfall amounts of 6 to 12 inches with isolated amounts of 18 inches" across eastern Cuba through Wednesday.

 
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Today's Politics story

Trump does McDonald's, lauds golfer's genitals

What happened
Donald Trump spent the weekend in Pennsylvania, putting on an apron for a campaign stop at a McDonald's in suburban Philadelphia yesterday and kicking off a speech in Latrobe on Saturday with "an off-color remark about a famous golfer's penis size and a coarse insult about Vice President Kamala Harris," The New York Times said. Harris spent much of yesterday, her 60th birthday, with Stevie Wonder at Black churches in Georgia to help get "souls to the polls" in the critical swing state.

Who said what
"Arnold Palmer was all man," Trump said in his 12-minute comments on the late golfer. "When he took the showers with other pros, they came out of there. They said, 'Oh my God. That's unbelievable.'" Trump's "crude and vulgar remarks," delivered "17 days before the election in a critical battleground state, added to the impression" he is "increasingly unfiltered and undisciplined" in the final stretch, the Times said. Trump's "ribald tribute" to Palmer, The Wall Street Journal said, was part of his "unconventional" mix of "humor" and "crude talk that plays to his most ardent backers, particularly men."

At the McDonald's in Feasterville, closed for his visit, Trump spent about five minutes making fries and "about 15 minutes at the drive-through window," The Washington Post said, talking to reporters and handing out bags to prescreened motorists who took "whatever Trump gave them." Trump appeared to have fun, but his visit "mostly served to underscore the obvious," Jacob Gallagher said at the Times: that the born-wealthy billionaire "exists in a vastly different class" than "someone working a service job to get by."

What next?
Harris plans to court moderates and disaffected Republicans this week with Liz Cheney in "suburbs in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin," then rally in Michigan and Georgia with former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, the Journal said. Trump will "court religious leaders and Hispanic voters" in "several swing states."

 
 
Today's SPORTS Story

New York wins WNBA title, nearly nabs World Series

What happened
The New York Liberty, one of the original WNBA franchises, won their first championship title last night, beating the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in overtime of a hard-fought Game 5. It was New York's first pro basketball title since the Knicks won the NBA championship in 1973. New York City lost a guaranteed World Series victory, however, when the Mets fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers last night, a 10-5 defeat in the deciding Game 6 of the National League championships. The New York Yankees punched their ticket to the World Series on Saturday night in a 5-2 Game 5 win over the Cleveland Guardians.

Who said what
The Liberty's win capped "27 seasons of disappointment," including five previous trips to the finals since the team's debut in the "WNBA's inaugural season of 1997," The Washington Post said. It was "far from New York's most aesthetically pleasing game," The Athletic said, but "the only number that matters is the final margin." As star Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu said, Sunday's most important stat was "one more (point) than the other team."

There's less novelty in the 12th World Series matchup between the Dodgers and the Yankees, though the players have changed many times since the Dodgers won their last face-off in 1981. Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani will lead his injury-hobbled, deep-benched team against Yankees slugger Juan Soto and a trio of veterans in their 30s — Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Gerrit Cole — who covet a "championship as validation as much as accomplishment," The Associated Press said.

What next?
The Yankees and Dodgers play Game 1 on Friday night in Los Angeles. The Liberty will be celebrated with a ticker-tape parade in Manhattan; the date is expected to be announced today.

 
 

It's not all bad

Catherine Hoy and her menagerie of 36 rescue animals bring joy to nursing home residents across Northern Ireland. Pets are not allowed in most care facilities, but Hoy thought it was important to give animal lovers the chance to interact with her dogs, chickens, tortoises and other rescues. The visits especially make a difference for those with dementia. "Living in a care home shouldn't mean you have to lose the things you have enjoyed doing throughout your life," Hoy told The Independent.

 
 
Under the radar

The world's forests, plants and soil absorbed almost no carbon in 2023, according to preliminary research from a group of international scientists. The three are considered land carbon sinks because they have the ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for their natural processes. However, a rapidly warming climate may be prohibiting the carbon sinks from performing effectively. 

Carbon sinks are sites that "naturally remove potentially atmosphere-damaging carbon dioxide from the atmosphere," including forests and oceans, said Futurism. Land carbon sinks exist because "forests and other land ecosystems take up slightly more CO2 as they grow than they release when plants die and decompose or burn each year," said New Scientist. But in 2023, many of the sinks collapsed, removing the smallest amount of carbon from the atmosphere since 2003 and "more than three times lower than the average over the past decade."

Much of the decrease is likely due to warming temperatures. "Imagine your plants at home: If you don't water them, they're not very productive, they don't grow, they don't take up carbon," Stephen Sitch, a study co-author, told Reuters. "Put that on a big scale like the Amazon forest." Dipping carbon sink capacity is not rare, and factors like the El Niño climate phenomenon contribute, but human-caused climate change is making temperatures warmer. 

In some cases, traditional carbon sinks are becoming a source of emissions instead. "Expansion of agriculture has turned tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia into a net source of emissions in recent years," said The Guardian. "Emissions from soil — which is the second-largest active carbon store after the oceans — are expected to increase by as much as 40% by the end of the century if they continue at the current rate."

 
 
On this day

October 21, 1833

Scientist Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden. A noted chemist and inventor from a wealthy family, Nobel donated his vast fortune to create the Nobel Prizes, which are considered among the world's most prestigious honors. Ironically, the man whose name anchors the Nobel Peace Prize is also remembered for inventing dynamite.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris "sharpen jabs with little room for error" in the tied presidential campaign's closing stretch, The Wall Street Journal says on Monday's front page. "Trump becomes the star of Harris' closing pitch," The New York Times says. In Florida, "early voting begins after 2 hurricanes," the Tampa Bay Times says. "Harris brings 'souls to the polls' pitch to Georgia churches" while "Trump works the fry station at Pennsylvania McDonald's," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says. "Harris' record as prosecutor defies labels," the Los Angeles Times says, under a story about the "spread of warehouses" threatening the "rural lifestyle," asking: "Where does it stop?"

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Tip o' the hat

Four years after being inspired to shatter the Guinness World Record for world's tallest hat, Joshua Kiser has achieved his dream. The Pennsylvania resident created a 17-foot, 9.5-inch hat out of a small trash can, expanding foam and red fabric, and took home the title after successfully walking 32.8 feet while donning the 26.4-pound cap. It took several tries to design a functional hat, with failed earlier attempts using cardboard, Velcro and wooden dowels.

 
 

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

Image credits, from top: Adalberto Roque / AFP via Getty Images; Doug Mills / Pool / Getty Images; Elsa / Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images