The Headlines - A Final Hunt for Undecided Voters, and Israel Escalates Its War in Lebanon

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

Plus, New York Liberty are W.N.B.A. champions.   Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. On Today’s Episode:Inside the Last-Ditch Hunt by Harris and Trump for Undecided Voters, by Reid J. Epstein and Shane GoldmacherMusk’s $1 Million Offer Raises New Legal Questions, by Theodore SchleiferIsrael Strikes Hezbollah-Affiliated Financial Institution in Lebanon, by Ephrat Livni and Euan WardDrone Hits Building Near Netanyahu’s Home in Coastal Israel, by Liam StackCuba Suffers Second Power Outage in 24 Hours, Realizing Years of Warnings, by David C. AdamsLiberty Oust Lynx in Overtime to Capture First-Ever WNBA Championship, by Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman

From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Monday, October 21st. Here's what we're covering. Voters in the seven battleground states are being inundated with advertising. What kind of country do we want to live in? On television. Nothing will change with Kamala.

On their phones, on the internet, on the radio. I've never been a political person. Never. And in their mailboxes. From the Harris and Trump campaigns and their allies that are trying to reach the small sliver of voters still undecided about either who to vote for or whether to vote at all. Times reporter Reed Epstein is looking at how the Harris and Trump campaigns are locked in a last-ditch hunt for undecided voters just two weeks out from Election Day. Both campaigns tell the Times they think the group that's still up for grabs

is younger and disproportionately Black and Latino. But each campaign has their own research and their own strategy. The Trump research has found that undecided voters are much more focused on the economy, particularly people who are struggling themselves. They find that their target universe of undecided voters are more likely to be working multiple jobs, and they are aiming to draw those voters away from Kamala Harris. Reid says for the Harris campaign, they see a slightly larger undecided pool than Trump's campaign does. And in the final stretch, they're focused not just on reaching young News and trying to appeal to Republican women on Monday with events in the suburbs of Detroit, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee.

Harris, who just set the record for the biggest fundraising quarter ever, bringing in a billion dollars from July through September, has more to spend on the voter hunt. She and her supporters are scheduled to outspend Trump and his backers on TV and radio advertising by 30 percent in these final weeks. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is dramatically ratcheting up his attempts to use his wealth to help Donald Trump win. The billionaire announced that he would give away $1 million once a day to a random registered Pennsylvania voter who signs a conservative petition put together by Musk's super PAC. It's part of an effort to register voters in Pennsylvania by today's deadline. It's illegal under federal law to pay

or offer to pay someone to register to vote, but Musk's allies argue that he's only paying them to sign a petition, so it's not illegal. A former chairman of the Federal Election Committee tells The Times that it's something of a gray area, but, quote, not that close to the line. Musk gave away the first million Saturday night, complete with an oversized check. And his super PAC says it plans to expand the giveaway to registered votersQa'ad al-Hassan, which U.S. officials and others have long accused of being the de facto banking arm of Hezbollah. Lebanon's traditional banking sector is in shambles, and Al-Qa'ad al-Hassan offers loans and financial services for people across Lebanon. Many of its branches are in residential buildings. Israel warned people

living near the branches to evacuate. The strikes mark an apparent escalation of Israel's war with Hezbollah. A senior Israeli official told The Times that targeting the banking system was intended to disrupt Hezbollah's day-to-day operations and make it harder to rebuild. The strikes came after Israel says Hezbollah attempted to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a drone on Saturday. The drone struck a building near Netanyahu's private residence, and no one was hurt. As the strikes on Lebanon continue, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the number of civilian casualties there is, quote, far too high, and that he would like to see Israel scale back some of the strikes,

especially near Beirut. Austin is the most senior U.S. official to say that publicly. He also blamed Hezbollah for hiding its headquarters and weapons among the civilian population. Meanwhile, the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week raised some hopes that negotiations to end the war might gain new momentum. But the Israeli government, Hamas, and Hezbollah have all signaled they will not back down. And the violence instead appears to be ramping up.

A major Israeli airstrike on Saturday in northern Gaza left at least 87 people dead or missing, according to the Gazan health ministry, with dozens more wounded and many people still trapped under the rubble. In Cuba, experts have been warning for years that the country's power grid was on the verge of collapse. It relies on half-a-century-old power plants and requires fuel imports that the government can barely afford. On Friday, the worst predictions came to pass. The grid collapsed, plunging the island into darkness.

Despite efforts to fix it, the grid collapsed again and again over the weekend. When the light came on in the local neighborhood I'm in, there were cheers for joy. And then about 40 minutes later, it went out and there were groans. Ed Augustin is reporting for The Times from Havana. He says Cuba has dealt with rolling blackouts for years, but this time feels different. The hospitals are now running on generators, and government officials have acknowledged they can't be sure when power will be completely restored. I don't have power. The neighbors don't have power. Most of Havana doesn't have power right now. The result of that is that most people where I am at the moment have to go to the local cistern, the local well, to haul up water by bucket because there's no electricity to get it up to the water tanks on their buildings.

So we're talking about the essentials of life. Less water when water's already scarce. Less food when food's already scarce. And it makes the day-to-day existence of people even more difficult than it normally is. As Cuba scrambles to restore electricity, the country's juggling compounding disasters. Hurricane Oscar came ashore on the island last night as a Category 1, and the lack of electricity will likely complicate any rescue or recovery efforts from the storm.

And finally, the WNBA finals wrapped up with a dramatic overtime win by the New York Liberty over the Minnesota Lynx. It's the Liberty's first WNBA title ever, having lost in the finals five times before. It's also the first major basketball championship for any New York team, men or women, since the 1970s. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, a look at how the housing crisis in Nevada could be the motivating factor for voters in the battleground state. That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Traci Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.