Typhoon Champi Hits Taiwan, a GOP Split Over an Ohio Ad, and Starshield Questions

MayaI'm on my second coffee, and my brain is still buffering. David, tell me something that'll wake me up.

DavidThree stories, and one of them involves a satellite network and two governments telling different tales.

MayaOkay, that did it. I'm awake, and hey, welcome to the morning rundown. I'm Maya, that's David, and we've got a full plate.

DavidWe do. Quick map of the morning in the order we'll hit it. First, a big storm in East Asia that's upending flights and daily life for a lot of people.

MayaSerious stuff. And after that?

DavidA fight inside the Republican Party over an ad in Ohio. Those are always interesting because nobody argues like family.

MayaRight? Holiday dinner, but with campaign money.

DavidAnd the Starshield story. Trump says one thing about Ukraine's access, and Ukrainian officials describe it differently.

MayaWait, really? Same network, two versions?

DavidTwo versions, and we'll try to untangle what the reporting does and doesn't tell us. No guessing past the sources.

MayaGood rule. Okay, but the storm comes first, and that one isn't a joke.

DavidNo, it's not. People are bracing, and flights and daily life are getting upended. So let's start with the storm that's shutting down a big part of East Asia.

MayaOkay, so the BBC's live coverage has the headline first. At least one person has died in Taiwan, and Japan, China, and South Korea are all bracing for the same storm.

DavidWait, all four at once?

MayaYep. Hundreds of flights canceled across East Asia. That's how the BBC framed it.

DavidHundreds. Okay, and do we know how bad it is on the ground in Taiwan itself?

MayaWe do. ABC News Australia has the latest figures. One dead and a hundred and seventy-one injured.

DavidA hundred and seventy-one. That's a lot of people hurt for a storm that hasn't even made landfall.

MayaRight? And about twenty-six hundred were evacuated. Exactly two thousand six hundred and thirty-nine.

DavidAnd the power?

MayaMore than seventy-seven thousand homes lost electricity. Most have it back now, which is the good news.

DavidSmall mercy. Um, what about flights? Because I'd be losing my mind at an airport.

MayaUgh. Friday alone, two hundred and sixty-two domestic flights were canceled and seven hundred and seventeen international.

DavidSeven hundred and seventeen international. That's basically the island saying, "Nobody's coming in, nobody's leaving."

MayaPretty much. Nearly a thousand total.

DavidHere's what jumps out at me. International is way bigger than domestic.

MayaNearly three to one going by those two numbers. Seven hundred and seventeen against two hundred and sixty-two.

DavidFor an island, that tells you something. When the planes stop, the outside world just stops arriving.

MayaAnd keep in mind, that's one day, Friday. Those numbers say nothing about the days on either side of it.

DavidHere's what confuses me, though. I keep seeing that it weakened, so is this a downgrade or not?

MayaTaiwan's Central Weather Administration says it's now a moderate typhoon, but the Taipei Times reports it has a very broad radius.

DavidOh, so weaker but huge.

MayaHuge. The center was projected to pass within about eighty kilometers of the coast. That's roughly fifty miles.

DavidWhich is close enough that you still feel all of it.

MayaTotally, and direct landfall was still possible. Schools and work were canceled in nearly every municipality.

DavidNearly every one. That's not a regional shutdown. That's a whole island saying, "Stay home."

MayaHonestly, hard to argue with.

DavidPicture it, though. School shut, offices shut, nearly everywhere, and everybody's home refreshing the forecast and watching the sky.

MayaAnd with a storm that wide, that forecast matters to a lot of people at once, not just the folks right on the coast.

DavidSo where does it go from here?

MayaThe forecast track passes just off northeast Taiwan. Then it turns toward the Chinese coast and on to southern Japan.

DavidLike a bowling ball with a mind of its own.

MayaKind of. And Taiwan's weather agency says landfall can't be ruled out if the storm stalls or wobbles.

DavidHmm, and the Taipei Times says it should slow down and leave Taiwan proper by Saturday evening.

MayaSlow is the worry, right? Slow means more hours of wind and rain sitting on the same place.

DavidAnd it doesn't stop at Taiwan. Once that track bends, China and Japan are next in line.

MayaWhich fits with why they're watching so closely. So even if Taiwan gets through it, the story keeps moving.

DavidYeah, and tracks change, so this is a moving target.

MayaIt is. Everything we've said is as of Friday, October twenty-third, and the situation is still changing, so the numbers may be different by the time you hear this.

DavidWell, weather you can't argue with. Politics, though, is another story.

MayaAnd a Republican one is getting messy in Ohio.

Speaker 3Okay, Ohio. Vivek Ramaswamy is the Republican nominee for governor, and his campaign dropped an ad that has people from both parties wincing.

DavidWincing how?

Speaker 3The Washington Post framed it as shock jock politics, the kind Republicans have rewarded for about a decade. Their take is that this time, the criticism came from both sides.

DavidBoth sides is the part that jumps out. Usually, these fights split cleanly along party lines.

Speaker 3Right, and that's why it's worth a closer look. The usual script didn't hold.

DavidHuh. So what's in the ad?

Speaker 3It features Donna Arthur, the estranged mother of Democratic opponent Amy Acton. She accuses Acton of lying about her past.

DavidOkay, and Acton's past is?

Speaker 3Public. Newsweek notes she's spoken openly about childhood abuse and homelessness, so the ad is a mother attacking a daughter over a story the daughter already tells herself.

DavidWow.

Speaker 3Yeah.

DavidIt's a heavy thing to hear in a political ad, honestly. Family stuff always lands differently than a policy fight.

Speaker 3It does, and it's why people react to this kind of ad in a gut way, whatever their party.

DavidNow, I mean-

Speaker 4Come on. Hard-hitting campaigning is normal. Nobody expects a governor's race to be a church picnic, and Republicans have watched Democrats go after them plenty.

MayaTotally. Except look at who objected. Newsweek reported that Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican who endorsed Ramaswamy, urged the campaign to take it down. He called it wrong.

Speaker 4Wait, really? Wrong flat out?

MayaWrong. And CNN reported that some other leading Ohio Republicans distanced themselves too.

Speaker 4That matters. That's not the usual critics. That's his own side.

MayaAnd he's not a backbencher. He's the governor, and he endorsed the guy.

Speaker 4Right. Anyway, the party has defenders. CNN says Vance told Republicans to stop whining, and he said the ad calls Acton a liar.

MayaSo his defense is basically it's about honesty, not her family.

Speaker 4Right. And Trump said he didn't know about the ad, but he did say the mother went very rogue.

MayaWhich is a funny way to describe somebody's mom.

Speaker 4Rogue mom. Sounds like a streaming series.

MayaFair enough. But there's a serious version of the Vance argument, right? If a candidate's biography is part of the pitch, it's fair game to challenge it.

Speaker 4Sure. I'd say that's legit. Voters get to test what candidates say about themselves.

MayaBut, but...

Speaker 4But the messenger is her mother, and the topic is abuse. DeWine isn't some cable pundit looking for a fight. He backed this guy. If he sees a line, a lot of ordinary Republican voters might see one too.

MayaMm. And those voters are the whole ballgame in a statewide race.

Speaker 4Exactly. You can be a tough campaigner and still ask whether this particular tool is worth what it costs.

MayaAnd that's the line I keep landing on. Nobody's saying you can't challenge a candidate's story. The question is whether this particular way of doing it helps.

Speaker 4Right. And the Post piece makes that point about limits. The shock jock approach has been rewarded for a decade, but that doesn't mean it works every time.

MayaWhich is the whole idea behind that headline about owning the libs having limits, especially when the target's own family is in the frame.

Speaker 4And I'd call that campaign craft more than a moral lecture. Allies like DeWine are telling you the tactic may cost more than it earns.

MayaWe'll see whether the campaign hears that or whether it simply keeps the ad exactly as it is. Now, from a fight over an ad to a fight over a switch, there's a dispute over satellite internet in Ukraine.

Speaker 4Starshield.

MayaRight. Who actually gets to decide whether Ukraine has access to it? Okay, Starshield. David, you've been waiting to explain this one.

DavidI have. The New York Times reported that Trump asked Elon Musk to reverse limits on Ukraine's military internet use. That's the starting point.

MayaWait, so the president is phoning a private company about a war?

DavidAccording to The Times, yes. That was reported October twenty-second into the twenty-third.

MayaJust to be clear on the setup, this is about Ukraine's military internet use and the limits on it.

DavidRight. The Times reported that limits existed and that Trump asked Musk to reverse them. What those limits are exactly, I'm not gonna guess at.

MayaHuh. And then what? Did Musk just flip a switch?

DavidTrump says so. He said Thursday that Musk had restored Ukraine's access.

MayaGreat. Done. Everybody go home.

DavidNot so fast. Ukrainian officials say restrictions remain, and they say those restrictions complicate Kyiv's war effort.

MayaHold on. Same service, same day, two completely different stories?

DavidRight. Per CNN's update on The Times and Wall Street Journal reporting, that's exactly where things sit as of Thursday.

MayaOkay, so which is it? Because, I mean, come on, somebody knows whether it's on or off.

DavidYou'd think, and it gets more tangled. A source told CNN that Trump asked Musk by phone to restore full access.

MayaA source. One unnamed source.

DavidFair flag. That account leans on someone CNN didn't name, so hold it a little loosely.

MayaBut it doesn't line up with what Trump said before, does it?

DavidNo. Trump had earlier said he wasn't involved.

MayaWait, really? So he wasn't involved, and then he's announcing the fix?

DavidTunky, both can be reported. I'm not going to tell you which is right because the sources don't settle it.

MayaAnd Musk, has he said anything about who runs this?

DavidHe had. Musk said limits on speed or usage are decided by the military and ultimately the president.

MayaHuh. So he was pointing up the chain.

DavidThat's what he said, and it complicates the picture of one man flipping a switch. If the military and the president set the limits, a request from the president to Musk at least fits that, but that's me reading between the lines, and the reporting doesn't spell it out.

MayaWhich leaves the question you can't shake. Who really holds the switch?

DavidRight. Musk's own words put it with the military and the president. Trump's version says Musk restored it. Ukraine's officials say it's still restricted. Those three don't snap together yet.

MayaAnd that matters beyond the argument because this is a country at war. Ukrainian officials say the restrictions complicate Kyiv's war effort. So a switch that's on in one telling and off in another is not a small thing.

DavidWhich is why a clear statement from whoever actually controls the limits would settle more than any of us can. Until then, we have the president's word, Ukraine's complaint, and that one unnamed source.

MayaSo what would settle it for you? Not an opinion, but something concrete.

DavidSomething on the record from whoever sets the limits, yes. Short of that, we're weighing a president's remark against what Ukrainian officials say they're living with.

MayaAnd weighing those for you isn't our job. We'll lay out what each side says and leave it there.

DavidThat's the honest version, I think.

MayaFair enough. That's it for the big stories.

DavidLet's wrap it up.

MayaOkay, that was a big morning, and I'm glad you stuck with us through all of it. Let's do a quick lap before we let you go, and I promise to keep each one short.

DavidFirst, the typhoon. Champi shut down much of Taiwan, and its neighbors were bracing too.

MayaThen Ohio. Ramaswamy's ad with Amy Acton's estranged mother split Republicans, and the governor was among the critics.

DavidAnd Starshield. Trump says Ukraine's access is restored, and Ukrainian officials say otherwise.

MayaTwo of those are still developing, the storm and the Starshield dispute, so keep an ear out for updates.

DavidWhat stuck with me is how different the three felt. The storm is physical. You can't argue with weather.

MayaOhio was about judgment. Hard-hitting campaigning is normal, and the party has its defenders, but pushback from someone like DeWine suggests even allies can see a line.

DavidAnd Starshield is about facts, which should be the easier kind of question, and somehow it's the one that's still tangled.

MayaHonestly, that's the part that gets me. You can argue about taste all day, but facts are supposed to settle things.

DavidThey are, and that's a decent lens for your own news diet, I think. Ask whether the story in front of you is a fact, a judgment call, or a forecast because they deserve different amounts of trust.

MayaOoh, I like that. Three questions free of charge.

DavidWorth every penny. And if you've got family or travel plans touching Taiwan, check local updates and not just US.

MayaGood advice. And for Starshield, watch for who speaks next and how specific they get, especially anyone who actually controls the limits.

DavidExactly. Specifics beat slogans every time.

MayaWell said. Thanks for spending part of your morning with us, everybody.

DavidTake care of yourselves out there, and stay safe if you're anywhere near that storm.

MayaStay dry, and that's The Rundown.