{beacon} 12:30 REPORT It’s Friday! Tomorrow officially kicks off the monthlong countdown to Election Day. Here's what's going on today: Trump will return to the site of the first assassination attempt against him.Biden is receiving some props for the end of the port strike.Liz Cheney campaigned with Harris and had a few words for Trump. Obama is hitting the campaign trail for Harris.Boris Johnson has an interesting theory about bathroom spies.  I’m Elizabeth Crisp, filling in for Cate, with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here. Send me your tips: [email protected] and follow me on X @elizabethcrisp. 🚢 Talk of The Morning Port strike ends after two days, soothing Democrats’ worries:Hear that? It’s the collective sigh of relief from the Harris campaign and Democrats across the country, who worried about what a long-term strike at the nation’s ports could mean heading into the Nov. 5 election.   Background: The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), an association of companies that operate East and Gulf Coast ports, reached a tentative agreement Thursday to end a two-day strike and allow negotiations to continue through January. Details: USMX agreed to boost pay for port workers, and the ILA said union members would return to work immediately.  “The International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance, Ltd. have reached a tentative agreement on wages and have agreed to extend the Master Contract until January 15, 2025 to return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues. Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume,” the two organizations said in a joint statement obtained Thursday by The Hill.   Democrats are relieved: The strike threatened to put Biden and Harris in a precarious position if it stretched closer to Election Day, as The Hill’s Tobias Burns explained. Biden, who has stood behind the striking workers, hailed the agreement as a win for collective bargaining powers. “Today’s tentative agreement on a record wage and an extension of the collective bargaining process represents critical progress towards a strong contract,” he said in a statement. ➤  CUE THE 'DARK BRANDON' MEMES: The news, and the fact that the tentative deal runs to Biden’s final week in office, set off a popular theme on social media.   🧻  Butt of the joke: (⬅️ I'm sorry for that, but I couldn't resist) Lots of social media users poked fun at the toilet paper panic-buying spree amid news of the strike. From one X user: “Can I get a live reaction from the ppl who bought lockdown amounts of toilet paper over this?”  ➤  MORE GOOD NEWS FOR BIDEN ADMINISTRATION:The U.S. added 254,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate ticked lower to 4.1 percent, according to Labor Department data released Friday. (The Hill) 🚌 On The Campaign Trail  Trump returns to site of first assassination attempt: ©  AP Former President Trump will return this weekend to the very site in Pennsylvania where a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his ear during a campaign rally in July. Trump had promised he would return after the Butler, Pa., rally was cut short by the shooting. The gunman and a Trump supporter were killed, and two other attendees were injured. The shooting came just days before the Republican National Convention, where Trump accepted the GOP presidential nomination while wearing a large bandage over his injured ear.  Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump after the assassination attempt, plans to join Trump for the return. Saturday’s event is set to kick off at 7 p.m. EDT. ➤  RELATED: Former first lady Melania Trump spoke out about watching video of the attempt on her husband’s life: “He could not be with us,” she told Fox News’s Sean Hannity in an interview that aired Thursday. Cheney did not mince words: Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) had some blistering words for former President Trump when she joined Vice President Harris for a campaign rally Thursday.  “I was a Republican even before Donald Trump started spray tanning,” she said to gasps and laughs from the crowd in Ripon, Wis., which is considered the birthplace of the GOP.  Background: Cheney said her GOP campaign work began at 10 years old, when she helped seal envelopes for President Ford’s reelection campaign. She cast her ballot for President Reagan in 1984 — the first presidential race that she was old enough to vote in. Cheney and Trump have been feuding for some time, and he led the charge to boot the conservative Republican leader from the House two years ago. Now, she’s backing Harris and plans to vote Democrat for the first time in her life. The rest of Cheney's speech was much more serious, but nonetheless scathing.  "In this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration, it is our duty," Cheney said, calling out Trump's "depravity" on Jan. 6, 2021, as rioters stormed the Capitol to disrupt the election certification process. "What Jan. 6 shows us is that there is not an ounce, not an ounce of compassion in Donald Trump. He is petty, he is vindictive and he is cruel."  Trump's response: The remarks unsurprisingly provoked a retort from Trump. The former president and current GOP presidential nominee shot back that he thinks Cheney is a “low-IQ war hawk.”   Tidbit: Cheney previously revealed that she thought about using the spray-tan line on social media after Trump called her a "RINO" (Republican In Name Only), but her communications director at the time dissuaded her by arguing, "Actually, technically, we don't know how long Donald Trump's been spray tanning."  ➤  MORE CAMPAIGN READS: 🔹 Harris isn’t putting too much emphasis on the fact that she could become first female president, but is instead hyper focused on the Midwest. Here are just a few ways she’s pivoting from Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful gameplan in 2016. 🔹 Trump's reaction to Melania Trump coming out as a staunch supporter of abortion rights: "Got to write what you believe.” 🤷  🔹 Former President Obama is hitting the campaign trail to stump for Harris.  🔹 Democrats suspect Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to interfere in U.S. domestic politics by ignoring calls to negotiate a peace deal in Gaza and by confronting Hezbollah and Iran weeks before the U.S. election.  🔹 Some Republicans running for competitive or Democratic-leaning congressional seats are adopting and reviving a label that was nearly extinct in their party: Pro-choice. 🔹 Must read: Politico Magazine's Michael Kruse has a fascinating story out this morning on the vice president's late mother, Shyamala Gopalan.  🔹  After you read that ^, read this: The New York Times is out with a deep dive into the rocky relationship between Harris and her father, Donald J. Harris. Fun fact from the Times piece: Harris’s stepmother babysat Maryland Gov. Wes Moore when he was a child growing up in the Bronx. 🚧 Hurricane Helene  Residents affected by Helene still reeling:©  AP Rescue and recovery efforts are continuing across the Southeast in the wake of the catastrophic Hurricane Helene, with President Biden, Vice President Harris and former President Trump all trekking to the most devastated areas in recent days. With more than 210 deaths across six states, Helene officially is the deadliest hurricane to make landfall on the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, The Washington Post reports.  Aside from the devastating damage and death toll, North Carolina officials also are concerned about people being able to vote in the upcoming elections.  Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, is traveling to Georgia today for a briefing on the recovery efforts in areas affected.   Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, is scheduled to travel Saturday to North Carolina for a briefing with local officials and to survey damage. She visited Georgia on Wednesday to meet with affected families. The Hill’s deputy managing editor Katie Wadington lives in North Carolina, south of the devastated area of Asheville. Read her latest dispatch from N.C.: Asheville’s needs are vast and varied  Oh gosh, this sucks: Just 0.8 percent of homes in inland counties across seven affected states had flood insurance, according to The Washington Post's analysis of recent data from the National Flood Insurance Program. That's compared to 21 percent of homes in coastal counties in those areas.  Tidbit: A helicopter pilot from South Carolina who was trying to rescue people trapped in the storm's wake and distribute much-needed supplies told WJZY that he was threatened with arrest if he didn't stop.🐝 Internet Buzz  😊  It’s World Smile Day! Follow the holiday's official slogan: "Do an act of kindness, make one person smile" — a quote attributed to Massachusetts native Harvey Ball, the artist who created the iconic yellow smiley face in 1963.  🚽  Crap talking: Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson thinks that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have bugged his bathroom with a listening device when he used the "loo" in 2017. 🧙‍♀️ "I'm not a witch!": Happy birthday to one of the greatest political ads ever.  🍺️ O'zapft is! The first weekend in October means Oktoberfest events have begun in the DMV! The Wharf, Vienna’s Church Street and several local bars and beer gardens will host celebrations Saturday.   💕️ Love is Blind in D.C.: The new D.C.-centric season of Netflix's hit show "Love is Blind" is here, featuring a slate of singles from within a 20-mile radius of the nation's capital looking for love sight-unseen. The Washington Post has highlights (and lowlights) of the first six episodes that dropped this week. New ones will come out every Wednesday. EaterDC has a roundup of weekly watch parties in the area. 📆 On The Agenda  The House and Senate are out. President Biden is at the White House, and Vice President Harris is in Michigan. All times Eastern. (all times Eastern) 1 p.m.: GOP vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) delivers remarks in Lindale, Ga.1:30 p.m.: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefs reporters. 3:45 p.m.: Former President Trump and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) will address reporters in Evans, Ga., after a briefing on Hurricane Helene recovery efforts.6 p.m.: Vice President Harris campaigns in Flint, Mich. 7 p.m.: Trump holds a town hall in Fayetteville, N.C.7:20 p.m.: Second gentleman Doug Emhoff takes part in a Team Harris-Walz get-out-the-vote concert with musicians Jason Isbell and Michael Stipe in Pittsburgh. This weekend: Trump returns Saturday to Butler, Pa., the site of the July assassination attempt against him, to rally voters.👋 And Finally…  Check out this video of some cute kids hopping around. 🐐 Close Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. Sign up for the 12:30 Report newsletter Subscribe