The driest desert on Earth drowns in a single afternoon. Afghanistan's best grape harvest in years has nowhere to go. Gold jumps on Wall Street — and it isn't good news. A tumbleweed becomes a government problem. Four hundred guinea pigs, and the woman who can't quit them. A Rhode Island road buried in squid. A Texas calf loose in a Walmart. And in Cairo, a blind young man builds something that lets his blind sister take in a safari. The Sterling Report for Wednesday, August 19, 2026.