Billionaire Backers: Explore The Big Money Behind Biden And Trump

Plus: A Bipartisan Stimulus Plan—Including More Checks—Was Just Released. But Will It Break The Stalemate?

As readers of this newsletter, you know that for several months I have been tracking the money billionaires are pouring into the 2020 presidential election. Now, you can get an even closer look at what I’ve learned from my reporting. Yesterday, we launched a new project that allows you to explore how hundreds of American billionaires and their spouses are spending their money ahead of Election Day. Who’s getting more money from billionaires? Is it Biden, or Trump? Where do Biden’s biggest donors live? How did Trump’s make their money? We have all that and more inside this new, interactive data tool.

Mind On Their Money

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is reportedly planning to spend up to $50 million in support of President Trump as the election enters its final stretch, which appears to vanquish previous Republican Party concerns that the president had fallen out of favor with the GOP mega donor. 

Billionaire and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said Monday he will vote for Joe Biden and contribute to his campaign. The late-in-the-game endorsement also stated that he plans to give to nonpartisan organizations that support get-out-the-vote efforts.

Amid the controversy over the production of a coronavirus vaccine in the United States—and the ongoing clash between President Trump and scientists over how soon that vaccine might be ready—the federal government Wednesday released a wide-ranging plan for the distribution of free Covid-19 vaccines starting next year. 

The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it would keep interest rates near zero until 2023 in a bid to help support the U.S. economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Wall Street is growing increasingly fearful that a contested presidential election with delayed results could cause stocks to tumble. Here’s why delayed election results might not lead to a market sell-off like in 2000.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that he and his entire staff will be furloughed for a week to help fight the city’s $9 billion dollar budget crisis. The furloughs are expected to save around $860,000.

Protests and riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, have caused $11 million in fire damage to the city, Fire Chief Charles Leipzig said, in the aftermath of unrest from the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot in the back seven times by a white police officer answering a domestic dispute call.

Retired U.S. Gen. Keith Alexander, who served as the director of the National Security Agency from August 2005 to March 2014, joined Amazon's Board of Directors on Wednesday. The news comes less than a week after the Pentagon reaffirmed it would award Microsoft a $10 billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft following an investigation over the decision.

Global Economy

The Trump campaign claimed in Facebook ads on Tuesday that President Trump had “achieved peace in the Middle East” after Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates signed a deal to establish diplomatic relations with Israel – but the small Gulf nations were not at war with the Jewish state, and the firing of rockets from Gaza in response to the accord came as a reminder of the knotty problems that remain unresolved.

AstraZeneca has resumed its phase three clinical trials in the United Kingdom for the company’s coronavirus vaccine candidate after abruptly halting the program earlier this week over fears that a study participant living in the U.K. was reportedly experiencing negative side effects from the drug.

Europe’s largest migrant camp in Greece—which mostly houses asylum seekers fleeing Africa and Afghanistan—remains on the brink of chaos after overcrowding and fears of a Covid-19 outbreak led to fires which razed the camp to the ground, leaving thousands homeless.

Maria Kolesnikova, a leader in the protests against Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko, has been charged with incitement to undermine national security and is facing up to five years in prison as the government continues its crackdown on opposition.

Russia claimed Wednesday the U.S. is funding protests in Belarus and attempting to stage a coup, a statement unsupported by evidence that could signal that weeks of unrest in the Eastern European country may drive a wedge between the United States and Russia.

Barbados has announced that it will remove Queen Elizabeth II as the country’s head of state and transition to a republic by November 2021, becoming the first country since 1992 to remove the Queen—but the monarch will still continue to rule over 14 countries in addition to her home nation of the United Kingdom.

EDITOR'S PICKS

Trump Officials Interfered With CDC Reports On Covid-19 (Politico)

Despite Trump Claims, CDC Says Vaccine Won't Be Widely Available Until Late 2021 (Forbes)

Latino, Black, And Native American Households Face Disproportionate Money Problems During Coronavirus Pandemic, Poll Finds (Forbes)

What To Watch