Republican Rebels | The K-Pop Billionaire | Oil Vultures Circle

Plus: How America’s Richest Colleges Are Getting Away With Charging More While Providing Less During Covid

Good morning.

Instead of a debate, tonight Americans will see Donald Trump and Joe Biden showing off their skills in parallel—and controversial—townhall settings. The televised events are sure to be pinned against each other in terms of ratings, but there’s another way to track candidates’ performance so far—fundraising.

Biden reported a new record in September, raising $383 million. “That’s more money than I’ve ever raised in my whole life,” the candidate said. Also on the anti-Trump front, at least eight more billionaires or spouses of billionaires recently donated to the Lincoln Project, a super-PAC led by former Republican consultants trying to defeat Donald Trump in November.

Among billionaire families there is not necessarily agreement over which candidate to support—in at least one case, a three-comma-couple has split its support.

What Else To Know Now

Europe is closing down again, with two of its biggest cities, Paris and London, announcing new restrictions on social and nightlife activities to curb the spread of coronavirus.  

The Republican Governor of Massachusetts Charlie Baker joined a sizable group of GOP members who have refused to support President Trump for reelection.

Top Take-Aways

Both Facebook and Twitter have taken steps to limit the reach of a New York Post article on Hunter Biden’s alleged emails with a Ukrainian businessman until third-party fact-checkers vet it. The tabloid spins a confusing tale of how a waterlogged laptop was passed from a Delaware repair shop to Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer.

Not just one, but two letters are circulating among faculty at Notre Dame University, where Judge Amy Coney Barrett used to teach law, opposing her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. So far, they’ve received nearly 200 signatures.

A new billionaire was minted in South Korea. Bang Shi-hyuk, founder of the Big Hit Entertainment agency behind K-pop’s most popular boy band BTS, raised $840 million (963 billion won) in the country’s biggest IPO since 2017.

Wells Fargo has reportedly fired more than 100 employees for improperly applying for federal coronavirus relief money—the second bank to do so after JPMorgan took similar actions last month.

With the pandemic hitting demand for oil amid a supply glut, it’s no surprise to see increasing bankruptcies in America’s oilpatch. The vultures are circling—and they can afford to be picky, as well as creative in their financings.

Researchers identified four different syndromes that could be responsible for the symptoms experienced by thousands of people affected by “Long Covid.” Among the long-term impacts of the disease is the potential for permanent deafness—a known consequence of viral infections but has only been documented in a small number of Covid-19 cases so far.

The FDA has approved the world’s first successful treatment for the Ebola virus—a mixture of three monoclonal antibodies produced by U.S. pharmaceutical company Regeneron.

The U.S. Army has embraced naps in its revised fitness training field manual. Business leaders could do well in taking note: peak performance does not come from relentlessly pushing ourselves.

Today's Must Read

Across Forbes