Today, we discuss Kamala Harris' near-billion-dollar campaign donations, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's trip to the Middle East, and the BRICS Summit hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. From to our news, this is your daily briefing for Tuesday, the 22nd of October 2024. Our top story today is that US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has raised nearly $1 billion in the past three months. More than Republican candidate Donald Trump has managed to raise since January 2023.
According to the Financial Times, between July and the end of September this year, Harris' campaign and affiliate groups raised $971 million, while Trump's entire campaign has raised $894 million. Since replacing Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee on the 21st of July, Harris has received money from 4.9 million donors, more than three times as many as Trump. A graphic by the FT also shows the exact days when donations have spiked for both Harris and Trump, and the results are pretty interesting. The best day for fundraising for the Harris campaign was the day she replaced Biden.
The second best was after the Harris Trump debate, and the third best was when Waltz was announced as Harris' VP. By contrast, the best day for the Trump campaign was the day he was convicted of 34 felony crimes back in May, since then his donations have basically flatlined. However, one key difference between the two candidates is where their money is coming from. In the US, campaign groups known as PACs or Political Action Committees, attacks exempt organizations that pool donations from members and then donate them to candidates, but there were strict limits on how much they can contribute.
However, so-called SuperPACs, which emerged after court rulings in the 2010, are allowed to raise unlimited amounts from individuals, corporations, and unions as long as they don't coordinate directly with political campaigns. In Trump's case, SuperPACs, funded by megadoners, account for nearly half his campaign money, while in Harris' case, the account for about a fifth. Trump's biggest SuperPAC donors are four billionaires, the heir to the men on banking family, Timothy Mellon, Israeli American businesswoman Miriam Adelson, Tech Tycoon Elon Musk, and the founder of the US's biggest shipping and packaging supplier, Richard Ooline. The data comes with just two weeks to go until the election on November 5th, which analysts are expecting to be incredibly close.
The latest polls show Trump and Harris neck and neck, and the final result is likely to come down to narrow victories in a handful of swing states. There's more on the way, but remember to subscribe and hit the bell for more daily briefing tomorrow. Plus, if you want to support the channel like Ruben Niederhagen, then consider joining the TLDR Daily Membership Program for just $1.99. Over in Israel, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is once again attempting to push for a Middle East ceasefire after Israel killed the leader of a mass, Yaha Sinwah last week.
It will likely be the final push before the US election on November 5th, which could append US foreign policy. Blinken's trip to the region will start in Israel, where he intends to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence Mr Yohav Galant to discuss what will happen in Gaza when the war ends. The US has said it wants Gaza to be reunited with the West Bank under a government run by the Palestinian Authority, but Israel has repeatedly refused to support a Palestinian state under the PA. Blinken's visit, which will also see him travel to Jordan and Qatar, is also taking place against a backdrop of high tensions between the US and Israel.
Last week, the US sent a warning to Israel over reports of humanitarian aid being cut off from the Gaza Strip, and several European allies including France and Spain have also called for a halt to armed exports to Israel amid its mounting offensive in southern Lebanon. Moving to Russia now, where President Putin is today hosting partners from China, India, Brazil and the Arab world in the Russian city of Kazan. The three-day brick summit begins today and will see Putin meet more than 20 heads of state, including China's Xi Jinping, India's Narendra Modi and Iran's Masuda possession. Now, for Putin, this is an opportunity to show that the sanctions the Russian economy has endured since the start of his illegal invasion of Ukraine two years ago are not working.
It's also an opportunity to try and persuade the other bricks members to adopt an alternative to the dollar for global payments. Chris Reffert, the founding partner of consultancy firm Macro Advisory, explained that the US Treasury has enormous power and influence over global trade, simply because the US dollar is the main currency for settling that. Russia's main interest is in breaking the dominance of the US dollar. It wants bricks countries to create an alternative trade mechanism and cross-border settlement system that does not involve the dollar, the euro or any of the G7 currencies so that sanctions won't matter so much.
We'll update you on any big developments from the summit. Moving to the UK now, where UK borrowing has exceeded official forecasts. It's been reported by the FT this morning that public sector borrowing not only increased in September but was higher than official forecasts. The total borrowing figure for September was 16.6 billion pounds, which is about 2.1 billion pounds more than last year and is the third highest September figure since records began in January 1993.
Now, it's worth pointing out here that while this is higher than the £15.1 billion forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility, it's actually lower than the £17.5 billion expected by economists polled by Reuters. Alex Kerr, an economist at Capital Economics, pointed out that these latest figures meant that borrowing was on track to overshoot the OBR's forecast for the fiscal year 24-25. This highlights just how difficult Chancellor Rachel Reeves' job will be next week when she delivers the budget. She's made clear that she won't be raising taxes on working people, there's also stated that she won't raise corporation tax.
Additionally, the Chancellor has also stated that she'll stick to the fiscal rule that debt as a share of GDP will be falling by the fifth year of the forecast by the OBR. We'll have to wait and see next week exactly how she balances all of this in the budget. In today's uplifting story, we feature one of the UK's best love celebrities who's finally been given a British passport. Paddington Bear, whose official name is Paddington Brown, has been granted a physical passport by the UK Home Office.
Rob Silva, the co-producer of the latest Paddington film which comes out next month, said, we wrote to the Home Office asking if we could get a replica and they actually issued Paddington an official passport. You wouldn't think that the Home Office would have a sense of humour, but under official observations, they've just listed him as Bear. Brown, who's known to most people as Paddington, was born in Peru, but fled to the UK after an earthquake destroyed his home. Lost and homeless in London is kindly taken in by Henry and Mary Brown, and soon developed a keen taste of marmalade.
Famous for his blue duffel coat, red hat and battered brown suitcase, Paddington even had after an in tea with the Queen in 2022 to celebrate her platinum jubilee. We obviously discussed the upcoming US election earlier in the episode, and if that's something you enjoyed, you should check out too long, the 2024 election special. For those of you who don't know, too long is our physical magazine, where every four months we dive deep into stories we care about and you should know about. The next issue, set to be published on December 1, will run through every election that's happened in 2024, a year shaped by landmark elections across the globe, from the UK and US to elections in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Mexico, Rwanda, and the biggest democratic exercise in history in India.
It's not just elections either, the next issue of too long will also discuss the first months of new labour administration in the UK, unpack the successes and failures of Biden's administration, ask why Europe feels so leaderless right now, the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, and much, much more. You can pre-only your copy now at toolong.news. Better still, you can also subscribe to get 25% off every copy as long as you remember, and get every copy sent to your front door or inbox. Plus, if you use code too daily, you'll get an additional £2 off your order, which could bring the price down as low as £5.49.
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