October 26-27
- North Korean troops in Russia
- Tiktok star & priest quits Church
- Flying shopping cart
- … and much more.
⬇️ STARTER
Meet the Palm Beach billionaires bankrolling Trump’s return to the White House
It’s a mild day with a gentle breeze blowing off the coast, and a procession of Bentleys, Aston Martins, and Range Rovers lines up in front of 1840 South Ocean Blvd. John Paulson, an American billionaire and hedge fund manager, has invited guests to a private fundraising event for Donald Trump during the early phase of the U.S. presidential election campaign.
The venue was Paulson's sprawling estate, featuring endive and frisée salad, filet au poivre, and pavlova with berries for dessert. According to Politico, 117 guests attended, including casino operator Steve Wynn, fracking pioneer Harold Hamm, pharmaceutical heir Woody Johnson, and sugar baron Pepe Fanjul. In total, $50 million was raised to finance Trump's election campaign. "Biggest night in fundraising of ALL TIME!!!" Trump later wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Neither Trump nor most of the generous donors had to travel far for the event. The presidential candidate could have simply strolled down the street from his residence at the lavish Mar-a-Lago resort, accompanied by his wife, Melania, who wore a high-necked pink dress that evening.
Nowhere in the U.S. are so many of the super-rich clustered as tightly as in Palm Beach, Florida, where at least 58 billionaires own homes on this narrow, 15-mile-long strip, according to The Palm Beach Post.
Since Trump made Mar-a-Lago his permanent home, the island has become the heartbeat of the MAGA movement. Trump’s loyalists have dubbed the Spanish colonial-style estate, with its massive U.S. flag waving above, the "White House in Exile." Republican leaders and candidates for various offices flock to Palm Beach from Washington, all hoping for Trump’s endorsement or at least a photo opportunity.
Nowhere else do money and political power intertwine so blatantly.
This is particularly relevant in the election campaign, as Trump needs millions of dollars in local support, and the wealthy residents of Palm Beach expect significant returns on their investments.
According to Forbes magazine, at least 26 billionaires with a combined fortune of $143 billion are currently supporting Trump's campaign financially. Some of them are known to have backed "Project 2025," a controversial policy program intended to outline Trump's second term. However, it became so radical that Trump had to distance himself from it.
Some of the 922 pages resemble a wish list for the super-rich: eliminating supervisory authorities for the financial sector and environmental protection agencies, firing many civil servants in ministries and federal agencies, and replacing them with temporary employees selected by the president. [...]
— Read the full article by Heike Buchter for Die Zeit, translated into English by Worldcrunch.
🎲 OUR WEEKLY NEWS QUIZ
What do you remember from the news this week?
1. Which European country hosted a conference to raise funds for Lebanon?
2. Despite an ongoing border conflict, what two major world leaders met for the first time in five years at the BRICS summit?
3. Which UK political party has Donald Trump’s team accused of election interference?
4. To improve safety and traffic flow, an international airport has introduced a three-minute cap on … check-ins / naps at the airport lounge / hugs / luggage pickup
[Answers at the bottom of this newsletter]
#️⃣ TRENDING
French priest and Tiktok star Matthieu Jasseron, who had been absent from social media for nearly a year, announced in a Youtube video released this week that he was leaving the Church. The 39-year-old cleric, who had over 1.2 million TikTok followers, stirred up controversy in 2021 when he said, “homosexuality is not a sin,” which upset some traditional Catholics. After facing pressure and questioning the Church's handling of scandals, like abuse cases, he decided to step away. While he's no longer a priest or social media influencer, he said he still believes in his faith.
🎭 5 CULTURE THINGS TO KNOW
• Blade Runner 2049 producers sue Elon Musk over robotaxi images. Production firm Alcon Entertainment is suing Tesla, its CEO Elon Musk and Warner Bros. Discovery for using AI-generated image resembling a scene from the 2017 science fiction movie to market Tesla’s new robotaxis. The firm said it had specifically denied a request from Warner Bros. to use material from the film but Tesla allegedly used artificial intelligence to “do it all anyway” at an event in Burbank, California, earlier this month. Alcon is currently working on a spinoff Blade Runner 2099 series for Amazon.
• In memoriam: British singer Paul Di'Anno, who fronted Iron Maiden’s first two albums before leaving the heavy metal band in 1981, has died at the age of 66; Polish musician and teacher Janusz Olejniczak, who recorded the piano parts for Roman Polanski’s Oscar-winning film The Pianist, died aged 72; British cinematographer Dick Pope, known for his work with director Mike Leigh on 11 of his films, including the biopic Mr. Turner, which earned him an Oscar nomination, died at 77 years old; U.S. actor Ron Ely, best known for playing Tarzan in the 1960s television show of the same name, died aged 86.
• New exhibition in Barcelona explores relationship between Joan Miró and Henri Matisse. “Beyond Images” brings together dozens of works from the French Fauvist placed alongside paintings from the Catalan artist to show how the pair was engaged in an artistic dialogue throughout their careers, and how they “revolutionized painting totally,” says Marko Daniel, director of the Fundació Miró in Barcelona. The event at the Miró museum is open from Oct. 25 to Feb. 9.
• Thousands of creatives sign letter voicing AI concerns. Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, actors Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon and writer Kazuo Ishiguro are among 13,500 signatories of a statement that protests the use of creatives’ work to train artificial intelligence tools. “When used irresponsibly, AI poses enormous threats to our ability to protect our privacy, our identities, our music and our livelihoods,” says the letter, which was released this week. This comes amid legal battles between creative professionals and tech firms over the use of their work to train AI models, such as ChatGPT.
• Kuwait bans new Call of Duty game over Gulf War setting. The Mideast nation blocked the release of the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 before its global launch on Oct. 25, due to its setting, in part, in the 1990s Gulf War. While Kuwait has not publicly acknowledged banning the game, Microsoft-owned developer Activision has confirmed its tentpole product “has not been approved for release” in the country. The first-person shooter game also features the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
🤸⚽ SMILE OF THE WEEK
Manchester City striker Erling Haaland produced an improbably acrobatic goal during a match against Prague’s Sparta Praha in the Champions League this week, which saw his team win 5-0. The Norwegian superstar and even his own teammates were left scratching their heads at how the 24-year-old managed to pull that shot off.
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇵🇸 The Arab front in favor of the Palestinian people is more feeble and ambiguous than ever, even as the people of Gaza are being killed by the thousands. Multiple factors can explain this weakness.
— AL-MANASSA
🎖️ Evidence shows that North Korea is covertly sending troops to fight on Russia’s side in Ukraine. But what is Kim Jong-un trying to achieve? More importantly, how does China fit into this picture?
— DIE ZEIT
🇸🇦🇮🇱 The ongoing crackdown on critics of the regime of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman becomes more difficult with the dire situation in Gaza and the ambiguity of Saudi foreign policy.
— DARAJ
🏥 “No one wants to work here anymore.” Years of budget cuts and a sluggish economy have pushed Italy’s public healthcare system to the brink and prompted doctors and nurses to flee the country in search of better pay.
— LA STAMPA
💑💑 Juan Pablo D'Orto and Cecilia Figlioli, who share their lives with another man and woman, are well-known in the world of polyamory in Argentina, as pioneering researchers into the socio-cultural origins of our notions of love and relationships.
— CLARÍN
🛒 BRIGHT IDEA
A South Korean team of engineers developed a prototype for a “flying shopping cart” to transform the shopping experience. “Palletrone” (a portmanteau for cargo “pallet” and multirotor “drone”) is a transport platform controlled by the user who gently pushes or pulls it. The current prototype can carry up to 3 kg (6.6 lbs) and can go upstairs and downstairs, eliminating the need to carry groceries.
👓 WORLDCRUNCH MAGAZINE
Our weekly digital magazine is live — Check it out: full access for subscribers!
⏩ LOOKING AHEAD
• Parliamentary elections will take place in Georgia on Saturday, with foreign policy and the nation's move to a European membership hanging in the balance. In Japan, a general election will be held on Sunday that will be a first test for new prime minister Shigeru Ishiba, who inherited a fractured party that could cede seats to the opposition.
• Vice President and Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris wil give her closing campaign speech on Tuesday at the Ellipse, the site where Donal Trump incited the Capitol riot in January 2021. Harris is set to call on voters to “turn the page” on Trump.
• On the invitation of King Mohammed VI, French President Emmanuel Macron will start a three-day visit to Morocco on Monday, after three years of tensions between the two countries.
• The Vatican will unveil the restored bronze canopy at St. Peter's Basilica on October 27, after a costly 10-month renovation.
News quiz answers:
1. France hosted a conference on aid for conflict-stricken Lebanon in Paris, raising $1 billion in pledges for humanitarian aid and military support to help the country.
2. China’s President Xi Jinping and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan, their first formal talks in five years since their relations went cold after a deadly military clash in 2020.
3. Donald Trump's campaign filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against the UK's Labour Party, accusing it of “blatant foreign interference” in the U.S. election in aid of the Harris-Walz campaign.
4. The international airport in Dunedin, New Zealand, sparked a debate after it introduced a three-minute cap on hugs, adding “for fonder farewells please use the car park.”
✍️ Newsletter by Worldcrunch
Sign up here to receive our free daily Newsletter to your inbox (now six days/week!)
*Photo: Fundació Joan Miró/FB