Banking heir gives Trump campaign $50mn

Good morning.

Tim Mellon, a reclusive scion of the billionaire American banking dynasty, gave $50mn to a fundraising group supporting Donald Trump a day after the former US president was convicted of falsifying business records in a New York hush-money trial.

The donation, disclosed yesterday, means Mellon has now given $75mn to the group, known as Make America Great Again Inc, over the past year, according to federal filings.

He has also donated $25mn to a super Pac supporting Robert F Kennedy Jr, the independent presidential candidate.

Mellon, the grandson of former US Treasury secretary Andrew Mellon, is the top donor to both super Pacs, making him a pivotal person in the effort to defeat President Joe Biden in November’s election. Read more on the rich donors backing Trump’s re-election campaign.

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And here’s what I’m keeping tabs on today and over the weekend:

• Economic data: S&P Global is due to report flash Purchasing Managers’ Index data for June, including readings for manufacturing and services activity. Separately, the National Association of Realtors is expected to confirm that existing home sales dropped in May.

• Elections: Voting begins in Italy’s municipal elections run-off on Sunday.

• UK-Japan ties: Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako travel to the UK tomorrow for a state visit.

How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.

Five more top stories

1. Credit agencies have mis-rated more than $100bn of commercial real estate debt in an increasingly popular segment of the market, say mortgage veterans, including at least a dozen deals that maintain top investment-grade ratings even though the borrowers are in default. Read the full story.

2. The Philippines has secretly reinforced a dilapidated warship marooned on a South China Sea reef that is central to an increasingly dangerous dispute with Beijing. The Sierra Madre, which is lodged on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands, has become the most dangerous flashpoint in the Indo-Pacific.

3. Elliott Management, the hedge fund founded by billionaire Paul Singer, has upended a $4bn debt restructuring at a business owned by Carlyle Group. Veritas Holdings, a software business Carlyle bought in 2016, revealed in a securities filing this week that negotiations with an Elliott-led group of creditors over a 2025 debt maturity date had reached an impasse. Here’s why.

4. The US is pausing the delivery of Patriot interceptor missiles to other nations so it can fast-track orders for Ukraine to bolster its air defences against Russian attacks. US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby confirmed the move reported by the FT earlier yesterday, calling it a “difficult but necessary decision”.

5. Washington Post publisher Sir Will Lewis is facing a PR crisis, with his own newspaper and rivals investigating his past as a senior executive at Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Lewis was appointed by the news organisation’s owner, Jeff Bezos, last year to arrest mounting losses and a falling readership. But Lewis angered journalists in the newsroom by appointing his former colleagues to top jobs.

The Big Read

This year, corporate leaders in a range of sectors have acknowledged they cannot meet their greenhouse gas emissions targets. Large companies including Unilever, Bank of America and Shell have in the past year dropped or missed goals to cut emissions or to shrink ties with the most polluting sectors. Others have simply skipped over their promise to improve. Most have justified the failure to keep up with a common complaint: political and regulatory factors are slowing progress.

We’re also reading . . .

• Everton FC: Read our profile of Dan Friedkin, the Hollywood producer, stunt pilot and scion of a car-sales empire now in exclusive talks to buy the Premier League football club.

• French politics: Emmanuel Macron’s snap election gambit has caught everyone by surprise, not least French holidaymakers rushing to sign up for proxy voting in order to save their summer plans.

• Financial shocks: With geopolitical stresses mounting, Gillian Tett asks: can leaders implement the lessons learnt from past shocks in time for the next financial crisis?

• Shein IPO: Ahead of its potential London listing, the China-founded fast-fashion group is balancing western standards on its supply chain and Beijing’s expectations of corporate patriotism.

Chart of the day

A scandal surrounding the timing of the UK general election announcement deepened yesterday as betting exchange data revealed some unusual wagers were placed in the run-up to Rishi Sunak’s shock May 22 statement. The Conservative party’s director of campaigning became the latest individual to be named in connection with an inquiry by the UK’s Gambling Commission. He was on a leave of absence from yesterday, the Tory party said.

Take a break from the news

A new wellness package at a luxury hotel in London’s Bloomsbury area is trying to help guests get more than just a good night’s sleep. Join Emma Jacobs as she visits the Kimpton Fitzroy, and find out if the programme delivered on what it promises: lucid dreams.

Additional contributions from Tee Zhuo and Benjamin Wilhelm