Trump taps donors, Japan rebounds and a rubbish idea

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Donald Trump has entered into a joint fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee that will allow the presidential candidate to tap rich donors and end his ability to claim that he is self-financing his own campaign.

Mr Trump can focus his energy on raising money and hitting Hillary Clinton, as the former secretary of state continues to face a challenge from Bernard Sanders.

The Vermont senator beat his Democratic rival in the Oregon primary election, while Mrs Clinton had a razor-thin lead with 46.8 per cent of the vote in Kentucky after 99 per cent of the ballots had been counted.

The results repeat a pattern as Mr Sanders continues to frustrate Mrs Clinton and draws attention to some of her flaws as a candidate. It also comes as some polls show that Mr Trump could pose a bigger threat to Mrs Clinton than many had previously expected. (FT)

In the news

US business prefers Clinton Lobbying groups from a wide cross-section of American companies would prefer Democrat Hillary Clinton in the White House over businessman Donald Trump by a ratio of two to one, in one of the clearest signs the controversial Republican is straining ties between the party and its traditional base. (FT)

Obama administration extends overtime pay Millions more Americans are set to qualify for overtime pay under a final Labor Department regulation, in what could be President Barack Obama’s last big push to shore up workers’ wages. (WSJ)

Venezuelan crisis deepens Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles has urged the army to choose whether it is “with the constitution” or with President Nicolás Maduro, after a state of emergency was declared. The 60-day emergency gives soldiers and police wider powers to deal with the country’s spiralling economic crisis. Mr Capriles called on Venezuelans to ignore it and take to the streets on Wednesday. (BBC)

Magic-mushroom drug ‘lifts depression’ A hallucinogenic chemical in magic mushrooms shows promise for people with untreatable depression, the first safety study of this approach has concluded. One week after receiving an oral dose of psilocybin, all 12 patients involved in the test experienced a marked improvement in their symptoms. Three months on, five patients were in complete remission. (Nature)

Former Mafia-linked figure tied to Trump The GOP candidate has repeatedly said he barely remembers Felix Sater, but the Russian-born businessman, in previously unreported sworn testimony reviewed by The Post, described a closer relationship. (Wapo)

Jihadi site’s Google ads bonanza An Islamist extremist accused of funding the 2009 Jakarta suicide bombings has been selling advertising space on his website to international brands including Citigroup, IBM and Microsoft using a service provided by Google. (FT)

GM crops safe but . . . A top US science academy has found that genetically engineered crops appear to be safe to eat and safe for the environment in a new comprehensive analysis. But it remains unclear whether the technology has actually increased crop yields, and the 400-page study is unlikely to end the highly divisive debate over biotech crops. (NYT)

Japan rebounds The country’s economy grew at an annualised rate of 1.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2016, easily beating expectations of a 0.3 per cent rise, in a big boost to the country’s beleaguered policymakers. (FT)

It’s a big day for

Mark Zuckerberg The Facebook founder will extend an olive branch to 15 high profile US conservatives, including Glenn Beck, a TV host, and Barry Bennett, an adviser to Donald Trump. The meeting was arranged after the site was accused of tampering with its Trending Topics feature, promoting “progressive” views and websites over content presenting views from the American right. (BBC)

Hong Kong The province’s normally bustling Wan Chai district was under lockdown as top Chinese official Zhang Dejiang entered his second day of economic-policy talks — an occasion many political activists here are using to decry China’s increasing encroachment on the semi-autonomous territory. (Time, FT)

Food for thought

The next big quake A huge earthquake in Japan’s industrial heartland — costing as much as 40 per cent of GDP, disrupting supply chains and killing up to 320,000 people — is seen as inevitable. An FT interactive explains why understanding the risk and reducing damage is critical. (FT)

Elites are to blame for the rise of Donald Trump Martin Wolf takes on the ascent of the former reality TV star, who has been criticised as a racist and demagogue even as he has all but wrapped up the Republican presidential nomination. “It is hard to exaggerate the significance and danger of this development. The US was the bastion of democracy and freedom in the 20th century. If it elected Mr Trump, a man with fascistic attitudes to people and power, the world would be transformed.” Sign up for our daily US politics newsletter here. (FT)

600 years later, the same dynasties reign A new study comparing tax records for family dynasties in Florence in 1427 and 2011 shows that the top earners among current taxpayers are the same families at the top of the socio-economic ladder six centuries ago. (CEPR)

A rubbish idea Desk-side bins have disappeared and it seems to be their convenience that has doomed them, writes Pilita Clarke. But Keep America Beautiful found that, if you put a recycling bin next to each desk, alongside a smaller rubbish container, you can increase office recycling by 20 per cent and slash contamination of the recyclable materials too. Put simply, “increasing convenience improved recycling behaviour”. (FT)

Rewarding musicians The music business is at a paradoxical crossroads. Listeners consume more music than at any time in history. Many Americans spend their waking hours with buds in their ears: walking down the street, commuting, even when working. This kind of immersion in music was never previously possible. But this abundance has not meant prosperity for the people who make it possible — quite the opposite. A proposed law, while hardly a panacea, offers a small corrective. (The New Yorker)

Predicting the internet age The futuristic world portrayed in The Machine Stops is an eerily familiar one. People mostly communicate with each other via screens, the rarity of face-to-face interaction has rendered it awkward, and knowledge and ideas are only shared by a system that links every home. Yet that world was imagined not by a contemporary writer but by the Edwardian author Edward Morgan Forster. (BBC)

Video of the day

Market Minute — the dollar is back Katie Martin highlights the markets stories to look out for on Wednesday, including the dollar catching pretty much everyone off balance and oil making heavy work of its rally. (FT)