| Inside team | If Biden wins, he plans to fill his national-security team exactly the way Trump didn't — with officials well-known inside the Washington Beltway who carry resumes full of government experience. Biden's two top candidates for secretary of state are said to be longtime aide Antony Blinken and Susan Rice, the Obama-era national security adviser. Campaign 2020 There are 18 days until the election. Here's the latest on the race for control of the White House and Congress. Concerns about the pandemic have increased mail-in ballots and led to unprecedented levels of early voting, especially among Democrats, according to the University of Florida Elections Project. Other developments Sign up to receive daily election updates as a direct mobile notification on Twitter. Simply click on this link and like the tweet. On the clock | U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to decide whether to abandon trade talks with the European Union after the bloc's leaders, who are meeting again today, refused to give him the clear signal he wants in order to remain at the table. The risks are rising that the U.K. walks away — and ultimately crashes out of its post-Brexit transition period on Dec. 31 without an agreement. Losing battle | European leaders are confronting the alarming reality that their attempts to avoid further lockdowns are crumbling in the face of a second virus wave. From London to Prague, a sense of summer optimism that the economy could be shielded during the inevitable resurgence has evaporated as fall takes hold. With cases at records, curfews are slamming businesses and regions are clashing with central governments over local restrictions. Winter isn't even here yet. Tech threats | Beijing's fine tuning a new law that will help it ward off tech attacks from Washington by allowing China to evoke national security concerns to block exports of key technologies. A meeting of the country's top legislative body is expected to approve the export control regulation tomorrow.
The pandemic will produce lasting shifts to global growth, pushing China even more to the forefront. The proportion of worldwide growth coming from China is expected to increase from 26.8% in 2021 to 27.7% in 2025.  Cuba lifeline | Members of the informal group of rich nations known as the Paris Club are close to suspending Cuba's debt obligations for this year, defying U.S. attempts to block financial relief to the communist island. As Alonso Soto, Ben Bartenstein and Alessandra Migliaccio report, at least a dozen countries may agree to Havana's request to delay a payment due at the end of this month, to help the Caribbean nation mitigate the fallout of the pandemic. What to Watch - Anti-government protesters plan to defy a ban on gatherings in Thailand's capital for a third day and also hold rallies across the nation.
- U.S. authorities detained former Mexican Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos, the country's most senior military official involved in an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
- New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern looks set for a resounding victory tomorrow as voters applaud the way her government handled the pandemic, with results expected late that evening.
- Bolivia's socialists are seeking to retake power in elections on Sunday, a year after their leader Evo Morales was ousted and driven into exile.
- Argentina's ruling coalition is under strain 10 months after taking power, complicating the nation's challenge to dig itself out of a deep recession while President Alberto Fernandez's popularity plummets.
Pop quiz, readers (no cheating!). Name the Chilean indigenous people who are campaigning for compensation for land taken in the timber-producing south. Send us your answers to balancepower@bloomberg.net.
And finally ... Three destructive typhoons, U.S.-backed sanctions and the pandemic are fueling concern that North Korea's 26 million people could slip back into the devastating food shortages the country faced during the rule of Kim Jong Un's father in the 1990s, Heesu Lee writes. Despite improvements in farm output in recent decades, the country is still in the bottom quarter of the Global Hunger Index, and in the top quarter of the Index for Risk Management.  Destruction caused by Typhoon Bavi in Pyongyang. Photographer: Kim Won Jin/AFP via Getty Images | 
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