Sri Lanka’s Marxist-leaning leader, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, grabbed a commanding early lead on Sunday in his bid to become the next president of the debt-ridden country seeking to elect a leader to bolster its fragile economic recovery.

Dissanayake won about 53% of a million votes counted so far in the election, Sri Lanka’s Election Commission data showed. Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa was second at 22%, ahead of President Ranil Wickremesinghe in third place.

About 75% of the eligible 17 million people in the Indian Ocean island nation cast their votes in Saturday’s election, according to the poll body.

Dissanayake contested as candidate for the National People’s Power (NPP) alliance, which includes his Marxist-leaning Janatha Vimukthi Peremuna (JVP) party that has traditionally backed stronger state intervention, lower taxes and more closed market economic policies.

Although JVP party has just three seats in parliament, the 55-year-old Dissanayake has been boosted by his promises of tough anti-corruption measures and more pro-poor policies.

He presented himself as the candidate of change, promising to dissolve parliament within 45 days of coming to power in order to seek a fresh mandate for his policies in the general elections.

“After a long and arduous campaign, the results of the election are now clear,” Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said on X.

“Though I heavily campaigned for President Ranil Wickremasinghe, the people of Sri Lanka have made their decision, and I fully respect their mandate for Anura Kumara Dissanayake.”

This was Sri Lanka’s first election since the economy buckled in 2022 under a severe foreign exchange shortage, leaving the country unable to pay for imports of essentials including fuel, medicine and cooking gas.

Thousands of protesters marched in Colombo in 2022 and occupied the president’s office and residence, forcing then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee and later resign. Buttressed by a $2.9 billion bailout programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the economy has posted a tentative recovery but the high cost of living was still a critical issue for many voters.

Although inflation cooled to 0.5% last month from a crisis high of 70%, and the economy is forecast to grow in 2024 for the first time in three years, millions remain mired in poverty, with many pinning hopes of a better future on the next leader.

The winner will have to ensure Sri Lanka sticks with the IMF programme until 2027 to get its economy on a stable growth path, reassure markets, repay debt, attract investors and help a quarter of its people climb out of poverty.

In his manifesto, Dissanayake, known for his ability to deliver stirring speeches, has pledged to slash taxes that would impact fiscal targets, leaving investors and market participants worried about his economic policies.

However, during campaign speeches he has taken a more conciliatory approach, saying any changes would be undertaken in consultation with the IMF and that he is committed to ensuring repayment of debt.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah announced that it fired a barrage of missiles at a military base deep inside Israel early Sunday following an Israeli airstrike more than a day earlier that killed at least 37 people, including one of the militant group’s senior leaders as well as women and children.

It was not immediately clear if any of the rockets had hit their target. Israel’s emergency medical services reported that a man was lightly wounded by shrapnel from a missile that was intercepted in a village in the lower Galilee.

Local media reported that rockets shot from Lebanon were intercepted in the areas of Haifa and Nazareth. The Israeli military said only that it had monitored the launch of “about ten rockets” from Lebanon, of which most were intercepted.

Hezbollah said it had launched “dozens of Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles” – a new type of weapon the group had not used before – at the Ramat David airbase, southeast of Haifa, “in response to the repeated Israeli attacks that targeted various Lebanese regions and led to the fall of many civilian martyrs.”

In July, the group had released a video with what it said was footage it had filmed of the base with surveillance drones.

Israel and Hezbollah had exchanged heavy fire on Saturday as rescue crews in Beirut searched the rubble of an apartment building that was leveled by the Israeli strike the day before.

Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel for a wave of apparently remotely detonated explosions that hit pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 37 people – including two children – and wounding around 3,000. The attacks were widely blamed on Israel, which has not confirmed or denied responsibility.

On Friday, an Israeli airstrike took down an eight-story building in a densely populated neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs as Hezbollah members were meeting in the basement, according to Israel. Among those killed was Ibrahim Akil, a top Hezbollah official who commanded the group’s special forces unit the Radwan Force. Also killed was Ahmed Wahbi, a top commander in the group’s military wing, the Israeli military said.

Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, told reporters Saturday that at least seven women and three children were killed in Friday’s airstrike on the building. He said another 68 people were injured, including 15 who were hospitalized.

It was the deadliest strike on Beirut since the bruising monthlong war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, and the casualty count could grow, with 23 people still missing, a government official said.

Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said the attack thwarted the group’s chain of command while taking out Akil, who he said was responsible for Israeli deaths and who was on the U.S. wanted list for years.

“This is our commitment to the fallen and their loved ones. This is our commitment to the residents of the north. And this is a clear message to all those who seek to harm us,” he posted on X.

The Israeli government braced for an expected surge in Hezbollah rocket attacks by setting new caps on the size of gatherings and other restrictions in the north of the country, near Israel’s border with Lebanon.

Akil, the main target, had been wanted by the U.S. for years for his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s. The U.S. State Department last year announced a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to his “identification, location, arrest, and/or conviction.”

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan called Akil’s death “a good outcome” and said he had “American blood on his hands” for the embassy attack.

“You know, 1983 seems like a long time ago,” Sullivan said. “But for a lot of families and a lot of people, they’re still living with it every day.”

Wahbi was described as a commander who played major roles within Hezbollah for decades and was imprisoned in an Israeli jail in southern Lebanon in 1984. Hezbollah said he was one of the “field commanders” during a 1997 ambush in southern Lebanon that left 12 Israeli troops dead.

Hezbollah announced overnight that 15 of its operatives had been killed by Israeli forces, but it didn’t how or where they died. Meanwhile, the Israeli army spokesperson, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said Saturday 16 Hezbollah fighters were killed in Friday’s strike.

Israel and Hezbollah engaged in heavy back-and-forth strikes on Saturday. The Israeli military confirmed that about 90 rockets had been fired at northern Israel and that Israel had struck more than 400 rocket launchers in Lebanon during the day.

Expecting a surge in rocket attacks, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli defense spokesman, announced updated safety guidelines for areas north of Haifa, including caps on gatherings of 30 people in open spaces and 300 in enclosed spaces. Work and school can continue if people can reach protected areas in a timely manner. But since students and teachers in some places wouldn’t be able reach shelters in the required time, Sunday classes were canceled in at least two border regions within an hour of the announcement.

Earlier this week, Israel’s security cabinet said stopping Hezbollah’s attacks on the country’s north, which would allow displaced residents to return to their homes, is now an official war goal, as Israel considers a wider military operation in Lebanon that could spark an all-out conflict. Israel has since sent a powerful fighting force to its northern border.

Hezbollah has maintained that it will halt its strikes only when a cease-fire is reached between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire regularly since Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel ignited the Israeli military’s devastating offensive in Gaza. But previous cross-border attacks have largely struck areas in northern Israel that had been evacuated and less-populated parts of southern Lebanon.

Friday’s strike came hours after Hezbollah launched one of its most intense bombardments of northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting, largely targeting Israeli military sites. Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted most of the Katyusha rockets.

The militant group said its latest wave of rocket salvos was a response to Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon. However, it came days after mass explosions of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies killed at least 37 people, including two children, and wounded roughly 3,000 others.

Abiad, the Lebanese health minister, said Saturday that hospitals across the country were filled with the wounded.

The pager and walkie-talkie attacks have been widely attributed to Israel, which hasn’t confirmed or denied involvement. They marked a major escalation in the past 11 months of simmering conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border.

Vice President Kamala Harris said on Saturday that she would be open to debating former President Donald Trump for a second time in October, ahead of the November U.S. presidential election.

Jen O’Malley Dillon, chair of Harris and vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s campaign, said in a statement that Harris has accepted CNN’s invitation to a debate on Oct. 23. That would be less than two weeks before the election.

“I will gladly accept a second presidential debate on October 23. I hope @realDonaldTrump will join me,” Harris wrote in an X post.

It isn’t the first time the Harris camp has proposed another match. Shortly after Harris and Trump held a debate hosted by ABC News earlier this month, O’Malley Dillon said Harris was ready for round two against him. But as Harris was raising millions of dollars following the campaign, Trump declined to face her again.

In a post on the Trump Media & Technology Group’s social network, Truth Social, the Republican presidential nominee said there would be “no third debate.”

On Saturday, a Trump campaign spokesperson referred CNBC back to Trump’s Truth Social post about there being no third debate.

“She’s done one debate,” Trump said at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday. “I’ve done two. It’s too late to do another. I’d love to, in many ways, but it’s too late. The voting is cast.”

The first 2024 debate for Trump was against the current president, Joe Biden. CNN ran the event in June. But Biden struggled on the debate stage. Democratic donors expressed concerns about Biden’s prospects, and Democratic members of Congress called on Biden to end his election bid. In August, Harris accepted the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

“Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to this debate,” O’Malley Dillon wrote in her statement. “It is the same format and setup as the CNN debate he attended and said he won in June, when he praised CNN’s moderators, rules and ratings.”

— CNBC’s Rebecca Picciotto contributed to this report.

WATCH: Harris won the debate but didn’t move the needle on voter decisions, says Pimco’s Libby Cantrill

The nation’s wealthy opened their wallets in August with a focus on election season, donating millions to the super PACs backing Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump and Democrats and Republicans throughout the country, according to monthly reports filed with the Federal Election Commission on Friday.

The largest single-contributor donations went to MAGA Inc., the super PAC backing Trump, with Wisconsin roofing billionaire Diane Hendricks, a prolific GOP megadonor, giving $10 million to the group.

Howard Lutnick, the CEO of the financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald, and Paul Singer, the president of Elliott Management, an investment management firm, both gave $5 million to MAGA Inc.

Annette Caldwell Simmons, the widow of businessman Harold Simmons, gave $2 million to MAGA Inc., while Warren Stephens, the CEO of investment bank Stephens Inc., gave $1 million.

On the Democratic side, tech entrepreneurs were the biggest donors to FF PAC, also known as Future Forward, a super PAC backing Harris’ presidential bid.

The biggest donors to the group in August were Facebook and Asana co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson and his wife, Erica.

Moskovitz donated $3 million to FF PAC, while Hastings, Jeff Lawson and Erica Lawson each gave $1 million.

Hastings, who is a major backer of Democrats, was one of the biggest Democratic donors to publicly call for President Joe Biden to step aside from his re-election campaign earlier this year.

The reports out Friday only included donations from Aug. 1 through Aug. 31, the first full month that Harris was the presumptive — and later official — Democratic presidential nominee.

Super PACs like FF PAC and MAGA Inc. are havens for prolific political megadonors like Hendricks, Lutnick and Hastings because, unlike campaigns and their affiliated committees, super PACs don’t have limits on how much individuals can donate.

Further down the ballot, Club for Growth Action, a conservative super PAC that boosts GOP congressional and Senate candidates, received two major donations in August of $5 million each from Jeff Yass, the co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, a trading group, and Richard Uihlein, the founder of shipping supply company Uline.

Yass and Uihlein are both major GOP megadonors who have given to Club for Growth and other conservative groups for multiple election cycles.

On the Democratic side, House Majority PAC, a group that boosts Democrats running for Congress, received $600,000 in August from Amos Hostetter Jr., the co-founder of Continental Cablevision, the biggest donation to the group for this filing period.

Hostetter has a history of donating to anti-Trump groups.

For decades, Sean “Diddy” Combs presented the image of a wealthy, Black music mogul, one who broke business barriers, threw lavish parties and even created iconic TV moments. But behind the scenes, prosecutors say, was a more sinister picture, with allegations of violence, sex trafficking and severe abuses of power. 

Throughout his career, Combs’ dominated music, television and fashion, amassing a fortune worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In public, he was a shrewd music producer, generating hip-hop hits under his Bad Boy Records label, which he founded in 1993 and helped establish him as a cultural magnate. Combs was at the center of one of rap’s most notorious — and deadly — beefs between the east and west coasts culminating in the deaths of Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. He capitalized on hip-hop’s shift into mainstream culture at the dawn of a new millennium. His “All About the Benjamins” was parodied by “Weird” Al Yankovich. He famously dated Jennifer Lopez when she made a splash on the red carpet at the 2000 Grammy awards in an iconic Versace gown. On the surface, Combs presented himself as the fun-loving producer who danced in music videos and the tough business mogul developing fresh talent. 

But in private, prosecutors allege in an indictment unsealed Tuesday, Combs, now 54, and his associates “wielded” his “power and prestige” to orchestrate sexual, emotional and physical abuse against the people around him. While Combs’ explosive temper was an open secret and rumors long swirled about his sex life, his power and influence, experts say, has shielded him from accountability for years of alleged illegal activity.

Combs was arrested Monday and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. It came after months of lawsuits and several allegations of sexual assault, gender violence, misconduct and other “serious illegal activity” that took place over several years. He pleaded not guilty on Tuesday, and a judge denied him bail after U.S. Attorney Damian Williams argued Combs is a flight risk and a danger to the community. Combs is currently being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York, and is on “procedural” suicide watch, as is typical with with high profile clients.

“We’ve seen this pattern before — someone in a position of power and influence chooses to exploit others for their own gain, using fear, manipulation and violence to maintain control over his victims,” Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, said in a statement.

The charges stem from Combs’ hours- and dayslong sexual performances called “freak offs,” which allegedly included coerced sex acts that Combs is accused of orchestrating and recording. The indictment said Combs sought “to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”

“Combs relied on the employees, resources, and influence of the multi-faceted business empire that he led and controlled — creating a criminal enterprise whose members and associates engaged in, and attempted to engage in, among other crimes, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice,” it reads.

“These allegations reveal not only a gross abuse of personal power but underscore a systemic use of networks and his employees to perpetuate sexual violence,” said Goss Graves, who is also the co-founder of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which provides legal aid to people who have experienced workplace sexual harassment.

The indictment listed Combs’ security staff, household staff, personal assistants, “high-ranking supervisors” and others among the “associates” who made up a criminal organization, which the indictment calls the “Combs Enterprise.” Combs and these associates allegedly engaged in forced labor, sexual coercion and trafficking, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and other crimes under Combs’ leadership.

Since late 2023 and as recently as last week, several women and some men have filed lawsuits against Combs alleging everything from abuse to sex trafficking. A flood of lawsuits came after Combs’ former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura sued him in federal court in November, accusing him of years of physical abuse throughout their 11-year relationship, during which, she said, he exerted complete control over her. Combs and Ventura were first romantically linked in 2007 and split in 2018.

She and Combs settled the suit a day later but did not disclose the terms of the settlement. At the time, Combs denied the allegations. Singer Dawn Richard, Combs’ producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, several unnamed women and a Michigan man have filed lawsuits against Combs accusing him of various forms of abuse and misconduct. Combs has denied the allegations, and a judge halted a $100 judgment in favor of the Michigan man, Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, in order to hold more hearings.

Before Ventura’s allegations last year, Combs’ reputation had remained intact despite all of the accusations, legal troubles and rumors that trailed him over the last three decades. Combs’ behavior had long fueled social media chatter among fans and artists, including rivals and those who had worked with him. But the accumulation of assault charges, filmed outbursts and erratic behavior, capped by Vetura’s allegations in November, finally tipped the scales. That it took so long for Combs to face legal repercussions and public rebuke speaks to the power of his celebrity and the image he had maintained since his ascent, said Oronike Odeleye, activist and co-founder of the #MuteRKelly social media campaign.

“The music industry is built on exploitation,” she said. “Behind all of the sensationalism, the drama and the rumors are actual survivors, people who lived through these experiences. We should keep them in the forefront of our minds.”

The indictment alleges that Combs threatened people with firearms, offered bribes and leveraged his money and influence to both control victims and ensure their silence.

The culture of silence fostered by Combs’ power and celebrity is similar to the protective network that kept singer R. Kelly from being held accountable for his abuse of girls and young women, Odeleye said. Kelly was convicted of sexual exploitation and enticement of a minor in 2022.

“Some of the silence is, ‘I need to be in proximity to this person because they’re powerful and they can make or break my career,'” Odeleye said, adding that she believes unhealthy ideas of masculinity have played a role in Combs’ alleged behavior. For some men, she said, “violence against women, unfortunately, props up your masculinity.”

Combs experienced a rapid rise from unpaid Uptown Records intern to music mogul in just a few years. In the early ’90s, Combs tapped now-legendary artists Notorious B.I.G., Craig Mack, Faith Evans, 112 and Mase to fill the roster of his then-fledgling Bad Boy Entertainment label. He released his own successful albums initially as Puff Daddy, a nickname he said stemmed from his own volatile temper. Through the 1990s and early 2000s, his artists topped the charts.

Combs’ lineup of rappers and singers presented a different sound from the gangsta rap, pop and grunge rock that were popular at the time. The music represented a brand of hip-hop that mixed different sounds that appealed to different demographics but never felt inauthentic.

“They were trendsetters,” Richard, one of the singers who later sued Combs, said of his signature artists back in 2015. “It was due to Puff’s ear and his ability to pick voices that were like no other.”

As the years went on, Combs expanded his empire to include clothing, fragrances, hit MTV shows, alcohol brands and more. As of June, Combs’ estimated net worth was $400 million, according to Forbes, even after losing hundreds of millions as allegations against him have piled on.

He became associated with wealth and power along with music and culture. His ever-growing empire earned him a reputation as a wealthy, business-minded man and the picture of “Black excellence,” with a bootstrapping, rags-to-riches story that served as inspiration especially for young, Black men.

Over the years, the public has gotten glimpses into Combs’ behind-closed-doors demeanor, most notably in interviews, short clips and when he led the MTV reality series “Making the Band.” From 2002 to 2009, Combs developed musical acts on the show with a tough, no-nonsense attitude. From making contestants walk several miles to get him a slice of cheesecake to his verbal altercation with choreographer Laurieann Gibson, Combs bolstered his reputation as a prolific but intimidating figure in the industry.

Combs spoke about his go-getter attitude in a clip he shared to promote the 2017 documentary about his life, “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story.” In the clip, Combs finishes setting up a business deal on the phone before excitedly throwing equipment in his office and yelling, “I’m a savage! Whatever I want I have to get!”

“We see this and we’re like, ‘Diddy has to be demanding.’ You see him being abusive and terrible. There are so many instances of Diddy telling us some version of this dark s— publicly and everybody just ignored it because rappers are expected to use hyperbole to a certain degree,” said A.D. Carson, a professor of hip-hop and the Global South at the University of Virginia.

“So, when rappers are talking about their propensity for violence, or their propensity for assault … in the name of moguldom, we’re like, ‘Oh, that’s just what it takes. He probably doesn’t do that for real.'”

Combs has leaned into this idea of aspirational wealth, most notably with his lavish Labor Day White Parties.

From 1998 to 2009, Combs’ annual party was one of the hottest tickets, with guests like Paris Hilton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mariah Carey, Jay-Z and Beyoncé attending. Combs said he launched the White Party to associate hip-hop with wealth and the upper echelon. “I wanted to strip away everyone’s image and put us all in the same color, and on the same level,” he said in a 2006 interview with Oprah.

“Rappers kind of operate with this symbolic value to people. That’s the Diddy phenomenon,”  Carson said.

Carson added that Combs’ wealth and influence in Black culture had made him someone whom Black celebrities wanted to associate with, sometimes at the cost of ignoring his alleged misconduct and abuse.

“That kind of power produces all kinds of results, including people organizing themselves in such a way that this seems to be the price of participation,” Carson said. “In the culture, people are concerned with what they stand to gain by” remaining silent.

While Combs regularly smiled for photos with A-listers and happily hosted bashes, behind closed doors, according to the indictment, he was punching, dragging, striking, kicking and throwing objects at people, including women and his employees, and bribing witnesses to ensure their silence.

The recent wave of lawsuits isn’t the first time Combs’ conduct has been called into question. For years, Combs has been criticized for allegedly keeping his artists’ publishing rights, and he’s been linked to shootings, accused of assault, and associated with abusive sexual behavior.

Some of Combs’ past artists have been critical of him in recent decades and accused him of owing them millions of dollars. Mase, one of Combs’ major collaborators in the late ’90s, has often called Combs out over his business practices, including keeping Mase’s publishing rights.

In 2023, Combs announced that he would give Bad Boy artists and songwriters including Mase, the Lox, 112, Faith Evans and other creators their publishing rights. This was welcome news to many except Aubrey O’Day, a member of the now-disbanded all-girl Bad Boy group Danity Kane. O’Day said in an interview that as part of receiving her publishing rights, she would have to agree to sign a nondisclosure agreement that barred her from making any negative comments about Combs publicly.

O’Day has long been critical of Combs and said she was fired from the group in 2008 after refusing to comply with Combs’ commands “not talentwise but in other areas.”

“I never thought I would see this day,” she told TMZ this week. “We all buried this inside of us in order to be able to keep going. And not just me, but victims you don’t even know yet. We are all processing what that type of vindication can actually feel like now. Every conversation I’ve had with victims last night has been beyond moving on all levels.”

Vice President Kamala Harris substantially outraised and outspent former President Donald Trump in August, ending the month with more cash to fund her final sprint to the November election, according to new filings from the Federal Election Commission.

The Harris campaign raised over $189 million in August, more than quadruple the $44 million sum that the Trump campaign brought in.

Those figures reflect fundraising specifically for the candidate’s main campaign accounts and do not include donations to the other branches of their political operations.

The Harris campaign announced earlier this month a total $361 million August haul from campaign donations joint with the Democratic National Committee and fundraising committees. That dwarfed the $130 million raised between the Trump campaign and its joint fundraising committees.

These figures do not factor in September donations, including the Harris campaign’s $47 million cash bump from nearly 600,000 donors in the 24 hours following the first and possibly only Harris-Trump debate.

The Harris campaign on Saturday accepted an invitation from CNN to hold a second debate on Oct. 23, but Trump has so far staunchly maintained that he will not do a rematch.

The new FEC filings depict a steady surge of donor enthusiasm for Harris, even as the initial hype of Democrats’ July candidate swap tempered. The entire Harris political operation raised $310 million in July after President Joe Biden ended his candidacy and endorsed her to take over the Democratic ticket.

Harris has also flipped the donation gap to Democrats’ favor, erasing the fundraising lead Trump and Republicans had before Biden dropped out.

Since then, the Harris campaign has been outspending Trump with an advertising blitz across television and digital platforms, along with along with other campaign expenses.

Harris and the DNC jointly spent $258 million in August, well above the $121 million that Trump and the RNC disbursed, according to FEC filings.

“As we enter the final stretch of this election, we’re making sure every hard-earned dollar goes to winning over the voters who will decide this election,” Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a press release earlier this month.

Heading into the final sprint of the presidential race, the Harris team ended August with $404 million in cash on hand, outpacing the $295 million war chest reported by Trump’s operation.

The Trump campaign assured that its donations will carry it through the rest of the race.

“The Trump-Vance campaign has momentum for the final stretch of the race,” Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes said in a statement. “These fundraising numbers from August are a reflection of that movement.”