THE BIG STORY

What are the FinCEN files? The big takeaways.

Earlier this week, we released our biggest investigation ever. To put together the FinCEN Files, we worked with more than 100 news organizations to unravel the secrets inside 2,100 confidential documents filed by banks across the globe.

The top takeaway: Big banks around the world approve trillions of dollars of suspicious transactions despite their own staff’s warnings that they might be related to crime. Terror networks, drug cartels, organized crime rings, and rapacious kleptocrats have all benefited, using the US financial system to wash clean their illicit profits.

The banks — and their shareholders — make a profit off of all this activity, while the transfers help these notorious figures sow misery around the world.

Here are the 8 major takeaways from the FinCEN Files investigation.

The Vienna, Va., office of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, an agency within the Treasury Department. Alex Fradkin for BuzzFeed News

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Trump and the Republicans are doing everything they can to confuse voters before the election

It is not news that Donald Trump's presidency has been marked by a war against facts. The president has encouraged people to doubt science, distrust journalism, and disbelieve the very things they’ve heard or seen.

The most recent target of the administration’s campaign of confusion has been voting. Trump and the Republican Party are deliberately undermining trust in the democratic act, marking a new development in the GOP’s long-standing efforts to limit the franchise.

Clarissa-Jan Lim and Ryan Brooks meticulously laid out the history of how the president and Republicans have sought to undermine the 2020 election.

SNAPSHOTS

Top health officials are hitting the brakes as Trump rushes for an October vaccine. Scientists in the federal government are introducing new safety measures around coronavirus vaccines. Trump, who is pressuring scientists to push a vaccine out shortly, says the measures are “political.”

Immigrant women detained by ICE said a gynecologist performed procedures without their consent. We spoke to four women or their attorneys who allege Mahendra Amin, the doctor at the center of accusations, conducted medical procedures on them without revealing or fully explaining what he planned to do.

The Feds are investigating an issue with a small number of mail-in ballots in one Pennsylvania county. Of the nine ballots that were recovered, seven included votes for President Donald Trump — information that election experts said was inappropriate to release.

A man was arrested for allegedly shooting two police officers at a protest after the Breonna Taylor decision. Larynzo Johnson, 26, was charged with 14 counts of wanton endangerment and two counts of assaulting a police officer. The two Louisville officers are expected to recover, the police chief said.

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE

Minnesota is the epicenter of how confusing the 2020 election has been

39 days from the big day, this election cycle has been a ride. Every other day, there’s a big story that demands your attention anew, that feels like it should have a big impact on election results.

Our reporter Molly Hensley-Clancy spent time in Minnesota. Her reporting trip shows what has been true all along this election: “For all the talk of a constantly shifting election,” the race itself is not changing that much.

Just this week, a national poll showed that only 4% of voters have yet to decide who they’ll vote for. Standing in Minnesota, Hensley-Clancy writes, “it’s hard not to get the impression that voters' minds have been made up for quite some time.”

President Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Minnesota, Sept. 18. Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images

PUT THE TEA ON

Clear your schedule for the weekend longreads

PEN15 has the most painfully authentic gay teen storyline I’ve ever seen on TV. Something about PEN15 makes people feel seen in a way that stings. As David Mack writes, “Watching Gabe struggle with his sexuality in the new season of PEN15, I felt like I was watching my younger self onscreen — and I'm not alone.”

RBG is dead, and everything is going to get so much worse. Last week, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. Scaachi Koul wrote about how under normal circumstances, the justice's death would be a time to consider her legacy. But we simply don’t have time to process events the way we used to.

I can’t stop thinking about Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. Shannon Keating reflected on the spectacle of the exes' reunion at a charity Fast Times at Ridgemont High table read last week, where Pitt and Aniston were full of grins and giggles: “If the arm grab at the Oscars made everybody lose their minds, this extended interaction was gonna put everyone positively over the edge.”

Make a point of giving your brain the rest it needs this weekend,

Elamin