FirstFT: Elite US Navy unit coaching for China invasion of Taiwan

Good morning. As we speak we’re overlaying:

• The newest on the 7-Eleven takeover bid

• How China ‘throttled’ its personal sector

• Nippon Metal and the boundaries of American friendship

However we begin with an unique story: the US Navy Seal unit that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 has been coaching for missions to assist Taiwan whether it is invaded by China, in keeping with folks aware of the preparations.

Seal Staff 6, which is tasked with a number of the navy’s most delicate and tough missions, has been planning and coaching for a Taiwan battle for greater than a yr at its headquarters in Virginia Seaside, about 250km south-east of Washington.

Whereas US officers stress that battle with China is “neither imminent nor inevitable”, the key coaching underlines Washington’s elevated give attention to deterring Beijing from attacking Taiwan.

The US navy has lately stepped up preparations for such an occasion, sending extra common particular forces to Taiwan for missions that embody offering coaching for the Taiwanese navy.

However the Seal Staff 6 actions are way more delicate as a result of its covert missions are extremely categorized. Right here’s what else we all know.

And right here’s what else I’m conserving tabs on as we speak and over the weekend:

• Financial knowledge: Japan publishes revised industrial manufacturing for July. China on Saturday stories August retail gross sales, industrial output and the home value index.

• Central Asia: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday begins a three-day go to to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

How effectively did you retain up with the information this week? Take our quiz.

5 extra prime tales

1. Unique: Seven & i Holdings has tapped Nomura to advise its board in preparation for a possible takeover battle with Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard, whose opening $39bn bid for the 7-Eleven proprietor was rejected. The appointment of Japan’s largest funding financial institution comes after Couche-Tard stated this week it remained “highly focused” on the merger.

2. The European Fee has rejected provides by Chinese language electric-vehicle makers to regulate their costs in a bid to keep away from sharply greater tariffs. The choice to refuse the Chinese language carmakers’ provides comes forward of doubtless pivotal commerce talks between Beijing and Brussels subsequent week.

3. OpenAI will launch an AI product it claims is able to reasoning. The corporate stated the fashions will be capable of clear up onerous issues in maths, coding and science in a crucial step in the direction of reaching humanlike cognition in machines.

4. Russia launched a serious counteroffensive to push again Ukrainian forces from its southern Kursk area, as Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow would think about Nato nations “at war” in the event that they allowed Kyiv to make use of western-made weapons for strikes deep inside his nation.

5. Donald Trump has dominated out one other presidential debate towards Kamala Harris. The announcement comes two days after a showdown when the Republican former US president was rattled by his Democratic opponent. Right here’s what Trump stated.

The Large Learn

Amid political and financial pressures, enterprise capital finance has dried up in China, prompting a dramatic fall in new firm formation. Founders and traders harbour few hopes of a return to the glory years earlier than the Covid-19 pandemic, when the likes of Alibaba and Tencent took benefit of fast financial development and the rise of cell web to develop into globally important tech firms. One Chinese language govt stated: “The whole industry has just died before our eyes.”

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• Nippon Metal: The Japanese firm’s doomed bid for US Metal throughout the election season provides classes on the limits of American friendship, writes Leo Lewis.

• Rahul Gandhi’s US journey: With Narendra Modi on the defensive at house, the chief of India’s resurgent opposition is being seen with recent eyes in Washington, writes John Reed.

• Indian supply apps: Reliance and Google-backed Dunzo is reported to have lower workers amid intensifying competitors. Chris Kay explains the pressures on India’s supply market.

Chart of the day

The worth of oil has tumbled out of its year-long buying and selling vary as traders develop more and more nervous in regards to the influence of a slowdown on the planet’s largest economies on the demand for crude.

Take a break from the information

This yr’s annual FT Business Authorized Leaders sequence examines how senior in-house attorneys are responding to altering calls for — from maintaining with developments in synthetic intelligence to managing cyber threats and geopolitical danger.

Extra contributions from Gordon Smith and Tee Zhuo