JD Vance asks Peter Thiel to fund campaign and wants to break up Google

Good morning. We have a tech-heavy news agenda to end the week, including Elon Musk’s X facing a ban in Brazil, Telegram’s fading hopes for an IPO and why Silicon Valley is up in arms over Kamala Harris’s tax plans.

Our top story today is also at the intersection of technology and US politics: an exclusive interview with Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance, who said Google should be broken up and asked Peter Thiel to “get off the sidelines” and bankroll the Republican presidential ticket.

Speaking to the Financial Times in the swing state of Wisconsin, Vance said he would “keep on talking” to his former boss Thiel. The co-founder of PayPal and Palantir has been reluctant to support any candidates in this year’s election, despite donating to the Republican campaign in 2016 and sponsoring Vance’s US Senate bid in 2022.

On Google, Vance said the company was “way too big, way too powerful”. He argued for tech giants to be split to promote innovation, dealing a blow to Big Tech’s hopes that a Trump-Vance administration would have a more lenient approach to antitrust compared to Joe Biden’s term in office. Read the vice-presidential hopeful’s full interview with Alex Rogers.

• Harris’s centrist pitch: In a TV interview, the vice-president distanced herself from the Democratic party’s left and promised to include a Republican in her cabinet if she won.

Have burning questions about the White House race? Reply to this email and include your name and where you’re writing from, and we’ll answer them in a special weekend edition of FirstFT. (P.S. I’d also love to hear your questions about this newsletter. — Tee)

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today and over the weekend:

• Economic data: Consumer price indices are released today for the EU, Italy and France, which also has GDP figures.

• UK: The Scottish National party is set to dissect its disastrous election result at its annual conference this weekend, while rail strikes on Britain’s east coast line planned for tomorrow have been called off.

• Germany: Business groups have warned of “economic catastrophe” should the far right emerge victorious in east German elections on Sunday.

Join us on September 7 for the annual FT Weekend Festival in London, featuring speakers including Wes Streeting and FT editor Roula Khalaf on topics ranging from AI to foreign policy and climate change. FirstFT readers get a special discount — register here now.

Five more top stories

1. Telegram’s plans for a lucrative IPO have been hit by France’s criminal charges against its CEO. Pavel Durov’s hopes for a possible listing by 2026 look increasingly dim after he was charged with alleged failure to address criminality on the app, with the company’s bondholders suffering steep losses. Read the full story.

2. Russia has breached a critical frontline in eastern Ukraine, putting pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskyy. As Russian forces advance in the strategically important Donetsk region, the Ukrainian president has been criticised for weakening positions by redeploying troops for the Kursk incursion. More details here.

3. Exclusive: A UK nuclear fusion start-up is helping the Pentagon develop stealth submarines using high temperature superconductor magnets. Tokamak Energy’s collaboration on silent marine propulsion with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is one of several ways it hopes to monetise its decade of work on the technology.

4. Italy is proposing a sharp increase in tourist taxes amid growing public backlash against overtourism. Hotel and travel industry associations are up in arms over the plan, which envisions a levy of up to €25 a night for the most expensive hotel rooms to make visitors “more responsible”.

5. Elon Musk’s X said it expected to be banned in Brazil after refusing to meet a 24-hour deadline to name a legal representative in the country, marking a major escalation in the billionaire’s feud with a top judge in Latin America’s largest economy. The social media platform said it “would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents”.

How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.

The Big Read

The inauguration of Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s first reformist president in two decades, will now be remembered for the dramatic killing of Hamas’s political leader. The moderate Pezeshkian wants closer ties with the west, but faced with factional infighting, international scepticism and hostilities with Israel, can he succeed?

We’re also reading . . . 

• Heated tobacco: A popular alternative to traditional cigarettes that doesn’t burn or create smoke faces regulatory hurdles.

• Food crisis averted: We have open trade to thank for saving us from a worldwide hunger emergency after Ukraine was invaded, writes Alan Beattie.

• Macron’s indecision: French parties have so far been unwilling to help save the president, whose temporising could have devastating consequences, writes Le Monde’s Sylvie Kauffmann.

• Investment models: Despite higher interest rates, corporate bosses have defied models that predicted a crash in investment, writes Soumaya Keynes. Here’s why.

Chart of the day

Shares in Nvidia fell more than 6 per cent yesterday, taking almost $200bn off its market value. The chipmaker’s latest earnings report failed to exceed Wall Street’s lofty expectations, despite revenue more than doubling in the last quarter.

Take a break from the news

Oasis has a unique hold on “the people”, writes Jo Ellison — whoever they may be. The newly reunited band conjures a collective nostalgia that holds millions in its thrall.

Additional contributions from Harvey Nriapia and Benjamin Wilhelm