FirstFT: FBI investigates Trump taking pictures incident as obvious assassination try

Good morning. Immediately we’re overlaying:

• The Philippines’ withdrawal from a disputed reef within the South China Sea

• Gender inequality amongst Chinese language college graduates

• An antitrust tipping level

However first, former president Donald Trump is protected after what the FBI is investigating as a possible assassination try in opposition to him in Florida.

Trump launched an announcement yesterday afternoon declaring: “FEAR NOT! I’m protected and effectively, and nobody was damage. Thank God!”

The FBI stated it had “responded to West Palm Seaside, Florida, and is investigating what seems to be an tried assassination of former president Trump”.

The candidate’s marketing campaign had earlier launched an announcement saying Trump was protected after “gunshots in his neighborhood”.

Regulation enforcement officers have detained a person who they stated was hiding in shrubbery bordering the Trump Worldwide Golf Membership yesterday afternoon. They discovered an AK-47 fashion rifle with a scope within the bushes, Ric Bradshaw, Palm Seaside County Sheriff, instructed reporters.

Secret Service brokers opened hearth on the person after recognizing a rifle by the golf course’s fence, stated a Secret Service official. A witness noticed the potential suspect run out of the bushes earlier than leaping right into a automobile and driving away. Regulation enforcement officers later pulled the car over and detained the person, Bradshaw stated.

If confirmed as an assassination try, the incident in Florida would mark the second time that Trump has been focused by a gunman in two months. Right here’s what else to know.

And right here’s what else I’m maintaining tabs on at this time:

• Financial information: South Korea studies revised commerce information for August.

• Monetary markets: Closed in China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia for holidays.

5 extra high tales

1. The Philippines has withdrawn a coastguard ship maintaining watch over a disputed reef after a months-long stand-off with China. The Teresa Magbanua, Manila’s largest coastguard vessel, returned to port yesterday from Sabina Shoal after the Chinese language coastguard rammed the vessel and blocked provides, leaving the ship broken and the crew dehydrated and malnourished, in line with Philippine officers. Manila stated it might change the ship at Sabina.

2. The pinnacle of South Korea’s inventory change, Jeong Eun-bo, has defended his nation’s stalling company reform drive amid disappointment amongst native and overseas traders that Seoul is failing to duplicate Tokyo’s success in boosting traditionally low valuations.

3. Russia is consolidating its maintain on newly occupied areas of Ukraine by opening branches of its largest state banks in cities corresponding to Mariupol. President Vladimir Putin instructed state corporations this 12 months there was “nothing to worry” by establishing store in occupied areas. Sberbank and VTB, the nation’s two largest state lenders, have begun to heed the decision.

4. Indonesian courts have dominated in favour of worldwide lenders battling a media firm over a $560mn debt declare, in a case illustrating the dangers confronted by non-public collectors within the south-east Asian nation. Visi Media Asia has sought to exclude a bunch of personal collectors from collaborating in a court-supervised debt restructuring course of and had challenged courtroom rulings favouring the lenders.

5. European governments have offloaded greater than €16bn of bailed-out financial institution shares over the previous 12 months, as they search to attract a line below the long-running results of the worldwide monetary disaster. An FT evaluation of company filings and regulatory statements confirmed that disposals of financial institution shares have ramped up over the previous 12 months as governments have capitalised on share worth surges pushed by larger rates of interest.

Information in-depth

In China, feminine college students outnumber males at college, a statistic that Chinese language state media has celebrated as proof of the nation’s progress on gender equality. However better participation in larger training isn’t a assured ticket to employment or equal pay. Ladies are under-represented in Stem topics — the place college students typically go on to have higher-paid jobs — whereas Chinese language employers nonetheless routinely ask feminine candidates about their plans to start out a household.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• Chinese language shares: Sentiment amongst traders in direction of China’s inventory markets has turn out to be more and more pessimistic, writes Katie Martin.

• Antitrust tipping level: Main victories the combat in opposition to monopoly energy counsel Massive Tech is reaching a reckoning, writes Rana Foroohar.

• How music shapes the economic system: The music business’s shift from product to efficiency foreshadows a widespread transfer in direction of intangible property, writes Andy Haldane.

Chart of the day

Kamala Harris has consolidated her polling lead over Donald Trump on financial points, particularly amongst voters who watched the presidential debate final week, in line with the primary massive economy-focused election ballot for the reason that televised showdown.

Take a break from the information

For 30 years, Lunch with the FT has featured a who’s who of our instances: dictators and dissidents, CEOs and communists, philosophers and fraudsters — plus a convicted assassin and a poet who died the following day. Henry Mance, the FT’s chief options author, explains its magic.