Trump deploys Farage, transatlantic tax tensions and Clinton reporting rules

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Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence party who helped spearhead the Brexit campaign, shared the stage with Donald Trump at a rally in Mississippi on Wednesday. He told Trump supporters the lesson of Brexit was that “anything is possible if enough decent people are prepared to stand up against the establishment”.

Declaring that US and UK voters had been betrayed by politicians, Mr Farage said: “You can beat the pollsters, you can beat the commentators, you can beat Washington. And you can do it by doing what we did for Brexit in Britain.” (FT)

In the news

Singapore launches self-drive trial Singapore has claimed a head-start in the global race to deploy self-driving cars with the launch on Thursday of the world’s first public trial of a robo-taxi service. The trial allows selected members of the public to use a smartphone app to hail a free ride in autonomous cars operated by nuTonomy, a US start-up that has been conducting trials of self-driving vehicles in Singapore since April. The trial steals a march on Uber, which is expected to begin testing an autonomous taxi fleet with customers in the US city of Pittsburgh within weeks. (FT)

Transatlantic tax feud escalates The US has launched a stinging attack on the European Commission in a last-ditch bid to dissuade Brussels from hitting Apple with a demand for billions of euros in underpaid taxes. In a sharp escalation of the transatlantic feud, the US Treasury issued a rare warning on Wednesday that Brussels was becoming a “supranational tax authority” that threatened international agreements on tax reform. (FT)

Earth finds a close neighbour For decades, astronomers have searched the skies for planets in our galaxy similar to Earth that could be home to extraterrestrial life. A team of European scientists has revealed they are closer to this goal, with the discovery of a new Earth-like body orbiting Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun. (FT)

Peace in Colombia The Colombian government and the Farc rebel group have signed a historic peace accord, putting an end to more than five decades of conflict. The fighting has killed an estimated 220,000 people and displaced millions. (BBC)

Fears over US market plumbing remain The combination of the US stock market at record highs and expectations of volatility languishing near the lowest level in two years should be cause to celebrate on Wall Street. However, a low hum of anxiety can be heard this summer over the risk of a sudden turn in sentiment and a bout of heavy selling. (FT)

Skipping chemo More than 100,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in Europe and the US each year could avoid chemotherapy by taking a gene test made by Agendia, a Dutch biotech group, which can attempt to predict whether the disease is likely to return. (FT)

It’s a big day for

Central bankers Policymakers will be meeting at the mountain resort of Jackson Hole in Wyoming for the US Federal Reserve’s annual economic policy symposium. Discussion will probably focus on the short-term policy outlook, a rethink of the Fed’s rate-setting framework, and how to adjust to the possibility of an even longer spell of ultra-low rates, sluggish growth and subdued inflation. (FT)

Brazilian democracy Brazil’s senate begins the final phase of impeachment proceedings against leftwing President Dilma Rousseff, with Ms Rousseff due to appear in person before a final vote next week that is expected to lead to the president’s replacement with her former deputy, centre-right politician Michel Temer. (FT).

South Africa A power struggle at the heart of the country’s government looks set to escalate after Pravin Gordhan, the embattled finance minister, said he would not comply with a summons to today appear before an investigative unit of the police. (FT)

Food for thought

Cash flow and the Kremlin Executives at VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank, are closely watching the US election. Understandably so — the lender has seen its plans to become a major player in global finance dashed by US sanctions over the Ukraine conflict in 2014. Yet, VTB does have a reliable fallback: the Russian state, which has rewarded it with disproportionate largesse. (FT)

Gawker was too libertarian for Silicon Valley Technology entrepreneurs’ enthusiasm for rule-breaking runs out at exactly the point when they suffer, writes the FT’s John Gapper. (FT)

Scandal of the scandalmongers Fox News, which Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation launched in 1996, became a ratings leader largely because of its gleefully censorious coverage of Bill Clinton’s sex scandals. Now the network is mired in its own scandal. This poses a host of questions, says Jane Mayer, not the least of which is how the network’s executives justified their Javert-like pursuit of Clinton’s extramarital affairs, given their boss’s own repeated sexual misconduct. (New Yorker)

VW’s momentum problem in China The German automaker’s emissions scandal barely made a dent on its sales in China, but other issues have created an opening for Japanese rivals there, writes Tang Jin. (NAR)

A case study in Clinton rules reporting Vox’s Jon Allen has written about the special “Clinton Rules” that have governed much reporting on Bill and Hillary Clinton over the past 25 years. On the list are the notions that even the most ridiculous charges are worthy of massive investigation, that the Clintons’ bad faith will always be presumed and that actions that would normally be deemed banal are newsworthy simply because the Clintons are involved. AP’s “blockbuster story” about the Clinton foundation this week “fits the model to a T”, says Matthew Yglesias. (Vox).

Video of the day

How influential are central bank governors? Central banks are seeing new governor appointments, but it seems these great people do not influence market activities as they used to. In a world of ultra-low interest rates and very calm markets, the FT’s Roger Blitz says investors are focused mainly on the actions of the US Federal Reserve. (FT)