US metal ought to be ‘American owned and American operated’, says Harris | Invesloan.com

Good morning. Today we are covering:

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not give in to pressure to agree a hostage deal or end to Gaza war

• The US seizing Venezuelan president’s aircraft, alleging the plane was illegally purchased and smuggled out of the US in violation of sanctions

• Britain and the US planning an indefinite extension of nuclear weapons co-operation pact

But first, Kamala Harris said that US Steel should remain “American owned and American operated” during a visit to Pennsylvania on Monday, putting a stop to Nippon Steel’s hopes of buying the company.

“We will continue to strengthen America’s manufacturing sector,” Harris said at a union hall in Pittsburgh. “US Steel is a historic American company, and it is vital for our nation to maintain strong American steel companies.”

Nippon Steel’s planned $15bn acquisition of US Steel has faced a bipartisan political backlash, as populist economics and the protection of domestic manufacturing replace the US’s long-standing consensus in favour of open investment.

Donald Trump, the former president and Republican nominee for the White House, has also vowed to block Nippon Steel’s US Steel bid.

Despite US Steel insisting that it remains “committed” to the deal, Nippon Steel said it remained “confident” that its “acquisition of US Steel will revitalise the American steel rustbelt, benefit American workers, local communities and national security in a way no other alternative can”. Read the full story here.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Putin in Mongolia: The Russian president is scheduled to meet his Mongolian counterpart in his first visit to a member state of the International Criminal Court since it issued a warrant for his arrest.

• US Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday is set to release its monthly employment report for August, which will include data for non-farm payrolls.

• Big Tech: The influence of Amazon and Jeff Bezos’s charitable group over the carbon credit market is raising alarm about Big Tech groups’ plan to achieve tough climate goals.

Five more top stories

1. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to “surrender” to pressure to agree a hostage deal or end the Gaza war, dismissing widespread protests in Israel as he doubled down on his main demands for a ceasefire. The rebuttal came after a general strike called to express public anger at his failure to secure a hostage deal disrupted much of Israel. Neri Zilber has more from Tel Aviv.

2. Exclusive: China’s efforts to match US computing power in artificial intelligence are being hampered by bug-ridden software, with customers of leading AI chipmaker Huawei complaining about performance issues and the difficulty of switching from Nvidia products.

3. The US seized an aircraft used by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro over alleged violations of US export controls and sanctions laws. Merrick Garland, the US attorney-general, said that the Dassault Falcon 900EX plane “was illegally purchased for $13mn through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies”.

4. Britain and the US plan to extend indefinitely the treaty governing technology sharing between their nuclear weapons programmes, as both nations embark on costly modernisations of their deterrent to counter arms proliferation by adversaries. The change follows warnings by the UN that Russia’s war in Ukraine has sparked a global race for nuclear weapons.

5. Mitsubishi boss calls for a more active strategy from the Japanese government to help companies counter increasing Chinese competition in their traditional stronghold of south-east Asia. Katsuya Nakanishi said the Warren Buffett-backed trading house is on alert for decoupling risks as rising import tariffs in the US and Europe force China to expand its influence in Asean markets.

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Additional contributions from Emily Goldberg and Irwin Cruz