US authorities weighs proposals to interrupt up Google

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Good morning. In today’s news:

Head of KPMG US calls for training of more accountants
Rio Tinto agrees $6.7bn lithium deal
And we follow the plight of a Gaza family over the past year

The US government is considering asking a judge to break up Google for its antitrust violations in online search, according to a court document filed just hours ago. Here’s what we know from the Department of Justice’s initial proposal to seek remedies from the tech giant.

What is the DoJ asking for? Prosecutors are “considering behavioural and structural remedies” that would prevent Google from using products such as its Chrome browser, Play app store and Android operating system to give its search engine an edge over competitors or new entrants. Apart from potential spin-offs, other remedies being considered include forcing Google to share users’ search data with rivals and restricting its ability to use search results to train its generative artificial intelligence models.

Is a break-up likely? Experts say such requests are rarely granted. A more straightforward penalty would be a ban or reduction in Google’s ability to cut exclusive deals with smartphone makers to enshrine itself as the default search engine — an option prosecutors are also considering.

But analysts agree that Google is unlikely to emerge unscathed. The head of the DoJ’s antitrust division, Jonathan Kanter, has a reputation for vigorous enforcement and was likely to opt for “more than just an injunction” against offending behaviour, one expert said.

Google has vowed to appeal against the judge’s decision, which could be handed down by next August, all the way to the US Supreme Court. Here’s more from the DoJ’s 32-page filing, and how the company responded.

What do you think of FirstFT’s new format? Email me at firstft@ft.com. Now here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

Biden-Netanyahu call: The US president is due to speak to his Israeli counterpart amid increasing efforts by Washington to temper Israel’s response to Iran’s missile attack last week. The call between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu was arranged after Israel cancelled defence minister Yoav Gallant’s trip to Washington where he was due to meet his opposite number, defence secretary Lloyd Austin.
Federal Reserve: The US central bank publishes the minutes from its rate-setting meeting on September 17-18 when the US central bank opted for a “jumbo” interest rate cut of 50 basis points.
Economic data: Mexican statistics agency INEGI releases September inflation figures and Brazil’s statistics agency IBGE publishes consumer price data for September.
Election: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will hold a rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a battleground state and also the home city of President Biden. The rally comes a day after a new book revealed the former president spoke to Vladimir Putin as many as seven times after leaving office and secretly sent Russia’s president Covid-19 tests.
Nobel Prize in chemistry: The Nobel Prize in chemistry will be announced a day after the physics prize was awarded to two scientists for their work on AI.

Five more top stories

1. Exclusive: KPMG’s US head says the industry urgently needs to make it easier and cheaper to become an accountant as the number of American students taking accounting courses falls sharply. Paul Knopp backed replacing a fifth year of higher education with an “apprenticeship”, warning of a “brewing crisis” in the profession in an interview with the Financial Times.

2. Rio Tinto has agreed to buy Arcadium Lithium — which has supply agreements with Tesla, BMW, Toyota and General Motors — for $6.7bn in cash. The deal is the biggest-ever lithium acquisition and highlights how mining companies are positioning themselves for the growth of electric vehicles. Here are the deal’s details.

3. Israeli troops and Hizbollah fighters have clashed as the invading forces try to push into southern Lebanon. Videos shared on social media showed soldiers raising the Israeli flag in the border village of Maroun al-Ras where fighting had taken place in recent days. Heba Saleh in Beirut and Mehul Srivastava in Tel Aviv have the latest.

4. Brazil’s supreme court on Tuesday authorised the restoration of public access to Elon Musk’s X following a month-long ban after the billionaire backed down in his feud with the top tribunal and agreed to remove extremist content from the social media platform. X, which has roughly 20mn users in Brazil, agreed to appoint a legal representative in the country and pay millions of dollars in fines. Here’s more on Musk’s climbdown.

5. Chinese AI start-ups are trying to crack the US market to drive rapid revenue growth amid a sluggish domestic industry. MiniMax, ByteDance and 01.ai are among a group of Chinese AI companies that have launched AI products overseas, particularly targeting the US. Eleanor Olcott has more details from Beijing.

Visual story

Ramy al-Sakany and his family lived happily in a middle-class neighbourhood of Gaza until the war between Israel and Hamas © FT composite

A composite image of Ramy’s family from before the war, an image of a refugee camp in Gaza and a graphic showing the number of damaged buildings in the territory — Ramy al-Sakany and his family lived happily in a middle-class neighbourhood of Gaza until the war between Israel and Hamas © FT composite

Before October 7 2023, Ramy al-Sakany, a maths teacher, led what he described as a happy life with his wife and four daughters in a middle-class neighbourhood in Gaza City. When Hamas launched its bloody rampage through southern Israel, some Palestinians celebrated, but Ramy did not: “I knew what would come next.” A year of Israeli bombardment has since reduced most of Gaza to rubble and violently displaced its 2mn residents. Our latest visual story follows his family’s journey through the war.

We’re also reading . . .

Trump’s trade policies: The Republican’s proposed tariffs would have a far bigger impact on prices than the relatively modest “starter protectionism” of his first term as US president, argues Martin Wolf.
US taxes: Proposals by both political parties to reform taxation have made little sense and would upset the principles of a fair and efficient system, writes economist Burton Malkiel.
Boris Johnson: The former UK prime minister paints himself as the hero of his own Homeric tale in his new memoir Unleashed, writes Tory MP Jesse Norman.

Map of the day

Hurricane Milton is on track to make landfall tonight in what could be one of the worst storms to hit Florida in more than a century. Millions of people were told to evacuate after the storm returned to category 5 strength, with storm surges of up to 15ft predicted in some areas. Our live blog will be following developments throughout the day and the National Hurricane Center has regular updates here.

Take a break from the news

UK-based Afghan singer Elaha Soroor uses music to respond to the Taliban’s brutal suppression of female voices. “I don’t want to preach to anybody, but I can talk about my own experience,” she told the FT. But can a song change anything? Here’s what Soroor said.