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At present’s agenda: Russian nuclear vegetation abroad; Syria’s Isis detainee camps; central banks and uncertainty; accidents at Amazon UK; and Man Arms allegations
Good morning. We start with an unique story on Palantir and Anduril, that are in talks with rivals to type a consortium that may collectively bid for US authorities work in an effort to disrupt the nation’s oligopoly of “prime” contractors.
Who’s collaborating? Palantir and Anduril, two of the biggest US defence expertise firms, have approached tech rivals comparable to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, ChatGPT maker OpenAI, autonomous-ship builder Saronic and synthetic intelligence information group Scale AI to turn out to be a part of the consortium, in response to a number of folks with information of the matter.
The consortium will deliver collectively the heft of a few of Silicon Valley’s most precious firms and can leverage their merchandise to offer a extra environment friendly method of supplying the US authorities with cutting-edge defence and weapons capabilities, in response to an individual concerned with the talks.
What’s driving the transfer? Extra tech firms are looking for to seize an even bigger slice of the US authorities’s large $850bn defence funds from conventional prime contractors comparable to Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing.
Defence tech start-ups have attracted file quantities of funding this yr, as traders wager they are going to be among the many winners of upper federal spending on nationwide safety from the incoming Trump administration.
Wars in Ukraine and the Center East and geopolitical tensions between the US and China have heightened the federal government’s reliance on tech firms creating superior AI merchandise that can be utilized for navy functions, and inspired traders to the sector. Read the full report.
Right here’s what else we’re retaining tabs on as we speak:
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Financial information: The UK and Spain launch third-quarter GDP figures.
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Mozambique: The nation’s prime courtroom is about to present a verdict on the nation’s disputed election in October.
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Albania: Opposition events demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama’s resignation are set to dam roads in protest.
5 extra prime tales
1. Russia is constructing greater than 10 nuclear models overseas because it seems to be to faucet into rising vitality demand pushed by synthetic intelligence and creating markets, in response to an envoy of President Vladimir Putin. The plans come as Moscow seeks to spice up its world affect by increasing its nuclear fleet. Here are the countries where Russia is constructing new plants.
2. Syria’s interim authorities is able to take management of Isis detainee camps being run by US-backed Kurdish militants, mentioned Turkey’s prime diplomat Hakan Fidan, the primary international minister to fulfill Hayat Tahrir al-Sham chief Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. Fidan throughout his go to to Damascus additionally mentioned he believed US president-elect Donald Trump would back Turkey over Kurdish forces.
3. Eire’s prime central banker has mentioned rate-setters are going through extra uncertainty now than throughout the early phases of the coronavirus pandemic because the agenda and actions of Donald Trump are all however unimaginable to learn. Read the full interview with Gabriel Makhlouf.
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Fed flip-flops: The US Federal Reserve’s extremely reactive coverage strategy of latest years has amplified financial volatility, writes Mohamed El-Erian.
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The Economics Present🎧: European Central Financial institution president Christine Lagarde tells Martin Wolf what Europe must do to close the gap with the US.
4. Dozens of Amazon staff within the UK have suffered severe accidents over latest years, together with being blinded or requiring amputations, in response to new information that’s resulting in renewed calls on the ecommerce big to enhance the remedy of weak workers. The tech group reported 119 serious injuries from work-related accidents between 2019 and 2024.
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UK employment: Extra youthful individuals are neither working nor on the lookout for a job, opting out of the labour market fully.
5. Unique: Deloitte desires to slash spending on workers journey and bills within the UK by greater than 50 per cent because it seeks to take care of companion income below what it referred to as “difficult market situations”. The associated fee chopping is an indication of the UK consulting sector’s continued struggles as a protracted slowdown in mergers and acquisitions exercise hits demand for advisory work.
The Large Learn
Within the Italian metropolis of Trieste, a community-based strategy to psychological sickness has professionalduced startling results at a comparatively low price. The mannequin contrasts starkly with others that make a lot higher use of psychiatric institutionalisation. The ultimate instalment of the FT’s collection on psychological well being takes a have a look at the decades-long debate concerning the best way to care for people living with mental illness.
We’re additionally studying . . .
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FT Investigation: Terra Firma founder Man Arms has been accused of raging at workers and making sexually inappropriate feedback.
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Luxurious scale-back: A softening available in the market is a harbinger of things to come in equities and the true economic system, writes Rana Foroohar.
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Disinformation storm: Corporations want new playbooks for dealing with online falsehoods as AI intensifies the dangers, writes Anjli Raval.
Chart of the day
On the degree of rhetoric, the UK’s Labour authorities is emphasising the precedence of financial development. It’s proper to take action. Nevertheless it wants to grasp that development depends upon the confidence of business in that development, writes Martin Wolf.
Take a break from the information
As the primary public steam railway celebrates its bicentenary subsequent yr, creator Simon Bradley has put collectively an satisfying and extremely readable survey of 200 years of British train history.
