Tech teams staff as much as bid for Pentagon contracts

At the moment’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 most important US defence know-how corporations, have approached tech rivals reminiscent of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, ChatGPT maker OpenAI, autonomous-ship builder Saronic and synthetic intelligence information group Scale AI to change into a part of the consortium, in keeping with a number of individuals with information of the matter.

The consortium will convey collectively the heft of a few of Silicon Valley’s Most worthy corporations and can leverage their merchandise to offer a extra environment friendly means of supplying the US authorities with cutting-edge defence and weapons capabilities, in keeping with an individual concerned with the talks.

What’s driving the transfer? Extra tech corporations are in search of to seize an even bigger slice of the US authorities’s large $850bn defence funds from conventional prime contractors reminiscent of Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing.

Defence tech start-ups have attracted file quantities of funding this 12 months, as buyers guess 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 corporations creating superior AI merchandise that can be utilized for army functions, and inspired buyers to the sector. Learn the total report.

Right here’s what else we’re protecting tabs on immediately:

• Financial information: The UK and Spain launch third-quarter GDP figures.

• Mozambique: The nation’s high courtroom is about to present a verdict on the nation’s disputed election in October.

• Albania: Opposition events demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama’s resignation are set to dam roads in protest.

5 extra high tales

1. Russia is constructing greater than 10 nuclear items overseas because it seems to be to faucet into rising power demand pushed by synthetic intelligence and creating markets, in keeping with an envoy of President Vladimir Putin. The plans come as Moscow seeks to spice up its world affect by increasing its nuclear fleet. Listed below are the international locations the place Russia is developing new vegetation.

2. Syria’s interim authorities is able to take management of Isis detainee camps being run by US-backed Kurdish militants, stated Turkey’s high diplomat Hakan Fidan, the primary overseas minister to fulfill Hayat Tahrir al-Sham chief Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. Fidan throughout his go to to Damascus additionally stated he believed US president-elect Donald Trump would again Turkey over Kurdish forces.

3. Eire’s high central banker has stated rate-setters are going through extra uncertainty now than through the early phases of the coronavirus pandemic because the agenda and actions of Donald Trump are all however unattainable to learn. Learn the total interview with Gabriel Makhlouf.

• Fed flip-flops: The US Federal Reserve’s extremely reactive coverage strategy of current years has amplified monetary volatility, writes Mohamed El-Erian.

• The Economics Present🎧: European Central Financial institution president Christine Lagarde tells Martin Wolf what Europe must do to shut the hole with the US.

4. Dozens of Amazon staff within the UK have suffered critical accidents over current years, together with being blinded or requiring amputations, in keeping with new information that’s resulting in renewed calls on the ecommerce large to enhance the remedy of susceptible employees. The tech group reported 119 critical accidents from work-related accidents between 2019 and 2024.

• UK employment: Extra youthful persons are neither working nor on the lookout for a job, opting out of the labour market utterly.

5. Unique: Deloitte needs to slash spending on employees journey and bills within the UK by greater than 50 per cent because it seeks to take care of accomplice income beneath what it referred to as “challenging market conditions”. The price 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 Huge Learn

Within the Italian metropolis of Trieste, a community-based strategy to psychological sickness has professional­duced startling res­ults at a comparatively low value. The mannequin contrasts starkly with others that make a lot larger use of psychiatric institutionalisation. The ultimate instalment of the FT’s sequence on psychological well being takes a have a look at the decades-long debate concerning the finest option to look after individuals liv­ing with psychological ailing­ness.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• FT Investigation: Terra Firma founder Man Arms has been accused of raging at employees and making sexually inappropriate feedback.

• Luxurious scale-back: A softening available in the market is a harbinger of issues to return in equities and the actual financial system, writes Rana Foroohar.

• Disinformation storm: Corporations want new playbooks for coping with on-line 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 progress. It’s proper to take action. Nevertheless it wants to grasp that progress is dependent upon the confidence of enterprise in that progress, writes Martin Wolf.

Take a break from the information

As the primary public steam railway celebrates its bicentenary subsequent 12 months, creator Simon Bradley has put collectively an pleasurable and extremely readable survey of 200 years of British practice historical past.