EU probes Russian involvement in new border system

Immediately’s agenda: Fallout from Trump’s Gaza plan; banks offload Twitter debt; Large Learn on Greenland; Peter Mandelson, Prince of Darkness, returns; and the FT’s new Trump commerce tracker

Good morning. We begin immediately with an unique story on potential Russian involvement in constructing the EU’s new digital border system, which is able to set up the bloc’s greatest private info database.

What we all know: Paperwork seen by the Monetary Occasions present French IT group Atos used workers in Russia to purchase software program in 2021 for a extremely delicate EU challenge, the so-called Entry/Exit System (EES). The information counsel Atos’s department in Moscow operated below a licence that will grant Russia’s FSB safety service entry to its work within the nation. EU authorities are wanting into the involvement of Atos Russia within the border challenge, based on individuals with information of the probe.

Why it issues: The disclosure of Russian involvement has raised important safety questions “due to the big quantity of information that [the EES] would comprise”, stated one European official. The brand new system will collate knowledge monitoring the actions of each overseas traveller coming into or exiting the bloc, recording biometric and private info in addition to their visa standing. An skilled on Russia’s safety companies stated the Atos Moscow department’s licence would grant the FSB a “again door” into its actions. “They’ll have a look at the whole lot this firm is engaged on,” he stated.

EU-Lisa, the company implementing the EES, has stated it “by no means had any contractual relations with Atos Russia” and that “there was no recognized safety breach”. Laura Dubois has extra from Brussels.

• Extra EU-Russia: Billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven have bought their stakes in Russia’s largest personal lender and its insurance coverage arm, as they try and overturn EU sanctions towards them.

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

• Financial knowledge: The Eurozone, France, Germany, Italy and the UK have their development buying managers’ indices.

• UK rates of interest: The Financial institution of England is predicted to chop borrowing prices in its resolution immediately.

• South Africa: President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers his annual State of the Nation handle to parliament in Cape City.

• Outcomes: Amazon, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, L’Oréal, Philip Morris Worldwide, Société Générale and Thomson Reuters are amongst these reporting. See our Week Forward e-newsletter for the total listing.

5 extra prime tales

1. The White Home has insisted Donald Trump’s plan to “take over” Gaza doesn’t essentially imply sending in US troops. The president’s press secretary sought to assuage fears of a protracted navy intervention after his proposal, which included resettling the enclave’s 2.2mn residents, provoked widespread condemnation.

2. Wall Avenue banks saddled with debt from Elon Musk’s $44bn takeover of Twitter bought massive chunks of the mortgage package deal to buyers yesterday, permitting various lenders to exit one of many hardest acquisition financings in recent times. Individuals briefed on the matter stated there was booming investor curiosity within the property.

3. Unique: The proprietor of Jim Beam expects some international shoppers to boycott its US manufacturers as a part of a backlash to Trump’s commerce insurance policies. Takeshi Niinami, chief government of drinks big Suntory Holdings, reckons its American manufacturers might be “much less accepted” due to the specter of tariffs and the “emotion” of shoppers in main markets, together with Europe. Learn the total FT interview.

4. Final month was the most well liked January on report, stunning scientists who anticipated the cooling La Niña climate cycle within the tropical Pacific to sluggish virtually two years of record-high temperatures. Calling the information “terrifying”, one skilled stated: “I don’t suppose there may be any doubt that harmful, all-pervasive, local weather breakdown has arrived.”

5. UnitedHealth Group has raised considerations with the highest US securities regulator over a social media submit by Invoice Ackman, who claimed that the corporate could possibly be inflating earnings. The billionaire activist investor stated in a now-deleted submit on X that he “wouldn’t be shocked to seek out that the corporate’s profitability is massively overstated”.

The Large Learn

Trump’s renewed curiosity in taking management of Greenland has thrust the huge, frozen landmass of 57,000 individuals into the highlight. An extended interval of so-called Arctic exceptionalism, throughout which main powers seen the area as a low-tension space the place rival nations might discover widespread floor over issues corresponding to local weather change, seems to be ending.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• Science below Trump: Lecturers should resist the US president’s efforts to tear down analysis and the temptation to pre-emptively self-censor, writes Anjana Ahuja.

• Buying and selling the commerce battle: Whereas international buyers had time to arrange for Trump’s tariffs, swift market reversals are preserving them on edge.

• UK regulators: The Competitors and Markets Authority might have flaws, however they are often corrected with out authorities interference, writes John Gapper.

• The Prince of Darkness returns: George Parker speaks to Peter Mandelson, the Labour grandee named because the UK’s ambassador to Washington.

Graphic of the day

With the US president threatening a world commerce battle, preserve monitor of the most recent knowledge on imports, exports and commerce balances with the FT’s new interactive Trump tracker.

For extra on international commerce, join Alan Beattie’s weekly Commerce Secrets and techniques e-newsletter right here in case you’re a premium subscriber, or improve your subscription.

Take a break from the information . . . 

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