Tech teams group as much as bid for Pentagon contracts

In the present day’s agenda: Russian nuclear vegetation abroad; Syria’s Isis detainee camps; central banks and uncertainty; accidents at Amazon UK; and Man Palms 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 corresponding to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, ChatGPT maker OpenAI, autonomous-ship builder Saronic and synthetic intelligence information group Scale AI to turn into a part of the consortium, in keeping with a number of folks with data of the matter.

The consortium will carry collectively the heft of a few of Silicon Valley’s most useful 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 keeping with 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 big $850bn defence finances from conventional prime contractors corresponding to Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing.

Defence tech start-ups have attracted file quantities of funding this 12 months, as buyers 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 army functions, and inspired buyers to the sector. Learn the complete report.

Right here’s what else we’re retaining tabs on at the moment:

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

• Mozambique: The nation’s prime court docket is about to provide 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 prime tales

1. Russia is constructing greater than 10 nuclear items overseas because it appears 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 international affect by increasing its nuclear fleet. Listed here are the international locations the place Russia is setting up 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 prime 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 prime central banker has stated rate-setters are going through extra uncertainty now than throughout the early levels of the coronavirus pandemic because the agenda and actions of Donald Trump are all however not possible to learn. Learn the complete interview with Gabriel Makhlouf.

• Fed flip-flops: The US Federal Reserve’s extremely reactive coverage strategy of latest 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 severe accidents over latest 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 therapy of susceptible workers. The tech group reported 119 severe accidents from work-related accidents between 2019 and 2024.

• UK employment: Extra youthful persons are neither working nor in search of 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 earnings beneath what it referred to as “difficult market circumstances”. The fee reducing 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 Massive 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 sequence on psychological well being takes a take a look at the decades-long debate about the easiest way to look after folks liv­ing with psychological ailing­ness.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

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

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

• Disinformation storm: Firms want new playbooks for coping with on-line falsehoods as AI intensifies the dangers, writes Anjli Raval.

Chart of the day

On the stage of rhetoric, the UK’s Labour authorities is emphasising the precedence of financial progress. It’s proper to take action. Nevertheless it wants to know that progress depends upon the boldness 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 fulfilling and extremely readable survey of 200 years of British practice historical past.