Good morning, completely happy Friday and welcome to FirstFT. In immediately’s publication:
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Poland questions the US’s dedication to Nato
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Ken Griffin hits again at New York Metropolis mayor Zohran Mamdani
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How Donald Trump has remodeled US media
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This weekend’s movie releases
You possibly can take heed to immediately’s high information tales with the FT News Briefing podcast.
Poland’s prime minister has questioned whether or not the US could be “loyal” to its Nato dedication to defend Europe within the occasion of a Russian assault.
Russian aggression: Donald Tusk warned that Russia might assault an alliance member inside “months” and mentioned then the query “is that if the US is able to be as loyal as it’s described in our [Nato] treaties”. Tusk was referring to Article 5, the “collective defence” clause that states an armed assault in opposition to one member in Europe or North America is taken into account an assault in opposition to all.
He was speaking to the FT as European leaders met at a casual summit in Cyprus for discussions, together with on their very own mutual defence clause, Article 42.7 of the EU treaty, in response to Trump’s threats to withdraw from Nato and his ambiguous language about honouring Article 5.
The weird intervention from a Polish chief displays rising uncertainty in Europe after Trump’s threats and oscillating dedication to the continent’s defence.
Nato tensions: In an extra signal of the tensions inside Nato, the Pentagon has set out choices for the US to punish European allies that Trump believes did not help the warfare in Iran, Reuters reports.
The choices embody looking for to droop Spain from Nato and reviewing US help for the UK’s declare over the Falkland Islands, in accordance with an inner Pentagon e-mail seen by Reuters. Learn the full interview with Tusk and the newest on the Iran warfare on our live blog.
Right here’s what else we’re retaining tabs on immediately:
How properly did you retain up with the information this week? Take our quiz.
5 extra high tales
1. Vanguard’s boss has warned that prediction markets have grow to be “a type of monetary exploitation”. Salim Ramji advised an viewers yesterday on the Financial Membership of New York that there was a “actually necessary distinction between investing and playing”. The feedback come amid mounting scrutiny of common platforms resembling Kalshi and Polymarket.
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Maduro bets: US prosecutors charged a soldier concerned within the planning and seize of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro with placing prediction-market trades on the mission that netted greater than $400,000.
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Climate forecasting: Météo-France filed a police complaint after detecting anomalies in its temperature gauges at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, which coincided with a surge in well-timed bets on Polymarket.
2. Intel shares surged as a lot as 20 per cent in after-hours buying and selling final evening after it reported sturdy earnings and monetary forecasts and its chief govt hailed a “basic” change on the US chipmaker. “A 12 months in the past the dialog about Intel was about whether or not we might survive,” chief govt Lip-Bu Tan told investors, “immediately it’s about how shortly we will add manufacturing capability.”
3. Canadian AI start-up Cohere has agreed to take over Germany’s Aleph Alpha in a deal valuing the mixed group at about $20bn. The transaction, supported by the German and Canadian governments, will create a transatlantic firm centered on “sovereign” AI systems that enable clients to retain management over their knowledge and infrastructure.
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Microsoft and Meta lay-offs: The proprietor of Fb and WhatsApp has introduced thousands of job cuts and Microsoft supplied voluntary redundancy to about 7 per cent of its US workforce as the 2 firms look to extend their AI bets.
4. Ken Griffin hit again at Zohran Mamdani after the New York mayor final week used the hedge fund billionaire’s $238mn penthouse to push for a tax on luxurious second properties. Citadel, the agency based by Griffin, yesterday despatched a memo to employees saying it was “shameful” that Mamdani used the property to promote a new pied-à-terre property tax.
5. KPMG and EY have begun quietly demoting senior companions within the UK as they transfer to pay attention income amongst high performers. The accountancy corporations have eliminated members of their fairness partnership and as a substitute supplied them “salaried accomplice” roles, signalling an end to the job-for-life model.
At the moment’s massive learn
In 2016 Donald Trump declared warfare on the press. At the moment his supporters dominate the media panorama. To know these modifications forward of tomorrow’s White Home Correspondents’ Dinner, the FT spoke to figures throughout the trade — from distinguished on-line creators and podcasters to conventional newsroom leaders, CEOs and former regulators — about how authority, affect and danger have shifted.
We’re additionally studying . . .
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Greenback swap traces: Scott Bessent’s capacity to supply greenback swap traces for Asian and Gulf allies could face constraints.
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Federal Reserve: Putative Fed chair Kevin Warsh could embrace Treasury secretary Scott Bessent’s geoeconomic agenda, argues Gillian Tett.
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South Africa’s new Trump whisperer: Sending a white Afrikaner as ambassador to the US is a diplomatic masterstroke, writes Alec Russell.
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The Americas’ Quickest-Rising Firms 2026: An organization that’s cashing in on the booming market for mental health services tops this 12 months’s checklist.
Chart of the day
Merchants in Singapore, the world’s largest ship refuelling port, are changing misplaced Center Jap cargoes with Russian oil because the warfare in Iran continues to disrupt world vitality markets. Volumes, which have been already double the common month-to-month quantity in 2025, jumped in April, in accordance with knowledge group Vortexa.
Take a break from the information . . .
Antoine Fuqua’s biopic Michael is one of this weekend’s film releases that additionally contains the Japanese horror Exit 8 and Jude Regulation as Putin and Paul Dano as his whisperer in The Wizard of the Kremlin.
No matter you’re doing this weekend, have a soothing and pleasing one and I’ll be again in your inbox on Monday.
