EU reviews probes into Apple, Google and Meta as Big Tech lobbies Trump

Today’s agenda: Gaza “breakthrough”; Amazon plans AI Alexa; Big Read on Europe’s “PIIGS” boom; is corporate America Maga?; and Henry Mance reviews Pope Francis’s Hope

Good morning. We start with an exclusive story from Brussels, where the EU is reassessing its investigations of groups including Apple, Meta and Google, just as the tech giants urge Donald Trump to intervene against what they characterise as overzealous European enforcement. Here’s what we know.

What does the review entail? It covers all cases launched since March last year under the EU’s digital markets regulations, according to officials briefed on the move, and could lead to the European Commission scaling back or changing the remit of the probes. Some of these investigations are at an early stage but others are more advanced, such as charges in a probe into Google’s alleged favouring of its app store. All decisions and potential fines will be paused while the review is completed, officials said, but technical work on the cases will continue.

Why it matters: Before Trump’s victory, EU regulators had been pursuing aggressive action against the world’s biggest tech groups. But with his imminent return looming over the start of the commission’s new five-year term, EU lawmakers fear the probes may be sacrificed to avoid diplomatic fallout. On Friday, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg called on the president-elect to stop Brussels from fining US tech companies. One official said Trump’s presidency were a factor in the review, while insisting his victory had not triggered it. Javier Espinoza and Henry Foy have more details from Brussels.

And here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

• California fires: Weather forecasters warn that near “hurricane force” winds are expected to hit the region until tomorrow morning, fanning the devastating wildfires that have swept across Los Angeles.

• French politics: François Bayrou is set to give his first policy speech as the country’s new prime minister to the National Assembly in Paris.

• Companies: Card Factory, Games Workshop, Grafton Group, Gym Group, JD Sports, MJ Gleeson, Ocado Retail, Persimmon and Robert Walters have trading updates.

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Five more top stories

1. US-led mediators have sent the final draft of a ceasefire proposal to Israel and Hamas after a “breakthrough” in talks over a deal to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of hostages. People familiar with the matter said this was the closest both sides have been in months to ending the conflict. One diplomat said: “The next 24 hours will be pivotal.”

• A new Syria: The country where Sarah Dadouch grew up was a factory of fear. But now, she writes, Syrians everywhere are saying words they have not dared to for years.

2. Amazon is gearing up to relaunch its Alexa voice-powered digital assistant as an artificial intelligence “agent” that can complete practical tasks, as the tech group races to resolve the challenges that have dogged the system’s AI overhaul. But several hurdles remain, including its response speed and “hallucinations”.

3. Donald Trump’s plan to ramp up liquefied natural gas exports could provide a $1.3tn boost to the US economy, with the oil and gas industry poised to get the green light to build new export facilities and pipelines on the Gulf of Mexico. The forecast from S&P Global is based on expectations the industry will double LNG export capacity over the next five years.

4. Exclusive: Klarna is seeking buyers for a portfolio of US “pay in four” instalment loans in a bid to unlock capital for growth ahead of a public listing in New York. People familiar with the matter said the Swedish ‘buy now, pay later’ group is in talks about a sale of the loan book, including with banks such as Citigroup and Société Générale. Read the full story.

5. Robinhood has agreed to pay fines of $45mn to cover data breach and record-keeping failures — one of a series of penalties levied by US regulators yesterday against financial groups, including units of Blackstone and KKR. Among the settlements announced by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the online broker paid the biggest penalty.

The Big Read

Once ignominiously labelled the “PIIGS” by some analysts, the tables have turned for Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. Some 15 years after their debt crises once pushed the euro area close to breaking point, these European countries are now experiencing an unexpected economic boom. With Germany’s economy stalling, their tentative growth is some good news for the Eurozone. But will it last?

We’re also reading . . . 

• Corporate America: Trump’s win has sped up a wider shift among companies to more conservative social stances and an embrace of unfettered capitalism.

• Age isn’t just a number: When it comes to policymaking, how long people have been alive is not a good yardstick for judging who is “old”, writes Sarah O’Connor.

• ‘Donald of Dubai’: Meet Hussein Sajwani, the Emirati real estate mogul who built swaths of the Middle East’s glitziest commercial hub and made an ally of Trump.

• Pope Francis’s Hope: The pontiff’s mould-breaking memoir leaves questions unanswered, writes Henry Mance, but its humour and enthusiasm are hard to resist.

Chart of the day

A big bet on transatlantic flying has paid off for long-suffering investors in British Airways owner IAG, as a year-long rally lifts the airline group’s shares to their highest level since the start of the pandemic.

Take a break from the news . . . 

Last month HTSI published a list of FT journalists’ favourite food markets around the world. Now readers have weighed in with their best spots for local produce, with recommendations from New York and Stockholm to Zimbabwe. Here’s what you thought we’d missed.