FirstFT: Los Angeles-based woman arrested in Russia

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Good morning.

We start today with the worsening relations between the US and Russia. A dual US-Russian citizen has been arrested in Russia on treason charges for allegedly raising funds on behalf of Ukraine’s army.

The FSB security service said the unnamed woman, 33, lived in Los Angeles and had organised fundraisers for a Ukrainian group that spent the money on medical supplies, equipment, weapons and ammunition, according to Russian newswires.

The unnamed woman was arrested in Ekaterinburg, the largest city in Russia’s central Ural region and the location where Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested last year.

Moscow has arrested several US citizens in recent years and exchanged some of them for valuable Russians in western custody. Read more on the latest arrest.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Donald Trump: Today is the deadline for special counsel Jack Smith to respond to Donald Trump’s request to the US Supreme Court to put on hold a ruling that barred him from using presidential immunity as a shield against criminal charges of interfering in the 2020 election. The former president will also appear on a Fox News town hall in South Carolina later.

• Results: Walmart, the world’s largest retailer and a consumer bellwether, reports full-year results. Home improvement store Home Depot also reports earnings as well as energy groups Diamondback Energy and Chesapeake Energy and homebuilder Toll Brothers.

• Economic data: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia issues its Non-manufacturing Business Outlook Survey for February. Argentina’s government is due to release January trade balance data.

• Legal cases: The trial of former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernandez begins today in a US court. Hernandez is facing drug trafficking charges. Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, will appear in the UK’s High Court to appeal against his extradition to the US, where he is wanted on espionage charges.

Five more top stories

1. The US is circulating a UN Security Council resolution warning Israel against a “major ground offensive” into Rafah, the city in Gaza near the Egyptian border where about 1.5mn people are sheltering from the conflict in the enclave. The move represents rare criticism of Israel by the US at the UN, reflecting President Joe Biden’s growing frustration with the Israeli government’s war in Gaza and high death toll among Palestinian civilians. More details from the draft resolution.

• Israel’s economy: The country’s gross domestic product shrank almost 20 per cent on an annualised basis in the final quarter of 2023, official data showed yesterday.

• Israel’s ‘don’t reward them’ argument: It is time for Biden to deploy his political capital to drown out Israel’s far-right voices and give Arab diplomacy a chance, writes Kim Ghattas.

2. Billionaire Michael Dell’s investment vehicle has agreed to back two former senior Goldman Sachs executives who are launching a private credit investment firm. Dell’s family office, known as DFO Management, will take a passive stake in 5C Investment Partners, according to people briefed on the matter. 5C’s first fund plans to provide senior loans to mid-sized and large businesses.

3. Barclays has pledged to return £10bn to shareholders over the next three years as part of an ambitious plan by chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan to boost revenues by almost £5bn, cut £2bn in costs and rebalance the lender away from investment banking. In a series of changes set out alongside the bank’s annual earnings, Barclays also said it would shake up its corporate structure and top leadership. Here are the full details of the shake-up at one of Europe’s largest banks.

4. China has made a record cut to a mortgage-linked loan rate as policymakers roll out more targeted support to the country’s ailing property sector. The cut to the benchmark five-year loan prime rate, which is set by a group of big Chinese banks, suggests policymakers are concerned that home purchases have not rebounded. Here’s more on the record cut.

5. Investors are pouring record amounts of money into US farmland as they snap up an asset expected to outperform as the world’s population grows sharply while natural resources become scarcer. The value of farmland held by investment groups has more than doubled over the past three years, according to the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries. Here’s what fund managers are saying about the asset class.

Today’s big read

China’s state-owned enterprises have begun setting up in-house reserve military units, in a sign of authorities’ increasing concern about social and political instability amid the country’s economic slowdown, according to analysts. People’s Armed Forces departments were historically affiliated to the People’s Liberation Army’s recruitment efforts at the county and village level under Mao. But a Financial Times analysis of company announcements and state media reports shows that dozens of Chinese SOEs have established these new departments in recent months.

We’re also reading . . . 

• JD Vance: Europe must stand on its own two feet and not use the US as a crutch for its security, writes the US Republican senator and author of Hillbilly Elegy.

• Capital One: The Virginia-based bank yesterday agreed to acquire Discover Financial Services in a $35bn all-stock deal. But ambitious deals in financial services are never easy to pull off, says the Lex investment column (premium subscribers only)

• Election 2024: Joe Biden raised more than $42mn in January, giving him a record-breaking $130mn war chest ahead of the November US presidential election.

The FT has launched its new US Election Countdown newsletter. Join the FT’s Washington reporter Steff Chávez for your essential guide to the twists and turns of the most significant election in decades. Sign up here.

Chart of the day

Bad commercial real estate loans have overtaken loss reserves at the biggest US banks after a sharp increase in late payments linked to offices, shopping centres and other properties. In the past year delinquent commercial property debt for the six big banks — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — nearly tripled to $9.3bn. It’s an issue regulators are watching closely.

Take a break from the news

It is the perfect Austrian ski resort. With a picture-postcard setting, plentiful high-altitude snow and a location close to the Grossglockner, the highest mountain in the country, Heiligenblut should be thriving. So why is it fighting for survival?

Additional contributions from Tee Zhuo and Benjamin Wilhelm