【每日晨读金融时报】Downing Street faces forced retreat in Apple

Down­ing Street faces forced retreat in Apple encryp­tion battle with USThe UK is seek­ing a way out of a clash with the Trump admin­is­tra­tion over its demand that Apple provide it with access to secure cus­tomer data, two senior Brit­ish offi­cials have told the Fin­an­cial Times.The Home Office ordered the tech giant in Janu­ary to grant access to its most secure cloud stor­age sys­tem. The offi­cials both said the UK would prob­ably have to retreat in the face of pres­sure from senior lead­ers in Wash­ing­ton, includ­ing US vice-pres­id­ent JD Vance.“This is something that the vice­pres­id­ent is very annoyed about and which needs to be resolved,” said an offi­cial in the UK’s tech­no­logy depart­ment. “The Home Office is basic­ally going to have to back down.”Both offi­cials said the UK decision to force Apple to break its end-to-end encryp­tion could impede tech­no­logy agree­ments with the US.“One of the chal­lenges for the tech part­ner­ships we’re work­ing on is the encryp­tion issue,” the first offi­cial said. “It’s a big red line in the US: they don’t want us mess­ing with their tech com­pan­ies.”The other senior offi­cial said the Home Office had “its back against the wall”, adding: “It’s a prob­lem of the Home Office’s own mak­ing.”In its order in Janu­ary, the Home Office told Apple to build a “back door” to allow law enforce­ment or secur­ity ser­vices to tap into the cloud sys­tem stor­ing user data that even the iPhone maker itself is cur­rently unable to access.It did so under the Invest­ig­at­ory Powers Act, legis­la­tion that crit­ics dub a “snooper’s charter”.1. grant access to意思：给予进入权限、允许使用或查看某事物。例句：The admin granted access to the confidential files.管理员授予了对机密文件的访问权限。2. in the face of意思：面对（困难、威胁等）；即使在……情况下也……例句：In the face of strong opposition, the policy was still implemented.尽管面临强烈反对，这项政策仍被实施了。3. impede意思：阻碍，妨碍例句：Poor internet connection can impede communication.糟糕的网络连接会妨碍交流。4. messing with意思：干扰、捣乱、惹某人（常用于口语）mess with something：乱动某物mess with someone：惹某人、挑衅例句：Stop messing with my stuff!别动我的东西了！例句：You don't want to mess with her when she's angry.她生气的时候你最好别惹她。5. snooper’s charter意思：“窥探者宪章”（英国媒体给《调查权力法案》起的外号）指的是英国政府赋予情报和执法机构广泛监控权限的法案，允许他们监控民众的通讯数据。例句：Privacy campaigners strongly opposed the so-called snooper’s charter.隐私保护倡导者强烈反对所谓的“窥探者宪章”。