Sam Joiner

Russian oil income drops sharply as sanctions bite [FREE TO READ] Moscow’s energy revenues fell by a fifth in 2025 compared with previous year

Russian oil income drops sharply as sanctions bite as.ft.com/r/def2a12a-c...

A city under siege: Minneapolis reels after another killing ICE could become the largest enforcement agency in the US, but critics say its behaviour is increasingly lawless

A city under siege: Minneapolis reels after another killing ft.trib.al/sdWQun9

For this graphic we compare the terrain of the three most expensive rail projects in the world.

HS2 costs an eye watering $537mn per km despite being built on relatively flat terrain.

Read Gill Plimmer, @pickardje.bsky.social and Jonathan Vincent's excellent article
www.ft.com/content/3f73...

This is *before* the new budget increases, which could take the total cost over £100bn www.ft.com/content/3f73...

Eye scans, licence plate readers, spyware: technology used to catch criminals and terrorists is being repurposed to fulfil Trump's pledge to deport 1mn undocumented migrants this year. Critics fear it’s the thin end of the authoritarian wedge.

An #FTEdit thread on America’s new surveillance state 👇

Trump’s immigration data dragnet The US is pulling in vast amounts of personal information in its drive to deport 1mn people this year

“Things are just unbound,” a former Department of Homeland Security privacy officer says. “People are doing things that have never been done before, in ways that have never been done before, with fewer safeguards in place.”

ig.ft.com/us-ice-surve...

New: Trump’s immigration data dragnet.

@peter.andringa.me investigates the brokers and tools behind the US administration’s deportation drive.

Former officials raised concerns about the volume of data, lack of oversight and shift from criminal to immigration work.

ig.ft.com/us-ice-surve...

Trump’s immigration data dragnet The US is pulling in vast amounts of personal information in its drive to deport 1mn people this year

NEW: We took a deep dive into ICE's data dragnet: the data brokers, biometrics tools, and license plate readers powering Trump's deportation effort. Some of the contracts are for tools previous administrations deemed too intrusive.

New: The power crunch threatening America’s AI ambitions.

Our visual story looks at how Big Tech is trying to close a data-centre power gap that could leave the industry 40% short of the electricity needed by 2028.

“It’s going to be a white-knuckle ride,” one analyst told us.

⚡🤖 👉 ft.com/ai-power

The EU single market’s elephant in the room [FREE TO READ] Small, often invisible barriers to trade affect products from businesses across Europe, including a fluffy Ikea pachyderm

as.ft.com/r/480a014d-3...

The EU single market’s elephant in the room [FREE TO READ] Small, often invisible barriers to trade affect products from businesses across Europe, including a fluffy Ikea pachyderm

Fun FT visual story about the EU's internal barriers to trade (including ridiculous labelling requirements). It makes doing business in India - another multi-lingual, multi-state union - look like a walk in the park. as.ft.com/r/813c200e-2...
@samjoiner.bsky.social @richardmilne.ft.com

New: Major UK retailers are selling tuna from fisheries where crews say they endure beatings, gruelling hours and inadequate food. Some spend years at sea without visiting port.

Our latest visual investigation by @upyorkshire.ft.com, Dan Clark and @inari-ta.bsky.social

👉 ig.ft.com/supermarket-...

The dark truth behind supermarket tuna Major retailers are selling tuna from fisheries where crews say they are exploited and abused

NEW: Our investigation finds a tuna supply chain riddled with exploitation and abuse - where fishermen spend months or even years at sea.

Some describe threats, beatings and deception over pay.

Yet the fish they catch is still ending up on our plates.

ig.ft.com/supermarket-...

Looking for a long read to go with your coffee this morning? The Line is a project of incredible hubris - we got the story of how it unravelled.

End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance

NEW: The End of the Line: the centrepiece of Saudi Arabia’s Neom gigaproject - a 500m tall, 170km long wall-like building intended ultimately to house 9 million people - can’t get out of the ground, say more than 20 former Neom architects, engineers and senior executives.
ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...

Great working on this with @alisonkilling.bsky.social, Chris Campbell, @peter.andringa.me, @ian-bott.bsky.social, @sdbernard.bsky.social and @raydouglas.bsky.social.

Come for the reporting, stay for the largest map we‘ve ever built...

End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance

New: The inside story of how The Line — the 500-metre-tall, mirror-glass structure that was the centrepiece of Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream — unravelled.

@alisonkilling.bsky.social spoke to 20+ insiders to reveal how MBS’s utopia was undone by the laws of physics and finance.

ft.com/saudi-neom-line

End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance

"everyone knows the project won’t work; it is now just a matter of letting MBS down gently"
Deep dive on Neom focuses on The Line - a building planned at a scale that would run from London to the Norfolk coast but in the desert. Absolutely wild, absolutely doomed ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...

End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance

End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled on.ft.com/47FBigb

Blood on the streets of El Fasher: satellite images and videos capture new atrocities in Sudan as RSF forces take the city, marking a new chapter in the country’s ruinous civil war.

W/ William Wallis, @janatausch.bsky.social, @digitalcampbell.ft.com

www.ft.com/content/f39c...

FT Investigation: How the Trump companies made $1bn from crypto [FREE TO READ] The president and his family have built a rapidly growing digital assets empire which has been fuelled by the administration’s industry-friendly policies

How Trump companies made $1bn from crypto. Outstanding investigative reporting from a crack FT team.

on.ft.com/47bNR2L

Lead is leaching into the environment and lurking in our homes. It's in soil, in water, in food, in our housing.

And it's poisoning people.

The first episode of Untold: Toxic Legacy launches October 22. Trailer here:

open.spotify.com/episode/6M4H...

How mega batteries are unlocking an energy revolution Vast battery units are shoring up grids and extending the use of clean power

New: How mega batteries are unlocking an energy revolution.

A boom in grid-scale storage is solving renewables’ reliability problem and extending the use of clean power.

Latest visual story w/ @nassosstylianou.bsky.social @samlearner.bsky.social @inari-ta.bsky.social

🔋👉 ig.ft.com/mega-batteri...

The problem with taxing the rich [FREE TO READ] Fiscal systems designed around income and consumption struggle to capture wealth, and billionaires are highly mobile

“I suspect if you were to ask most billionaires, ‘Where is your loyalty, with your country or with your money?’, most would say, ‘My loyalty is with my money.’” Thought-provoking piece on challenges of taxing the rich by Emma Agyemang. Come for the reporting, stay for the comments

on.ft.com/48jmZjd

To quote John Elledge in the New Statesman review, “even nice old people’s homes don’t look like Downton fucking Abbey”.

I couldn’t believe how bad it was. Listened to Columbus on the Rest is Entertainment to understand some of the decisions, from the characters’ absurd wealth to casting Brosnan. The ludicrously lavish retirement home? In part chosen so they could fit the key characters in one shot 🤷‍♂️

This weekend’s must read. Phenomenal reporting by the brilliant @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social

Winner of Digital Storytelling (National/International) is the Financial Times @FT for “Are the robots finally coming?” #FutureMediaAwards

This is amongst the best reported stories about the current state of ICE Air. Must read.

The booming business of Trump’s deportation flights Companies are jostling for billions of dollars to fly immigrant detainees out of the US

ICE plans to 6x its current budget for immigrant transportation and deportations. The money offers a potential windfall for a few contractors and charter airlines — some with close ties to the Trump campaign. Yet the system is already under strain, with significant concerns for detainees' safety: 🧵