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.

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...

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has a fantastical vision for a new way of living. But The Line, his plan for a vertical city in a vast mirrored wall, is rapidly being undone by the laws of physics and finance. Here is an #FTEdit 🧵 of eight mind-bending facts about this moonshot in the sand 👇

The part of Mamdani's speech that I found most exciting was "you dismantle the conditions that allowed him to gain power. That's how we stop Trump — and the next one." We need popular political figures to point out that Trump is not an anomaly and there are plenty more to take his place.

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...

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...

Absolutely shocking that the Chinese govt pressured a UK university to shut down research about forced labour in Xinjiang and the links to global supply chains. The work of Laura Murphy and her team had been instrumental in getting Chinese companies sanctioned. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Great to see the PVV vote fall back, but it still looks like there's a similar number of votes for the far right, just spread across several parties rather than concentrated in one. #verkiezingen

Great to see the PVV vote fall back, but it still looks like there's a similar number of votes for the far right, just spread across several parties rather than concentrated in one. #verkiezingen

On a day of nationwide — even global — No Kings protests, sharing this panel from our graphic novel YOU MUST TAKE PART IN REVOLUTION. CC: @badiucao.bsky.social

Some changes to immigration rules today, not just increasing English language requirements, mean migrants looking to live and work in UK will have to meet far far higher standards than British nationals, while paying vast sums to be allowed to do so. That isn't a system based on "fairness". 1/

Talk of Badenoch's incompetence is entirely superfluous at this stage. In fact, foregrounding her incompetence and lack of future prospects only detracts from how dangerous she is, right now, as leader of the opposition. That is the real issue. That the leader of the opposition is far right.

ICE is the Sturmabteilung of Trumpian fascism, characterised by racial profiling, flagrant lawlessness, and sadistic violence. The fact that Badenoch wants that for us is a shocking illustration of just how extreme and sinister her politics are. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

A lot of very talented people at @hrw.org just got laid off.

"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply." me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

This xenophobic nonsense illustrates why the government's proposals to restrict settlement rights is not only wrong but politically self-defeating. Has just encouraged Reform to become even more extreme.

I wrote for @theguardian.com about the “Unite the Kingdom” rally. High time to pull head out of the sand and learn from other countries — if only on what NOT to do!

Irony of liberal “populism whisperers” is that, stuck in their coastal liberal bubble, they let far right define “the heartland”, because it is very much in line with their own prejudices (ie white, racist, uneducated, poor). The only thing they change is the connotation: from bad to “left behind”.

Russia designated the 'LGBT Movement' as a terrorist organisation. They know there is no such group; that's the point. It means they can choose to arrest ANYONE with any association with LGBT issues and treat them as a terrorist. The fact that 'antifa' is not a group should not be a comfort here.

Labour would find it easy to campaign against this rank homophobia if they weren’t in the middle of enacting and enforcing a bathroom ban for trans people

This is as good as everyone is saying it is.

Not going to pretend today wasn't depressing but the far right has been stronger in the UK before. Mosley packed out Earls Court and was backed by several large newspapers. Enoch Powell had the support of 74% of the population. Musk has a net popularity rating of -52%

How Charlie Kirk practiced politics

This is incredible reporting from @jasonleopold.bsky.social @dmehro.bsky.social and the Bloomberg team.

Hackney is Hackneying really hard today.

The Chinese governments committed crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and is trying to cover up. My father included, hundreds and thousands of Uyghurs remain unjustly imprisoned. The UN and others should press for accountability. My op-ed @thehill.com thehill.com/opinion/inte...

Nigel Farage looks uncomfortable as Jamie Raskin uses his opening statement to absolutely demolish him

Almost every newspaper and broadcaster in Britain is now waging a racist 24/7 campaign of hatred against migrants on behalf of the ultra rich. In response to this, one small thing you can do is donate to the NGOs supporting refugees.

NEW: Saudi is holding internal discussions about having China or South Korea hold the 2029 Asian Winter Games as it struggles to deliver its desert defying ski resort in Neom. on.ft.com/45qlxtK

Delays to Saudi Arabia’s snow mountain put 2029 Asian Winter Games at risk. ‘Kingdom eyes alternative countries to host event after falling behind on construction of desert ski resort.’ ⁦‪ by @alisonkilling.bsky.social ‬⁩the FT team. www.ft.com/content/6dfc...

NEW: Ski resort in the Saudi mountains? This animation shows how the huge Trojena project which is set to host the Asian winter games in 2029 is falling behind schedule Great reporting from @alisonkilling.bsky.social Andrew England Joe Leahy and Ahmed Al Omran www.ft.com/content/6dfc... #dataviz

NEW: Saudi is holding internal discussions about having China or South Korea hold the 2029 Asian Winter Games as it struggles to deliver its desert defying ski resort in Neom. on.ft.com/45qlxtK

large parts of UK politics are swinging far-right with very, very frightening speed, and racists are getting increasingly open about expressing their bigotry.

These are the top replies, being financially rewarded for posting this stuff, and the explanation offered by the site’s own AI for why it’s like that. Anyway just flicking through the Sunday newspapers reading about some minor content infractions that Ofcom might look into at the BBC/Channel 4.

Tankies are incredibly western centric, even as they use their support for non-western states which do things the US opposes as cover for this. It's why so many of them deny the genocide of the Uyghurs.

NEW: Heavily armed gangs control 95% of Haiti's capital and are expanding their campaign of murder, rape and extortion across the country. Better armed than the Haitian police, it is weapons smuggled from the US than have enabled their dominance. We tracked how Haitian gangs get their guns.

NEW: Inside the race for AI capacity. The quest for superintelligence is spurring a data centre boom — but critics question the cost, environmental impact and whether it is all needed. ig.ft.com/ai-data-cent...

New: The American guns turning Haiti’s gangs into an army. Caches of weapons — including sniper and military-style rifles — are being smuggled from Florida, enabling Haitian militias to challenge the country’s fragile government. The UN says gangs now outgun the police. ig.ft.com/haiti-gangs/

On Monday Awdah Hathleen, one of the Palestinian activists behind the Oscar-winning film No Other Land was killed by a settler who has been harassing Hathleen's village, Um al Khair, for months. Read our visual investigation into West Bank settlers here: ig.ft.com/west-bank/

NEW: Heavily armed gangs control 95% of Haiti's capital and are expanding their campaign of murder, rape and extortion across the country. Better armed than the Haitian police, it is weapons smuggled from the US than have enabled their dominance. We tracked how Haitian gangs get their guns.

This is what happens when neoliberal meritocratic technocracy hollows out democracy and leaves social media to fill the vacuum with outrage, distortion, and division.

I have said this before but I find the constant British catastrophizing really quite worrying. Yes there are big problems. But Terminal decline? Everything falling apart? Hopelessly broken? I find this attitude frightening.

This is a really good beginners' guide to how LLMs work, why they churn out hallucinations, and some of the techniques being used to reduce those hallucinations.

Just a reminder that there is a little time left for our open call to put on group architecture themed exhibitions in No.1 Poultry www.e-flux.com/announcement...

A horrifying statement published today by the Editorial Committee of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency. "Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die" Translation from French to English by @cnorristrent.bsky.social:

My semi-regular reminder of a really important reality about cities, density, services and taxes. Any questions? Graphic recently cleaned up by @kathrynmathias.bsky.social. #CityMakingMath

Maybe the real question we should be asking ourselves is what is anyone doing to unite them? - Labour says Reform UK ‘trying to divide communities’ ahead of Farage speech on crime - UK politics live www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

NEW: Inside Gaza’s ‘death traps’ via @FT GHF’s plan forces hungry Palestinians to trek miles to aid sites, often through the IDF’s active military areas. Hundreds have been killed and thousands injured. This is how… www.ft.com/content/6c74...

The leap from this to the systems Chinese police use for social engineering in Xinjiang and Tibet is exceedingly small