“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

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.

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: 🧵

This is great fun. I won the FA Cup and overspent by £100m but the memories will live forever #PinkhamTiliDie

FREE TO PLAY: ⚽ Can you run a Premier League football club? Step into the boardroom, navigate financial regulations and guide your team to glory in our new game. 👉 ft.com/football-game

If only there were some famous text warning of vainglorious desert-based ambition which could've given us a clue as to how hosting the Winter Olympics in Saudi Arabia would go on.ft.com/3UH13qt

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

Exc: Saudi Arabia is struggling to deliver its desert-defying ski resort for the 2029 Asian Winter Games and has held internal discussions about finding alternative countries to host the event. Great scoop by @alisonkilling.bsky.social, Andrew England, @alomran.me and Joe Leahy on.ft.com/45qmKRM

Incredibly instructive reporting on what appears well on its way to becoming the biggest, most concentrated, most energy- and resource-intensive, and most speculative wave of capital investment ever. ig.ft.com/ai-data-cent...

New: Inside the relentless race for AI capacity. The quest for superintelligence is spurring a data centre boom, with hyperscalers clustering thousands of chips to train AI models. But critics question the environmental impact, soaring costs and whether it's 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/

New: Inside America’s booming immigration detention industry. The largest domestic deportation operation in US history has seen detention companies’ market value surge. But FT analysis has identified facilities housing 100s more people than they are designed to hold. 👉 ft.com/us-detention-industry

New: Inside Gaza’s 'death traps'. A US-backed scheme forces hungry Palestinians to trek kilometres for food aid. First-hand testimony, satellite imagery and verified video shed light on the dangerous journey from which many never return. on.ft.com/4lKG6Go

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...

NEW: Tony Blair's staff took part in a BCG project for the redevelopment of Gaza along the lines of the 'Trump Riviera' plan www.ft.com/content/0b1b...

Is Europe prepared for war? https://on.ft.com/4nsBo1V

Radar satellite imagery from Umbra shows several damaged and destroyed structures at the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran, following Israeli strikes this morning More maps and videos of the multiple attacks in our story here: on.ft.com/445zvPR

Multiple Israeli airstrikes have targeted Tehran’s top military commanders, nuclear sites and bases across the country. Verified footage, photos and official statements from Israel and Iran confirm some of the key locations that have been hit. on.ft.com/4jQdz0O

NEW: Illegal fuel in Mexico has evolved from pipeline tapping to a more sophisticated cross-border smuggling operation that is funding Mexico's powerful cartels. By @digitalcampbell.ft.com @peter.andringa.me Christine Murray @samjoiner.bsky.social and me. ig.ft.com/mexico-fuel-...

NEW - Mexico’s cartels have been setting up shop in a new business: smuggled fuel. Using satellite, customs, and maritime data, we identified misdeclared shipments of millions of barrels per year in a lucrative web that evades taxes and stretches across the country. ig.ft.com/mexico-fuel-...

A new form of smuggling is funding Mexico’s cartels, with fuel from the US illegally imported in massive volumes. One in four vehicles in the country could be running on contraband fuel. W/ @digitalcampbell.ft.com christine murray @peter.andringa.me @alisonkilling.bsky.social 👉 ft.com/mexico-fuel

How smuggled US fuel funds Mexico’s cartels 📊 https://ig.ft.com/mexico-fuel-theft/

Honoured to win two @amnesty.org awards for our visual investigations into Russia’s abductions of Ukrainian children and settler soldiers in the West Bank. 👏 @alisonkilling.bsky.social @peter.andringa.me @digitalcampbell.ft.com @samlearner.bsky.social @christopherjm.ft.com @jamesshotter.bsky.social

A UN commission has found that Russian forces committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in drone attacks on civilians in Ukraine’s Kherson region. www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel... As we reported last year: Kherson has been the target of an experiment without precedent in modern warfare...

Inside China’s ‘stolen iPhone building’ - great piece by the FT's Will Langley on how that iPhone that was nicked from you in Mayfair ended up in a chop shop outside Shenzhen www.ft.com/content/752f... via @ft

New: The government wants a technological revolution in healthcare. But from paper notes to inconsistent data sharing and dozens of IT systems, digitising the NHS will not be easy. W/ @laurahughesft.bsky.social @upyorkshire.ft.com @carolinenevitt.bsky.social @emmalewis.ft.com 👉 on.ft.com/4dqrVDG

Finding some of the 'fishing only employs less than [insert other industry]' posts a bit irksome, firstly because a) the EU-UK deal is not actualyl a bad one for UK fishing! But also because yes, it is a small industry, but it is an important one where people risk their lives:

Delighted to see our portfolio of investigations on Russia’s war in Ukraine shortlisted for @gijn.org Sigma Awards. The revelations contribute to mounting evidence of war crimes and show what can be achieved when forensic reporting is combined with visual storytelling. gijn.org/stories/sigm...

wrote about the MTA for the magazine w/ @okr.bsky.social on.ft.com/3EMS6Yt

NYC congestion pricing is working on.ft.com/3EIT7Rc (gift link)

NEW from the team: another look at the supply chain behind the iPhone and why it would be impractical to manufacture in the US: ig.ft.com/us-iphone/

Twenty-eight countries and 187 suppliers. The newer iPhones have 2,700 parts made around the world. Moving the entire supply chain to the US is highly impractical and unrealistic in the span of the Trump presidency ig.ft.com/us-iphone/

New: Why Trump can’t dislodge Apple from China. The administration wants the iPhone to be manufactured in the US. A look inside the world’s most popular smartphone illustrates why analysts have dismissed Trump’s plan as unrealistic ig.ft.com/us-iphone/

There's only one Martin Wolf. Beware the scams and deepfakes! [first 300 clicks free, spread the word] on.ft.com/42SkIaD

Can an iPhone heat food? Asking for a friend. www.ft.com/content/ec96...

Trump exempting computers & phones from the tariffs today means that Chinese-made laptops now have lower tariffs than European Cars, Mexican Steel, & Canadian Lumber. Also means Vietnamese-made laptops have a lower tariff than Ethiopian coffee, Indian tea, & Guatemalan bananas

it’s hard to think of such a rapid ragged reversal from such a seismic economic policy www.ft.com/content/3eb4...

The Chinese goods Americans rely on, from microwaves to Barbies 📊 https://www.ft.com/content/ec96e2ed-5dd6-4c6b-92a0-1b77bf517b36

New: More than 3/4 of the mobile phones, games consoles, food processors, electric fans and toys shipped to the US last year were made in China. The products are among more than 50 items with an import value above $1bn subject to Trump’s 125% tariffs. Free-to-read link: on.ft.com/3Ei8ujf

New: How China’s record trade surplus lit the fuse on Trump’s tariff war. Our latest visual story shows how Beijing’s export machine conquered global trade — and what the world is doing to push back. ig.ft.com/china-trade-...

Used Teslas in the US and UK are falling in price faster than other EVs. A glut of former fleet cars may explain the drop, rather than any link to Musk, but it has contributed to the company’s worst quarter since 2022. By @raydouglas.bsky.social and @chriscook.news on.ft.com/4iXaBI9

We're hiring a new FT data journalist in DC or New York! Check out the posting/apply here: job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io/financialtim...

will be in perugia for @journalismfestival.com next week to talk about breaking news on bluesky w @peter.andringa.me @fadahjassem.bsky.social @sarahjeong.bsky.social! pls drop me a note if your org is hosting any side events there, would love to attend :)

The view from the FT editorial board: “If it endures, Trump’s decision to enact sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs on US trade partners will go down as one of the greatest acts of self-harm in American economic history.” on.ft.com/4cis3oc

Great scoop from ⁦@peter.andringa⁩.me The Venezuelans sent by Trump to El Salvador and dumped in prison thought they were going to Venezuela. They had signed paperwork to go home. via @FT www.ft.com/content/dbfa...

NEW: Some Venezuelans now in a prison in El Salvador signed docs believing they would be sent home, per families and an activist. Flight records and gov statements suggest plans for a direct deportation flight may have been scrapped amid rising tensions btw the US and Venezuela. on.ft.com/4bNdwRa

New: Inside Russia’s shadow war in the Baltics As tensions rise with Moscow, suspected cable sabotage has exposed the vulnerability of Europe's subsea infrastructure. “I can believe that one case could be an accident. Two cases in a row? Hardly. Three and more? Never." 👉 ig.ft.com/baltic-sea/