Sam Joiner

Donald Trump Jr. spent two days in August on a hunting trip in Mongolia with Umar Kremlev, the Russian businessman with ties to Putin who helped pay for the presidential son's wedding weekend festivities, the @ft.com.web.brid.gy reports. www.ft.com/content/f41f...

NEW: We uncovered another trip shared by Donald Trump Jr and Umar Kremlev, the Kremlin-linked oligarch who attended his wedding. In August, they went hunting for a rare wild sheep in the remote Mongolian wilderness:

New: Inside Donald Trump Jr’s Mongolian hunting trip with a Kremlin-linked oligarch Superb reporting by @peter.andringa.me, @digitalcampbell.ft.com & Eenee Purevdorj reveals a remote rendezvous with Umar Kremlev — a businessman with a criminal record and ties to Putin as.ft.com/r/90284870-a...

This is an incredible piece of work, and a must-read if you want to understand how tokens - the building blocks of AI - have transformed the economics of computing. The industry’s future hinges on finding a pricing model that works for both AI companies and their customers. ig.ft.com/ai-tokens/

Emailing a public email address to notify a government of an AI hack does not inspire confidence that OpenAI has the processes in place to deal with these issues - or that it treated it seriously www.ft.com/content/5613...

A big new story from us: a big new leak means that we can put numbers on the scale of A7 -- the Kremlin's huge money-laundering machine. $6.9bn laundered through the international banking system via SWIFT, with $1.1bn sent to StanChart alone. www.ft.com/content/3848...

New: The era of AI warfare has arrived. Our latest visual investigation explores how autonomous systems are being integrated on the battlefield, as models advance in ways even their creators cannot fully predict. www.ft.com/content/6864...

New: The mercenaries fighting in Africa’s forgotten war In a new visual investigation, we worked w the brilliant @khoureld.bsky.social to expose how hundreds of Colombian mercenaries were brought to Sudan by a shadow network. At the end of the journey lay a city of corpses as.ft.com/r/782ad9e1-a...

Good morning time is tight today, but here are a few giftlinks to highlights from FT Weekend. First up this eye opening and brilliant reporting about the shadow network fighting the world's bloodiest war as.ft.com/r/147ade5b-b...

New: How Israel is making southern Lebanon ‘unliveable’. @rayajalabi.ft.com and Aditi Bhandari worked with @lighthousereports.com to reveal the IDF’s destruction of critical infrastructure — damage that has made returning near impossible for thousands of displaced people. as.ft.com/r/9680cc7f-8...

New from me: Until recently, the gap between comfortably-off and just-getting-started could plausibly be crossed in a decade or two of hard work. Growth in asset prices means that’s no longer true: even a lifetime of striving doesn’t offer a realistic prospect of feeling you’ve “made it”.

DR Congo’s cobalt exports carry a hidden cargo: uranium. New visual investigation with @lighthousereports.com reveals how uranium-laced cobalt could enter covert supply chains hidden from regulators — raising proliferation concerns among DRC officials and nuclear experts. as.ft.com/r/7aa59487-e...

this is a great piece, and i'm not just saying that because i'm quoted in it

Fascinating, beautifully written magazine cover story by @samlearner.bsky.social on how vibe coding is overwhelming the unsung human caretakers who keep the web running. Your weekend must read right here as.ft.com/r/1e761e4c-c...

NEW: a look at how surging power demands from data centers are helping to drive a shortage of electrical transformers ig.ft.com/transformers/

the spacex/enshittification thesis gets a proper visual treatment. This is very nicely done: ig.ft.com/spacex-ipo/

NEW: Xinjiang has the highest detention capacity in the world, according to FT analysis - enough space for almost 1 in 40 people in the region - more than five years after the Chinese govt announced the camps had closed.

www.ft.com/content/5ba3...

A US satellite in blue tracks two Chinese satellites. Prudent monitoring — or rehearsal for combat? A high-stakes arms race is taking place in orbit; the winner will "control Earth by controlling space”. But things can go very wrong, very quickly. Today's Big Read is on #FTEdit 👉 ft.trib.al/iwgFTZe

Good morning and Happy Nigella Day! Because all is briefly right with the world and as a special treat, it's free to read. www.ft.com/content/4819...

Iran allows handful of favoured ships through Strait of Hormuz ft.trib.al/27SrUF0

some interesting stuff happening lately with the truth machines as.ft.com/r/40518eb1-4...

Qatar’s energy minister has warned that war in the Middle East could “bring down the economies of the world”, predicting that all Gulf energy exporters would shut down production within days and drive oil to $150 a barrel. Great scoop by Andrew England and Malcolm Moore as.ft.com/r/4210f11c-e...

aaaaaand: 175 entities in the network were sanctioned today by the UK.

A terrifying glimpse into our dystopian future.

"Suspended above roads, hospitals and critical infrastructure, layers of netting criss-cross parts of the city so densely that in some districts the sky is barely visible."

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

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 👇

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

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

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-...

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.

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...

"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 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...

How Trump companies made $1bn from crypto. Outstanding investigative reporting from a crack FT team. on.ft.com/47bNR2L