Sam Joiner
@samjoiner.bsky.social
Visual Stories and Investigations Editor at the Financial Times. We use computational tools and traditional reporting to produce explainers, investigations and deep dives in visual formats.
Reposted by Sam Joiner
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...
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...
January 13, 2026 at 9:23 AM
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...
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...
Reposted by Sam Joiner
This is *before* the new budget increases, which could take the total cost over £100bn www.ft.com/content/3f73...
January 13, 2026 at 9:26 AM
This is *before* the new budget increases, which could take the total cost over £100bn www.ft.com/content/3f73...
Reposted by Sam Joiner
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 👇
An #FTEdit thread on America’s new surveillance state 👇
December 10, 2025 at 2:53 PM
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 👇
An #FTEdit thread on America’s new surveillance state 👇
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...
@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...
December 10, 2025 at 10:06 AM
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...
@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...
Reposted by Sam Joiner
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.
Trump’s immigration data dragnet
The US is pulling in vast amounts of personal information in its drive to deport 1mn people this year
ig.ft.com
December 10, 2025 at 8:37 AM
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
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
December 8, 2025 at 1:54 PM
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
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
Reposted by Sam Joiner
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
@samjoiner.bsky.social @richardmilne.ft.com
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
December 3, 2025 at 9:26 AM
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
@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-...
Our latest visual investigation by @upyorkshire.ft.com, Dan Clark and @inari-ta.bsky.social
👉 ig.ft.com/supermarket-...
November 21, 2025 at 10:25 AM
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-...
Our latest visual investigation by @upyorkshire.ft.com, Dan Clark and @inari-ta.bsky.social
👉 ig.ft.com/supermarket-...
Reposted by Sam Joiner
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-...
Some describe threats, beatings and deception over pay.
Yet the fish they catch is still ending up on our plates.
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
ig.ft.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:44 AM
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-...
Some describe threats, beatings and deception over pay.
Yet the fish they catch is still ending up on our plates.
ig.ft.com/supermarket-...
Reposted by Sam Joiner
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...
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
ig.ft.com
November 9, 2025 at 11:11 AM
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.
Reposted by Sam Joiner
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...
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
ig.ft.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:56 AM
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...
ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
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
@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
ft.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:36 AM
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
@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
Reposted by Sam Joiner
"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...
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
ig.ft.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:28 AM
"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...
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...
Reposted by Sam Joiner
End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled on.ft.com/47FBigb
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
on.ft.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:04 AM
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...
W/ William Wallis, @janatausch.bsky.social, @digitalcampbell.ft.com
www.ft.com/content/f39c...
October 31, 2025 at 10:21 AM
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...
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
on.ft.com/47bNR2L
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
on.ft.com
October 16, 2025 at 7:43 AM
How Trump companies made $1bn from crypto. Outstanding investigative reporting from a crack FT team.
on.ft.com/47bNR2L
on.ft.com/47bNR2L
Reposted by Sam Joiner
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...
And it's poisoning people.
The first episode of Untold: Toxic Legacy launches October 22. Trailer here:
open.spotify.com/episode/6M4H...
Spotify – Web Player
open.spotify.com
October 9, 2025 at 9:44 AM
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...
And it's poisoning people.
The first episode of Untold: Toxic Legacy launches October 22. Trailer here:
open.spotify.com/episode/6M4H...
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...
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...
How mega batteries are unlocking an energy revolution
Vast battery units are shoring up grids and extending the use of clean power
ig.ft.com
October 13, 2025 at 6:08 AM
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...
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...
“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
on.ft.com/48jmZjd
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
on.ft.com
September 17, 2025 at 9:12 AM
“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
on.ft.com/48jmZjd
This weekend’s must read. Phenomenal reporting by the brilliant @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social
FT mag piece from me: Spent a long time looking into the Britannia hotel chain, beneficiaries of a vast amount of taxpayer money via the asylum system
on.ft.com/47HEE46
on.ft.com/47HEE46
The crumbling seaside palaces at the centre of Britain’s asylum crisis
[FREE TO READ] How one hotelier built an empire from beloved community assets — and a government struggling to cope with a surge in migration
on.ft.com
September 14, 2025 at 9:05 AM
This weekend’s must read. Phenomenal reporting by the brilliant @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social
Reposted by Sam Joiner
Winner of Digital Storytelling (National/International) is the Financial Times @FT for “Are the robots finally coming?” #FutureMediaAwards
September 11, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Winner of Digital Storytelling (National/International) is the Financial Times @FT for “Are the robots finally coming?” #FutureMediaAwards
Reposted by Sam Joiner
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: 🧵
The booming business of Trump’s deportation flights
Companies are jostling for billions of dollars to fly immigrant detainees out of the US
ig.ft.com
August 28, 2025 at 3:39 PM
This is amongst the best reported stories about the current state of ICE Air. Must read.
Reposted by Sam Joiner
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: 🧵
The booming business of Trump’s deportation flights
Companies are jostling for billions of dollars to fly immigrant detainees out of the US
ig.ft.com
August 28, 2025 at 8:35 AM
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: 🧵
Reposted by Sam Joiner
This is great fun. I won the FA Cup and overspent by £100m but the memories will live forever #PinkhamTiliDie
We've built a football game and it's free to play!
Can you run a Premier League club? Step into the boardroom, navigate financial regulations and guide your team to glory in our new game.
👉 ft.com/football-game ⚽️💸
Can you run a Premier League club? Step into the boardroom, navigate financial regulations and guide your team to glory in our new game.
👉 ft.com/football-game ⚽️💸
Can you run a Premier League football club?
Step into the boardroom, navigate profit and sustainability rules and guide your club to glory
ft.com
August 23, 2025 at 8:25 AM
This is great fun. I won the FA Cup and overspent by £100m but the memories will live forever #PinkhamTiliDie