Can we make robots that eat other robots? For one group of dogged roboticists, artificial life that can reproduce itself is the future. The fact it doesn’t yet work only adds to the excitement

machines making machines in morningside heights: as.ft.com/r/51413355-0...

yes of course

A special FT magazine issue all about maps is out today, w great pieces by @okr.bsky.social and @theboysmithy.ft.com, plus maps by me on how glacial melt is redrawing Alpine borders, the battle to redraw America and more

Read it online here (though best enjoyed in print!) www.ft.com/content/efab...

Kalshi chief Tarek Mansour: ‘We’re pricing the future’ [FREE TO READ] The co-founder of America’s biggest predictions market on the ‘wisdom of the crowds’, political polarisation — and the company’s adviser, Donald Trump Jr

tarek mansour really likes chicken: as.ft.com/r/bd85b5a5-0...

The AI boom comes to America’s loneliest place Plans for a 230-mile transmission line threaten Nevada’s wilderness and have united hunters and wildlife groups

power, data and birds on the loneliest road in america: www.ft.com/content/729d...

intern with us this summer: job-boards.greenhouse.io/financialtim...

How prediction markets are shaking up sports gambling in America Kalshi is spearheading a legal battle to expand access to online betting, with support from some in Trump’s circle

NEW: How prediction markets are shaking up sports gambling in America

@okr.bsky.social and I on prediction markets' entry into sports contracts under Trump's CFTC and the resulting legal fights with states, tribal groups, and the gaming industry

on.ft.com/4nwVxDk

on.ft.com/4gl8LjO

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: 🧵

Jim Sanborn has a secret [FREE TO READ] The sculptor of the CIA’s ‘Kryptos’ has spent decades guarding its last secret code. What happens when he’s gone?

jim sanborn has a secret, or, the nuance of iqlusion: on.ft.com/417RPqQ

Why can’t I stop cleaning fake dirt off fake objects? In praise of ‘PowerWash Simulator’, part ponderous game, part dreamlike state

why can't i stop cleaning fake dirt off fake objects? www.ft.com/content/0500...

Lone coder cracks 50-year puzzle to find Boggle’s top-scoring board ‘Remarkably old-school’ method establishes supremacy of 1,045-word grid

mind, boggling: www.ft.com/content/0ab6...

The Hell’s Kitchen room that monitors every subway train in New York Under threat from the Trump administration, the MTA’s high-tech nerve centre is focused on keeping the city moving

notes from underground www.ft.com/content/c4b3...

Inside Russia’s shadow war in the Baltics A series of suspected sabotage incidents has exposed the vulnerability of Europe’s undersea infrastructure

absolutely incredible work by my colleagues, on the "shadow war" in the baltics: ig.ft.com/baltic-sea/

Chess grandmaster Hans Niemann: ‘I’m a soldier at war’ The 21-year-old player on the cheating allegations that derailed his career — and his strategy for overcoming his rivals

"i'll call you when the war is over" www.ft.com/content/b7ec...

thanks graham!

The mind-bending new science of measuring time In windowless labs in Colorado sit the 20 atomic clocks the world sets its watch by. They’re barely keeping up

atoms, vacuums, lasers, and subcommittees — the technology and politics behind redefinining the second: www.ft.com/content/625d...

Is the $11 Billion Online Sportsbook Bubble About to Burst? F​rom Vegas to the black market, gambling companies have taken over sports. Inside a billion-dollar industry that could be on the bubble

I spent most of 2024 traveling around the U.S. and Central America hanging out with gamblers, bookies, politicians, even CEOs and casino bosses, trying to learn about sports betting from every perspective. I wrote 10,000 words about it for Rolling Stone. www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

Burst of trades gives Trump a winning edge in election prediction markets [FREE TO READ] Small group of bettors lifts odds of Republican victory to 62 per cent on cryptocurrency-based Polymarket

NEW: How a small group of connected bettors has been driving up Trump's odds in betting markets with massive limit orders

on.ft.com/3YsgXaI

w/ @okr.bsky.social

Can you mastermind a US presidential campaign? Compete for the White House against other readers in the Election Game

Worked w/ @okr.bsky.social, @inari-ta.bsky.social, @peter.andringa.me on our US election game, to help explain some of the decision making process of presidential candidates trying to win the electoral college

You can check it out/compete against other readers here [FREE]: ig.ft.com/us-election-...

graphics by the brilliant ian bott and cleve jones (who built an entire spacecraft) and @samlearner.bsky.social (who modeled an entire solar system). photography by the incomparable ryan young.

Last days of the lonely interstellar spacecraft When the 50-year-old Voyager probe stopped sending messages home, Nasa had a problem. No one remembered how to fix it

the spacecraft voyager 1, the most distant human-made object from our planet, started speaking gibberish. this is the story of its archival rescue, and the last days of a lonely, interstellar machine: www.ft.com/content/0f2d...

cartography by the brilliant @samlearner.bsky.social and steve bernard:

www.ft.com/content/63b1...

Battle for the American West How four elk hunters and a ladder could reshape Wyoming’s chequered frontiers

zero dimensions, one ladder, four hunters, more lawyers, and millions of wild acres — the story of a geometric battle in the american west: www.ft.com/content/63b1...

Prediction markets can tell the future. Why is the US so afraid of them? Inside the fight over political betting, which remains a taboo in the US

john aristotle phillips, his truth machine, and the shadow campaigns fighting over political prediction markets

The global network behind the fentanyl crisis The illicit trade routes responsible for the worst overdose crisis in US history

this is the global fentanyl supply chain, as revealed by indictments, data, and FT reporting in china, mexico, and the US: ig.ft.com/fentanyl-cri...