FirstFT: ICE’s dragnet data operation

Good morning and welcome again. In as we speak’s publication:

• The Trump administration’s push to succeed in 1mn deportations

• Kevin Hassett to face trio of finalists in Federal Reserve chair race

• Howard Marks on the AI ‘bubble’

• Columnist Jemima Kelly goes on safari

We begin as we speak with a particular investigation into President Donald Trump’s deportation coverage. The Monetary Instances spoke to greater than a dozen former senior authorities officers aware of the administration’s deportation push. All shared issues in regards to the quantity of information assortment, the shortage of oversight and the shift from felony to immigration work. Right here’s what we discovered.

Trump’s immigration knowledge dragnet: The Division of Homeland Safety is America’s greatest home legislation enforcement and intelligence company. It was created following the 9/11 terror assaults and was on the forefront of the massive knowledge assortment equipment the US authorities constructed to observe and find suspected terrorists. Below the Trump administration, giant components of America’s greatest home legislation enforcement and intelligence company have been directed to assist its Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers attain a goal of 1mn deportations within the president’s first 12 months.

The brand new surveillance state: DHS has amassed huge surveillance capabilities: geolocation, facial recognition, DNA testing, eye scans, spyware and adware, licence plate cameras, credit score experiences and extra are used to establish and pursue suspects. AI instruments cross–reference datasets, whereas cellular apps give discipline brokers info at their fingertips.

A wide selection of personal firms, from world powerhouses to area of interest start-ups, have secured lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} in authorities contracts, together with AT&T, Thomson Reuters, Palantir and Clearview AI. Some have employed lobbyists with ties to the White Home to capitalise on ICE’s rising ambitions. That is the story of how the US authorities is repurposing criminal investigation tools to fulfill its deportation goal.

Right here’s what else we’re holding tabs on as we speak:

• US rates of interest: The US Federal Reserve, which has delivered two consecutive charge cuts since September, is anticipated to reduce interest rates once more.

• Financial knowledge: Brazil’s statistics company IBGE publishes inflation figures for November and the Financial institution of Mexico publishes its twice-yearly monetary stability report.

• Firms: Oracle publishes interim outcomes and Adobe releases annual outcomes.

• Thailand and Cambodia: Donald Trump is expected to call the leaders of both countries after a peace accord signed in October frayed.

• Nobel ceremonies: The prizes, which embrace peace, literature and physics, are handed out to the winners in ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo.

Martin Wolf, the Monetary Instances’ chief economics commentator, interviews European Central Financial institution president Christine Lagarde as we speak in The World Boardroom. Register for free.

5 extra high tales

1. Unique: Donald Trump will quickly launch a remaining spherical of interviews for Federal Reserve chair, pitting White Home financial adviser Kevin Hassett — at present frontrunner within the race to exchange Jay Powell — against a trio of other candidates.

• Value of dwelling disaster: Donald Trump stated he accepted prices were too high however insisted they had been “coming down tremendously” as he addressed supporters on the Mount Ethereal On line casino Resort in Pennsylvania.

2. The IMF has known as on China to repair “important” imbalances in its financial system, together with a bout of deflation that has pushed a depreciation of the renminbi’s actual change charge and boosted exports at a time of rising commerce tensions.

3. JPMorgan Chase shares had their greatest fall in eight months yesterday after the biggest US financial institution by belongings warned that its bills would rise by greater than $9bn subsequent 12 months. Here’s more on what is driving those cost increases.

4. Warner Bros Discovery traders met Paramount chief government David Ellison in New York yesterday as he tried to persuade them that his firm was a greater wager than Netflix within the combat to manage the Hollywood group. Here’s what we know about the meeting.

5. Donald Trump’s envoys have given Volodymyr Zelenskyy days to answer a proposed peace deal. Ukraine’s president informed his European counterparts that he had been pressed, throughout a two-hour name on Saturday, to take a swift resolution by Trump’s particular envoy Steve Witkoff and the US president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Read the full story.

At this time’s massive learn

President Donald Trump’s remark that he “could be concerned” within the resolution over who finally buys Warner Bros Discovery set off hypothesis about which purchaser the president might favour, with the potential to affect the result by means of the justice division’s antitrust powers. FT reporters have a look at the antitrust issues raised by the Netflix and Paramount bids.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

Chart of the day

Greenback-based stablecoins provide advantages for the US, which could promote their use, partly as a way to improve the dominant position of the greenback and so assist finance its enormous fiscal deficits. Britain and the EU, nonetheless, are higher off resisting them. Martin Wolf explains why.

Take a break from the information . . . 

Columnist Jemima Kelly will get up shut — sometimes a little too close — with the wildlife on safari in western Uganda.