Pete Guest

Russia’s Threats Put Europe’s Borderlands on Edge The Baltic countries are fortifying their frontier regions as a deterrent to Russian aggression. Close to the border, communities now have to reckon with the price of peace.

Within the fevered coverage of Russia's growing threat in Europe, it's easy to forget that places on the map are home to real communities. Bloomberg's Borderlands project tries to understand these complex places, and the tension that they're under.

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Inside a Romance Scam Compound- and How People Get Tricked Into Being There

Information & AI Senior Editor @joannaskao.bsky.social selected @emilyfishbein11.bsky.social & @peterguest.bsky.social's story "Inside a Romance Scam Compound—and How People Get Tricked Into Being There,” published in @techreviewjp.bsky.social, as her #PulitzerStaffPicks.

👉 bit.ly/YIStories25

Freed by Trump, a $200 Million Fraudster Started a New Scam Eli Weinstein promised to reform — but after his release he took on an alias and started another Ponzi scheme.

Eli Weinstein promised to reform — but after his release he took on an alias and started another Ponzi scheme.

A Political Crisis Pits Lithuanian Artists Against the Populists Sodas 2123 used to be a boarding school for delinquent children before it was left to ruin and squatters. Five years ago, it was taken over by the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association and...

Populists and the far-right see cultural institutions as a way to embed their narratives into public life; in Lithuania, artists are taking a stand.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

European officials believe that Russia is escalating its hybrid campaign against Europe. Its latest tactic includes seeding a humanitarian crisis in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

Read more: bloom.bg/4npsMIN

📷️: Picture Alliance

2025 Online Journalism Awards

1.🧵We are thrilled to announce New Lines has won the Online News Award in the topical reporting on climate change category for our collaboration with @thegeckoproject.org. “Dust Money,” looks at Indonesia's green transition and labor abuses around nickel mining

awards.journalists.org/winners/2025/

Dust Money Indonesia is in the middle of a rush for nickel, a metal that is vital to the green economy. The country’s government wants to dominate the market, making nickel a national project. Years into the boo...

The story, published by New Lines and the Gecko Project, took us on a three-week road trip through the frontiers of the nickel industry.

newlinesmag.com/reportage/du...

Last night, Dust Money won in its category at the Online Journalism Awards, after winning a Webby earlier in the year.

This is Diana, a Bajau community leader in Sulawesi, who gave us the name for the project.

The judges said nice things here: awards.journalists.org/entries/dust...

Jeffrey Epstein Email Trove Reveals Ghislaine Maxwell’s Secrets A cache of 18,000 messages obtained by Bloomberg News reveals Maxwell’s deep ties and involvement with the disgraced financier and sex offender.

Exclusive: A cache of 18,000 emails from Jeffrey Epstein’s inbox obtained by Bloomberg News offers a raw look into the world of the disgraced financier and sex offender — and reveals Ghislaine Maxwell’s secrets

Dust Money - Online Journalism Awards Read More

Dust Money, the Gecko Project x New Lines project that used a road trip through the mines, smelters and communities of Sulawesi to chart the human and environmental impacts of the nickel business, is a finalist in the Online Journalism Awards.

awards.journalists.org/entries/dust...

Ukraine Rebuilds Its Energy Grid With Lessons From the Frontline Ukraine has rebuilt an energy grid that’s more resilient — and greener — than what it had before Russia’s invasion.

Ukraine has faced three years of attacks on its energy grid by Russia. And yet, it's mostly kept the lights on, building under fire a new kind of electricity network, one that's more resilient -- and more sustainable -- than what was there before.

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Dust Money Indonesia is in the middle of a rush for nickel, a metal that is vital to the green economy. The country’s government wants to dominate the market, making nickel a national project. Years into the boo...

Officially, one of the best things on the internet. Dust Money, the @thegeckoproject.org / @newlinesmag.bsky.social collaboration is an honoree in multimedia storytelling in this year's Webbys.

newlinesmag.com/reportage/du...

Dust Money Indonesia is in the middle of a rush for nickel, a metal that is vital to the green economy. The country’s government wants to dominate the market, making nickel a national project. Years into the boo...

2. 🧵 Our joint investigation with @thegeckoproject.org on Indonesia’s nickel production received a webby honoree nomination for Best Multimedia Storytelling.

newlinesmag.com/reportage/du...

Very sad to hear that Gwen Robinson passed away in Bangkok. A true legend among foreign correspondents, a relentless journalist with a deep love of the craft and her colleagues. Like a lot of journalists in Asia, I owe Gwen a huge debt for opening doors and backing my craziest reporting ideas.

Inside a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there Survivors reveal how criminal syndicates use Big Tech to recruit and trap people into operating “pig butchering” scams—and then use the same platforms to steal billions of dollars from targets all ove...

Survivors have spoken to us to reveal how criminal syndicates use Big Tech to recruit and trap people into operating “pig butchering” scams—and what life is like once you're been ensnared.

Fantastic new story this morning.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/27/1...

Off-white Christmas.

YouTube video by The Gecko Project The dark side of Indonesia’s green metals obsession | Dust Money

New film from our recent investigation:

We travelled 2,000km through Indonesia’s nickel frontiers investigating how a green, battery-powered future is being achieved through increasingly authoritarian means.

Published with @newlinesmag.bsky.social.

I lost faith in the American Dream when I experienced a "continental breakfast" at a midrange New York hotel.

Dust Money Indonesia is in the middle of a massive rush for nickel, a metal that is vital to the green economy. Years into the boom, the costs of its obsession with the mineral are mounting.

Devastating longread from @thegeckoproject.org & @newlinesmag.bsky.social on the landscapes & communities of Sulawesi entrained in rapacious forest-stripping, village-gobbling, sea-smothering nickel extraction, pollution from coal-fired smelters, dangerous industry conditions & social conflict

How the Ukraine-Russia war is reshaping the tech sector in Eastern Europe Startups in Latvia and other nearby countries see the mobilization of Ukraine as a warning and as inspiration. They are now changing consumer products—from scooters to recreational drones—for use on t...

I was totally fascinated by @peterguest.bsky.social’s reporting here, about how Ukraine’s neighbors fear what happened there—and have been inspired to quickly reshape their own civilian tech, like scooters, drones, med tech + way more @technologyreview.com www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/04/1...

This VPN is the resistance tool of choice for millions Outmaneuvering internet firewalls isn't easy, but Proton VPN is waging a digital war for an open internet.

Journalist @peterguest.bsky.social offers an inside look at what @proton.me CEO Andy Yen calls a constant "cat-and-mouse" game between his company and internet censors around the world. "It’s about whether or not we can innovate and develop faster than they can.”

www.compiler.news/proton-vpn-v...

Newsroom Fellow (6-12 month Contract) London

🟡 UK JOURNALISM JOB ALERT 🟡

@semafor.com is hiring an early-career journalist in its London newsroom. Details here: boards.greenhouse.io/semafor/jobs...

Reach out if you've got questions!

Considering returning to Twitter for a day to see if anyone can explain Bitcoin to me.

She Was a Russian Socialite and Influencer. Cops Say She’s a Crypto Laundering Kingpin Western authorities say they’ve identified a network that found a new way to clean drug gangs’ dirty cash. WIRED gained exclusive access to the investigation.

NEW: For the last few months, officials at Britain’s NCA have explained to me how they discovered and disrupted two massive Russian money laundering rings.

The networks have moved billions each year and—unusually—have been caught swapping cash for crypto with drugs gangs

🧵 A wild thread...

Dust Money Indonesia is in the middle of a massive rush for nickel, a metal that is vital to the green economy. Years into the boom, the costs of its obsession with the mineral are mounting.

NEW: Our 2,000km roadtrip through hidden parts of the nickel supply chain found that Indonesia's government has rewritten environmental laws, militarised the industry and criminalised opposition to mining.

Published with @newlinesmag.bsky.social

Dust Money Indonesia is in the middle of a rush for nickel, a metal that is vital to the green economy. The country’s government wants to dominate the market, making nickel a national project. Years into the boo...

NEW: Indonesia is the beating heart of nickel production for the world’s green transition. But an investigation by @newlinesmag.bsky.social and @thegeckoproject.org reveals the catastrophic environmental and human toll of the lucrative industry. newlinesmag.com/reportage/du...

Dust Money Indonesia is in the middle of a rush for nickel, a metal that is vital to the green economy. The country’s government wants to dominate the market, making nickel a national project. Years into the boo...

Dust Money

The Indonesian government's obsession with nickel is turning vast areas of the country into a sacrifice zone, where landscapes are wrecked, communities are destroyed and human rights are rolled back.

For @newlinesmag.bsky.social and @thegeckoproject.org

newlinesmag.com/reportage/du...

How the Ukraine-Russia war is reshaping the tech sector in Eastern Europe Startups in Latvia and other nearby countries see the mobilization of Ukraine as a warning and as inspiration. They are now changing consumer products—from scooters to recreational drones—for use on t...

Ukraine's resistance against Russia has been a miracle of innovation and entrepreneurship, as civilian technologies are turned into weapons or used to build social resilience. Other countries on Russia's borders are trying to learn from Ukraine's example.

www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/04/1...