Pete Guest

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...

I am supportive of journalists revealing A) their biases and B) their blood-alcohol levels when reporting. Five stars.

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 neighbors have watched as startups and political leaders in Ukraine have worked to turn civilian technology into weapons and civil defense systems. Now they want to do the same.

Our latest Big Story, from @peterguest.bsky.social, is up today. www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/04/1...

A small group of western scientists are trying to build their own backchannel to China, to try to prevent an AI apocalypse.

My first piece in the Economist's 1843 magazine.

www.economist.com/1843/2024/11...

At my first news job, on nightshifts on City Road, we would roll out of the office at 7am and drink next to bloodstained porters in pubs with sketchy licenses and sketchier claims to heritage; London at turn-shift, with the night people handing over to the day people.

The article — a super longform story — is out December 4, and will be published along with a short documentary.

We met seafaring Bajau communities squeezed into ruined slivers of land; saw poisoned waterways and collapsing landscapes; visited smelter complexes where deaths and injuries are routine.

Earlier this year, I joined a team from @thegeckoproject.org on a 2,000km road trip through Indonesia’s nickel country. The story, publishing next week, shows the cost of the country’s rush to break into the EV supply chain— measured in broken landscapes and people squeezed to the margins.

Alcantara Gorges, Sicily

One thing I miss about old Twitter was that it was a good place to post photos, without having to deal with the weirdness of Instagram. Going to try that here.

So: Football by Mount Etna, October 2024.

The President's new clothes Unravelling the mystery of Prabowo Subianto’s business interests

Indonesia’s new president brands himself as a successful businessman, with a $130m fortune and a vast landbank.

But is he really so successful? We delved into the companies linked to him to find out.

Read our investigation with @pulitzercenter.bsky.social:

thegeckoproject.org/articles/pre...

Floodwaters rising in Munich.

The Mayor of London Enters the Bullshit Cinematic Universe It all started with an asthma attack. Now Sadiq Khan finds himself at the center of a global conspiracy.

For Wired, I profiled London mayor Sadiq Khan—and the fictional Sadiq Khan who lives in the minds of conspiracy theorists, very online racists and Donald Trump.

www.wired.com/story/mayor-...