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/

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...

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, 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 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...

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...

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.

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.

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.

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

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...

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...

🟡 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.

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...

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

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 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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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-...

After years of lobbying by activists, Sandvine has been added to a US trade blacklist for selling censorship tools. "[Sandvine] could have stuck with sort of normal, civilian purposes. Instead they chose to sell to dictators and facilitate censorship and repression." www.wired.com/story/sandvi...

"PTSD is our future." After two years of bombardment, 80% of Kyiv residents report symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Addressing this psychological damage is vital for Ukraine to remain resilient, and rebuild. A new civic tech project aims to heal the wounds. www.wired.com/story/kyiv-t...

Is this a warning, or part of their manifesto?

“Sam’s face was on the cover of Forbes. Everyone was calling him a genius. It made it very easy to believe that we were part of something really unique and special, and that it was going to keep going, and it was never going to end.” In Wired. www.wired.com/story/why-si...

#NAFO's dog soldiers are holding a summit this weekend, on the 500th day since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For WIRED's 500 Days series, I looked at how shitposting helps save lives at the front. https://www.wired.com/story/ukraine-war-trucks-trolls-tourniquets/

WIRED is launching 500 Days, a series about the resilience and innovation behind Ukraine’s resistance. The first piece follows volunteers who supply soldiers with trucks, drones and rations, funded by shitposting meme warriors. https://www.wired.com/story/ukraine-war-trucks-trolls-tourniquets/

Brixton