Our way of keeping you, our members, updated on the stories we’re watching and the ideas we are pursuing.
Openness is at the heart of our journalism. To keep you, our members, updated on the ideas we are pursuing, we’re publishing a weekly Newslist. It’s a feature of every newsroom (usually kept updated by a harried news editor, trying to keep pace with the day’s events) – but the Tortoise Newslist serves a different purpose: ours is an inventory of things to come, shaped by the conversations we’ve had with you, our members, at our ThinkIns.
Topics for discussion:
- Women, police and the streets. Why has the anger and fear felt by so many women since Sarah Everard’s murder not been reflected by police leadership and decisionmaking since? If the police themselves are to be feared, how can the streets ever feel safe?
- Global Britain. We now have a 114-page definition of what it means. More nukes. A bit more aid. Fewer soldiers. A “tilt” to the east. Fear Russia. Work with China. But what does it amount to?
Alibaba’s real sin
We’ve been following the story of Alibaba’s run-in with the Chinese authorities pretty closely. Up to now the best explanation for Beijing’s intervention last year to halt the flotation of Ant Group, an Alibaba subsidiary, was that Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder, had picked a fight with Chinese regulators and Xi Jinping had personally decided it was time to clip his wings. That’s clearly part of it but the WSJ now has a scoop on another part: Ma has been asked/told to offload his media interests. These include big stakes in Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, and the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. Maybe Xi is an unreconstructed dictator who can’t allow any diversity of opinion. Maybe it’s that simple.
Tinder background checks
Starting in the US, Tinder is allowing users – for a fee – to view publicly-available background information on people they’re thinking of going on a date with. This includes past convictions, restraining orders and records and reports of abuse, harassment and violent crimes, but not driving or drugs violations. The info is provided by Garbo, a background check platform set up by women. What took Tinder so long?
Britain reinvented
Given that we’re doing Brexit, it was always important that the government put some flesh on the bones of the idea of global Britain – an idea that is supposed to a) be even more global than Britain was already and b) compensate for lost trade and influence in Europe. The flesh and bones are now starting to land, initially in the form of today’s 114-page security, defence, development and foreign policy review, which shrinks the army by about 10,000 soldiers, beefs up the independent nuclear deterrent and assumes the return of the pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of GDP on aid. It casts Russia as a threat to be deterred and China as a threat we have to do business with. And it “tilts to the Indo-Pacific”. Translation: the PM is heading soon to India and may ease visa rules. This has been outsourced to the brainy John Bew of King’s College London. As an historian he’ll know it will fall to history to decide whether in the end global Britain is a “plus globe” or “minus Europe” concept, and indeed if it means anything at all.
The AZ vaccine
As of this writing at least 10 countries have suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, ostensibly because of worries about blood clots. The Newslist team is not composed of epidemiologists but it seems clear from the stats that you are less likely rather than more to have a blood clot after having the AZ vaccine. Which leaves only two rationales for suspending its use: the abundance of caution argument, which is flimsy because no one doubts you’re less likely to die of Covid if vaccinated, and the “let’s torpedo this vaccine” argument, which might appeal to governments seeking to explain a slow rollout, or to rival vaccine companies. There’s no doubt AZ has monumentally fouled up publication of its trial results, but this chapter takes the story into new territory.
Beijing dust storm
It was murky and hard to breathe in Beijing yesterday – the worst dust storm there in a decade. But if we can believe Xinhua the real story is of extraordinary progress in preventing dust storms over the past decade. Reforestation north and west of the capital has cut spring sandstorm days in Beijing from an average of 26 per year in the 1950s to fewer than three since 2010. This could just be good sandstorm PR, or something rather more interesting.
If you’d like to join the conversations happening in our newsroom, you can attend a ThinkIn – one of our open editorial meetings. More information here.
