When the British government announced it had struck a deal with Rwanda to transfer asylum seekers there, it prompted a furious debate in the UK over immigration, prompting responses from figures including King (then Prince) Charles and the Archbishop of Canterbury. But a crucial voice has been missing from the discussion: the voices of Rwandans themselves. Every day, Rwandan journalists risk their freedom to report the abuses of the authoritarian regime in Kigali. For John William Ntwali, it may have cost him his life. He died mysteriously a few weeks before the home secretary Suella Braverman flew to Rwanda to show it was a “safe” and “compassionate” destination for asylum seekers. The lack of reaction to John’s death demonstrates exactly how Britain’s new relationship with Rwanda works. What other abuses will the British government ignore in order to make this policy a success? This week’s Slow Newscast is ‘No questions asked: a convenient death in Rwanda’. Listen today in the Tortoise app or on our website.
Tomorrow the eyes of the world will once again be fixed on Donald Trump, albeit in an unfamiliar setting: a New York courtroom. To understand more about the former president’s indictment and how it will affect his candidacy, read today’s Sensemaker newsletter. And in Israel, despite Benjamin Netanyahu’s climbdown over his judicial overhaul, the protests continue. For more insight into what’s happening there, listen to today’s Sensemaker podcast, and read Anshel Pfeffer’s Sensemaker from last week on the changing demographics that are reshaping Israeli politics.
If you’re in central London on Thursday and want to discuss what’s happening in the news with Tortoise editors, pop into The Review on Thursday at 9am. Looking further ahead, on Tuesday 18 April we’ll be asking what the West can do about Russia, and on Thursday 20 April we’ll be joined in the Tortoise newsroom by the founder and director of the Good Law Project Jolyon Maugham and the satirist Rosie Holt for Tortoise Lates: Truth. Hope to see you there.
James Wilson
Assistant Editor