I first joined Tortoise as part of the Sensemaker team, and before that worked at the New York Times and The Week magazine.
Claudia Williams
Reporter

“Tortoise gives me time to dig deeper into stories and prioritise voices that are often ignored.”
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Thursday 12 November 2020
17:00-18:00 GMTHow to break down stereotypes with actor Samantha Renke
Samantha knows a thing or two about proving people wrong.
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Wednesday 24 May 2023
The life and stories of David Walliams
What should a publisher do with a star children’s author who can’t stop pushing the boundaries?
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Friday 11 June 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: The human in the machine
What just happened
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Monday 12 April 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: England opens up
What just happened
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Wednesday 31 March 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: An international beacon of racial equality
What just happened
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Tuesday 30 March 2021
An embroidery scandal
Ripped at the seams
The century-old embroidery charity at war with its members – and the lengths they will go to save it
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Friday 29 January 2021
Hidden Homicides
Further reading
This week’s File on Hidden Homicides is just the start for Tortoise: we are going to keep investigating, scrutinising the data and calling for change in the way that domestic abuse is policed. If you also want to join us as we dig deeper, here are some resources to get you started…
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Friday 8 January 2021
Immigration & Asylum
Pointless
What the new immigration system means for care homes
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Tuesday 1 December 2020
Women: ignored, dismissed, neglected
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Friday 20 November 2020
Halloween 2020
Further reading
For those who haven’t had enough of this terrifying tale…
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Wednesday 4 November 2020
Trans Rights
JK Rowling and the Crowd Sorcerers
Thousands of trans people are turning to crowdfunding websites to help pay for treatment. Claudia Williams investigates a kind – if complicated – digital community
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Thursday 22 October 2020
Recession 2021
Further reading
Don’t know where to go next? Nimo Omer and Claudia Williams have some answers
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Monday 5 October 2020
10 minute readSensemaker, 5 October 2020
What just happened
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Friday 26 June 2020
Back to life
Kissing after Covid-19
Rule breakers, Zoom daters and the etiquette of love during lockdown
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Thursday 7 May 2020
News Alert
Social media is the problem/answer
The tech platforms are hurrying to fix themselves during the pandemic. But is it enough? And will it stick?
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Tuesday 23 May 2023
Beastly: the stories of David Walliams
What do you do with a star children’s author who can’t stop pushing the boundaries?
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Wednesday 3 May 2023
Microsoft and Activision: game over? 
The UK competition regulator has blocked Microsoft’s plan to buy Activision. Does that mean the biggest takeover in the gaming industry’s history is dead?
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Tuesday 18 April 2023
Ozempic on the NHS?
England’s NHS has approved semaglutide, Hollywood’s favourite weight-loss injection. But is the hype justified?
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Friday 7 April 2023
Pork fraud, Trump arrested and a lonely death
David Aaronovitch is joined by Tortoise reporter Claudia Williams, editor Liz Moseley and head of live events, Mark St Andrew. In this episode they discuss the case against Donald Trump, large-scale fraud in British food supply chains and how a woman lay dead in her flat for two and a half years before her body was found.
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Thursday 30 March 2023
A super-wedding gone wrong
The wedding of Nicola Peltz and Brooklyn Beckham was supposed to launch them as the hot new it couple. Has a new lawsuit ruined that?
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Monday 27 March 2023
Takeover bid: The Peltz-Beckham wedding
Eight months after his daughter’s wedding to Brooklyn Beckham, billionaire Nelson Peltz filed a lawsuit against two wedding planners demanding a refund. So what happens when you treat a wedding like a billion-dollar business deal?
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Friday 10 March 2023
Stanley Johnson’s knighthood, river rights and another Met apology
Former cabinet minister and Good Morning Britain presenter Ed Balls is in the editor’s chair. He’s joined by Tortoise journalists Liz Moseley, Claudia Williams and Mark St Andrew who pitch the story they think mattered most this week.
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Monday 6 March 2023
The TikTok fuelled school protests
Videos posted on TikTok are thought to be fuelling student protests over uniform and toilet rules. The social media platform says most do not violate its guidelines. But the disruption could reignite the debate about another rule – banning mobile phones in schools.
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Monday 27 February 2023
Ohio’s train disaster
A toxic train derailment in Ohio has become a political football. But what about the residents who fear for their health?
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Monday 20 February 2023
Wagner’s war: A year in Ukraine and beyond
First they were known as the “little green men”, an anonymous private Russian force appearing first in Crimea, then Syria, then in central Africa. Now, they are on the frontline of Putin’s war in Ukraine. Just how powerful is the Wagner Group and their increasingly vocal founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin?
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Monday 6 February 2023
The hundred billion dollar drop
How a small investment firm is taking on one of the world’s richest men
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Friday 3 February 2023
Dominic Raab, Adani vs. Hindenburg and the British Army
Three journalists pitch their top story of the week to Tortoise’s editor-in-chief James Harding. In this episode James is joined by Tortoise reporter Claudia Williams, head of programming Mark St Andrew and investigations editor Alexi Mostrous
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Tuesday 3 January 2023
2023 predictions
We’re doing something a little different… and a bit risky. We’re going to kick off the new year by predicting what we think might happen in 2023.
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Monday 26 December 2022
2022 picks – The Darwin job: the mystery of the vanishing notebooks
One sleuth, two notebooks – and a 20-year puzzle
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Monday 12 December 2022
China’s Covid gamble
After nearly three years, China has abandoned key parts of its flagship zero-covid policy.
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Wednesday 7 December 2022
Dry World Cup stadiums
With just days to go before kick-off, Qatar banned beer from its World Cup stadiums. What happens to all the beer?
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Monday 5 December 2022
The Alzheimer’s drug
An experimental Alzheimer’s drug called lecanemab has been hailed as an historic breakthrough. But what does it actually mean for people living with the disease?
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Monday 14 November 2022
The Alzheimer’s casino: Big money and bad science
What happens when science and medical research meet Wall Street?
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Friday 4 November 2022
The return of Suella Braverman
Suella Braverman was sacked as home secretary after breaking the ministerial code. Six days later Rishi Sunak appointed her as home secretary again. Why?
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Wednesday 2 November 2022
Flexing for Qatar
The foreign secretary suggested LGBTQ football fans should “flex and compromise” when visiting the Qatar World Cup. His comments reveal a truth about relations with strategically important countries that don’t respect human rights.
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Thursday 27 October 2022
Not-so-disposable vapes
Single-use vapes are increasingly popular with young people. But what about their impact on the environment?
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Monday 24 October 2022
Disappearing crabs
The US snow crab harvest has been cancelled after billions of them went missing from the waters around Alaska. The industry is normally worth $132 million a year. What caused them to vanish?
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Friday 21 October 2022
Liz Truss quits
Liz Truss will go down in history as Britain’s shortest serving prime minister. How did we get here and what happens next?
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Tuesday 18 October 2022
“There hasn’t been a coup”
A cabinet minister insisted that “there hasn’t been a coup” and that Liz Truss “is not under a desk”. But you wouldn’t have blamed the prime minister if she was after her new chancellor dismantled the mini budget and with it, her political project.
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Thursday 13 October 2022
Mortgage mayhem
Last month’s mini-budget has thrown the property market into crisis. Where does that leave first-time buyers?
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Monday 10 October 2022
Britannia unhinged
What happened in the 17 days between Kwasi Kwarteng becoming chancellor, sacking the Treasury’s top civil servant and his fiscal event which crashed the British economy?
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Monday 26 September 2022
Paradise Bust: Scandal in the British Virgin Islands
When the premier of the British Virgin Islands was arrested in a drugs sting in Miami, what did British government officials know about the operation?
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Thursday 4 August 2022
China’s trafficked women
There are almost 40 million more men than women in China, which is fueling the illegal trafficking of women to be brides that’s spilling over into neighbouring countries.
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Monday 1 August 2022
Chained woman: China’s trade in brides
When a video of a woman chained to a wall went viral in China, it ignited a battle for the truth between the people and the state
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Tuesday 12 July 2022
Londongrad: The Johnson Affair
A former KGB officer, Britain’s foreign secretary – and a potential national security breach
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Tuesday 12 July 2022
Episode 3: Dividing lines
Does the UK punish families for their poverty? Is the government doing enough to help young children flourish and parents succeed? What will it take to fix a broken system?
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Tuesday 5 July 2022
Episode 2: Nursery networkers
What’s the point of nurseries? Why are the ages of three to five so crucial? Are today’s children part of a giant, unplanned experiment?
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Monday 4 July 2022
The Darwin job: the mystery of the vanishing notebooks
One sleuth, two notebooks – and a 20-year puzzle
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Tuesday 28 June 2022
Episode 1: Modern families
Is there such a thing as a “normal” family? Does technology make interactions between parents and children better, or worse? In the struggle between work and childcare, who wins and who loses?
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Monday 30 May 2022
Stripped. Searched. Traumatised. Children and the police
How many more Child Qs are there? How many children are strip-searched by the police and who are they? Patricia Clarke and Claudia Williams investigate
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Monday 9 May 2022
Downfall: twenty days that did for Rishi Sunak
How did Rishi Sunak go from one of the most popular members of the government to one of the least in a matter of days? Matthew d’Ancona pieces together what happened
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Monday 28 March 2022
P&O all at sea
The decision to sack 800 staff via Zoom and replace them with cheaper agency workers seemed to surprise many. But there were signs of what was to come.
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Monday 28 March 2022
The trials of Alexei Navalny
What does the story of Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia Navalnaya tell us about Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the state of opposition?
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Friday 18 February 2022
Russia’s controversial coach
Kamila Valieva’s Olympic doping scandal has made headlines around the world. But she’s just 15 years old. What about the team of adults surrounding her?
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Monday 14 February 2022
Modi’s warrior pose
Narendra Modi’s dominance of Indian politics is built on a knowing appeal to traditional Indian values: Hindu values. He has turned yoga into an unlikely but powerful weapon in his campaign
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Thursday 13 January 2022
The most expensive drug in the world
Zolgensma is a life-saving drug but it costs more than a million and a half pounds per patient. Who decides if the NHS can afford it?
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Friday 24 December 2021
The princess of pop
Britney Spears has rarely been out of the headlines this year. What does her story tell us about pop culture in 2021?
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Friday 17 December 2021
Three dads
Three dads came together this year in the saddest of circumstances; they all had daughters who’d taken their own lives. They turned their tragedies into a story of love and hope.
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Monday 13 December 2021
School 49: An explosion in China’s high-pressure education system
China’s transformation into an economic powerhouse has come at a cost to its children, under enormous pressure to succeed. Now the country is wondering if the price has been too high
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Tuesday 9 November 2021
Where did all the doctors go?
Lots of GPs are leaving the profession, and we can’t recruit or train new ones fast enough to fill the gaps.
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Monday 25 October 2021
Masters of the metaverse
Facebook has just announced that it is creating 10,000 jobs to make a metaverse. A what?
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Monday 6 September 2021
Orphaned by America
Thousands of children were separated from their parents at the US border under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. This is the story of how, five years later, 300 remain lost in a system designed to swallow them
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Wednesday 18 August 2021
Popbitch
Claudia Williams presents a special edition of the Slow Newscast – on a newsletter that both reflected and reshaped celebrity culture
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Friday 16 July 2021
The meaning of taking the knee
Rarely has a gesture been as misunderstood as taking the knee. We’ve looked into its history.
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Tuesday 13 July 2021
A star lawyer in the dock
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Friday 9 July 2021
A vaccination anthem
Could Vaxx That Thang Up – a pro-vaccination remake of Juvenile’s 1999 hip hop classic – be the sound of summer 2021?
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Wednesday 7 July 2021
The rise of REvil and ransomware
Ransomware attacks – taking over computer networks and blackmailing their owners – has become huge business
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Thursday 20 May 2021
The Middle East misinformation war
Pressure is growing on Israel and Hamas to announce a ceasefire. Is online misinformation making peace less likely?
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Monday 17 May 2021
The end of Ellen
Ellen DeGeneres has been one of the biggest stars on US television. Why is her show coming to an end?
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Monday 29 March 2021
Cross stitch
How an embroidery charity – beloved by its members – tore itself apart at the seams
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Thursday 28 January 2021
Hidden homicides
How many women are being killed – but not counted?
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Friday 9 October 2020
The golden egg
Young women are being offered the chance to delay the menopause. The question is: does it work, and does anyone even want it?