Ella Hill Archives

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Ella Hill

Ella Hill
Reporter

“For me, Tortoise is all about storytelling: from the clarity of the daily Sensemaker to our investigations shedding light on urgent, complex stories. It’s a privilege to be part of the reporting team.”

Ella is a reporter at Tortoise, working mainly on the Sensemaker team. Before Tortoise, she interned at the Economist’s 1843 magazine. Prior to journalism, she worked (briefly) as a researcher for an NGO in Jordan.

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Monday 19 April 2021
18:30-19:30 BST

Campus Injustice: are women safe on campus?

How do we fix rising sexual abuse on campus? Join us to find out.

Tuesday 8 November 2022

End time for Bidenism

American democracy is about to make American governance grind to a halt again. Barring an upset, the midterms spell the end of Biden’s brief stint as an activist president

Tuesday 8 November 2022

Sensemaker: End time for Bidenism

What just happened

Friday 4 November 2022

Sensemaker: American democracy

What just happened

Tuesday 18 October 2022

Sensemaker: All to play for

What just happened

Friday 2 September 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Amazon primed

What just happened

Thursday 4 August 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Brides to China

What just happened

Monday 25 July 2022

Trump dumped

Have Congress’s January 6 hearings served their purpose even if they don’t lead to an indictment?

Monday 25 July 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Trump dumped

What just happened

Monday 20 June 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: World War Four?

What just happened

Friday 17 June 2022

Watergate now

A minor burglary started the most famous political scandal of modern times. It still resonates

Monday 13 June 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: America’s reckoning

What just happened

Wednesday 1 June 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Abortion – the future is already here

What just happened

Thursday 19 May 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Death spiral of the Lunatics

What just happened

Monday 25 April 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Macron by a margin

What just happened

Thursday 14 April 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: The race to save Ukraine

What just happened

Monday 11 April 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Prosecuting rape in war

What just happened

Monday 21 March 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Meanwhile, in the rest of the world

What just happened

Monday 14 March 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: War crimes and punishment

What just happened

Thursday 10 March 2022

Fortress Britain

How Priti Patel failed to grasp the scale and urgency of the Ukrainian refugee crisis

Thursday 10 March 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Fortress Britain

What just happened

Friday 4 March 2022

Putin may not be satisfied with Ukraine, even if he takes it all. So where might he go next?

Friday 25 February 2022

Russian invasion means new nuclear deal hangs by a thread

Can the delicate balance of the Iran deal withstand the pressure of another geopolitical crisis?

Friday 18 February 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Mo’ money

What just happened

Thursday 17 February 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Lessons of Razzlekhan

What just happened

Monday 14 February 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Big Education’s big deal

What just happened

Wednesday 9 February 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Caribbean Clingon

What just happened

Monday 31 January 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Back to work

What just happened

Thursday 27 January 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Voting rights and wrongs

What just happened

Thursday 20 January 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Vaccine mandates

What just happened

Monday 10 January 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Peoples’ republics

What just happened

Thursday 6 January 2022
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Insurrection reckoning

What just happened

Tuesday 5 October 2021

The soil carbon opportunity

Let the world’s farmlands breathe and come alive, and they might just steer the planet to net zero

Monday 6 September 2021

The resignation of Trinity Hall’s master should be just the start

After a Tortoise investigation into sexual assault and harassment allegations at the Cambridge college, Dr Jeremy Morris quit his post. This should be only the beginning of an institutional and regulatory overhaul in the higher education sector

Wednesday 18 August 2021
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Vaccine hoarders

What just happened

Thursday 12 August 2021
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Afghanistan on the brink

What just happened

Monday 9 August 2021
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Fire season

What just happened

Tuesday 13 July 2021

Windfall v wind power

Renewables are growing fast, but fossil fuels need to shrink much faster

Monday 12 July 2021
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Troppo Bello

What just happened

Wednesday 30 June 2021

Campus Justice II

Crisis in the colleges

Oxford’s medieval structures create a particular problem with dealing with the assault and harassment crisis

Tuesday 8 June 2021

Climate? Covid? Or both?

The world’s poorer countries are still struggling to vaccinate their citizens, which has made it harder for them to concentrate on tackling the climate crisis. Ahead of COP26 in November, that doesn’t bode well

Tuesday 1 June 2021

The People v Shell

A big case in the Netherlands dealt a significant blow to the oil multinational last week – one which could soon have major implications for similar companies

Tuesday 25 May 2021

Retrofitting net zero

Buildings account for around a quarter of the UK’s CO2 emissions – on par with emissions from surface transport. But unlike for transport, there’s no plan to get these emissions to net zero, and that’s a problem

Monday 24 May 2021
10 minute read

Off the deep end

What just happened

Tuesday 18 May 2021

The case for net zero

As John Kerry wades into the shark tank of net zero debate, this week’s Net Zero Sensemaker gets behind its name

Wednesday 14 April 2021
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Tension in Ukraine

What just happened

Thursday 8 April 2021

What teenagers are telling us on Everyone’s Invited

Young people have shared 14,000 accounts of rape culture at over 600 different schools. Analysis of their testimonies reveals the challenges children face, and what they want done about it

Wednesday 7 April 2021
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Where AstraZeneca went wrong

What just happened

Thursday 1 April 2021
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Crisis in Brazil

What just happened

Thursday 11 February 2021
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Women and MBS

What just happened

Friday 5 February 2021
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Seven year scratch

What just happened

Thursday 7 January 2021
10 minute read

Sensemaker: DC insurrection

What just happened

Tuesday 29 December 2020

The good that happened in 2020: Wealth

2020 wasn’t all bad. And it’s important that we remember that. This series considers the heartening things that happened this year, according to each of Tortoise’s five main themes

Thursday 10 December 2020
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Biology’s breakthrough

What just happened

Friday 4 December 2020
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Brexit: to diverge, or not?

What just happened

Wednesday 2 December 2020
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Brexit crunch week part 2

What just happened

Monday 30 November 2020
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Eyes off the prize

What just happened

Friday 27 November 2020
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Tiers before Christmas

What just happened

Tuesday 24 November 2020

Who was failed the most?

Thursday 19 November 2020
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Conflict in Tigray

What just happened

Wednesday 18 November 2020
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Devolution disaster

What just happened

Monday 16 November 2020

The lost month: what happened in February?

Monday 9 November 2020
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Biden’s time

What just happened

Friday 6 November 2020
10 minute read

Sensemaker: Neck and neck

What just happened

Friday 30 October 2020
10 minute read

Sensemaker, 30 October 2020

What just happened

Monday 26 October 2020
10 minute read

Sensemaker, 26 October 2020

What just happened

Monday 12 October 2020
10 minute read

Sensemaker, 12 October 2020

What just happened

Friday 9 October 2020
10 minute read

Sensemaker, 9 October 2020

What just happened

Thursday 8 October 2020
10 minute read

Test and trace

A shot in the dark

The prime minister is reaching for the stars, but the test and trace scheme is still in the gutter

Thursday 1 October 2020

Big Egg

Hatching the egg

Meet the new generation of pioneers in fertility science, technology and ethics

Wednesday 17 June 2020

The government is unwell

Infection HQ

Britain’s leading politicians are spread across a few buildings and streets in central London. Here’s how – and when – the virus swept through them

Friday 29 May 2020

Universities in crisis

Safe space?

Making campuses covid-secure is a complex problem and good information is hard to find

Wednesday 20 May 2020

Social care

A new deal

Could Covid-19 do for social care what World War II did for the NHS?

Tuesday 18 February 2020

Campus justice

A college with secrets

Sexual assault allegations from three different women against the same man. A grave allegation of sexual assault by a senior academic on a male student. And an historic allegation of sexual assault against another academic.

These three cases all crashed into a Cambridge college within a few months of one another, early in 2018, each more complex than the last.

This investigation asks: does the reputation of an institution and its close-knit group of tutors count for more than the welfare of students in their care?

Wednesday 28 December 2022

Courting controversy

In 2022 the United States Supreme Court has reshaped America through a series of controversial decisions on the climate; religious rights; gun laws and – most momentous of all – abortion.

Friday 28 October 2022

Hu Jintao’s mysterious exit

The former president of China was publicly hauled out of an important political meeting last week. The Chinese government says he’d fallen ill, but was it actually a power play by Xi Jinping?

Thursday 1 September 2022

Man of the Hole

The last member of one of Brazil’s uncontacted indigenous tribes has died. What does his story tell us about Brazil’s indigenous people?

Monday 22 August 2022

Adam Neumann’s comeback

After a failed IPO and multi-billion dollar losses, the founder of WeWork left the company in disgrace in 2019. But Adam Neumann is back in business with a real estate startup. So who’s betting on his latest venture?

Tuesday 16 August 2022

Donald Trump’s document stash

The FBI discovered 11 sets of classified documents at Donald Trump’s Palm Beach home, some of them were top secret. What will the fallout be for the former president?

Monday 8 August 2022

Taiwan tensions

Relations between the US and China were already strained before Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. So why did Nancy Pelosi go, despite the warnings?

Monday 1 August 2022

Trump under pressure

The January 6th hearings might have paused for the summer, but the other investigations into Donald Trump’s actions are only picking up pace. What does it mean for the former president, and will he run in 2024?

Thursday 28 July 2022

Mass shootings and the media

Since the start of 2022 there have been more than 300 mass shootings in the United States. The public rarely sees the violent reality of mass shootings, so when journalists do get hold of images from them, is it their duty to publish them?

Monday 25 July 2022

America at the crossroads: abortion in South Bend

The fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse abortion rights is reverberating across America. Arguably nowhere more so than in South Bend, Indiana, a small city in the heart of the Midwest

Tuesday 12 July 2022

Britain’s fuel protests

High fuel prices are causing pain for motorists. Some have even taken part in “go slow” protests on motorways. Can the cost of petrol and diesel be controlled?

Friday 1 July 2022

The star witness

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson gave some remarkable testimony about Donald Trump’s behaviour to the committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riot. But do her revelations make criminal charges against the former president more likely?

Tuesday 21 June 2022

Liz Cheney’s battle for truth

The Republican party has turned against Liz Cheney for her part in the January 6th committee investigations. But for her, telling the truth about what happened on that day matters more than anything else.

Tuesday 14 June 2022

Long Covid: What do we know?

Around two million people in the UK are living with long Covid. We know the signs and symptoms but we still don’t know all that much about what exactly causes it – and how patients can get better, sooner.

Monday 6 June 2022

Hungary for Russian oil

The EU is banning almost 90% of Russian oil imports by 2023. But it stopped short of a total embargo because Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban objected. What impact will it have on Russia’s economy?

Friday 27 May 2022

Another American school massacre

The gunman who killed 21 people including 19 children at a school in Uvalde, Texas used two AR-15 assault rifles. Why, despite so many mass shootings, can you still buy military-style weapons in America?

Monday 23 May 2022

Unstoppable inflation?

The governor of the Bank of England warned last week that inflation could get worse – and that most things driving price rises are beyond his control. But others say the Bank was slow to act when prices first started going up. Could it have done more?

Monday 16 May 2022

The social housing activist

Since 2021, housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa has been travelling up and down the country visiting substandard homes, documenting the conditions and interviewing tenants. His campaigning is making a difference.

Monday 9 May 2022

Trouble in paradise

The British Virgin Islands has been beset by scandals. The premier was arrested on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering, and a separate inquiry found evidence of state corruption. How did it come to this?

Tuesday 3 May 2022

A Capitol coup attempt?

A congressional committee is investigating what happened on January 6th 2021 and in the days leading up to the attack on the Capitol. This is what it has uncovered so far.

Friday 22 April 2022

France’s choice

Marine Le Pen is running Emmanuel Macron closer than before in the French presidential race. What’s behind her popularity?

Wednesday 20 April 2022

Russia’s new commander in Ukraine

A new phase of Russia’s invasion has begun and Vladimir Putin has put a new general in charge. What do we know about him and what does it mean for the war in Ukraine?

Wednesday 13 April 2022

Ketanji Brown Jackson makes history

History was made last week when Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed as the first ever Black woman to serve as a United States Supreme Court judge. But her confirmation hearings were marred by baseless verbal attacks from Republican Senators. Why did they do it?

Thursday 7 April 2022

Why can’t the UN do more for Ukraine?

The United Nations is stuck. Russia wields the power of its veto to block any Security Council resolutions condemning its invasion of Ukraine. How did it come to this?

Monday 4 April 2022

Stan the T-Rex

When a T-Rex fossil was sold to an anonymous buyer in 2020, palaeontologists worried that the skeleton could be lost to science. Eighteen months later, the fossil has reappeared. But is it good news for researchers?

Tuesday 22 March 2022

The propagandist and the protestor

The Kremlin has near total control over the media in Russia, so when one woman protested the Ukraine war live on air, she disrupted the narrative – and sent shockwaves around Russia.

Tuesday 15 March 2022

The Russian convoy

A 40-mile column of Russian trucks, tanks and armoured vehicles was a symbol of its military might. But then it got stuck. What does it tell us about the invasion of Ukraine?

Tuesday 8 March 2022

The return of Viktor Yanukovych?

Ousted in 2014, the corrupt former president could be Vladimir Putin’s pick to replace Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine.

Monday 21 February 2022

The islanders Britain won’t allow home

The UK expelled everyone who lived on the Chagos Islands more than 50 years ago. Why are they still being blocked from returning?

Monday 14 February 2022

A Major intervention?

Former Conservative prime minister Sir John Major has launched a scathing attack on Boris Johnson over Partygate. He is known to be a critic of the prime minister, so will it make any difference?

Tuesday 8 February 2022

Isis loses its leader

Last week the Isis leader was killed during a raid on his hideout in Syria. What will his death do to the strength of the terrorist group he once led?

Wednesday 2 February 2022

A test for New York’s new mayor

Eric Adams ran for mayor of New York City promising to curb crime, but without over-policing. A spike in shootings is putting that pledge to the test.

Wednesday 26 January 2022

A $3m mistake?

An anonymous crypto group thought they bought the rights to Dune. They were wrong.

Wednesday 19 January 2022

Stop and search on steroids

What are Serious Violence Reduction Orders, and why are they controversial?

Monday 10 January 2022

A Kazakh uprising

An anti-government movement is growing in Kazakhstan. Why are Russian soldiers the ones crushing it?

Wednesday 29 December 2021

The Facebook whistleblower

Thanks to revelations from one former Facebook insider, 2021 was a year of reckoning for the tech giant.

Monday 27 December 2021

The death of Zaki Anwari

The day after the Taliban took Kabul, a young man fell to his death from a US airplane. The tragedy revealed a lot about America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Friday 10 December 2021

Boris Johnson’s never-ending Christmas party

It’s the story which refuses to leave at the end of the night: the saga of the Downing Street Christmas party. But how much of a hangover could it cause Boris Johnson?

Friday 3 December 2021

Parole for Pistorius?

Oscar Pistorius, South Africa’s most famous athlete, was jailed in 2016 for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp. He could soon be released on parole.

Wednesday 1 December 2021

Reproductive rights at risk

For almost 50 years, women in the United States have had the right to have an abortion. But a Supreme Court case could put those rights in jeopardy.

Monday 22 November 2021

Could there be a war in Europe?

Bosnia has been held together by a complicated peace deal since its civil war 26 years ago. Is it about to fall apart?

Wednesday 10 November 2021

Big Bird gets a shot

The culture wars over vaccinating kids against Covid in the US have got so fierce that a Sesame Street character has been dragged into the fight.

Wednesday 3 November 2021

Russia’s HIV epidemic

In much of the world, rates of HIV infection are falling. In Russia, they’re going through the roof.

Thursday 28 October 2021

A bullish budget?

Inflation is on the rise, and Rishi Sunak’s high-spending budget could push it up further. Will the Bank of England step in?

Friday 22 October 2021

Time for Covid Plan B

Covid cases are rising fast in the UK, and the government is under pressure to take steps to slow them down. Is it time for the government to turn to Plan B?

Monday 11 October 2021

The sheikh who spied on his family

A British court ruled last week that Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, had used one of the most powerful surveillance tools available to security services to spy on his ex-wife in the middle of a custody case.

Wednesday 6 October 2021

Changing a police force for good

After Sarah Everard’s murder, there are now going to be two separate inquiries into the culture of the Metropolitan Police. What chance do they have of bringing about real change?

Wednesday 29 September 2021

The Huawei hostages

After almost three years, a tit-for-tat row over the arrest of a Huawei executive for fraud has finally come to an end. Two men called Michael paid a heavy price.

Monday 13 September 2021

Sinister cement

When Syria descended into a bloody and brutal civil war ten years ago, many multinational companies pulled out of the country. One stayed. Now, it’s facing allegations that it was complicit in crimes against humanity.

Monday 6 September 2021

Justice at the end of the opioid epidemic?

A big opioid case has been settled in court. Purdue Pharma, one of the drugs companies behind the opioid epidemic has been dissolved, and the family that ran it agreed to pay a mammoth $4.5 billion court settlement. The payout will go to help victims of the crisis, but is money enough? What about justice?

Tuesday 31 August 2021

The trial of Elizabeth Holmes

She was once a female Silicon Valley icon. The world’s youngest female self-made billionaire. Now, she’s a disgraced former CEO, on trial for fraud. Is this where the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos finally ends?

Monday 23 August 2021

Haiti’s double disaster

Haiti was hit by a deadly earthquake and then, a few days later, a huge storm. It’s not the first time the country has faced a catastrophe…

Tuesday 17 August 2021

Australia’s third wave

Australia’s triumphant Olympians are returning to a month-long quarantine as the country hits its third wave of Covid infections. What’s gone wrong?

Thursday 12 August 2021

The Taliban returns

Just months after US President Joe Biden announced he’d be withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan, the country is in chaos. How serious is the Taliban threat?

Wednesday 4 August 2021

The Olympian who won’t go home

Krystsina Timanouskaya is a Belarusian sprinter who fell out with her coaches in Tokyo. She got so worried about the fall-out that she’s applied for political asylum.

Monday 19 July 2021

Why South Africans are rioting

South Africa has seen an outbreak of widespread violence and looting. What’s going on?

Wednesday 14 July 2021

A horror in Haiti

Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in his own home last week. But who was behind it all? And why did they want to kill him?

Thursday 8 July 2021

Slow justice for the Stockwell Six

Why it took 50 years for a set of unjust convictions – made by a corrupt copper – to be overturned.

Tuesday 6 July 2021

A tragedy in Miami

As 28 people are confirmed dead and 117 are still missing in the rubble, America is asking: what went wrong at Miami’s Champlain Towers?

Tuesday 29 June 2021

A political affair

Matt Hancock’s resignation as Health Secretary has triggered a bout of political infighting. Who’s going to win?

Monday 28 June 2021

DIY justice

How one woman was asked to deal with an allegation of rape by herself

Thursday 24 June 2021

Drama in the DUP

In just two months, Northern Ireland’s DUP has toppled a leader, elected a new one, forced him to resign and now they’re electing another one. Huh?

Monday 14 June 2021

When a billion isn’t enough

The world’s richest countries have promised a billion vaccine doses to poorer nations. It sounds a lot. Is it?

Thursday 3 June 2021

The risk of reopening

The last Covid restrictions are supposed to be lifted in about three weeks. Is it safe to lift them?

Saturday 29 May 2021

A political assassination attempt

Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s old adviser, tried to finish off the health secretary’s career this week. Will he succeed?

Wednesday 26 May 2021

Ready, set…stop? The Tokyo Olympics

The Tokyo Olympic Games are supposed to start in July. They’ve already been postponed from last year because of Covid. Could it happen again?

Wednesday 19 May 2021

Bill Gates’s halo slips

Bill Gates is one of the world’s greatest philanthropists. But since we learned he’s getting divorced there’s been nothing but bad news.

Wednesday 12 May 2021

Fist fights at 36,000 ft

There’s been an increase in brawls and bad behaviour on planes. What’s fuelling the fury?

Tuesday 11 May 2021

Making a murderer

A child soldier grows up to commit terrible crimes. Was his childhood entirely to blame?

Wednesday 5 May 2021

The oracle of Omaha

The richest 90-year-old man on earth, Warren Buffett, has announced his succession plan for the company he runs. But he’s not retiring just yet.

Monday 3 May 2021

Trump’s keeper of the keys

Tuesday 27 April 2021

India’s Covid crisis

How much responsibility does India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, bear for the country’s catastrophic coronavirus outbreak?

Monday 19 April 2021

Russia vs Ukraine, take 2

Seven years after Russia annexed Crimea, Russian forces are assembling on the border with Ukraine once again. So what does President Vladimir Putin want this time?

Tuesday 13 April 2021

The ambassador who got locked out

Kyaw Zwar Minn is the Myanmar ambassador to the UK. But, as a military takeover seizes power at home, he has been locked out of his own embassy in London. Why?

Thursday 8 April 2021

A royal squabble

A high-profile prince has fallen out with the king of Jordan. Does it spell trouble in a usually calm Middle Eastern country?

Wednesday 7 April 2021

AstraZeneca’s PR woes

What had been a huge success for the vaccine maker is now looking more like a comms disaster… how did it go so wrong?

Thursday 1 April 2021

Ghislaine Maxwell’s future

Ghislaine Maxwell’s charge sheet just got longer: Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend is now accused of sex trafficking, too.

Tuesday 23 March 2021

A dangerous love story

The story of Jang Yeong-jin’s escape from North Korea, a country where citizens are told that homosexuality doesn’t exist

Friday 19 March 2021

Europe’s vaccine battles

She seemed like the perfect candidate to oversee the EU’s vaccine rollout…what went wrong for Ursula von der Leyen?

Tuesday 16 March 2021

John Hollis’s exciting antibodies

An American man caught Covid – and his body responded by making some amazingly powerful antibodies. It could be a breakthrough for medicine.

Friday 12 March 2021

Who’s in charge in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong is meant to have some independence from China. But those days are nearly over.

Wednesday 10 March 2021

Is Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe coming home?

After five years locked up in Iran, the British-Iranian mother’s sentence has come to an end. But returning to her family might still be a way off.

Monday 8 March 2021

A reckoning for New York’s governor

Two serious scandals are unfolding around Andrew Cuomo. For now, he’s staying in office. But how long will he last?

Tuesday 2 March 2021

The missing patient

Someone, somewhere in England, has the super-infectious Brazil variant of Covid-19 – and the authorities are racing to track them down.

Monday 1 March 2021

The story of Shamima Begum

She left London to join Isis in Syria when she was 15. Now, she’s been stripped of her British citizenship and denied any chance to return home. But is Shamima Begum a victim, or a threat?

Wednesday 24 February 2021

Harry, Meghan and the Royals: why couldn’t they work it out?

Prince Harry and Meghan’s trial separation from the Royal family has just been made permanent. It’s not the outcome anyone involved wanted. So why has it turned out this way?

Monday 22 February 2021