Phoebe is an NCTJ-qualified journalist with an MA in Journalism from the University of Sheffield. Her writing has appeared in the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph. Before joining Tortoise, she worked as a freelance researcher for Unreported World and Channel 4 Dispatches and with major Iranian network ManotoTV.
Phoebe Davis
Reporter

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Tuesday 4 October 2022
18:30-19:30 BSTPaying for uni: do students loans work?
Join us for a ThinkIn where we try to make sense of the mess of student loans, and ask: what are the alternatives?
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Wednesday 17 March 2021
18:30-19:30 GMTThe Battle for Truth: Is local the answer?
Join us for a ThinkIn with local news innovators to discuss the future of local news.
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Thursday 5 November 2020
17:00-18:00 GMTHow to write with award winning poet Anthony Anaxagorou
Join our NextGen ThinkIns, created especially for students and apprentices.
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Thursday 29 October 2020
17:00-18:00 GMTHow to start a movement with anti-discrimination activist Alex Holmes
Alex Holmes used his personal experience of racism to start a grassroots movement that later saw him become deputy CEO in the charity sector.
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Tuesday 26 September 2023
Japan approves Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi
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Tuesday 26 September 2023
AFC Wimbledon managing director resigns after sexist comments revealed
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Monday 25 September 2023
Reform plan for sex offence trials an “affront to the principle of open justice”
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Friday 22 September 2023
Former official says ministers sought to digitise the NHS “on the cheap”
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Friday 22 September 2023
Game of AI
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Thursday 21 September 2023
Rupert Murdoch steps down as chair of Fox and News Corp
92 year-old hands control of media companies to eldest son Lachlan
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Thursday 21 September 2023
Trans healthcare in England is insufficiently resourced, coroner says
Alice Litman’s mother said the inquest into her daughter’s death “should be a wake-up call”
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Wednesday 20 September 2023
Neuralink trial
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Tuesday 19 September 2023
Rotten barrels
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Monday 18 September 2023
Listen to the children
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Friday 8 September 2023
Autism detection
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Thursday 7 September 2023
Musk threatens to sue the ADL
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Thursday 7 September 2023
Martha’s rule
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Wednesday 6 September 2023
Dengue deaths
Bangladesh outbreak linked to climate change
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Tuesday 5 September 2023
Antony abuse allegations
Manchester United face pressure to suspend player
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Tuesday 5 September 2023
Labour said Martha’s Rule has “got to happen” in English hospitals
The party backed government introduction of a right to a second medical opinion
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Monday 4 September 2023
On the Raac
Sub-par concrete scandal as UK schools reopen
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Thursday 31 August 2023
More women are taking their own lives in Afghanistan than men
Since the Taliban takeover women and girls have accounted for the vast majority of suicides
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Wednesday 30 August 2023
Meddling with Meghan
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Tuesday 29 August 2023
Liberation at a price
Ukrainian troops take Robotyne as losses rise
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Tuesday 29 August 2023
“It’s over”
A non-consensual kiss kick-starts MeToo in Spain
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Friday 25 August 2023
The Braun Identity
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Friday 25 August 2023
Overseas care workers
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Thursday 24 August 2023
Womb transplants
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Wednesday 23 August 2023
Manchester United’s first team squad was not given mandatory sexual consent training
United, which this week reversed a controversial plan to bring back Mason Greenwood, did not follow Premier League rules
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Tuesday 22 August 2023
Letby handed whole-life jail term
Doctors calls for better regulation of NHS managers
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Monday 21 August 2023
Lionesses’ defeated
Spain win women’s World Cup final
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Friday 18 August 2023
Wildfires empty Yellowknife
Residents say Facebook news ban isn’t helping
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Friday 18 August 2023
Birth rate falls
Birth rate in England and Wales lowest in two decades
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Thursday 17 August 2023
Narcan with that?
Restaurants and bars are ready for your OD
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Wednesday 16 August 2023
Fourth woman faces illegal abortion charge as UK prosecutions rise
Bethany Cox is the fourth woman in eight months to appear in a UK court on illegal abortion charges
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Monday 14 August 2023
Legionella on the Bibby
Home Office faces questions
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Friday 11 August 2023
Sacklers blocked
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Friday 11 August 2023
Only half of Premier League teams are prepared to confirm they conducted mandatory sexual consent training
The Premier League season starts today under a cloud. Every club was ordered to give staff and players sexual consent training but only half are prepared to say they have complied.
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Thursday 10 August 2023
Otoniel sentenced
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Thursday 10 August 2023
Hawaii wildfires
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Wednesday 9 August 2023
UK electoral roll hacked
40 million voters’ data put at risk
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Tuesday 8 August 2023
Antibiotic resistance
Pollution linked to increased antibiotic resistance for the first time
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Monday 7 August 2023
Migrant barge
First asylum seekers to be put on Bibby Stockholm
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Friday 4 August 2023
Situation critical
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Friday 4 August 2023
Reggae Girlz
Jamaica’s women through to last 16
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Thursday 3 August 2023
Escape on a rudder
Nigerian stowaways surprised to end up in Brazil
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Wednesday 2 August 2023
A question of memory
Are we entering the scientific epoch of trauma?
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Wednesday 2 August 2023
AI-generated love
Can generative AI help you date?
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Tuesday 1 August 2023
Mercy killing
Pensioner found guilty of manslaughter for killing sick wife
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Monday 31 July 2023
Portland’s problem
The fentanyl epidemic is wrecking cities as well as lives
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Friday 28 July 2023
Dramatic rise in terminally-ill people’s energy bills is cutting lives short
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Thursday 27 July 2023
UK tycoon bailed
Spurs-linked billionaire indicted
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Wednesday 26 July 2023
Predator in a white coat
Manhattan gynaecologist sentenced to 20 years for molesting patients
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Wednesday 26 July 2023
Loeb’s spherules
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Tuesday 25 July 2023
Getting sicker
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Friday 21 July 2023
Barbie – out now
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Thursday 20 July 2023
FCA chief’s resolve
Watchdog pledges to tackle non-financial misconduct
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Wednesday 19 July 2023
Compassion, not punishment
Mother jailed after lockdown abortion is released
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Wednesday 19 July 2023
Tata-factory
Jaguar Land Rover-owner confirms UK gigafactory
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Tuesday 18 July 2023
Is university education still worth it?
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Monday 17 July 2023
A whole new world
By 2050, demographic shifts could change global centres of power
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Friday 14 July 2023
Miss Americana and the billion-dollar tour
The taylor-nomics of being the world’s biggest singer
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Friday 14 July 2023
Bugging out
Air pollution harms bugs more than we thought
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Thursday 13 July 2023
Thai elections
Pita Limjaroenrat’s bid to be prime minister in jeopardy
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Thursday 13 July 2023
China hackers
US commerce secretary’s emails hacked by China
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Wednesday 12 July 2023
Glasgow night bus cut
Scotland’s largest city won’t have public transport at night
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Wednesday 12 July 2023
Miracle cure?
Are weight loss jabs worth the cost?
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Tuesday 11 July 2023
Oh mother
The UK’s failing maternity care
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Monday 10 July 2023
Rutte quits politics
Dutch PM to leave politics
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Monday 10 July 2023
ChatGPT sued
US authors sue ChatGPT over copyright infringement
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Thursday 6 July 2023
Thread o’clock
10 million users in a few hours
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Tuesday 4 July 2023
Barbie borders
Vietnam bans Barbie film over South China Sea map
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Friday 30 June 2023
Court rules Rwanda is not a safe country to send asylum seekers
The UK government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda has collided with reality in the form of an appeals court ruling that it would not be safe.
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Friday 30 June 2023
NHS workforce plan
Sunak sets out “historic” plan to sort NHS workforce
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Thursday 29 June 2023
The velvet hammer
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Wednesday 28 June 2023
Malaria in Texas
Malaria is being locally transmitted in America
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Wednesday 28 June 2023
Brexit and the pandemic
Matt Hancock appears at Covid inquiry
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Tuesday 27 June 2023
Cancer closure
National institute to shut for lack of funds
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Monday 26 June 2023
Underperforming NHS
UK has one of the lowest life expectancies among rich nations
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Friday 23 June 2023
Battle of the billionaires
Musk and Zuckerberg to fight in Vegas
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Thursday 22 June 2023
Kagame’s men
Damning UN report links Rwanda to DR Congo rebels
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Tuesday 20 June 2023
Gender apartheid
UN calls it in Afghanistan
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Friday 16 June 2023
The un-graduate
University marking boycotts leaves students without degrees
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Wednesday 14 June 2023
The United Nations has cut its annual aid budget plan for Afghanistan by a third
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Tuesday 13 June 2023
UK abortion laws “out of date” say MPs and campaigners
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Monday 12 June 2023
Blocking puberty blockers
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Friday 9 June 2023
Meta’s Twitter
Zuckerberg plans “sanely run” app to compete with Twitter
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Thursday 8 June 2023
New study finds “lucid dreaming” can significantly decrease PTSD symptoms
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Wednesday 7 June 2023
Afghan school girls
Nearly 80 girls were poisoned and hospitalised
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Tuesday 6 June 2023
Neuralink
Elon Musk wants to connect brains to supercomputers
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Monday 5 June 2023
100-year gut
Bugs may help you live longer
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Friday 2 June 2023
Menopause standard
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Wednesday 24 May 2023
Texas abortion lawsuit
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Tuesday 23 May 2023
Casserolades
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Monday 22 May 2023
NHS, NHS, NHS
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Monday 22 May 2023
nibs-piano-test
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Friday 19 May 2023
The Love Invention
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Friday 19 May 2023
Ange out, Andy (still) in
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Friday 19 May 2023
Obesity drug
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Thursday 18 May 2023
Cancer screenings
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Tuesday 16 May 2023
UN betrays women in Afghanistan
Afghan women working for the UN in Kabul say they have been betrayed by the organisation’s failure to protect them from the Taliban’s gender apartheid. Also in today’s Sensemaker: why an opposition win in Thailand isn’t quite a win.
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Friday 12 May 2023
The Truth Teller
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Friday 12 May 2023
Tavistock delay
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Wednesday 10 May 2023
3 DNA
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Tuesday 9 May 2023
Sober Putin
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Wednesday 12 April 2023
Battleground abortion
What just happened
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Wednesday 22 March 2023
Sensemaker: Spent force
What just happened
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Tuesday 14 March 2023
Sensemaker: NHS receipts
What just happened
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Friday 10 February 2023
Sensemaker: England at prayer
What just happened
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Thursday 2 February 2023
Sensemaker: Code red
What just happened
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Sunday 8 January 2023
Come fly, MP
Hidden in plain sight: David “Airmiles” Morris
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Friday 25 November 2022
Sensemaker: Winner takes it all
What just happened
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Friday 30 September 2022
Sensemaker: Chess conspiracies
What just happened
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Friday 16 September 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Standstill Britain
What just happened
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Monday 27 June 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: No Roe
What just happened
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Wednesday 1 June 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Abortion – the future is already here
What just happened
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Thursday 12 May 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Who abortion bans hurt
What just happened
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Wednesday 27 April 2022
Afghanistan 8 months on
Eight months after the US-led withdrawal from Kabul, the man who led President Obama’s surge there a decade ago laments a “heartbreaking failure”
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Wednesday 27 April 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Afghanistan 8 months on
What just happened
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Monday 11 April 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Prosecuting rape in war
What just happened
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Wednesday 6 April 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: The pay gap gap
What just happened
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Wednesday 23 March 2022
Still Covid
In the two years since Boris Johnson told the UK to stay at home, Covid has claimed more than 160,000 lives. Vaccines have saved lives across the world, but many fewer than they might have if fairly distributed
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Wednesday 23 March 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Still Covid
What just happened
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Wednesday 2 March 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Exodus
What just happened
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Thursday 24 February 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Russia invades
What just happened
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Wednesday 23 February 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Money balks
What just happened
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Wednesday 26 January 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Psychedelics on the NHS?
What just happened
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Friday 21 January 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Gas and hot air
What just happened
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Thursday 13 January 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Case not dismissed
What just happened
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Wednesday 12 January 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Geneva showdown
What just happened
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Tuesday 4 January 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Happy New Year?
What just happened
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Friday 17 December 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Staring into space
What just happened
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Thursday 16 December 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Nuclear Biscuit
What just happened
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Monday 13 December 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Griffiths v Griffiths
What just happened
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Friday 10 December 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Sticker shock
What just happened
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Wednesday 8 December 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: French connections
What just happened
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Tuesday 7 December 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Dysfunction and chaos?
What just happened
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Friday 3 December 2021
10 minute readSensemaker Special: Boosters vs vaccinating the world
What just happened
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Wednesday 1 December 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Taliban murders
What just happened
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Monday 29 November 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Vax v variant
What just happened
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Friday 26 November 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Channel quarrel
What just happened
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Thursday 25 November 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Channel drownings
What just happened
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Wednesday 24 November 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: The Great Migration
What just happened
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Tuesday 23 November 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: No Bojo mojo
What just happened
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Tuesday 16 November 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: New lockdowns
What just happened
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Wednesday 10 November 2021
Counting carbon
The amount of carbon put out needs to decrease, the amount taken in to increase. To do that you need to count carbon. Welcome to remote sensing.
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Saturday 6 November 2021
Greta 2.0
The UK Cop presidency has made ending coal use its main mission. Will a new global deal succeed in banishing the black stuff?
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Tuesday 26 October 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Got your back
What just happened
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Tuesday 19 October 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: The Great Resignation
What just happened
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Thursday 14 October 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: The protocol stand-off
What just happened
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Tuesday 12 October 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Noble economics
What just happened
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Monday 11 October 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Britain and Europe: red lines at dawn
What just happened
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Friday 8 October 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Gas and hot air
What just happened
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Tuesday 5 October 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Facebook down
What just happened
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Friday 1 October 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Abortion in America
What just happened
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Thursday 23 September 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Nevergrande
What just happened
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Tuesday 21 September 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: America first, Haiti last
What just happened
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Thursday 16 September 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Long Johnson
What just happened
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Wednesday 15 September 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: News about news
What just happened
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Tuesday 14 September 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Taliban words and actions
What just happened
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Friday 3 September 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Back to school
What just happened
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Tuesday 24 August 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Zero Covid v Delta
What just happened
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Monday 23 August 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: It’s not over in Panjshir
What just happened
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Thursday 19 August 2021
Slow Reviews Part IV
Heathers
Phoebe Davis on a movie that showed the really, really dark side of teenage life
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Wednesday 18 August 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Vaccine hoarders
What just happened
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Friday 13 August 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Football and racism
What just happened
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Tuesday 10 August 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Hungaro-Polexit?
What just happened
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Monday 9 August 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Fire season
What just happened
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Thursday 22 July 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Pandemic of the unvaccinated
What just happened
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Thursday 15 July 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Farewell Hong Kong
What just happened
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Thursday 8 July 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Vaccinating America
What just happened
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Tuesday 6 July 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Vaccine neighbourhoods
What just happened
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Wednesday 17 March 2021
K2
Further reading
If you’ve been gripped by this week’s File on K2, there’s plenty more to discover. Here we’ve compiled a selection of books, films, articles and more on the Savage Mountain
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Tuesday 16 March 2021
K2
Straight up
Climbing K2 in maps and data
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Friday 12 February 2021
A year of Covid
Further reading
It’s been a year of Covid. Here is some extra reading material to help contextualise that time
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Thursday 14 January 2021
The Vaccine
A user’s guide
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Tuesday 24 November 2020
Downing Street: Cummings, communication & public confidence
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Monday 16 November 2020
What happened in care?
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Monday 5 June 2023
Uganda’s tough new anti-gay law
Uganda’s president has approved a new anti-gay law, which is among the harshest in the world. What does it mean for LGBT+ people in the country?
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Friday 19 May 2023
The United Nations in Afghanistan
Why the UN is under fire from some of its own staff in Afghanistan for its treatment of women staff.
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Thursday 11 May 2023
Contraceptives, monarchy and Trump liable for sexual abuse
James Harding is joined by Liz Moseley, Phoebe Davis and Keith Blackmore to discuss the stories they think mattered most this week.
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Monday 6 March 2023
Family money
This is the story of a politician incapable of living within his means but talented beyond measure at finding people to help him live beyond them. It’s the story of how that dependence on others sullied him and them. All of which leads to one simple question: just who is funding Boris Johnson?
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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
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Tuesday 10 May 2022
HRT: the Davina effect?
The UK is currently facing a hormone replacement therapy (HRT) shortage. Could it have been avoided?
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Friday 8 April 2022
The conversion therapy conversion
The government’s conversion therapy ban is going ahead, but will not cover trans people. Why?
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Tuesday 5 April 2022
The gender pay gap bot
On International Women’s Day, a Twitter bot drew attention to the gender pay gap in Britain’s biggest companies. But does the data they report tell the full story?
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Thursday 20 January 2022
Virginia
Virginia Giuffre is Prince Andrew’s accuser. She’s fought some of the most powerful people in the world – and, amazingly, she’s won.
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Tuesday 4 January 2022
2022: Predictions
Today, we’re doing something a little different. We’re going to kick off the year by predicting a few big things we think will happen in 2022.
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Thursday 16 December 2021
Europe’s first cannabis country
This week Malta became the first European country to legalise the cultivation and possession of cannabis for personal use. Will this be a trend across the rest of Europe?
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Tuesday 7 December 2021
Dread in Ukraine
Russia is building up troops near its border with Ukraine. Moscow claims there is a growing threat on its western border. It all feels like a return to 2014… why the renewed tensions?
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Thursday 25 November 2021
The blob running Britain?
Kate Bingham is one of many public figures to accuse the government, civil service, and the media of being a “blob” resistant to reform. Is it really a problem?
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Tuesday 26 October 2021
Britain’s tumbling birth rate
In the UK, we’re having fewer children than ever before. What’s going on?
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Monday 18 October 2021
The return of inflation
Inflation – a rise in the cost of living – used to be a huge problem in the UK. Is it about to become one again?
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Friday 24 September 2021
Netflix’s golden ticket
Streaming giant Netflix has bought the rights to children’s author Roald Dahl’s stories. Is this the start of a new cinematic universe?
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Tuesday 24 August 2021
Time’s up for Tokyo?
This week the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games kick off. But with Covid cases on the rise, and the city under its fourth state of emergency, enthusiasm for the Games is beginning to wear thin. So what price are Tokyo’s residents really having to pay for the Games?
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Thursday 19 August 2021
Policing the incels
Jake Davison, an ‘incel’ who was radicalised online, killed five people with a licensed gun. Should social media checks be a part of gun ownership?
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Thursday 22 July 2021
A spy called Pegasus
Pegasus is a piece of spyware that can infiltrate your phone and steal its secrets. This week we learned how governments are using it.
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Monday 24 May 2021
The teenager who filmed George Floyd
Darnella Frazier was just 17 and on her way to the shop when she stumbled across a tragedy: the murder of George Floyd
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Friday 14 May 2021
Donald Trump – not president, still powerful
The sacking of a US politician this week shows that Donald Trump is still the biggest show in town in the Republican Party
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Friday 7 May 2021
Caitlyn Jenner runs into trouble
Caitlyn Jenner, one of the most famous trans people in the world, is running to be governor of California. But mainstream politics and trans rights don’t always sit well together.
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Friday 23 April 2021
Electric dreams in the USA
Joe Biden is pushing hard for action on climate change. Can he get America to drive electric?
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Monday 12 April 2021
The case of Katie Hill
Katie Hill is an American politician whose nude photos were published online by a newspaper. Now, a judge has ruled that these images are in the public interest. Are they?