Policing mental health

Within three months, the Met Police will stop attending all but the most serious mental health calls. Will it put vulnerable people in danger?

The 31: Ukraine’s stolen children

Why is the Kremlin forcibly deporting tens of thousands of children to Russia?

Ed Sheeran’s legal victory

A court has ruled that the British musician did not copy a Marvin Gaye song when he wrote the 2014 hit Thinking Out Loud. What does the verdict mean for the music industry?

The godfather of AI quits with a warning

One of the pioneers of artificial intelligence has quit his job at Google and warned about the dangers of the technology. What does Geoffrey Hinton’s departure tell us about the future of AI?

Sudan on the brink

The UK government is evacuating Brits from one of the world’s poorest countries as it teeters on the edge of civil war. How did Sudan get here?

Au revoir to e-scooters

Paris has become the first city in the world to ban rental e-scooters. Could the UK be next?

Prince Harry in court

The Duke of Sussex has been in the high court, fighting a legal battle against the owner of the Daily Mail newspaper. What is he trying to achieve?

Ofsted under pressure

Teachers are calling for the UK’s schools watchdog to stop inspections following the death of a headteacher. Why?

Xi, Putin and Russia’s war

The Chinese president has just returned from a three-day visit to Russia. What did we learn about Xi Jinping’s support for Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine?

The small boats plan

The government has unveiled new, tougher measures to stop people crossing the Channel in small boats. But it faces legal and practical challenges. Why are they doing it and will it work?

The Covid lab leak theory

After three years and countless deaths, were the people who think Covid came from a Chinese lab right all along?

Roald Dahl rewritten

A major publishing house has revised some of Roald Dahl’s children’s books. Why did it do it?

Invaded: A year at war

Tortoise has been speaking to a Ukrainian woman ever since Russia began its full scale invasion of Ukraine. A year later and the war is still raging. This is Halyna’s story

The energy companies force-fitting prepayment meters

Energy suppliers have agreed to stop forcibly installing prepayment meters in the homes of vulnerable people. Why was it happening in the first place?

The death of Tyre Nichols

A Black man has become yet another victim of police violence in the US. Why does this keep happening?

Germany’s difficult tank decision

After much agonising Germany has agreed to give battle tanks to Ukraine. Why was it so reluctant and what difference will they make?

A British citizen executed by Iran

Iran has killed a British-Iranian national accused of spying for the UK. What does it tell us about the relationship between the two countries?

Is Prince Harry winning?

Prince Harry has made a series of extraordinary claims about the British royal family. But what is he trying to achieve and is he succeeding?

Within striking distance?

Britain is in the middle of yet more train strikes. How close are the unions and the rail companies to a deal?

Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover

There were legal wranglings, lots of firings and plenty of missteps when one of the world’s richest men bought Twitter. Why did Elon Musk do it and what does it mean for the social network?

A union leader for our times

Mick Lynch’s union, the RMT, was one of the first to go on strike this year. Since then many more have taken industrial action to demand better pay and working conditions as the cost of living rises

The OG Satanic Panic – where’s the evidence?

In this special bonus episode of Hoaxed, Alexi and Gemma catch up on what’s happened since the last episode of Hoaxed went out and Alexi goes back to the original satanic panic to examine the evidence. He speaks to a professor who investigated dozens of satanic ritual abuse cases in the 1990s – and to a psychotherapist who believes that satanism is a modern-day “Auschwitz”.

Taylor’s Swifties fight back

A group of Taylor Swift fans are suing a ticket company for fraud, price fixing and antitrust violations. It’s not the first time Ticketmaster has been criticised

Royal race row

Lady Susan Hussey has caused a race row after asking a Black charity boss where she was “really” from during a reception at Buckingham Palace. Who is Ngozi Fulani and why does this come at such a bad time for the royal family?

After the final whistle

Iran’s football team has been knocked out of the men’s World Cup, but their refusal to sing the national anthem means they may face repercussions back home. What will happen to them next?

Inside Unite: the union, Liverpool and the £100m hotel

One of Britain’s biggest trade unions has built a hotel in Birmingham at vast cost. Following the threads which explain why it became so wildly expensive leads inevitably to a surprising place: to Liverpool. And to questions which could hurt the Labour party.

General Armageddon

Vladimir Putin has appointed a man with a ruthless reputation to command his war in Ukraine. What does Sergei Surovikin tell us about the state of Russia’s invasion?

Bonnie and Clyde

In the final episode of Hoaxed, Alexi confronts Abraham and Ella about what they did in Hampstead – and why. And the police give Alexi some surprising news

A bridge too far

A huge explosion has damaged a bridge linking Russia and Crimea. Why has it triggered such a furious response from the Kremlin?

The Healer

Alexi and his producer fly to Morocco to confront Abraham Christie – and learn dark secrets about his past

A mess in chess

The game’s greatest player has accused his opponent of cheating, throwing the world of chess into turmoil. What does it mean for its future?

Infiltration

For a conspiracy to spread, important people need to be listening. Alexi discovers that the perpetrators of the Hampstead hoax have friends in high places, while he and the team close in on Abraham’s location

Secrets and lies

Two young children make horrific allegations in a London police station, lighting the fuse on one of the most serious British conspiracy theories in decades

Ella’s list

Seized upon by conspiracy theorists, Ella’s list of alleged cult members spreads like wildfire across the Internet. Hampstead parents start receiving death threats and lives are torn apart

The Avengers

The perpetrators of the Hampstead hoax meet their match in an unassuming mystery novelist, who is determined to expose their lies and bring them to justice

The rule of King Charles

It is thought that Britain’s new monarch will favour a slimmed down royal family. What will this look like?

Operation London Bridge

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday afternoon. For 70 years, she was a constant figurehead. So what happens now?

Who chooses?

The next prime minister will be decided by Conservative Party members, but we know very little about them. So Tortoise has asked the Conservative Party to tell us and threatened legal action if it doesn’t

Invaded: The war at six months

Since February we have been telling the story of Halyna, a Ukrainian woman who woke up one morning to find her country at war. We catch up with her, six months on

The attack on Salman Rushdie

The British-Indian writer has been seriously injured after being stabbed at a literary event in the US. What does Iran have to do with it?

Labour’s union spat

Why is the Labour Party finding it so hard to deal with the trade union movement?

Monkeypox: what we know

The virus is spreading and the World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency. How is monkeypox infecting people and who needs to be vaccinated first?

Liz Truss’s pitch for PM

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are going head-to-head to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister. What does the foreign secretary believe and what might she do if she wins?

Return of Q

The leader of QAnon, the conspiracy theory that believes the US is run by Satanic baby-eating paedophiles, is back. What does it mean for America?

Londongrad revisited

Boris Johnson has finally admitted to meeting a former KGB officer without officials in a palace in Italy. Why does it matter?

Porn king under pressure

The man behind MindGeek, which owns some of the world’s biggest porn sites, has lost his CEO and chief operating officer recently. Staff have also been fired. What is going on at the company?

Roe v Wade overturned

The US Supreme Court has overturned Roe v Wade, a 50 year old ruling that guaranteed a woman’s right to abortion. Why did it make the decision and what can pro-choice supporters do now?

A coup at Claridge’s: Qatar’s quiet move on London

A tiny Gulf state has bought up some of Britain’s prized assets. But at what cost?

The fight for eastern Ukraine

Fierce battles are raging for control of the Donbas region, a key target for Vladimir Putin. Both Russia and Ukraine are claiming successes, but who is really winning?

The Rules: democracy in Britain

Every day more cracks emerge in the political system that guarantees the freedoms Britons hold dear. How do we stop it shattering?

A Russian war crime

A 21-year-old soldier has been jailed for life for killing an unarmed civilian in the early days of the Russian invasion. What does it mean and how might the Kremlin retaliate?

Odesa

The Ukrainian port normally feeds the world, but the Russian invasion means nothing is getting out. Can we reopen the port – or will millions starve?

Overturning Roe

A leaked opinion by the US Supreme Court suggests that it could reverse an historic ruling that gives women the right to have an abortion. What impact would that have?

Invaded: Mariupol’s last defence

Russian forces have reduced Mariupol to ruins. But they are still meeting fierce resistance at the city’s steel plant, where Ukrainian fighters are deep underground. Halyna’s cousin is one of them.

Elon Musk goes shopping

Twitter’s board has accepted Elon Musk’s offer to buy the social media company for around $44 billion. But what’s he going to do with it?

Mariupol

Two atrocities in the port city of Mariupol epitomise Russia’s violence in Ukraine. This is the story of those atrocities and of Mariupol’s truth

Invaded: Russian atrocities

Like many Ukrainians, Halyna and her parents are returning to homes they fled just a few weeks ago. But the carnage left behind is beginning to emerge.

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?

Invaded: A family reunited

Halyna’s parents attempt to escape their hometown in eastern Ukraine.

Invaded: Realities of war

In Lviv, Halyna feels quite far from the invasion. But for her parents, who live near the border with Russia, it is very real.

Prosecuting Russia’s crimes

Accused of committing war crimes, Russia is being investigated by the international criminal court. But prosecuting those responsible will not be easy.

Invaded: Escape from Kyiv

Just a few days ago, Halyna was a young woman living a peaceful life in Ukraine’s capital. Now she has been forced to flee because of the war.

Judging Russian dissent

There have been protests and high profile Russians have criticised the invasion of Ukraine. But how do you work out the true extent of opposition to Putin’s war?

Invaded: A view from Kyiv

A Ukrainian woman describes the day her country was invaded by Russia.

Unforgotten: Syria’s war crimes

How the chief of a notorious Damascus torture unit was put on trial thousands of miles away, in a German courtroom

The Ukrainian puppet?

Yevhen Murayev was named in a strange Foreign Office press release as the potential leader of a pro-Russian government in Ukraine. Who is he and what is the UK up to?

Lights, camera, space station!

How a Russian actress, not a joyriding billionaire, is the best person to show us where space travel is going.

The battle across the Channel

Some days, more than 1000 migrants cross the English Channel in small boats. Could the UK and France stop them if they wanted?

Xi Jinping’s great rejuvenation

The Chinese Communist Party has just passed a landmark new resolution under Xi Jinping. But what’s really motivating him?

Handing back stolen treasures

France has decided to return some artefacts from one of its museums which were looted from Benin more than a century ago. Might museums in other western countries have to follow suit?

Does ‘Prevent’ prevent extremism?

Prevent is the British government’s first line of defence against radicalisation and extremism. How does it work?

Vaccinating for two?

How did an overabundance of caution help cause a Covid crisis among pregnant women?

A movie star in space

A Russian actor and director are about to become the first to film a movie in space. Why are they doing it?

The far right’s favourite currency

Right wing extremists have started to turn to cryptocurrencies as they’ve been sidelined by big financial institutions. But they might prosper in the shadows.

The Kremlin v big tech

Why Apple and Google removed a voting app developed by the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, just as Russians head to the polls.

Understanding the Covid numbers

Schools in England have gone back this week, and there’s real worry about a surge in Covid infections. What can we learn from what’s happened to infections this summer?

Beyond Love Island – Molly-Mae’s brilliant career

Smear

Grooming gangs, conspiracy theories and the lawless digital politics of Oldham

The Duke of York… in the dock?

When Virginia Giuffre was under the age of 18, she claims Prince Andrew forced her to have sex with him. He’s always denied it. But her lawyer is now convinced the case will come to court. Is he right?

The end of Covid?

With coronavirus cases and hospitalisations both falling in the UK… could we really have sent Covid packing?

Israel – vaccine battleground

Israel was best in the world at vaccinating its people against Covid. Now, as the country opens up, sceptics are claiming that what’s happening in Israel means vaccines aren’t very effective. They’re wrong.

Climate catastrophe in Germany

Floods in Germany have left more than a hundred dead and wrecked whole towns. It’s not just a freak event, it’s a climate change catastrophe.

A bitter by-election

Labour won this week’s by-election after a very hard-fought campaign. And the party wasn’t only fighting its opponents

China’s racy but radical tabloid

How a salacious newspaper – full of gossip and dramatic crime stories – is getting the Chinese authorities really worried

Israel’s Houdini

Has Israel’s longest-standing prime minister run out of road? Or does he have another trick up his sleeve?

The app that trapped criminals

A mobile phone app and an Aussie crime boss gave the FBI one of their biggest breakthroughs

A crypto carnival

What a Miami convention hall packed with 12,000 Bitcoin enthusiasts tells us about the cult of crypto

Bad marks for the Covid recovery plan

Boris Johnson’s government announced its plans to help school children catch up on what they’ve missed because of Covid. It went straight to the back of the class.

Naomi Osaka serves up a challenge to tennis

The argument between tennis star Naomi Osaka and the tennis authorities is about much more than post-match press conferences

A coma, a car crash and a president

Syria’s president is about to ‘win’ another election. He became president almost accidentally, but he seems to be in power for life

Belarusian roulette

The dictator who rules Belarus wanted to get his hands on an opponent – enough to force down a plane he was travelling on

Hunt for the porn king

As dozens of women accuse the world’s largest porn company of profiting from their abuse, listen to the full story of how we traced its secretive owner to his London mansion

A man in a van, fighting drugs

Peter Krykant is waging an unorthodox, possibly illegal, war against the terrible death toll from drugs in Scotland.

A genocide, recognised

Why America’s recognition of a genocide from a century ago is causing a diplomatic commotion

Victims of the Post Office

The Post Office said its computer system never made a mistake: if there was money missing, someone must have stolen it. A lot of sub-postmasters were wrongly sent to jail.

A super controversy

How a new competition could change football forever… and why it’s about far more than just football.

A vaccine warning from Chile

Is the pandemic behind us in the UK because the vaccine roll-out has gone so well? Not necessarily. Just look what’s happening in Chile.

Brexit + a funeral = trouble in Northern Ireland

The violence on the streets of Northern Ireland is worrying politicians. Is the peace deal under threat?

The trial of Derek Chauvin

Millions of people saw the video of Derek Chauvin on George Floyd’s neck. But how do you tell two different stories about the same video?

You can’t vaccinate a victory

Israel’s prime minister was hoping a successful vaccination programme would win him an election victory. It turned out it wasn’t that simple

The first minister who didn’t lie

What exactly has Scotland’s Nicola Sturgeon been cleared of – and what does it mean for Scottish independence?

Brazil’s president vs. the world

In recent days, a quarter of all Covid deaths worldwide have been in Brazil. So why won’t President Jair Bolsonaro take the virus seriously?

Police power

The government’s controversial new anti-protest bill – and what people really think about it.

The multi-million dollar .JPEG

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

The end of the Piers show?

Piers Morgan is probably the biggest name in British broadcasting right now. This week he left Good Morning Britain in a blaze of publicity. He’ll be back.

Joe Biden’s frenemy

One politician – a member of Joe Biden’s own party – could shoot down some of the President’s biggest plans

Jolene, vaccine

America’s willingness to take the vaccine is split down party lines. Can the beloved Dolly Parton bridge the divide?

Post-pandemic freedom at last?

We’ve all got the date in our heads: the 21st of June – the great reopening. But is it a realistic deadline?

McDonald’s in the dock

McDonald’s stands accused of discriminating against Black owners of its restaurants.

The falling-out

A bitter row is threatening to tear apart the Scottish National Party. It matters to the whole of the UK.

306 days with Covid

Geoff Woolf has spent longer than almost anyone in hospital with Covid. His son Nicky tells his story.

The man who risked his life for civilisation

Khaled Asaad loved Palmyra, a beautiful, ancient Syrian city. But when Isis captured it, his life was on the line.

The bat woman

There’s a theory that Covid-19 escaped from a lab in Wuhan. Should we take it seriously?

Zero Covid

Some countries have decided not to try to live with Covid. They’re trying to get rid of it altogether.

A man called Swampy

Britain’s best-known environmental activist is up to his old tricks again, underground.

The vaccine queue-jumpers

How a super-rich Canadian couple sneaked two jabs of the Moderna vaccine by posing as motel workers.

The great vaccine gamble

The UK is betting everything on giving people a single dose of the coronavirus vaccine. How sure are we that it will work?

The alien hunter

A leading scientist says our solar system had a visit from an alien spacecraft. His fellow scientists disagree but he’s not backing down.

Why the UK is good at vaccinating

Nearly everything that could go wrong with the UK’s coronavirus response has gone wrong. But not the vaccine roll-out.

How to throw away £200m

The digital currency Bitcoin is so hyper-secure that some people have lost millions by accident

The dark story of the Boeing 737 MAX

After two plane crashes and 346 deaths, Boeing has agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle a US criminal case. Is that enough?