The Slow Newscast takes news slowly. We investigate, we report, and every week we try to focus on the stories that really matter in the UK and around the world. Your host is Basia Cummings, once of the Guardian and Huffington Post, who takes stock with the help of colleagues from Tortoise and invited guests.
For years, Claire McEnery was one of the most senior women in the Lancashire police force. With that seniority came exposure to the best – and worst – of life, but also to the best and worst of the police
Paul Caruana Galizia investigates whether Prince William reached a secret out of court settlement with Rupert Murdoch and News Group over phone hacking. What were the terms of the reported deal and how much money changed hands?
From intern to baroness in seven years, Charlotte Owen’s entry to the House of Lords has left even friends scratching their heads in wonder. Her elevation might be hard to explain, but it tells us volumes about the way British democracy works.
What happens when another powerful carnivore threatens humans in a place where they are the masters?
In late June, Yevgeny Prigozhin marched on Moscow with a small army of mercenaries. Exactly two months later, he was dead. This is the story of what really happened on the road to Moscow
In June a scandal erupted that threatened the future of snooker after ten elite players were banned for match fixing. It all starts in a small snooker hall in Sheffield, but ends on a journey through a several hundred billion dollar a year black market in south-east Asia. This is the story of the biggest British match-fixing scandal in over a decade
Cities are where the battle to save planet earth will be won and lost. But it is not the urban environment that matters, but our relationship with nature within it. What can the story of one dying river, plagued by sewage and indifference, and the campaign to save it, teach us about how to reconnect with and value nature?
In 2017 the MeToo movement swept through Hollywood. Some men, such as Harvey Weinstein, went to prison. Others who were accused of sexual misconduct and assault were ostracised and struggled to find parts in big movies. But six years on some of these same people are back on the red carpets. Is Hollywood trying to rewrite history?
A family’s six-year fight for a pioneering legal decision
How one of the most wanted men on earth was caught after three decades on the run
A mother, a murder and a thirty year investigation
Spanish celebrity Ana Obregón shocked the world when she announced that she had a child via surrogate, using a donor egg and the sperm of her deceased son. Her story takes us to the new frontiers of fertility, where technology challenges our ideas of family, motherhood and the law.
How serious money, polite society and the law enabled Crispin Odey, one of the UK’s most successful and powerful hedge funders, amid mounting allegations of sexual harassment and assault over many decades
Private spy. Double agent. Whistleblower. Just who was Rob Moore?
Bill Gates was the golden philanthropist at the top of the billionaire’s league – he was also Epstein’s way back into society
The story of Gender GP and its founder Helen Webberley, labelled by one newspaper as one of Britain’s most controversial doctors
Leon Black was the aggressive private equity billionaire at the top of New York society – he also bankrolled Epstein
Jes Staley was one of the most powerful men in banking – he was also Jeffrey Epstein’s protector
After Epstein was dropped by JP Morgan, another bank stepped in to help his sex trafficking empire keep rolling
Boris Johnson is not a man who has much care for institutions or conventions. So what does his forthcoming resignations honours list mean for the future of the House of Lords?
Why is the Kremlin forcibly deporting tens of thousands of children to Russia?
What do you do with a star children’s author who can’t stop pushing the boundaries?
A new Tortoise investigation into how the country’s most distressed and vulnerable children are being abandoned by the state.
South Africa was once a symbol of hope. Now the country experiences regular blackouts. This is the story of how the lights went out in Mandela’s country – and how criminal gangs and flawed political leadership are holding back the world’s efforts to deal with climate change
London-based critics of the regime in Tehran face growing threats to their lives. Paul Caruana Galizia investigates why this is happening – and who is doing it
A lost photographer in a Chiswick business park, a nervous phone caller in LA and a speedboat bound for Caracas – who exactly are the hit men behind the threats?
The European Research Group was once the most consequential faction in the Conservative party, playing a central role in bringing down former prime minister Theresa May and installing Boris Johnson in Number 10. And yet, in a recent test of strength, the Brexit hardliners stumbled. This is the story of what happened to the ERG.
In the early hours of the morning of the 5 December 2022, a shot – a pulse – was fired that could save the world. It was a shot that achieved the fusion scientists had been seeking for more than half a century. They call it ignition, and it could solve an energy crisis that’s becoming existential for humanity. This is the story of those precious seconds and the decades leading up to it
John Williams Ntwali, one of the last critical journalists in Rwanda, died in suspicious circumstances just before Suella Braverman, the British home secretary, flew in to Kigali to sell the country as a “safe” place to send asylum seekers and migrants
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?
For five years a British citizen has been locked up in an Indian prison, and the British state hasn’t been willing – or not strong enough – to stand up for him
What happened inside Fox News in those critical weeks following Donald Trump’s election defeat in 2020?
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?
When a vulnerable woman falls from a tower block, how do you find out what really happened?
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?
The Harry show – the bestselling memoir, the Netflix documentary, the rounds of television interviews – isn’t over. In fact, it’s only just begun: the prince’s legal claims against Britain’s biggest media groups are headed to court this summer
What happens if the law gets it wrong? As two men found out in their fight for justice, it can move very slowly
What do you do when your children are taken away by your ex-partner? Who do you call for help? And how do you get them back?
The Christian Legal Centre is behind some of the most tragic cases in the British courts helping parents fight against hospitals in life support cases. Who are they – and what do they want?
Over £183 million of outside funds has flowed into this parliament alone, with no way of fully understanding who’s getting what, from whom, and why. Until now. This is the story of the money flowing into our politics, hidden in plain sight
Nasa wants to put people back on the moon, half a century after Apollo 11. Its Artemis moon mission is over-budget, overhyped and underpowered – it might even be the end of Nasa as we know it
The inside story of a troubled company that was bought by the world’s richest man
One of Britain’s richest and most powerful men was cleared of sexual assault last year. Four more women have come forward with similar allegations that Crispin Odey, a major donor to the Conservative party, sexually assaulted them. Other women allege that he sexually harassed them at the offices of his Mayfair hedge fund company
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.
What happens when science and medical research meet Wall Street?
The story of one man, fighting to his last breath, to reveal the darkness that lies behind this year’s UN Climate Change Conference
The inside story of how the shortest premiership in British history came to an end
More than 60 years after the development of the contraceptive pill for women, we still don’t have an equivalent for men. Why?
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?
What happened when social media platforms banned Andrew Tate, whose misogyny netted him a fortune and millions of online followers?
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?
No war crime is ever inevitable, but it’s possible to make one likely. Russia did exactly that before 53 prisoners of war burned to death at Olenivka
Desiree Fixler was a high-flyer in the world of finance until she raised questions about whether sustainable investing is living up to its promise. Her decision to speak out had huge consequences
Peter Cruddas is a self-made billionaire, a Conservative party donor and now, a Lord. His rise reveals a lot about Boris Johnson’s battle with parliament
More than a year after Myanmar fell to a military coup, Ali Fowle investigates the growing resistance movement. Is there hope of a different future?
The making of the modern Home Office
Last year, as women accused Pornhub of profiting from their abuse, we tracked down its intensely secretive owner. This week, we’re looking back to find out: what happened next?
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
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
Last summer our three-part podcast Left To Die told the harrowing story of 200 civilians trapped in a hotel in Mozambique under siege by violent extremists. This week, we’re looking back to find out: what happened next?
A former KGB officer, Britain’s foreign secretary – and a potential national security breach
One sleuth, two notebooks – and a 20-year puzzle
A tiny Gulf state has bought up some of Britain’s prized assets. But at what cost?
When China opened up to the West, Hollywood saw a massive opportunity. But China had its own dreams. Now the movie studios are beginning to realise what they gave away
Britain’s harsh welcome for refugees – and what happened when the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was tried before
Every day more cracks emerge in the political system that guarantees the freedoms Britons hold dear. How do we stop it shattering?
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
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?
Who is the real Stormy Daniels? Hattie Garlick meets arguably one of America’s most misunderstood and misrepresented women
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
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
What happens when a museum possesses a group of objects so sacred that they can never be seen in public or studied in private – and the original owners want them back?
The days of the Russian oligarch in London are numbered. What fate awaits the enablers – those well-connected people who worked for and provided services to wealthy Russians? This is the story of one of them
Twenty-seven women. Falling. Off balconies, out of windows, from the top of multi-storey carparks. And there, in most of the cases, is a man, standing in the shadow of her fall. What if these women didn’t just fall, but were pushed?
What does the story of Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia Navalnaya tell us about Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the state of opposition?
Imagine being blind but thanks to the wonders of technology being able to see again. How would you then feel if that sight was taken away?
Political wisdom says Ukraine has saved Boris Johnson’s skin – a global crisis so grave that it looks self-indulgent to question his leadership. But the really successful operation to rescue the prime minister started long before Russia’s war, and much closer to home
We thought the Russians were masters of the information war; that they’d sweep Ukraine aside. Why is it not turning out that way?
Door after door in Britain has been opened for Evgeny Lebedev, all the way to the House of Lords. Who has opened them, and why?
The “epidemic” of spiking with needles in clubs and at parties in autumn 2021 revealed something important about women’s lives in Britain. But it wasn’t what we thought
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
How the chief of a notorious Damascus torture unit was put on trial thousands of miles away, in a German courtroom
Boris Johnson’s history of lies – and the story of one crucial fortnight in March 2020
In November, athlete Peng Shuai accused a senior Chinese politician of sexual assault. Then, she vanished. Poppy Sebag-Montefiore investigates her disappearance – and the silencing of China’s #MeToo movement
Twenty years ago, Prince Andrew’s attacks on Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s credibility may have proved fatal to her case. Now, the power has shifted
How a former government minister abused the secrecy of the family courts in an attempt to hide the truth
How a lucrative fantasy collided with the reality of the body
As 2021 draws to a close, Basia Cummings looks back over a year of Slow Newscasts with her colleagues James Harding, the co-founder of Tortoise, and Ceri Thomas. What’s changed in the way we think about podcasts at Tortoise? And are there any you’ve missed which you might want to catch up on over the Christmas break?
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
When a High Court Judge awarded Tatiana Akhmedova a record £450m divorce payout, it was only the beginning of a case that went on to become the most expensive family feud in history…
This is a story about Covid vaccinations and how hard it is for some people – profoundly disabled people – to get them. But it’s about much more than that. It’s a story about family, joy and resilience. And a boy called Elliott who is trapped in time
In Kabul, the Taliban’s takeover was assured. In London, an ignominious retreat, and the betrayal of former comrades in the Afghan army, was more than a group of ex-soldiers, now MPs, could stomach
As the Taliban closed in on Kabul, and Western troops and desperate Afghans scrambled to leave, Britain found itself frozen out of decision making and incapable of influencing events. It was a stark illustration of the UK’s status, made worse by catastrophic misjudgements at the top of government
Who are the people behind a spate of multi-million dollar ransomware attacks on financial institutions, schools, hospitals and critical infrastructure? When Nicky Woolf began to investigate the highest-profile ransomware outfit, REvil, it was almost completely hidden from view. But then the cyber-police started to uncover its secrets
Since 2016, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been held hostage in Iran. Her supporters recognise that the Iranian government must be held responsible for her ordeal, but missteps and machinations in London have ensured that it hasn’t been brought to a swift end
The abduction of a young woman from the streets of Cambridge is the origin-story of how Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai treats the women in his life
When Gabby Petito is reported missing in Wyoming her disappearance is widely shared online. When her body is discovered her case seems to mobilise a whole army of digital detectives and citizen journalists all trying to solve the mystery of what happened
The mystery of the immaculate concussion
More than 20 years after emptying the Russian state treasure of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds and gold, Andrei Kozlenok breaks his silence with an even more extraordinary tale. But why?
When Andrei Kozlenok went on the mother of all spending sprees, the FBI joined forces with Russian police in an investigation that led to a treasure house under the streets of Moscow, and to the Kremlin
It’s been said often enough: the pandemic has been like a war. Economically, on civil liberties and the deaths it has caused, it’s hard to find a better comparison. And just like a war it places responsibilities on companies that make vital supplies which are different from peacetime – to profit, but not to profiteer
Plenty of people take wrong turns in their lives. But so too can justice systems. John Crilly and hundreds more have been the victims of the legal doctrine of Joint Enterprise and how it has been applied for the past 30 years
President Biden believes his eldest son’s cancer, which claimed his life in 2015, was linked to his time serving in Iraq. It is a belief that makes sense of the loss, and – as has become clear in recent weeks – shapes Biden’s world view
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
Grooming gangs, conspiracy theories and the lawless digital politics of Oldham
The story of Rohullah Yakobi, and a 20-year war
Claudia Williams presents a special edition of the Slow Newscast – on a newsletter that both reflected and reshaped celebrity culture
With human rights groups demanding a diplomatic boycott of next year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing, we look back to Moscow 1980, and ask what’s the lesson of the most notorious Olympic boycott in modern times?
The truth of an origin story has never mattered more: did Covid cross to humans from an animal, or did it escape from a laboratory? The arguments between science, politics and, now, the intelligence services have only grown fiercer. And in the fog of war, the World Health Organisation lost its way
Last month the richest nations on the planet squared up to its greatest public health challenge, how to vaccinate every adult everywhere against Covid. They failed. The story of how and why they came up catastrophically short is a litany of political parochialism, low ambition and poor organisation – with potentially dreadful consequences
How one woman was asked to deal with an allegation of rape by herself
Nick Alexander tells the story of his torturous escape from the ambushed Amarula Hotel convoy – and the question left lying in the dust of the attack: who, really, abandoned them all?
In the second part in our series investigating how 200 civilians were left to die at the Amarula Hotel in northern Mozambique, we tell the story of their harrowing escape
In March, Islamist militants attacked the town of Palma, in northern Mozambique – the site of a $20bn gas project. They besieged a hotel, where more than 200 civilians were taking shelter. Help would soon be on its way, they were told. But the rescue never came. Why? In our new three-part series, we investigate what happened
In little more than a year, the year of the pandemic, Anand Menon lost his mother, father, brother and sister. Here, he speaks to James Harding about the burden of grief
Sophie Bennett took her own life in a care facility that was crumbling around her. Paul Caruana Galizia and Chris Cook investigate what went wrong at a charity led by a famous mental health pioneer
After Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds’ wedding, there are now two powerful married couples in Number 10. Meet the other: Munira and Dougie
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
In the East German city of Chemnitz, political extremists aren’t just present – they’re organised. And they’re trying to spread their creed from ramshackle buildings to the rest of the country
California’s largest lake was a giant mistake created by an accidental flood more than a century ago. Today, the Salton Sea is an environmental disaster. But could the communities around the shore of the dying lake be saved by the quest for green energy and the hunt for one of the most sought-after elements on earth?
The death of Shukri Abdi in 2019 has become a cause for campaigners who believe that something unlawful happened. But is that the truth?
The mystery of Gulf Livestock 1, a 12,000-tonne ship that disappeared without a trace.
How an embroidery charity – beloved by its members – tore itself apart at the seams
Who is Keir Starmer? There’s the basic answer: he’s the leader of Britain’s Labour party. But beyond that? Gaby Hinsliff delved into his past to find out more.
Reaching the summit of K2 in winter had never been done before. In January, a group of mountaineers – professionals, amateurs, social media adventurers – attempted it. It ended in #triumph… and tragedy
As he returned to Moscow after months recovering from a nerve agent attack, Alexei Navalny released a remarkable YouTube video – and with it, sowed the seeds for a new Russian revolution by meme
Covid may be losing the vaccine battle. But, as the virus evolves fast to form new variants, the war is most definitely not over
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is one of Britain’s richest men. His decision to move to Monaco after receiving a knighthood has angered those who recommended him and raises questions about how this country’s honours system works
A myth has been made: a tale of wolves on Wall St; a pack of principled amateurs biting the legs of greedy financial giants and bringing them down. But almost everything you think you know about wallstreetbets, GameStop and Robin Hood is wrong.
Last March, Geoff Woolf went into hospital. He returned home 306 days later
They occupied a world of high-rolling hunting parties and complicated gifts – until it went seriously wrong.
How an unprecedented legal case could change the way the courts approach domestic abuse.
The astonishing case of Emily Whelan, and decisions and delays that cannot be undone
How a police force’s failure to notice a pattern led to two tragic deaths
The life and death of 21-year-old Katie Wilding, and her mother’s remarkable fight against the police
Ten former defense secretaries recently signed a letter warning about Trump’s attempts to subvert the US election result. Then, on 6 January, we saw more clearly than ever what they meant
The vaccine is an incredible scientific achievement. But some of the political decision-making behind its rollout is rather less impressive.
A former army base outside Folkestone, Kent, is now the epicentre of the migration story
Why did a month-old company land a couple of big-money contracts for PPE? And what does it reveal about the British government’s response to the pandemic?
Inside the rise and fall of The Wing, the feminist empire that got found out
Is Scotland on an unstoppable march to leave the UK?
Fear, delays, mistakes and recrimination. On 31 October, we looked to Boris Johnson’s government for certainty – they served up a nightmare
Can the Chinese Communist Party learn to live with Jack Ma?
Why did a famous author wade into the debate over trans rights?
Evangelicals have been key to Donald Trump’s presidency, and to his bid for re-election
Alistair Darling and Mervyn King, who were both at the centre of the 2008 crisis, talk to James Harding about what’s coming next
Courtroom drama: Happy’s case goes to the top
Part II Happy passes the ‘mirror test’, an examination of intelligence and self-awareness
This is the story of an elephant. It’s a family saga, and a courtroom drama.
It’s about how we live with animals, what we do to them and what they are entitled to expect from us.
Young women are being offered the chance to delay the menopause. The question is: does it work, and does anyone even want it?
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