Boycott! The lost Olympics
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?
Podcast
The Slow Newscast
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.
Episodes
The porn headmaster
In the internet age, anyone with a camera can make and sell porn. But what happens when a shoot goes wrong? In the second episode in our
#PornPlanet series investigating online pornography, we look into the world of porn production
Genesis: The mystery of where Covid began
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
The Arms Race: vaccine failure at Carbis Bay, the G7’s deadly sin
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
DIY justice
How one woman was asked to deal with an allegation of rape by herself
Left to die: Escape from the Amarula – Part 3
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?
Left to die: Escape from the Amarula – Part 2
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
Left to die: Escape from the Amarula – Part 1
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
The missing note
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
A death at Lancaster Lodge
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
The second couple
After Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds’ wedding, there are now two powerful married couples in Number 10. Meet the other: Munira and Dougie
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
Nail house: At home with the German far right
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
White gold rush
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 cause: what happened to Shukri Abdi?
The death of Shukri Abdi in 2019 has become a cause for campaigners who believe that something unlawful happened. But is that the truth?
Lost at sea
The mystery of Gulf Livestock 1, a 12,000-tonne ship that disappeared without a trace.
Cross stitch
How an embroidery charity – beloved by its members – tore itself apart at the seams
The reasonable case of Keir Rodney Starmer
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.
#Savagemountain
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
The Navalny Show
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
March of the Mutants
Covid may be losing the vaccine battle. But, as the virus evolves fast to form new variants, the war is most definitely not over
A very British business
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
Fairy tale finance
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.
Changed: My dad and the virus
Last March, Geoff Woolf went into hospital. He returned home 306 days later
The money hunt
They occupied a world of high-rolling hunting parties and complicated gifts – until it went seriously wrong.
Fight on
How an unprecedented legal case could change the way the courts approach domestic abuse.
No going back
The astonishing case of Emily Whelan, and decisions and delays that cannot be undone
A killer, twice missed
How a police force’s failure to notice a pattern led to two tragic deaths
Hidden in plain sight
The life and death of 21-year-old Katie Wilding, and her mother’s remarkable fight against the police
This was a coup
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
Shot in the dark
The vaccine is an incredible scientific achievement. But some of the political decision-making behind its rollout is rather less impressive.
Did it have to be this bad?
The past nine months have been marked by trial, error and tragedy, so we held an inquiry into what went wrong – and right
Crossing the Channel
A former army base outside Folkestone, Kent, is now the epicentre of the migration story
Contract tracing
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?
Clipped wings
Inside the rise and fall of The Wing, the feminist empire that got found out
Lockdown meltdown
Fear, delays, mistakes and recrimination. On 31 October, we looked to Boris Johnson’s government for certainty – they served up a nightmare
Hero of the financial revolution
Can the Chinese Communist Party learn to live with Jack Ma?
The Split
Is Scotland on an unstoppable march to leave the UK?
JK Rowling and the Unfinished Business
Why did a famous author wade into the debate over trans rights?
Blessed are the deal-makers
Evangelicals have been key to Donald Trump’s presidency, and to his bid for re-election
Recession 2021
Alistair Darling and Mervyn King, who were both at the centre of the 2008 crisis, talk to James Harding about what’s coming next
Happy, the elephant you will never forget
Courtroom drama: Happy’s case goes to the top
Happy, the elephant who knew who she was
Part II Happy passes the ‘mirror test’, an examination of intelligence and self-awareness
Happy, the elephant in the courtroom
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.
The golden egg
Young women are being offered the chance to delay the menopause. The question is: does it work, and does anyone even want it?
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