Hostile environment: Inside the Home Office
The making of the modern Home Office
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
Hunt for the porn king: a reckoning
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?
Chained woman: China’s trade in brides
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
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
Left to die: Return to the Amarula
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?
Londongrad: The Johnson Affair
A former KGB officer, Britain’s foreign secretary – and a potential national security breach
The Darwin job: the mystery of the vanishing notebooks
One sleuth, two notebooks – and a 20-year puzzle
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?
Hollywood’s cultural revolution
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
Visit Rwanda: Britain’s harsh welcome for refugees
Britain’s harsh welcome for refugees – and what happened when the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was tried before
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?
Stripped. Searched. Traumatised. Children and the police
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
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?
Revealed: Stormy Daniels and her battle for truth
Who is the real Stormy Daniels? Hattie Garlick meets arguably one of America’s most misunderstood and misrepresented women
Downfall: twenty days that did for Rishi Sunak
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
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
The Lost Ark
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?
Greg Barker: the lord’s work
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
Fallen women
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?
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?
Into the dark: The broken promise of a bionic eye
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?
Shadow whipping: The men who saved Boris
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
Russian warship, go f*** yourself
We thought the Russians were masters of the information war; that they’d sweep Ukraine aside. Why is it not turning out that way?
Lebedev: Lord of Siberia
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?
Spiking: An injection of fear
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
Modi’s warrior pose
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
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 Ministry of Untruths
Boris Johnson’s history of lies – and the story of one crucial fortnight in March 2020
China’s missing tennis player
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
Virginia
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
A finding of rape
How a former government minister abused the secrecy of the family courts in an attempt to hide the truth
CoolSculpting
How a lucrative fantasy collided with the reality of the body
2021: Our year in stories
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?
School 49: An explosion in China’s high-pressure education system
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
The super divorce: The Akhmedovs and a game of hide and seek
When a High Court Judge awarded Tatiana Akhmedova a record ÂŁ450m divorce payout, it was only the beginning of a case that went on to become the most expensive family feud in history…
A place for Elliott
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
Retreat from Kabul: 11 days in August – Part II
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
Retreat from Kabul: 11 days in August – Part I
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 is REvil?
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
Nazanin: Trapped in Whitehall
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
Shamsa, the forgotten princess
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
True Crime: The tragedy of Gabby Petito
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
Havana Syndrome
The mystery of the immaculate concussion
From Russia with Diamonds, Part II
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?
From Russia with Diamonds, Part I
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
Pfizer’s war
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
Wrong turn
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
Beau and Biden
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
Orphaned by America
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
Smear
Grooming gangs, conspiracy theories and the lawless digital politics of Oldham
A son of Afghanistan
The story of Rohullah Yakobi, and a 20-year war
Popbitch
Claudia Williams presents a special edition of the Slow Newscast – on a newsletter that both reflected and reshaped celebrity culture
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?
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.
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
The Split
Is Scotland on an unstoppable march to leave the UK?
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?
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
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