These are the disappearing nations
Parts of the Pacific are threatened by rising tides and extreme weather events. This Photo Essay looks at some of the islands most at risk
Slow down, wise up
What’s different about Tortoise is slow news. Not breaking news, but what’s driving it.
Our award-winning team doesn’t cover every story but takes the time to reveal just one a week. Calm, clear reporting on the stories that matter most.
sensemaker our daily roundup of the news that matters
Post-Covid politics
11 May 2021
CHRIS COOK
- China’s population growth slowed to its lowest rate since 10-yearly censuses began in the 1950s.
- Covid infections surged in the Seychelles despite a 60 per cent vaccination rate, mainly with the Chinese vaccine.
- La Scala reopened after a six-month closure with a performance of “Patria Oppressa” from Verdi’s Macbeth.
The UK government will reveal its legislative agenda for the next year, a hotch-potch of plans which they hope to press through. The question worth asking is whether this government really means what it says…
our big five
wealth
Honour among thieves?
A surprise twist in the story of the hack of a US pipeline network that we mentioned yesterday: an apology from a gang of Russian cyber-criminals…
new things
our planet
100-year life
The next vaccine roll-out
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is now approved for use in the US for children aged as young as 12, having shown 100 per cent effectiveness against Covid-19…
Belonging
Al-Aqsa clashes
Clashes in Jerusalem have boiled over into lethal force: a raid by Israeli police on a mosque during Ramadan provoked militants in Gaza to fire rockets at the city…
sensemaker daily | catchup
Slow Views
Same old Labour
Last week’s elections show that the political centre of gravity is shifting towards social conservatism matched by high public spending. In this new landscape, Keir Starmer is nowhere
The Tortoise Take: Be more Biden
The US president understands that this is an age to borrow and spend. The UK’s chancellor, Rishi Sunak, should be no less ambitious
the pandemic
Everything you need to know about Covid-19
For a year now, one story has dominated the news cycle above all others. We’ve aimed to take the long-view of Covid-19: we’ve investigated the catastrophe of the test and trace system, the crisis in care homes, and the extended after-effects of the disease.
tHINKIN WITH JAMES HARDING
The Battle for Truth
“What we’re going to do in this series of podcasts is take a big idea and look for the moments that shine a light on it.”
James Harding
Rhodes Must Fall and the battle for truth
Cancel culture and the battle for truth
Grenfell Tower and the battle for truth
Dominic Cummings, Barnard Castle and the battle for truth
The people vs Harvey Proctor
Pariah
What lessons does the story of Harvey Proctor – the twice-disgraced former Conservative MP with extreme anti-immigration views – hold about the way society deems it acceptable to treat those who we cast as hate figures?
Intolerance
Harvey Proctor’s political star burned brightly in the 1980s. He was the anti-immigrant heir-apparent to Enoch Powell, until a tabloid sting exposed him as a gay man who paid for sex
Incredible
To suffer one shattering public scandal in a lifetime is hard enough. Harvey Proctor has endured two. In the second episode of Pariah, one of the highest profile police investigations of the past decade – Operation Midland – comes knocking on his door
The high wire
For the second time in his life, Harvey Proctor was being battered by a storm of dreadful allegations. His lawyers advised a safety-first approach. He had other ideas
Mixing and merging
It seems important for all of us to understand the meaning of what’s happened to Harvey Proctor. What was it which liberated the media and the police to behave as they did; to create or fuel the two scandals which wrecked his life?
Our recent stories
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?
Starmer’s case history
To figure out the Labour leader now, we went back to his past – as a human rights lawyer and director of public prosecutions
Slow Reviews, Part III
We’re grappling with the history of pop culture through its turning points: the albums, books, movies, games and other cultural artefacts that really made a difference
An embroidery scandal
Why did a century-old embroidery charity, led by a CEO who proudly said he’d never picked up a needle, go to war with its craft-loving members?
Russia
Russia’s opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned, then imprisoned, by the Kremlin. But as millions spread his message online, what next for “Navalnyism’?
K2
How the forces of commerce and influencer culture collided this winter on one of the world’s most dangerous mountains
a four-part podcast series
Hidden homicides
How many women are killed – but not counted?
The vaccine
We took a closer look at our way out of the pandemic.
Immigration & asylum
As the post-Brexit era begins, what does Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s vision of “global Britain” mean?
More of our stories from 2020
Trans Rights
Earlier this year, JK Rowling stepped into one of the fiercest debates of our time – gender and trans rights. Why?
Campus justice
We have spent months examining the handling of rape and sexual assault cases on campus at UK universities.
Tech nations: Amazon
The tech giants have as much money and influence as nation states. What if we reported on these companies like countries?
Feminism Inc.
The Wing was the perfect haven for professional women – until it wasn’t. Here’s what happens when corporate feminism turns sour
Meet the editor
“In my recent journalism, I’ve been digging into the dysfunction at the heart of the UK government. Here’s an example, along with some other recent Tortoise articles I’ve enjoyed.”
Matt d’Ancona
Our members like
Photo essays
Our friends in the North
Xiomara Bender
29 June 2019
Bitter harvest
Mariano Silletti
16 November 2019
The wee muckers
Toby Binder
12 October 2019
Circus Love
Stephanie Gengotti
02 August 2019
Line in the sand
Pascal Maitre
7 February 2020
Life at the top
Kadir van Lohuizen and Yuri Kozyrev
27 April 2019
No agua, no vida
John Trotter
30 November 2019
Isolated from the world
Jordi Ruiz Cirera
10 March 2019
Europe’s last pastoral
Rena Effendi
16 March 2019
Crunching the numbers
Discovering stories in big datasets.
Responsibility 100 Index
A ranking of the FTSE 100 companies on their contribution towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, measuring their commitment to key social, environmental and ethical objectives such as carbon reduction, gender equality and good business practices.
The Global AI Index
Which countries are winning the race for the future?
Coronashock
The pandemic didn’t affect all of Britain equally.
Net zero
Tortoise members have been working on how to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
Fighting for justice
Hidden Homicides
How many women are killed – but not counted? In the UK, we’re told that two women a week are killed by a current or former partner. But these are just the killings we know about…
My mother’s murder
In October 2017, Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered by a car bomb in Malta where she lived and worked. She was a prolific reporter, juggling dozens of stories at the same time.
Happy the elephant
A judge will decide whether Happy is unlawfully detained and can leave her zoo for an elephant sanctuary. It is a milestone case – not least for our relationship with animals.
Campus justice
We have spent months examining the handling of rape and sexual assault cases on campus at UK universities.
The reckoning
As Britain begins to reopen, there is a need for a reckoning: what has happened during this pandemic; how have decisions been taken; and what must be done differently?
Arts and culture
Slow Reviews
Our new series focuses on the cultural artefacts – books, movies, albums – that really made their mark
Trans Rights
Earlier this year, JK Rowling stepped into one of the fiercest debates of our time – gender and trans rights. Why?
Policing black music
How Drill – the sound of Chicago’s streets – rewrote the rules of the music business
The Future of History
What should history look like today – as a subject of study, but also an area of action and protest?
Creative Sensemaker
Our weekly guide to all that’s best in culture and the arts – movies, streaming, books, music, galleries and much else.
A class of its own
Emily Mortimer’s new adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s 1945 novel, The Pursuit of Love, brings to life a world divided by political and dynastic affiliations, echoes of which are still felt today
On the road again
Nomadland tells the tale of Fern, a sixty-something woman from Nevada whose life collapses, forcing her to seek a new way of surviving on the move. Honoured as Best Picture at Sunday’s Oscars, the film is a modern masterpiece, subverting the American dream of “the road” with the bleaker 21st Century reality of older travellers struggling to get by in the pitiless gig economy
So Morrissey and Jordan Peterson walk into a bar…
Two very different celebrities associated with the Right have found themselves targeted by two of global pop culture’s biggest franchises this month – The Simpsons and Marvel’s Captain America. Their respective reactions have been revealing
Edith
Big five
The forces changing our world
The 100 year life
health. education. living. public policy.
Our planet
environment. natural resources. geopolitics.
New things
technology. science. engineering.
Belonging
society. identity. countries. beliefs. arts.
Wealth
investment. fairness. prosperity.
