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.
On the face of it the UK government’s decision to continue to make visitors from France self-isolate for ten days looks a little crazy. There may be science-based reasons for it though – just not ones that officials like to talk about.
National insurance increases would add to employers’ costs, while leaving the property of the elderly untaxed. But we need to break the decades-old policy logjam and reflexive sabotage, and begin the process of enacting a solution
In the face of the climate crisis, Germany’s Green party has gone from being a fringe player to a real contender. Their positive, can-do campaign should be a lesson to others seeking office across the globe
In global terms, the amount of money required to solve the Covid crisis and get vaccines where they are needed is a rounding error. It’s not too late for Boris Johnson to raise the funds
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.
“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
New Covid-19 variants are emerging. To beat them we need to get the world vaccinated as fast as possible. But right now the variants are racing ahead, the vaccines are falling short.
That’s why we’ve launched the Arms Race – our campaign to vaccinate the world by the end of next year.
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?
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
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
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
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?
26 July 2021
44 minutes
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?
When Islamist militants besieged a hotel, the 200 civilians inside were told help would soon be on its way. But it never came
In little more than a year, the year of the pandemic, Anand Menon lost his mother, father, brother and sister…
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 death of Shukri Abdi in 2019 has become a cause for campaigners who believe that something unlawful happened. But is that the truth?
The hunt for the man behind one of the world’s biggest porn sites
How many women are killed – but not counted?
We took a closer look at our way out of the pandemic.
As the post-Brexit era begins, what does Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s vision of “global Britain” mean?
Earlier this year, JK Rowling stepped into one of the fiercest debates of our time – gender and trans rights. Why?
We have spent months examining the handling of rape and sexual assault cases on campus at UK universities.
The tech giants have as much money and influence as nation states. What if we reported on these companies like countries?
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
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
Discovering stories in big datasets.
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.
Which countries are winning the race for the future?
The pandemic didn’t affect all of Britain equally.
Tortoise members have been working on how to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
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…
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.
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.
We have spent months examining the handling of rape and sexual assault cases on campus at UK universities.
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?
Our new series focuses on the cultural artefacts – books, movies, albums – that really made their mark
Earlier this year, JK Rowling stepped into one of the fiercest debates of our time – gender and trans rights. Why?
How Drill – the sound of Chicago’s streets – rewrote the rules of the music business
What should history look like today – as a subject of study, but also an area of action and protest?
Our weekly guide to all that’s best in culture and the arts – movies, streaming, books, music, galleries and much else.
The comic book giant has – how shall we put this? – a mixed record when it comes to movies. But James Gunn’s new film, The Suicide Squad, shows that DC’s less orchestrated approach can still keep Marvel on its toes
Tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of Amy Winehouse’s death. In tribute to the late singer, Reclaiming Amy, Marina Parker’s new documentary, is to be broadcast on BBC Two – and poses complex questions about who, exactly, was complicit in her tragic decline
Ahead of the Olympic opening ceremony next week, get in the mood with the ten best films that have dramatised or documented the Games over the years
The forces changing our world
