The Slow Newscast

It's not that our economies haven't already taken a hit because of the coronavirus, it's that what's coming may be much worse. Politicians, and people in finance and business, can see it, but there are no prizes for talking openly about it. So we've gone back to two people who really understand the depths of the trouble ahead. Alastair Darling was UK Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 2008 financial crash, and Mervyn King was Governor of the Bank of England. When they look around the corner, what do they see? And what should the government be doing now to prevent the worst? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If animals share many qualities with humans - if they're self-aware, if they communicate, and grieve for their dead, as we know they do - do they deserve human-like rights? Next month, the case of Happy the elephant comes before the New York Supreme Court. Happy's lawyer (yes, she has one) will argue that her long incarceration in the Bronx Zoo has breached her right to bodily freedom. The case will get a respectful hearing; it's not inconceivable that Happy will win. But even if she loses, the court of public opinion is already changing its mind about the way we treat the animals around us. The organisation change.org have a petition calling for Happy's release, currently signed by 1.3m people.You can read the Bronx Zoo's statement about Happy here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If animals share many qualities with humans - if they're self-aware, if they communicate, and grieve for their dead, as we know they do - do they deserve human-like rights? Next month, the case of Happy the elephant comes before the New York Supreme Court. Happy's lawyer (yes, she has one) will argue that her long incarceration in the Bronx Zoo has breached her right to bodily freedom. The case will get a respectful hearing; it's not inconceivable that Happy will win. But even if she loses, the court of public opinion is already changing its mind about the way we treat the animals around us. The organisation change.org have a petition calling for Happy's release, currently signed by 1.3m people.You can read the Bronx Zoo's statement about Happy here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If animals share many qualities with humans - if they're self-aware, if they communicate, and grieve for their dead, as we know they do - do they deserve human-like rights? Next month, the case of Happy the elephant comes before the New York Supreme Court. Happy's lawyer (yes, she has one) will argue that her long incarceration in the Bronx Zoo has breached her right to bodily freedom. The case will get a respectful hearing; it's not inconceivable that Happy will win. But even if she loses, the court of public opinion is already changing its mind about the way we treat the animals around us. The organisation change.org have a petition calling for Happy's release, currently signed by 1.3m people.You can read the Bronx Zoo's statement about Happy here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The serial failures of the UK's test and trace system will never be a footnote in the coronavirus crisis. In fact, they're the headline. Matthew d'Ancona reports on how it got so bad. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The fertility industry is booming, but there is a tightrope to walk between what is possible, ethical and harmful. Reporter Claudia Williams and host Basia Cummings investigate the rise and rise of IVF. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coronavirus can kill, or pass through a body unnoticed. Its effects in the short term are wildly unpredictable. But as we learn to live with this new virus we're discovering more of its grisly secrets. One of them is that the damage it does to the body in the long run might leave a dreadful legacy. This is the story - as much as we know it – of Long Covid. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We went to the perennial swing state where Trump won narrowly in 2016. Four years later, is Florida ready to flip again? Will it be an election about Covid and competence, law and order or racial justice? Will it be a referendum on the character of Donald Trump or just further evidence of a hopelessly divide nation? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Evin Prison is one of the most secretive places on earth; the heart of Iran's oppression of its own people. We've spent months getting inside its walls through the testimony of people who've been detained there over the past 40 years. Together, their accounts are not simply the story of the prison, they're the story of what Iran has become. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Drill music styles itself as a tough and uncompromising representation of life in poor communities in cities like Chicago and London. Police forces have clamped down on it in the belief that it provokes violence, but the evidence for a causal link is thin. Not for the first time, an innovative, anti-establishment Black voice is being quietened. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Something which is now almost unimaginable happened between 1974 and 1989. The world spotted a massive problem; the fix required action by consumers, businesses and governments; and they came together to pull it off. This is the story of the discovery of what man-made emissions were doing to the ozone layer and mankind's brilliant response. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michaela Coel's TV drama I May Destroy You has just finished playing on the BBC and HBO. Based partly on her own experience it's an unsettling, sometimes harrowing, examination of sexual assault, consent, friendship, and the experience of growing up Black and British. It may come to be seen as a watershed moment in British television, and it's not Coel's first. Basia Cummings talks to journalist and critic Yomi Adegoke about Michaela Coel's remarkable talent. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The story of the toppling of Edward Colston's statue in Bristol became a prominent chapter in the global response to the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests. Those events were the reasons the statue came down, but the more intriguing question is why it stayed up for so long. Why did a monument to a prominent slave trader remain standing for decades in spite of a local campaign to have it moved to a museum? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How a member of the Kennedy political dynasty has become the most prolific super-spreader of conspiracies connecting anti-vaxxers, 5G and coronavirus Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is diligent and decent, but is he really the right man for the job of saving the British economy? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As president Xi uses the pandemic to crack down again, we speak to Dr Teng Biao and Simon Cheng about their treatment in China's battle to control its people Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"How are you?" used to be a throwaway question, but the pandemic has given it new meaning. Former spin-doctor Alastair Campbell, now a prominent mental health campaigner, asks high-profile people from sport, politics and entertainment how they've coped with life's new realities. Their answers have something to say to all of us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Late every evening in London at the Ministry of Justice, dozens of poorly-paid workers slip into the offices to begin their night-time cleaning jobs. Many - maybe most - have recently arrived in the UK. Economically, their lives are precarious. But when coronavirus struck life itself became precarious. Emanuel Gomes and Luis Eduardo Veintimilla are two of the cleaners at the Ministry who carried on working there as the virus took hold around them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The royal family's finances are mysterious, and the strange formula which calculates the money they get from the taxpayer is badly understood. Tortoise has been going through the accounts. What they show is a family which has become enormously richer over recent years and may benefit from huge windfalls in years to come. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Like a handful of football managers before him, Jurgen Klopp is fascinating as a leader. His ability to motivate people around him would be exceptional in any occupation, in any circumstances, and the connection he has forged with the city of Liverpool is extraordinary. Klopp's explanation for his success is simplicity itself: a belief in selflessness and community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Boris Johnson could have died from coronavirus. He recovered, but the costs to the country of his illness were huge. Government was paralysed without him and vital decisions weren't taken. How did things fall apart so badly in Number 10 Downing St? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The protests on the streets of the United States and around the world have taken the authorities by surprise. But they haven't sprung from nowhere; they've sprung from attitudes and events dating back hundreds of years. Previous protests demanding racial justice - famously, the riots in Chicago in 1968 - didn't heal the problems of the communities which took to the streets. In fact, in Chicago's case, they created scars which are still visible today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amazon is a true economic superpower; a company of a scale and kind we haven't seen before. It's relentless in its pursuit of efficiency on behalf of its customers, but what does it believe in? How does it see its place in the world? Tortoise is investigating the big tech companies as rigorously as if they were countries. What sort of country has Jeff Bezos created? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's not just the hopes of young people which depend on them going to university, whole towns and cities rely on them too. The British government estimated that education would be worth £23bn to the UK economy this year. If coronavirus keeps students away, universities, shops, landlords, pubs and clubs will all be poorer. In some places, it could be a devastating blow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No part of British society has been harder hit by the coronavirus pandemic than care homes. 15,000 people have died there. Why were they uniquely vulnerable? Partly because they housed vulnerable people; partly because the financial structures that lie behind them left them open to a disaster of this kind. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When coronavirus struck and the UK locked down, the government began paying the wages of furloughed workers. It's a hugely expensive policy. There are risks in continuing it but the risks of stopping may be even greater. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Nightingale hospitals - huge intensive care hospitals built in a matter of days to deal with the overspill if regular hospitals couldn't cope with the numbers of coronavirus patients - are sitting empty. It's good news, but what does it tell us about the way the British government has handled this pandemic? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Claude Jibidar is country director for the World Food Programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo - a huge country beset with vast problems, not just food shortages but armed conflict and ebola as well. As the coronavirus hits, this fragile state will struggle to cope. Many of Claude's colleagues have left, fearful of contracting cover-19 in a place with such poor healthcare. But Claude has chosen to stay. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan Gould is the vicar for the Church in Wales in the parish of Glen Ely in Cardiff. It's a poor neighbourhood and the church is still an important part of the community. In normal times, there's a natural balance between births, deaths and marriages. But the coronavirus has disrupted that balance. These days, Jan is dealing with a sea of funerals and coping with the restrictions of lockdown that make the job of a parish priest more difficult.We mention Befrienders, an organisation of volunteers who work to prevent suicide. You can find them at https://www.befrienders.org/directory Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the slow news podcast, we’re looking at the messy conspiracy theory of 5G and Covid-19. What has been going on? And why are these ideas spreading? We’ve had the investigative reporter James Ball looking for answers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The coronavirus lockdown is not just a difficult time for business, it's an emotional time. How to survive as a going concern? How to treat workers fairly? And, if your business is running a zoo, how to think about the welfare of animals as well as humans? Twycross Zoo in the UK is celebrated for its role in animal conservation. But that won't protect it from some very difficult decisions ahead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the unavoidable consequences of the coronavirus lockdown is that it traps women and children with their abusers. And for women seeking to escape, the routes out may be closed. Even making a phone call for help may be impossible. Basia Cummings has been talking to people trying to help victims of domestic abuse in unimaginably difficult circumstances. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In some countries where the coronavirus has hit hard - Italy or Spain - health workers account for up to 20% of people infected, and the death toll among them is mounting. The front line of health has become a very dangerous place, and that may be one of the stories of this pandemic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pandemics are part of life. They've caused millions of deaths over the centuries but, in the end, the lesson of history is that, just like the Black Death, smallpox, cholera and many others, this pandemic will pass. How and why does that happen? What do human beings do, what do viruses do, to learn to live with each other? With special guest Professor Deenan Pillay, Professor of Virology at University College London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UK politics has torn itself apart over Brexit. Parliament, the prime minister, 'the people' and the courts have been at each others' throats, and old conventions governing the way the system works have been ripped up. Tortoise has set out to answer an old and important question: instead of celebrating the fact that Britain is one of the few countries in the world without a written constitution, is it time for us to draft one? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trinity Hall is a small Cambridge college - one of the 30+ which make up the university. After an investigation over several months, Tortoise has brought to light a number of allegations of sexual impropriety and assault. In each case, there's evidence that the college may have put its own interests ahead of the victims'. The question has been asked: is this the #MeToo moment for British universities? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was Malta's pre-eminent investigative journalist. She exposed corruption at the highest levels of politics and business in the country until, in October 2017, she was murdered by a car bomb. Since her death, her family has fought tirelessly for justice in the face of overwhelming odds. In this four-part series, Daphne's son Paul Caruana Galizia returns to Malta to uncover an assassination plot which extends into the highest reaches of the Maltese government. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was Malta's pre-eminent investigative journalist. She exposed corruption at the highest levels of politics and business in the country until, in October 2017, she was murdered by a car bomb. Since her death, her family has fought tirelessly for justice in the face of overwhelming odds. In this four-part series, Daphne's son Paul Caruana Galizia returns to Malta to uncover an assassination plot which extends into the highest reaches of the Maltese government. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was Malta's pre-eminent investigative journalist. She exposed corruption at the highest levels of politics and business in the country until, in October 2017, she was murdered by a car bomb. Since her death, her family has fought tirelessly for justice in the face of overwhelming odds. In this four-part series, Daphne's son Paul Caruana Galizia returns to Malta to uncover an assassination plot which extends into the highest reaches of the Maltese government. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was Malta's pre-eminent investigative journalist. She exposed corruption at the highest levels of politics and business in the country until, in October 2017, she was murdered by a car bomb. Since her death, her family has fought tirelessly for justice in the face of overwhelming odds. In this four-part series, Daphne's son Paul Caruana Galizia returns to Malta to uncover an assassination plot which extends into the highest reaches of the Maltese government. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're in Pennsylvania, where Trump won in 2016. Can he win here again? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The new frontier of medical science is closer than you think – much closer. It lies within us, in the bacteria and viruses of the gut, and in the mysterious efficacy of faecal transplants.There’s so much hype in health journalism. But the study of the gut microbiome – the universe of bacteria living in our intestine – really is opening up a new age in our understanding of the human body that promises to unlock revolutions in drugs and healthcare, food and nutrition, wellbeing and even happiness.James Harding, editor and co-founder of Tortoise, spoke to James Kinross, a researcher and consultant colorectal surgeon - one of our leading gut scientists Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One day, the next catastrophic global epidemic will strike. Scientists already know a few things about it: it will probably have crossed the species barrier from animal to human; it’s likely to originate in Asia; it will travel easily from person to person.The coronavirus has all those characteristics but we may be fortunate. The early signs are that it’s not as fatal as some of the viruses responsible for previous pandemics, and the lessons we learned from those outbreaks may help to contain it.In this week’s Tortoise podcast, Basia Cummings looks back at SARS, the last virus which seemed to carry a global threat, and how one doctor’s actions saved countless lives in a country. Her guest is Jeremy Farrar, director of the medical research charity, the Wellcome Trust. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We'd like you to meet Toni, Sharon and Nicky. You may have passed them on the street - somebody who listens to this podcast almost certainly will have done. But you won't have met them, any more than most of us really meet women who are homeless and sleeping rough in subways, stations and shop doorways.Audrey Gillan has spent time with all three women, hearing their stories; how they came to be where they are, and what their lives are like. The number of homeless women in the UK has shot up in recent years. The stories that Toni, Sharon and Nicky tell help explain why.You can read more on the Tortoise app, in our multi-part investigation:Three women, homeless InvisibleThe helping handsThe revolving door Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Labour Party in the UK is choosing a new leader. Few people care - after a crushing election defeat, the party has got work to do to make itself interesting again. It's a gloomy picture for Labour, but a surprise candidate is shining through. Could Lisa Nandy be Labour's bright new face? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom Crowther is a young ecologist who asked a simple question: how many trees are there on planet earth? The answer has changed our understanding of the world, but Crowther's work has provoked a firestorm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For months, Tortoise has been investigating big tech companies as if they were countries: holding them to the same standards that we apply to nation states; caring about what they think; understanding what they're planning to do; figuring out who's in charge now, and who might be next.It's been a huge reporting project. In this week's podcast, Basia Cummings talks to two of the Tortoise editors behind it, Alexi Mostrous and James Harding. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since the general election was called, one of Britain's foremost political journalists has been tracking the Labour campaign for Tortoise. Here's his story of tension and bad choices inside the party machine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To find out more about Tortoise go to tortoisemedia.com/friend and use the code POD50 to become a member for just £1 a week, half our normal price. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The murder of the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia denied Malta its best hope of beating endemic corruption and bribery. Her family have fought ever since for her legacy and for justice. This week events have taken dramatic turns, with arrests and the resignation of government ministers. Daphne’s son Paul, a reporter at Tortoise, has been at the heart of it all.Join Tortoise for only £50. Use code POD50 at tortoisemedia.com/friend Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.