The Slow Newscast

Harvey Proctor was caught in the middle of a deadly serious police investigation, Operation Midland. How could he fight it? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s tough to survive one huge, public scandal in your life. Two is almost unheard of. But that was about to happen to Harvey Proctor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Harvey Proctor was a Conservative MP, notorious in the 1980s for his right-wing views. Until he was entrapped by a newspaper in a ‘gay sex scandal’ and his life started to unravel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The mysterious story of Gulf Livestock 1, a 12,000-tonne ship carrying 6,000 cows that disappeared without a trace in the Pacific Ocean. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're launching a brand new podcast from Tortoise called ThinkIn with James Harding. In this week's Slow Newscast, a preview. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we introduce a new podcast, and re-up an episode from our archive on the hero lawyer turned anti-vaxxer who has spent the pandemic spreading medical misinformation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An unlikely scandal... in the world of embroidery. How a highly-paid male CEO went to war with a group of embroidery-loving women, who decided to get together and fight back. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Who is Keir Starmer? There’s the basic answer: he’s the leader of Britain’s Labour party. But beyond that? We investigate his past. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Covid-19 may be losing the vaccine battle, but as the virus evolves fast to form new variants, the war is most definitely not over... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is one of Britain's richest men. Since Brexit he's made a show of his patriotism. Is it for real? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The myth of Gamestop was that it was a David and Goliath struggle. The truth was very different. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Geoffrey Woolf spent longer in hospital after Covid-19 than almost anyone - 306 days. His son Nicky tells the story of what he went through, and how it changed everything. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Power, greed, and a $65m 'gift': the story of King Juan Carlos of Spain and Corinna, his lover. They occupied a world of high-rolling hunting parties and complicated gifts – until it went seriously wrong. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The final episode of our special series. How do you fix a fatal problem no one is properly measuring?To learn more, go to tortoisemedia.com/hiddenhomicides Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The astonishing case of Emily Whelan, and decisions and delays that cannot be undone. The third episode in our special series on the deaths that may be going unrecognised, and uncounted, by police. To learn more, go to tortoisemedia.com/hiddenhomicides Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The second part of our new series, Hidden Homicides: the story of a killer twice missed. When Susan Nicholson died suddenly, her parents were immediately suspicious. Her partner was known to police to be a serious domestic abuser, but still they refused to investigate. It took six years before a proper investigation was launched. Why?To learn more, go to tortoisemedia.com/hiddenhomicides Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a new series by Tortoise, we tell the shocking stories of women whose possible homicides go unrecognised, and uncounted, by police. In episode 1: the life and death of 21-year-old Katie Wilding, and her mother’s remarkable fight for justice.To learn more, go to tortoisemedia.com/hiddenhomicides.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What was really going on when President Trump's supporters invaded the Capitol? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coronavirus vaccines are a triumph for science, and an enormous gamble for the UK. They're all we've got left: our only hope of getting out of the Covid crisis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A former army base in Folkstone, Kent, is now the controversial epicentre of the Britain's immigration debate – a debate that hasn’t gone away with Brexit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Britain has one of the worst records in the world at dealing with the coronavirus. The country's death toll, and the economic damage it suffers, will be worse than most of its competitors; possibly worse than any of them. Over three days in November, Tortoise held an inquiry into why things have gone so wrong. Basia Cummings reports back on its findings - and on her own year coping, as we all have, with an unprecedented crisis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The British government has spent billions tackling the coronavirus, and some of it has gone to friends and family of people in high places. Contracts for safety equipment or for testing for Covid have been handed out without the usual safeguards on public spending, and accusations of corruption and cronyism have flown around. Is that what's happening, or is the explanation more mundane? Would the government's actions be better seen as normal in the wildly abnormal situation of a pandemic? And have they perhaps been aided and abetted by garden variety incompetence? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Wing was part co-working space, part feminist haven - a high-concept, big-money chain of women-only spaces, the brainchild of super-smart, ultra-connected New Yorker, Audrey Gelman. It was a child of Instagram which soon started to encounter severe difficulties in the real world. Did the way it treated its members, and particularly its employees, live up to its high ideals? Those problems knocked The Wing and the pandemic finished it off. How did a feminist vision become a corporate nightmare? Basia Cummings is your host, with in-depth reporting from Sophie Elmhirst. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A story centuries in the making that is building an unstoppable momentum. This week we are going north of the wall and asking: is Scotland on a march to independence? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Saturday October 31st, the British government was forced to announce a second national coronavirus lockdown. We know the announcement itself was mishandled; the reasons why are fascinating. In this special episode of the Slow Newscast Matt D'Ancona goes deep into a day of political drama and intrigue in Downing St which helps explain so much about where this government is going wrong. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jack Ma set up the Chinese online giant Alibaba. It made him hugely rich, and perhaps too powerful for comfort for China's ruling elite. Last week his plan for the biggest-ticket stock market launch ever came to a crashing halt when the authorities in Beijing pulled the plug on it. Did Jack Ma fly too high? Have his wings been clipped forever? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In June 2020, JK Rowling sent a Tweet which took her to the heart of the bitter debate about trans rights and women's rights. A few days later, with an online storm gathering around her, she published a 3,600-word essay explaining her position. She'd set off a ferocious argument which alienated many of her young fans; led some of the stars of the Harry Potter films to distance themselves from Harry's creator; and which ran like a lightning-strike through the worlds of film and publishing which made her fortune. Why did JK Rowling do it? What will the fall-out be? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From the first moment of his presidency, Donald Trump has courted - and largely won - the votes of white, Evangelical Christians. For a famously profane and worldly president it's a striking achievement and, in recent months, Trump seems to have doubled-down on the Christian vote with talk of 'miracles' while people around him have described the Democrats as 'atheists'. Has a President with a genius for spotting groups with a grievance and for exploiting division identified a new fault-line in American politics? And how big a difference could it make in next week's election? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.