The Slow Newscast

In June a scandal erupted that threatened the future of snooker after ten elite players were banned for match fixing. It all starts in a small snooker hall in Sheffield, but ends on a journey through a several hundred billion dollar a year black market in south-east Asia. This is how snooker uncovered the biggest British match fixing scandal in over a decade. For the premium Tortoise listenin...

Cities are where the battle to save planet earth will be won and lost. But it is not the urban environment that matters, but our relationship with nature within it. What can the story of one dying river, plagued by sewage and indifference, and the campaign to save it, teach us about how to reconnect with and value nature? For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by our journalis...

In 2017 the MeToo movement swept through Hollywood. Some men, such as Harvey Weinstein, went to prison. Others who were accused of sexual misconduct and assault were ostracised and struggled to find parts in big movies. But six years on some of these same people are back on the red carpets. Is Hollywood trying to rewrite history?  For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by...

 A family's six-year fight for a pioneering legal decision. Will an inquest jury conclude, for the first time, that a woman who took her own life was actually killed?  For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by our journalists,  download the free Tortoise audio app . For early and ad-free access, subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts....

For almost three decades, one of the world's most wanted men had stayed at large. Earlier this year, he was finally caught. This is the story of how a small band of genocide hunters caught him in a world riddled with secrets, espionage and a $5 million bounty. For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by our journalists,  download the free Tortoise audio app . For early and...

In May this year David Boyd was found guilty of the brutal murder of seven year-old Nikki Allan in 1992. Why did it take the police thirty years to find Boyd and get a conviction? This is the story of Nikki’s mother, Sharon Henderson, who has spent thirty years searching for her daughter’s murderer to have him put on trial. Today we're publishing this new series so that listeners of the Slow Newsc...

Slow Newscast host Basia Cummings is in the editor's chair for this episode of The News Meeting. The podcast where three journalists each pitch the one story they think matters most and the editor decides which one should lead the news. In it, we open up the conversations we have all the time in our newsroom about what’s important and why, and what should lead the news. The very kinds of conversat...

Spanish celebrity Ana Obregón shocked the world when she announced that she had a child via surrogate, using a donor egg and the sperm of her deceased son. Her story takes us to the new frontiers of fertility, where technology challenges our ideas of family, motherhood and the law. For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by our journalists,  download the free Tortoise audi...

Crispin Odey was one of the most powerful hedge funders in London.  He’s been dismissed from his own company which is being wound up after he was accused of assaulting more than a dozen women over many decades. Why did so many institutions apparently turn a blind eye and do nothing for so long - even though these allegations had trailed him for years?  For the premium Tortoise liste...

Rob Moore had a successful career in television until one day he ran out of ideas. After a stint as a gardener, a more enticing door was opened for him. He was offered a job in the shadowy world of corporate intelligence - he became a spy. Tasked with working undercover to extract information from an environmental campaign group, Rob Moore says he eventually became sympathetic to the campaigners’...

Last year journalist Polly Curtis spent months trying to understand what went wrong at the Tavistock’s Gender Identity Development Service for young people. You can hear her Tortoise podcast series: Inside the Tavistock here . In the reporting of that series one thing kept coming up: some young people who couldn’t - for whatever reason - access the Tavistock - the only NHS service in England for y...

Bill Gates was the golden philanthropist at the top of the billionaire's league - he was also Epstein's way back into society For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by our journalists,  download the free Tortoise audio app . For early and ad-free access, subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts. If you’d like to further support slow journalism and help...

Leon Black was the aggressive private equity billionaire at the top of New York society - he also bankrolled Epstein For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by our journalists,  download the free Tortoise audio app . For early and ad-free access, subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts. If you’d like to further support slow journalism and help us build...

After Epstein was dropped by JP Morgan, another bank stepped in to help his sex trafficking empire keep rolling For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by our journalists,  download the free Tortoise audio app . For early and ad-free access, subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts. If you’d like to further support slow journalism and help us build a di...

Introducing our new four part series: Epstein's moneymen. A new wave of lawsuits is building against the banks and bankers who are alleged to have enabled Jeffrey Epstein to fund and conceal his sex trafficking empire. Tortoise journalist David Taylor investigates what was happening inside the banks as they profited from their relationships with Epstein. In episode one, we investigate Jes Staley,...

Boris Johnson is not a man who has much care for institutions or conventions. So what does his forthcoming resignations honours list mean for the future of the House of Lords? For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by our journalists,  download the free Tortoise audio app . For early and ad-free access, subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts. If you’...

Why is the Kremlin forcibly deporting tens of thousands of children to Russia? Tortoise is a newsroom devoted to slow journalism. For early access and ad-free listening subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts or join Tortoise for £60 a year. As a member you’ll also get our newsletters and tickets to live events. Just go to  tortoisemedia.com/slowdown . If you’d like to further support slow j...

In February this year, the Telegraph newspaper revealed that Roald Dahl's publisher had “updated” some of his stories for young readers and modern audiences. The news went viral – to some it was the moment the world went mad; to others an exaggerated fuss over nothing.  But it put the publishing industry in the spotlight, and soon questions were being raised about another, more contemporary a...

A new Tortoise investigation into how the country’s most distressed and vulnerable children are being abandoned by the state. Tortoise is a newsroom devoted to slow journalism. For early access and ad-free listening subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts or join Tortoise for £60 a year. As a member you’ll also get our newsletters and tickets to live events. Just go to  tortoisemedia.com/slo...

South Africa was once a symbol of hope. Now the country experiences regular blackouts. This is the story of how the lights went out in Mandela’s country – and how criminal gangs and flawed political leadership are holding back the world’s efforts to deal with climate change. Tortoise is a newsroom devoted to slow journalism. For early access and ad-free listening subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Po...

Towards the end of last year the Director General of MI5, Ken McCallum, warned that the security services knew of at least ten attempts to kidnap or kill UK-based enemies of the regime in Iran. That number is now even higher. Paul Caruana Galizia investigates why Iran wants to silence its critics on the streets of London.  To listen to episode 2 of the series click this link. Or for early acc...

In 2014, a Jordanian man was imprisoned in a prison in Ras Al Khaimah, the northernmost Emirate in the UAE. He alleges he has been illegally detained and threatened. And the man he blames for this is a British lawyer. This is the story of the UK lawyer facing some of the most serious allegations ever levelled against a member of his profession. Tortoise is a newsroom devoted to slow journalism. Fo...

The European Research Group was once the most consequential faction in the Conservative party, playing a central role in bringing down former prime minister Theresa May and installing Boris Johnson in Number 10. And yet, in a recent test of strength, the Brexit hardliners stumbled. This is the story of what happened to the ERG. Tortoise is a newsroom devoted to slow journalism. For early access an...

In the early hours of the morning of the 5 December 2022, a shot – a pulse – was fired that could save the world. It was a shot that achieved what fusion scientists had been seeking for more than half a century. They call it ignition, and it could solve the an energy crisis that’s becoming existential for humanity. This is the story of those precious seconds and the decades leading up to it. Torto...

John Williams Ntwali, one of the last critical journalists in Rwanda, died in suspicious circumstances just before Suella Braverman, the British home secretary, flew in to Kigali to sell the country as a “safe” place to send asylum seekers and migrants. Tortoise is a newsroom devoted to slow journalism. For early access and ad-free listening subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts or join Tortois...