The Week Unwrapped podcast: Ghost tankers, loyalty cards and contempt

published 23 September 2023

Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days. With Arion McNicoll, Guy Anker and Suchandrika Chakrabarti.

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Reports this week have shed light on the network of sanctions-busting oil tankers that are ferrying oil around illicitly. Known as "shadow tankers" or "ghost tankers", they ply their trade between Iran, China and Ukraine – making up a fifth of the overall global crude oil tanker fleet. What does this tell us about the effectiveness, or otherwise, of sanctions – and what could be done to seal some of the loopholes?

According to research by the consumer magazine Which?, big supermarkets are fiddling with prices to make discounts for loyalty cards look better than they actually are. At a time when food prices are still rising, many of us are looking for ways to save money – but are we being misled? And since many loyalty card points are now worth less than they used to be, are we still getting good value for the data we hand over in return?

A women who stood outside a court with a sign telling jurors that they have "an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to your conscience" will be prosecuted under contempt of court laws, it emerged this week, leading to protests from civil liberties campaigners. Trudi Warner, 68, displayed the sign outside the trial of a group of climate campaigners. What law did she transgress, and what does mean for the right to protest?

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