This page shows how we build every brief, so you don’t have to take our word for it. We check every claim against its sources and rate how solid it is. If sources disagree, we show you both, not just the version that reads better. And when we spot a link between stories in different countries, we say so, but we’re always upfront about how sure we are.
Meet the Scout. It reads a small, hand-picked list of sources, not a firehose of everything. We’d rather compete on how solid the analysis is than how much we publish. Every piece of information it gathers keeps a record of where it came from, so every claim in a brief traces straight back to its source.
The main international agencies, for what happened and when, before anyone spins it.
Coverage that reads the same development from the point of view of each country it affects.
Commission rulings, national gazettes, regulator statements: the record itself, not reporting about it.
Meet the Skeptic. It checks every claim against its sources individually and rates how solid each one is, so you can see exactly where the certainty ends. If sources disagree, it shows you both figures rather than pick a winner. It never smooths over a gap in the record just to make a sentence read better.
Confirmed across independent sources or against a primary document.
Supported by multiple sources that are not fully independent.
Reported, plausible, not yet confirmed.
Inference and forecast, kept apart from the evidence.
Meet the Realist. Politicians announce things all the time, but an announcement isn’t the same as a done deal. So for everything we cover, the Realist asks: has this actually happened, or has it only been talked about? Every development gets sorted onto a simple scale, from law that’s actually in force, down through agreed but not yet in force and political talk, to pure speculation. And before we ever say something is law, we check the actual legal text and official record ourselves, not just a press release.
Meet the Cartographer. Sometimes two stories reported completely separately are actually connected: the same law, the same institution, the same timing, spreading from one country to the next. Spotting those links is some of the most useful work we do, and also the easiest place to overreach. So the Cartographer is strict about it: every connection is labelled a theory, not a fact, with how confident we are stated plainly. And no computer-spotted connection is ever published without a person checking it first.
A strong, well-evidenced link across sources.
A plausible link with partial support.
A possibility worth flagging, thinly evidenced.
The pipeline gathers, validates, and flags. It does not publish. Every brief is written and edited by a person, working from the validated record, and every load-bearing claim is checked before it is sent. When we get something wrong, the correction stays attached to the story, not quietly edited away. Confidence is only useful if it is honest.
Our readers make planning decisions based on what we send them. The discipline is not a feature we added; it is the product. A rougher sentence that is accurate beats a smooth one that is not.
Read the current situation brief and watch every band, claim check and connection in place.