Introducing Snippets – giving extra context to complex stories

From Brexit negotiations to the recent referendum in Catalonia, the stories we report are becoming increasingly more complex and diverse. Whilst all this is happening, we have seen our monthly online readership grow to over 140 million unique browsers per month across the world. Our job is much more difficult as a result. Our aim is make our journalism more understandable and engaging than ever before - so you feel informed and empowered.

In August we launched our readers’ questions. A few months on, this feedback loop continues to change the way the newsroom explains stories and learns about our readers. We can now answer the most popular questions with articles or snippets.

Today we launched the next step, which are Snippets. Snippets are small reusable pieces of journalism that are designed to give you more context when you need it most. You may have noticed the little grey boxes appearing. Purposely minimised so that you can choose to ignore them if you already have enough context to understand the story.

You will start to see four different flavours of snippets:

Quick guides

Stories vary wildly in length and complexity. We have no control of where you start reading from. These quick guides should help you get up-to-speed so that you have enough context.

Why are we talking about a three-degree world?

The world is currently on course to heat up by three degrees Celsius, according to the United Nations. That is because nations are not doing enough to reduce emissions. Climate negotiators are now discussing how to ratchet up ambitions to avoid this outcome.

What happens at three degrees?

Harsher droughts, more extreme weather, worse disruption of food production, increased migration by climate refugees, heightened storm surges and steadily rising sea levels. That is what we know for sure, then there is the risk of feedback loops - for example the release of methane from melting permafrost - that could quickly push 3C to 6C.

How quickly will oceans rise?

It could take decades or centuries, but change will be locked in by a 3C temperature rise, which would extensively melt ice-caps, shrink glaciers and thermally expand the oceans so many current coastlines and low-lying plains would be under sea level. Unless massive barriers or water diversions are constructed, many cities, small islands, population centres, economic hubs and iconic sights will be submerged. Imagine a map with giant chunks missing from Florida, Manhattan, Lincolnshire, Rio de Janeiro and the deltas of the Nile, Amazon, Pearl, Mekong, Ganges and Brahmaputra.

How can this be avoided?

National governments need to promise greater emissions cuts and enact policies to keep global warming to the more ambitious target of 1.5C or at most 2C, which they set as the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement. That will mean phasing out fossil fuels more quickly and ramping up effort to protect and restore forests.

Q&As

Q&As help to answer the key questions you may have. These could be answers to questions that other readers have directly asked us or important ones that give some required background.

Despite growing pressure from domestic political parties, the Spanish government has made it clear it will not sit down and talk to its Catalan counterpart until the latter drops all talk of independence.

If independence is declared, Madrid could reach for article 155 of the Spanish constitution, which allows the government to take control of an autonomous region that “does not fulfil the obligations imposed upon it by the constitution or other laws, or acts in a way that is seriously prejudicial to the general interest of Spain”.

Invocation of 155 is seen as a last resort, and would throw Spain and the EU into uncharted territory.

Senior European commission officials have so far ruled out intervening, insisting the crisis is an internal Spanish matter. The use of the article could change their minds and trigger mediation efforts.

One thing is certain: with tensions high after the polling day violence and thousands of police officers still deployed to the region, any show of force from the Spanish state will trigger massive demonstrations.

Profiles

Every day there are people you may never have heard of that are pivotal to the story. Profiles should help you understand who they are and any relevant background.

Political career

Maduro is the president of Venezuela. He served as the interim president upon the death of Hugo Chávez in March 2013, and won a hastily arranged general election in April 2013, narrowly defeating opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.

Background

Maduro was previously a bus driver and trade union leader. He was elected to the national assembly in 2000 and was appointed to a number of government positions by Chávez, including foreign minister

Accusations

The president, who lacks the charisma of his predecessor, has seen his approval ratings plunge amid widespread food shortages and triple-digit inflation. He stands accused of authoritarianism over his crackdowns on protests and attempts to shut off opposition paths to power. He claims he is the target of a US-backed economic war aimed at removing socialist control over the world's biggest oil resources

Timelines

The news agenda can be fast paced - meaning it can be difficult to keep track of a series of events. Timelines act as a reminder of what has happened to date.

(March 26, 1989)

South Yorkshire police chief constable Peter Wright replaces Ch Supt Brian Mole, the experienced commander of football matches at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough ground. Wright promotes David Duckenfield in Mole’s place.

(April 14, 1989)

Nineteen days after Duckenfield is appointed, 54,000 people attend the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. In the lethal crush, 96 men, women and children are fatally injured.

(July 31, 1989)

Lord Justice Taylor’s official report into the disaster emphatically blames police mismanagement of the event and criticises South Yorkshire police for blaming Liverpool supporters instead of accepting responsibility. Wright states that he fully accepts the findings.

(August 29, 1990)

The Crown Prosecution Service decides there is insufficient evidence to justify criminal proceedings against anybody from any organisation for any offence arising out of the deaths.

(September 30, 1990)

South Yorkshire police admits it was negligent and failed in its duty of care to the people attending the match when settling civil claims brought by bereaved families and injured people.

(November 19, 1990)

First inquest opens in Sheffield, heard by the local coroner, Dr Stefan Popper. South Yorkshire police renew their case that drunk supporters who arrived late and ticketless were to blame.

(March 28, 1991)

Inquest jury returns a majority verdict of accidental death.

(October 29, 1991)

Duckenfield retires on medical grounds, diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

(January 13, 1992)

Disciplinary action against Supt Bernard Murray, the police control box commander at Hillsborough, is dropped.

(November 5, 1993)

A judicial review application by six representative families to quash the inquest verdict is rejected by Lord Justice McCowan in the divisional court. McCowan rules that the inquest was properly conducted. Families continue to campaign for justice.

(December 5, 1996)

ITV broadcasts a drama documentary written by Jimmy McGovern, researched by journalist Katy Jones, which powerfully highlights the families’ complaints of injustice and allegations of a police cover-up.

(June 29, 1997)

The new Labour government orders the “scrutiny” of new evidence by Lord Justice Stuart-Smith. It is found that South Yorkshire police changed 164 officers’ accounts of the disaster before sending them to the Taylor inquiry. According to a civil service note (pdf) that became public in 1997, the then home secretary, Jack Straw, did not believe there was sufficient evidence for a new inquiry but said such an assertion had to come from an independent source such as a judge to be “acceptable”. The then prime minister, Tony Blair, had written across the note about setting up a new inquiry: “Why? What is the point.”

(February 13, 1998)

Stuart-Smith rejects any grounds for prosecutions or quashing the inquest verdict. Straw accepts that conclusion.

(April 11, 2009)

Twenty years after Hillsborough, the Guardian highlights the families’ ongoing grievances and complaints of injustice. Then Labour ministers Andy Burnham and Maria Eagle resolve to call for all documents relating to the disaster to be published.

(April 14, 2009)

Burnham’s speech to the 20th anniversary memorial service at Anfield is interrupted with calls from the crowd of “justice for the 96”. His call for disclosure is supported by Gordon Brown’s government.

(September 11, 2012)

The Hillsborough independent panel, which has reviewed 450,000 documents disclosed to it, publishes its report. The police failings are highlighted, and their campaign to blame supporters further exposed. The Conservative home secretary, Theresa May, accepts the report and orders a new criminal inquiry into the disaster, Operation Resolve. The Independent Police Complaints Commission launches an investigation into alleged malpractice by the police in the case made afterwards.

(December 19, 2012)

The verdict in the first inquest is quashed by the lord chief justice, Igor Judge, and two other judges, who find that it was not properly conducted.

(March 30, 2014)

The new inquests begin in Birchwood, Warrington. Together they become by far the longest case ever heard by a jury in British legal history.

(April 25, 2016)

The inquest jury delivers its verdict. Among the 14 questions it is asked to decide upon, it concludes that the 96 people who died in the disaster were unlawfully killed, overturning the verdict of accidental death at the original inquest.

It adds that no behaviour on the part of Liverpool fans contributed to the dangerous situation at the Leppings Lane turnstiles. This, at last, comprehensively exonerates the supporters who were blamed for causing the disaster in its immediate aftermath.

Defects in the construction and layout of the stadium contributed to the disaster, the inquest finds, adding that “errors and omissions” by the entire police operation on the day contributed to the causes of the disaster. It adds that errors and omissions in the stadium’s layout and design, and its lack of a valid safety certificate also contributed to the tragedy, as did Sheffield Wednesday FC’s preparation for the match.

On the question of whether the club’s actions on the day of the game were a contributory factor, the jury could not say for sure but said they may have been. Errors and omissions by the South Yorkshire metropolitan ambulance service were also said to contribute to the disaster.

Send us your ideas

Our work on this feature is far from finished. We have plenty of ideas, but we’d love to hear yours. Please send us your ideas here.