1. Who was Edward Colston and why was his Bristol statue toppled?
‘In 1680 Colston joined the Royal African Company company that had a monopoly on the west African slave trade. The company branded the slaves – including women and children – with its RAC initials on their chests. It is believed to have sold about 100,000 west African people in the Caribbean and the Americas between 1672 and 1689.’
2. I am still learning about racism – but I know a history-changing moment when I see one
‘History is made and unmade in a moment. To witness such moments is thrilling. Watching the statue of Edward Colston pulled down was beautiful. A symbolic gesture, perhaps, but one that hurt no one, and one that taught many of us so much.’
3. South Africa may hold the answer to who murdered Olof Palme
‘For 11 years I investigated the mysterious aeroplane crash that killed the former UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld, a project that became the subject of the documentary Cold Case Hammarskjöld. It was during a 2014 research trip for the documentary that the murder case of the former prime minister Olof Palme literally fell into my lap, when the journalist De Wet Potgieter passed me the so-called Deepsearch papers at the end of a dinner.’
4. Premier League restart preview No 1: Arsenal
‘There is no dancing around it: the stakes could be no higher for Arsenal in the next 10 games.’
5. Nobel prize winner Barry Marshall admits driving through carpark boom gate
‘Nobel laureate Prof Barry Marshall has admitted driving through a boom gate after becoming agitated and frustrated with carpark attendants near a building named in his honour.’
6. US air force sergeant accused of killing sheriff’s deputy in ambush attack
‘An active-duty US air force sergeant is accused of killing a northern California sheriff’s deputy in an ambush-style attack near Santa Cruz over the weekend.’
7. The toppling of Edward Colston’s statue is not an attack on history. It is history
‘Today is the first full day since 1895 on which the effigy of a mass murderer does not cast its shadow over Bristol’s city centre. Those who lament the dawning of this day, and who are appalled by what happened on Sunday, need to ask themselves some difficult questions. Do they honestly believe that Bristol was a better place yesterday because the figure of a slave trader stood at its centre?’
8. #Publishingpaidme: authors share advances to expose racial disparities
‘Malorie Blackman, the UK’s former children’s laureate and author of the Noughts and Crosses series, wrote that she had “never in my life received anything like the sums being posted by some white authors”.’
9. Transvision Vamp: how we made Baby I Don’t Care
‘The famous scream at the beginning was an accident. Luckily, I always turn the record button on 20 seconds before a track starts, and she just let out this huge scream just to loosen up her voice, like a boxer entering the ring.’
10. What the George Floyd protests have achieved in just two weeks
‘From Minneapolis to London to New York and Atlanta, thousands have taken to the streets in a show of solidarity. Organizations and individuals have donated millions; editors have resigned; and statues have toppled. Here are just some of the concrete changes we are seeing happening across the US right now.’
How we create the antidote
Every day we measure not only how many people click on individual stories but also how long they spend reading them. This list is created by comparing the attention time with the length of each article, to come up with a ranking for the stories people read most deeply.
