The antidote: your favourite reads beyond coronavirus
1. Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brückner fled police in 1995
‘In more than 25 years, he flitted between Germany and Portugal, often escaping various criminal proceedings against him for the sexual abuse of children, but also drug-dealing, falsifying documents and driving without insurance.’
2. Hope in a storm: the McCanns’ 13-year hunt for missing Madeleine
‘Many people would by now have done what Kate McCann admits she once considered, climbed deep into a hole and not come out again. The worst event any parent could suffer should have been when their three-year-old daughter disappeared; but the experience of the McCanns in the 13 years and one month since that moment redefines all understanding of reaching a nadir.’
3. 30 Rock: Tina Fey’s satirical show-within-a-show mastered the art of the long-running gag
‘Fey is excellent as the central character Liz Lemon, head writer of the show-within-the-show, TGS. It’s also one of the very, very few comedies that knew how to do a good running gag.’
4. Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brückner: a timeline
‘The German suspect’s previous convictions include sexual abuse of a child and rape of a woman, 72.’
5. German prisoner is ‘strongest Madeleine McCann suspect yet’
‘Circumstantial evidence has convinced detectives that a 43-year-old German child sex offender and rapist, identified by Portuguese sources on Thursday as Christian Brückner, is their prime suspect as it emerged he has been known to police for years.’
6. Teenage girls charged with murder after man plunges to his death on Gold Coast
‘Two teenage girls allegedly filmed and egged on the brutal assault and torture of two men in a Gold Coast apartment before a Brisbane teen plunged to his death trying to escape.’
7. John Boyega’s rousing Black Lives Matter speech wins praise and support
‘Other film industry names supporting Boyega included Jordan Peele, director of Get Out, who wrote: “We got you, John.” JJ Abrams, Edgar Wright, Olivia Wilde and Charlie Brooker were among those affirming their continued desire to work with Boyega.’
8. Trump’s Bible photo op splits white evangelical loyalists into two camps
‘Trump can’t afford to lose evangelicals, even by the handful. A record 81% of white evangelicals voted for him in 2016, and he only narrowly won the presidency, sometimes by just a few thousand votes in crucial areas. His gesture with the Bible outside St John’s was meant to shore up that support, reminding his base of a tacit agreement.’
9. James Mattis condemns Trump’s handling of George Floyd protests
‘Mattis recalled the distinction between US forces and the Nazis fighting on the Normandy beaches in 1944. The Nazi slogan was “Divide and conquer” while the American response was “In union there is strength”.’
10. The Guardian view on Trump and the military: moment of decision
‘Mr Trump is infatuated with military and political strongmen. He sides with authoritarians like Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un and Rodrigo Duterte. He supported the Tiananmen repression. He goes out of his way to praise violent military officers. Though he evaded military service himself, he has a fetish about the forces.’
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.
