Guardian owner apologises for founders’ links to slavery | First Thing

Scott Trust to invest in decade-long programme of restorative justice after academic research into newspaper's origins. Plus, why the Gwyneth Paltrow ski trial farce is so unmissable

Good morning.

The owner of the Guardian has issued an apology for the role the newspaper's founders had in transatlantic slavery and announced a decade-long programme of restorative justice.

How did we uncover the Guardian founders' links to slavery? The process of uncovering where exactly the founder of the Manchester Guardian, John Edward Taylor, and his associates were importing cotton from was a lengthy and difficult one, writes Cassandra Gooptar.

What will the Guardian do now? The Scott Trust expects to commit more than 10m to a restorative justice programme of work over the next 10 years. The fund will support community projects and programmes in the south-eastern US Sea Islands and Jamaica. The fund will increase the scope and ambition of Guardian reporting on the Caribbean, South America and Africa, and on Black communities in the UK and US (up to 12 new editorial roles within the Guardian).

Will lawmakers take action on gun control? The Republican congressman Tim Burchett answered the question Americans have all but given up asking of their elected officials by telling reporters: We're not going to fix it."

What has Josh Hawley said? He said it was an attack on Christians but a Democratic opponent of Hawley labelled the Republican a fraud and a coward" after the far-right Missouri senator demanded that the shooting in Nashville be investigated as a federal hate crime despite being the only US senator to vote against a bill to crack down on hate crimes against Asian Americans during the Covid pandemic.