Top Load looks simple: ten breaking slides, a big image, a source, and a timestamp. Underneath are choices about freshness, category balance, source quality, and what we deliberately leave out.
The Load: start broad
We begin with a broad U.S. top-stories signal rather than one publisher. One newsroom's homepage reflects one newsroom's priorities; a multi-source discovery layer gives us a wider candidate pool.
The Spin: prevent category takeover
Sports, entertainment, politics, and technology can dominate the cycle for hours. Viral Laundry gives those categories their own lanes, so Top Load stays focused on broad breaking news.
Stain Check: freshness and source signals
We reject stale candidates beyond the breaking window, deduplicate headlines, and require a usable source and current timestamp. If a story image is unavailable, we use a generic breaking visual rather than implying an unrelated image came from the event.
Next Rinse: refresh instead of fossilize
The panel refreshes while readers are active so the homepage does not depend on a hard-coded set of yesterday's stories.
Top Load is a transparent filter: fresh, broad, source-aware, and deliberately separated from sports and platform virality.