Happy Birthday to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and a massive thank you to her for inventing rock and roll She was born on March 20th, 1915

30 year ago was the last school shooting in the UK. Utterly horrendous, I remember it being reported, but because they (parents, teachers, community, government) responded by banning guns it hasn’t happened since.

Today's quick update [Mar 12]: - 13 people reported killed in SAF drone strike on fuel market in Adekong, near the Sudan-Chad border. - RSF shelling continues in Dilling, S. Kordofan. - SAF drone strikes reported in Nyala, S. Darfur & Sileya, W. Darfur. #KeepEyesOnSudan

Baking soda?

On the one-year anniversary of his detention by federal authorities, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and First Lady Rama Duwaji welcomed Mahmoud Khalil, his wife Noor, and their baby boy, Deen, to Gracie Mansion to break the fast together.

This is what peak male performance looks like

One of my favorite things about Ramadan is its emphasis on giving and empathy for others. In what's become a 7 year old tradition, every day of Ramadan, I'll be spotlighting a single charity or cause--some international, some US-based. Follow along with #30Days30Causes & send recommendations too!

Pretty chuffed to have a non-fiction piece in the latest edition of Door is a Jar. It’s strange to write silly autobiographical stories with all of this going on [gestures wildly at the world], but maybe sometimes the surprising frivolity of a family chest freezer is needed. Who can say?!

The fact that there is a Markwayne and a John Wayne implies the existence of a Matthewwayne and a Lukewayne.

My grandmother’s home, the family home, the home I spent nearly every Sunday in for over 3 decades, the home I lived in as a teenager, that my grandparents bought in 1965 when Ghobeiri still had orchards, the house my aunt inherited & in which my cousins grew up, is gone. No one was home, thank god

Most of the world is focused on Iran or the GCC. Haven’t heard much from international actors comment on Israel reclosing entry into Gaza or the disproportional response Israel is committing on Lebanon through mass displacement and constant attacks

a thing historians will marvel about when they study this era is the extent to which the "war is a thing that happens to poorer, browner people" class went about systematically dismantling every aspect of the global political order that confined the costs of war to poorer and browner people

I genuinely believe if you PROPERLY re-nationalise rail and make the ticket system as simple and cheap as possible then you'd be secured in government for a hundred thousand years

I want to read every single book on the list. 2026 Climate Fiction Prize longlist announced - The Climate Fiction Prize climatefictionprize.co.uk

Deaths in channel are preventable, but require governments to focus on ensuring people can seek asylum. It's repeatedly shown that hostile measures increase death tolls. Labour's decision to halt family reunification alone is already putting more children at risk. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

As the analysis starts of the Gorton and Denton result, I wanted to flag some aspects that my experience yesterday suggests are being over or under-played (Caveats - I went to Longsight, Gorton and Denton town centres and spoke to as many people as I could, but it was mostly during the working day)

a sombre morning for british columnists as they move their "The electorate has spoken, we must listen" articles to the recycling bin and upload their "the greens victory shows just how far the west has fallen" articles instead

Entertaining, fascinating and informative

A closer look. John Wilson (1922-2015) Father and Child Reading, 1985 Bronze maquette (model) for sculpture at Roxbury Community College

Issue 229 of The Continent:

Completed a series of new collage/illustrations using original photographs of Green Book locations in Los Angeles.

Today's quick update [Feb 4]: - Sudan Doctors Network: 1 person killed and 8 others injured after RSF drone strike on a hospital in Kadugli, South Kordofan. - Clashes between SAF and RSF/SPLM-N (Alhilu) reported south of Alkurmuk, Blue Nile State. #KeepEyesOnSudan

Reminder that "jaywalking" was literally made up by american car manufacturers to shift the blame for accidents from drivers to pedestrians. "Jay" was a slang term meaning "idiot" or "rube".

Properly funding the court system would clear the backlog even more quickly. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Soul jazz is where it's at.

“Syria’s army says it will renew attacks against a Kurdish-majority district of Aleppo where clashes have raged this week, after Kurdish groups rejected Damascus’s ceasefire terms that demanded their fighters withdraw from the city” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Mashhad, Iran

Please pay your freelancers before Christmas.

I'm always fascinated by the story behind the making of any map, and this set of war damage maps, completed within six months of the end of the war, is extraordinary in that regard. Here's Ueno Rokurō, then president of the Japan Chikei Company, who oversaw its creation:

Thing I learned today: “duck tape” is a far older term than “duct tape.” It used to be made with cotton duck. “Duct tape” is a combination of people trying to make sense, and its association with post war use in HVAC systems. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape

Today's quick update [Dec 4]: - Sudan Doctors Network: 9 people killed in RSF/SPLM-N (Alhilu) drone attack on kindergarten and hospital in Kalogi, South Kordofan. - SAF airstrikes on RSF positions in Nyala, South Darfur. #KeepEyesOnSudan

oh this is magnificent. whew

‘You cannot learn or grow while trying to appear as if you have everything figured out. You cannot talk to God by trying to avoid doing something wrong. Perfection is stagnation.’ www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/o...? Gift Link.

Dismal framing. Every aspect of most asylum seekers’ lives is controlled & paid for by the Home Office. They can’t work, are told where to live & have no autonomy or dignity. So they aren’t *choosing* to use taxis & don’t need to be “banned” from doing so. The HO just needs to get its act in order.

I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.

An honor and dream come true to perform alongside Yo-Yo Ma, presented by Celebrity Series at Boston Symphony Hall. 💜 🎼Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod)

ICYMI: Books from African authors and authors of African descent to look forward to in 2025 (Updated) hararereview.wordpress.com/2025/01/04/b...

In vernacular British English, any noun can be used as an insult if it feels right. Just looking around my immediate surroundings, 'you teacup' and 'you plant pot' work, but 'you subwoofer' and 'you mousepad' don't. Same with pastries: donut works, cheese lattice doesn't. Nobody knows why.

Did you happen to leave your @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk purchases on the Metropolitan line yesterday? Did one of your friends do this and send an anguished message to the group chat? If so, Darren has just done you a very good turn. 👇

Such a good piece, and vitally important.

Today we head to the aisle of Skye. On our trip we hadn’t planned to go but weather and ferries caused us to make different plans. Noticed this from the hotel

This got to me. Haunting and beautifully written. news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-m...

Some thoughts on AI + literacy in East Africa, with thanks to @africasacountry.bsky.social

I feel like the LLM era is the perfect time for someone to relaunch the text-a-librarian reference service. It doesn't have to just be text, we can do email. But you can submit a question and a reference librarian working remotely will respond to it within an hour with verifiable resources.

Etel Adnan.

Deadwood is not dead