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

I made this video 4 days ago. As of today, Elfashir has completely run out of food, and the earthen barriers RSF have been building around the city are now complete. Oh, and RSF drones struck a town in Khartoum State and another in Northern State. In case anyone gaf. #KeepEyesOnSudan

Hi, is anyone available to be Prime Minister of France from Wednesday to Friday this week? Shouldn't take any longer than that but I've already got something in my diary.

Data from the Office of National Statistics shows Londoners are less likely to be violent crime victims (26.4 offences per 1,000 pop) than the rest of England & Wales (31.9 offences). Violent crime has fallen in every London borough in the past year.

Looking through the back catalogue @noemamag.com and found this fascinating + gorgeous piece by @olliemilman.bsky.social - well worth your time: www.noemamag.com/the-cult-of-...

- Per a report by Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab, RSF has nearly completed building walls around the besieged city. - The berms now stretch "for over 68km around Elfashir, leaving only a 3-4km gap before the city is fully enclosed". (Sudan Tribune) #KeepEyesOnSudan

Karel Martens ∘ Dutch graphic designer and educator known for innovative typography, minimalist aesthetic, and experimental printmaking techniques, '60s...'90s.

More Woman Bass Players is I think a concept we can and must all rally behind

This is brillaint, up the Choristers www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

More lives lost including 1 woman & 2 children. Government have just closed refugee family reunion (RFR) safe route. 56% of grants for RFR were children & 37% were women. So the number of women & children crossing, and dying, is going to soar. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

After anti-corruption Gen Z protests and a deadly uprising forced the prime minister and government to resign, #Nepal searches for a new politics that can jettison its failed establishment. Himal editor @romangtm.bsky.social writes from #Kathmandu #GenZprotestnepal buff.ly/5mxRifN

Heavy rains and floods have been wreaking havoc on communities across #Sudan. Climate change + war + already fragile infrastructure (further destroyed by war) = disastrous, deadly combination. #KeepEyesOnSudan

I can’t stop thinking about this article from @thecontinent.org ‘She (Angelique Nyirasafari) noted that boys continue with school even when they cause pregnancies.’

A great thread. So many mispronounced words because I read them first. Long live libraries.

Lap dogs are great, but have you tried a desk chicken?

The horrors of Volkswagen’s ranch were forgotten. Then a priest made a call. - Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

The who, why, and means of the Sudan war.

those damned outdoor pigs can't keep getting away with this

1. The extra marginal tax rate will affect millionaires' daily lives almost not at all, which is why in reality none of them would leave the state. 2. When you have this much money, your accountant/financial folks are already making you as tax efficient as possible. www.wbur.org/news/2025/04...

Sudanese journalist Yousra El Bagir has managed to get some footage out of Al Fashir in Darfur, Sudan. The RSF siege of the city has cut it off from food supply and medical assistance for months. One reason you hear very little about Sudan is that the RSF kills anyone who tries to document the war.

Today’s quick update [Aug 4]: - Sudan Doctors Network: 5 civilians injured following SAF shelling on RSF positions in Abu Ga’ood, North Kordofan. - UNICEF: over 640,000 children at risk of cholera in North Darfur; in Tawila, 1,180 cases reported, 20 deaths. #KeepEyesOnSudan

More than 150 Ethiopian migrants were on board the boat when it sank in the Gulf of Aden off the southern Yemeni province of Abyan, the International Organization for Migration in Yemen said.

Today’s quick update [Aug 3]: - SPLM-N (Alhilu) shelling reported on Kadugli, South Kordofan; at least 2 civilians reported killed. - At least 15 people reported killed in yesterday’s RSF attack on civilians fleeing Elfashir. #KeepEyesOnSudan

Donate to their unapologetic lifesaving work, here: rnli.org/support-us/g...

There’s a concept in transport planning called “induced traffic”, which is essentially the evil twin of “if you build it, they will come”. What cars did to your city, AI will do to your brain.

Donate to their unapologetic lifesaving work, here: rnli.org/support-us/g...

It has suddenly struck me that when I leave the BBC on Thursday, this is going to be my last byline on the news website. As a monument to a career, I will take it.

Few if any experts know more about the deliberate use of starvation as a war crime than Alex de Waal. If he says it's happening, it's so.

“At [the hospital] they are supposed to give us some rice for each shift, but today they told us there was none. My colleague and I [treated] 60 neurosurgery patients and right now I can’t even stand.” www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Happy Independence from the British Day to all who celebrate, today + every day.

At least 60 *people* are feared missing & drowned at sea after two shipwrecks off the coast of Libya, the International Organization for Migration has said. IOM says 743 people have died so far this year attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/...

The Beatles ~ I'll Follow The Sun (Beatles for Sale, 1965) #NowPlaying #PaulMcCartney #BOTD #MusicSky One of the first songs to make a serious impression on my very young self, and still one of my favorites. youtu.be/28d_A_NuJ7A via @YouTube

There are HUGE areas of history that aren’t on the internet and guess which ones are less likely to be so. For years projects exist solely for the purpose of remedying the dearth of articles on Africa, just as one example. Many of them have been researched though -

This was really fun to write, plus they give you a free book. Not much better in life than a free (good) book.

📚 Recent book reviews 🏖️ @hawksfordwhite.bsky.social on Elsa Devienne's Sandrush doi.org/10.1017/S096... 🇧🇮 Katie Garner on Michael Albertus's Land Power doi.org/10.1017/S096... 🌍 Danladi Abah on Jennifer Hart's Making an African City doi.org/10.1017/S096...

@thecontinent.org remembers Ngũgĩ.

Sebastiao Salgado, photographe franco-brésilien, est mort à l’âge de 81 ans

[1/5] We're launching a new thing @ the Metro NY Library Council: The Cross-Reference Coalition is an experimental school tracing exuberantly🤗 interdisciplinary links btw NYC's libraries + archives; connecting its knwldg workers, grad students, artists + designers; and creating an open publicatio

The situation has become impossible.

It’s German Shepherd Day, apparently, so have a Stevie.