Two hooded figures with lamps approach a moonlit, isolated cottage. A woman answers the door. We have come for the child, says the hooded figure So soon? she asks It is time, says the hooded figure. The woman is distraught. We should never have got him a library card! What is done cannot be undone, says the hooded figure We couldn’t see the harm! We just wanted him to enjoy reading! For most, it ends there, says the hooded figure, turning away and walking into the wilderness Oh lord, What have I done! says the woman, the child walks past her and out into the darkness with them. Do not cry mother. I am a writer now.

my latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

And of course, once again I want to read all of these.

Four people die in Channel crossing attempt, French authorities say Rescue efforts remain under way after the incident off the coast of northern France, local media is reporting.

When safe routes are restricted to the point of near non-existence, people fleeing war and persecution are forced into dangerous journeys.

This is not inevitable. It is the result of political choices. And there is a solution: Safe routes save lives.

Israel has been bombing Lebanon non-stop since last night

The global food crisis unleashed by the war From Minnesota to Punjab, fertiliser costs are up and harvests are set to be hit

The global food crisis unleashed by the war - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT

Loud warplanes are back #beirut

When gender equity NGOs close, more disappears than can be measured Women leaders are not failing, the systems around them are.

www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2026...

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

‘The most bitter news’: Iran reels as more than 100 children reportedly killed in school bombing The building appears to be among many devastated in Trump’s ‘major combat operations’ as long expected attacks arrive

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

2026 Climate Fiction Prize longlist announced - The Climate Fiction Prize The Climate Fiction Prize will support societies to fully grasp the climate change threat and to embrace its solutions through great stories.

I want to read every single book on the list.

2026 Climate Fiction Prize longlist announced - The Climate Fiction Prize climatefictionprize.co.uk

Deaths of 22 children in Channel due to ‘catastrophic failure’ by UK and France, NGO says Project Play finds UK taxpayers are funding ‘record child fatalities’ and ‘repeated violence’ against children in northern France

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...

For those who don’t know, we already have 5 existing animals: 4 dogs (one with Dementia, another a goofy + blind GS), and Frisbee the cat.

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

Took a French class recently and panicked that if I didn’t pass the first (basic) test I might not get into the University of my choosing, and DEAR GOD did I not realise that was still baked in there.

Entertaining, fascinating and informative

A dark colored bronze statue that shows a Black man reading a book to a small child who is sitting on his lap and helping to hold the open book. It is in a museum gallery. Photo shows another work, a lithograph, of father and child in the background.

A closer look.

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

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was applauded by his European audience for a speech that invited them to dream of empire again and discard the guilt of past sins. That’s more than troubling when you consider the last time the West so nakedly pursued an empire and what gave it the edge: mastery of technology. They had guns, then. This time, the technology they have to control others is much more powerful — intertwined financial systems, rigged digital public squares they own, killer drones, artificial intelligence, and surveillance technologies. Yet, it’s all coming at a time when the African Union is completely rudderless. Our three-story cover package reckons with the terrifying convergence we face.

Issue 229 of The Continent: