3. Giving birth involves risks and pain. But the “medicalisation” of child birth is viewed by some as a bad thing. Are there any other areas of healthcare where involvement of doctors, use of safer procedures and better pain relief are still seen by some as not best practice?

Parliamentary inquiry has found that good pregnancy care is 'the exception, rather than the rule' and women are often “treated as an inconvenience”. I'm glad the shocking state of maternity services is being acknowledged and I hope something changes thetimes.co.uk/article/birth-…

Some nice thoughts from Samira on what makes a good profile: 'offering some analysis, a sense of someone’s motivation and the way they move through the world, their way of being.'

I'd make this the lead story in every paper and newscast on the planet.
If we don't understand the depth of the climate crisis, we will not act in time.
theguardian.com/environment/ar…

The latest episode of the new Serial series is SO good - it's about a former Al-Qaeda courier who was tortured relentlessly at CIA blacksites and Guantanamo. In a humane and nuanced way it weighs up the harm he did and the harm perpetrated against him nytimes.com/interactive/20…

The criminal justice system is strained to the point of collapse, and it doesn’t get as much attention as it should.

Here's me nerding out about what makes a good profile, and the process of writing my most recent Guardian Long Read, a story about an incredible man who has turned his own home into a homeless shelter samirashackle.substack.com/p/the-discomfo…

A once-homeless petty thief throws out the welcome mat, but you better follow the rules. Stuart Potts probably has as many failures as he does successes, but as Samira Shackle writes: “When it does work out, it’s a kind of magic.”
The Guardian Long Read
bit.ly/3QyGnzo

Watch this and then read Samira Shackle's excellent
Hyphen piece on why the myth of Muslim no-go areas refuses to die.
hyphenonline.com/2024/04/29/the…

We are literally trapped.

Thanks to Gaza Families Reunited, parliament will debate a family reunion scheme - providing shelter to those who want it until it's safe to return - on 13 May. Now they're asking you to write to your MP to ensure they attend the debate. Do it here: palestinecampaign.eaction.online/gazafamily

Pleased to see my recent The Guardian Long Read story on this great round up! theguardian.com/society/2024/a…

'His mum worries about how dangerous it is for Potts to take strangers into his home, some of whom have serious issues. But she can see how it gives him a level of stability and purpose that seemed impossible a few years ago.' #longreads theguardian.com/society/2024/a…

My recent piece for Hyphen on the trope of no-go zones feels quite timely given some of the hysterical reactions to Sadiq Khan’s victory in particular: hyphenonline.com/2024/04/29/the…

The idea of no-go zones in European cities, a common Islamophobic trope since the early 2000s, is rooted in the belief that Islam poses an existential threat to white western civilisation.

Samira Shackle writes.
hyphenonline.com/2024/04/29/the…

This is extraordinary and appalling.

Ida Bae Wells To any young POC journalists reading this: your insight, lens and knowledge of the communities you love and come from, that’s your super power. Don’t accept breadcrumbs. And if like me you find you don’t really belong anywhere, be brave, leave the table, and go make your own one.

theguardian.com/society/2024/m… Reflection of over 10 years if struggle! X

‘Those two weeks felt how the world should be’: the young single mums who took on the housing crisis – and won theguardian.com/society/2024/m…

Some news stories stick in your mind - I always vividly remembered the group of young single mums in east London who occupied a tower block to protest the housing crisis back in 2014. Ten years on, I spoke to the group about their ongoing fight theguardian.com/society/2024/m…