This is the last photo I took of my book-writing journey. My wife and kid sit outside the frame, on the right side of the picture. He has chickenpox and an onset of pneumonia, she hasn't slept for days (and so did I). Medicine all around, anti-dehydration powder, paracetamol, thermometers, are lost and found every hour. We eat when we can, mostly pasta, and we are exhausted. But I absolutely have to finish the last draft to send it to print, so I just work when I can, during quiet moments while the kid is asleep or resting.

At some point in the evening I take this photo, and press send on the last email to my publisher. I can't really enjoy the moment, nor celebrate. I just stand and go sit with my wife and son, to talk about his breathing, which sounds so shallow.

I took many beautiful photos of me writing: my laptop caressed by the autumn sunlight, a cappuccino on the table; on a train, while travelling for work, while the Dutch countryside swings by; while the snow falls outside, in the Dolomites; and many more. But this one is the most meaningful to me.

Because it's the last, for sure, but also because it's real, and fully representative of the train wreck this book-writing adventure has been, at times. It started 2 years ago, when I went to Round Robin Editrice with the idea of a collection of stories of cartoonists in danger. They believed it could work, and I made it work. It was fun, unnerving, moving, tiring, exciting, and it put me in touch with so many brave cartoonists.

Before telling you "go buy it if you read Italian" (yes, it's written in Italian), I'll just say that I wouldn't have been able to write it without my wife. I will thank everyone else later, but Maaike van Heijningen comes first. She held my hand as she does with our son, while he and I were learning to walk.

Now, if this post doesn't convince you to buy the book, I don't know what will! Here's the link: https://www.ibs.it/canarini-storie-di-cartoonist-che-libro-emanuele-del-rosso/e/9791254850688

In Bologna, Abderrahim Fakir, a 42-year-old Moroccan-born man, died after being restrained by police. A widely shared video shows him repeatedly calling for help before becoming unresponsive. Yet another example of police brutality and (we will see about that) impunity.

Every time an innocent dies at the hands of the police, democracy and justice die a little too.

When it comes to comfort, there's always a side effect—and it's usually the poor who bear the cost.

AC, which is sold as a solution to keep us cool during days of intense heat, actually makes certain areas of cities even more unlivable for anyone who can't afford it. Temperatures in cities are up to 1.5 degrees Celsius higher because of AC, according to recent studies.

Yet another heatwave engulfs Europe, a phenomenon we’d better get used to.

I have drawn scores of cartoons about the climate crisis and, sadly, one ends up simply recording the tragedy rather than commenting on it, trying to find a specific aspect to reflect upon. This is not what I like to do with my cartoons, but climate change is a seemingly unsolvable and very repetitive issue.

And this is indeed the point: repetitiveness. We live in an emergency-to-emergency society, unable to deal with problems that require extensive, long-term planning and collaboration among countries and citizens.

So, buon appetito 🍳 Here’s my latest cartoon on the topic. I still think it’s worth drawing it.

Some of my fondest memories are connected to the World Cup of football ⚽️ Lost finals watched all together, at my grandparents' place; victories celebrated with friends on the roofs of cars, speeding through the centre of town.

Then one stops looking at the tournament as something that brings people together, to focus instead on the money, the corruption, the exploitation, the discrimination and the violence. Surely every World Cup has had its share of all the above, and this one makes no difference.

The US is an autocracy, a government based on wealth, power and racism, and no ball is round enough to bring the world together and forget what Trump is doing to the world.

Besides the fact that Trump started a conflict to liberate the Strait of Hormuz, which is closed because he started that same conflict, and it was all because he needed to divert attention from the Epstein files, what we have now is an under-the-table disturber, Israel, that is using this stall to invade countries with impunity and disrupt the peace talks.

Recently, several activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla were captured, detained and tortured by the Israeli forces. A video of the Minister of National Security, Ben-Gvir, in which he can be seen insulting and mistreating handcuffed activists, circulated widely, managing to anger even staunch anti-dissent politicians, like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Israel has become a rogue state. Not only is Netanyahu following through with a genocidal project, attempting to get rid of all Palestinians, but, under his lead, Israel is also piggybacking on Trump's delusional war against Iran, grabbing the chance to invade Lebanon and seize its land.