The Times: One faced a Taliban bullet to defend a girl’s right to read. The other won’t even face down the American gun lobby

At a talk last weekend by the artist Jonathan Yeo, I was struck by the title of his portrait of Malala Yousafzai: Girl Reading. In it, Malala looks up as if disturbed from her book. Her gaze is bright and candid; her finger points down at the page as if fearful of losing her place. Just a girl reading. The simplest yet most revolutionary act in the world.

In the week that Malala became the youngest winner of the Nobel peace prize, details emerged of daily life in territory controlled by Islamic State. Citizens complaining about lack of running water