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Ian Birrell

Ian Birrell

Independent

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The deaths of three trans teens expose the state of youth mental health provision

Jason Pulman was the oldest of five children, a talented artist who ‘‘loved all the silliness in the world and using it to make all those around...

previous day 9

iNews

Ian Birrell

Hope is being extinguished in the Israel-Gaza war

Six years ago, while on a reporting trip to Gaza, I met a 26-year-old man called Mohammed al-Taluli who had dared to challenge Hamas by organising...

08.04.2024 5

iNews

Ian Birrell

There is a grotesque human rights scandal happening in Britain, right under our noses

During my journalistic career I have spoken to traumatised people around the world suffering terrible consequences of war, earthquakes and torture....

25.03.2024 3

iNews

Ian Birrell

Keir Starmer will not pull off what Tony Blair did in 1997

The Tories are panicking again as they look at the polls, contemplate their looming electoral wipeout after another disastrous week at Westminster and...

18.03.2024 20

iNews

Ian Birrell

Farewell to Theresa May, the best worst Tory prime minister in British history

Theresa May has announced she is leaving the political stage at the next election while polls indicate that the party she headed for three years faces...

10.03.2024 7

iNews

Ian Birrell

Macron has revealed himself to be a hypocritcal laggard

Last week Emmanuel Macron, the French President, engaged in sabre-rattling that set nerves jangling from Moscow to Washington. Speaking at a press...

03.03.2024 1

iNews

Ian Birrell

The Tories' love affair with Trump-style politics is just getting started

Adam Kinzinger used to be a mainstream Republican. He is an evangelical Christian and former US Air Force colonel who served as a pilot in conflict...

25.02.2024 2

iNews

Ian Birrell

Ukraine must ask if Zelensky is holding them back

Volodymyr Zelensky is a bold, competitive and determined man, driven by an astonishing sense of self-belief. These personal traits took him from his...

12.02.2024 5

iNews

Ian Birrell

The disturbing saga of African Parks shows how little we have learnt from history

The scenery of lush tropical rainforest was stunning but the stories of atrocities were disturbing. One mother told me of being raped beside the road...

05.02.2024 5

iNews

Ian Birrell

Covid-19 lab leak theory is gaining ground

Dominic Cummings is far from the ideal person to deliver warnings about dangers of misinformation, given his track record. Yet last week he wrote...

22.01.2024 3

iNews

Ian Birrell

China's dictatorship has been embarrassed by the people of Taiwan

Amid so much grim global news, something to celebrate. For the biggest election year in human history, which will see more than half the planet’s...

14.01.2024 2

iNews

Ian Birrell

Books / The freedom fighters who dared to take on a communist superpower

In May 2020, as the planet grappled with the pandemic, China’s state media declared that there were ‘obvious deficiencies’ in Hong Kong law...

09.01.2024 6

The Spectator

Ian Birrell

The post office scandal confirms it, Ed Davey should quit

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has made a busy start to 2024 with a general election looming. First came a new year message to voters, insisting...

07.01.2024 5

iNews

Ian Birrell

The world's 'war on drugs' is a disaster – and it's about to get worse

Two days after Christmas, the South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun, best known for playing a wealthy patriarch in the Oscar-winning film Parasite, was...

01.01.2024 9

iNews

Ian Birrell

The Uighur refugee I met - and what he taught me about life's fragility

The artists, booksellers, musicians and writers all knew each other well, so greeted each other warmly in the restaurant, cracking jokes as...

24.12.2023 6

iNews

Ian Birrell

One woman's story should remind the West of its duty to Ukraine

The chilly winds of appeasement blow through the West as Ukrainians shed blood in their epochal battle between democracy and dictatorship. Last week,...

17.12.2023 6

iNews

Ian Birrell

The Tories are facing their biggest existential crisis yet

Rishi Sunak was right about one thing when he won the top job little more than a year ago. Declaring that his “utmost priority” was to unite a...

10.12.2023 7

iNews

Ian Birrell

Russia’s latest drone attacks on Ukraine make Western peace talks look naive

Two days after arriving back in Kyiv, I woke to familiar sounds of war as Ukraine’s capital suffered its heaviest drone attack since the start of...

26.11.2023 4

iNews

Ian Birrell

Joe Biden has failed to grasp the difference between the wars in Ukraine and Gaza

From the moment Hamas terrorists went on their murderous rampage in Israel, Joe Biden sought to tie together two seismic conflicts that erupted during...

19.11.2023 3

iNews

Ian Birrell

I worked for Cameron and he is a clever politician - but this is a desperate move

David Cameron is back in frontline politics. These are words I never expected to write. His return as Foreign Secretary shocked everyone, a rare event...

14.11.2023 7

iNews

Ian Birrell

If an MP 'celebrates' blocking homes for those with learning disabilities what hope do we have?

In a Westminster world stuffed with ambitious party hacks and entitled creeps who see compassion as a dirty word, the arrival of Paulette Hamilton in...

13.11.2023 8

iNews

Ian Birrell

The Covid inquiry reveals a scandalous disregard for disabled people from our leaders

The Covid inquiry last week performed an invaluable service. It seemed as if we were watching a savage new political satire amid all the posturing and...

05.11.2023 2

iNews

Ian Birrell

Margaret Thatcher can teach Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak how to deal with a crisis in Israel

Two years after becoming prime minister, Margaret Thatcher gave an interview to The Jewish Chronicle about her forceful condemnation of an Israeli...

29.10.2023 6

iNews

Ian Birrell

Israel's fury is justified, but peace-loving Palestinians deserve safety too

Five years ago in Gaza, I watched the theatre of tragedy play out before my eyes. I had gone to report on the eruption of protests against a border...

23.10.2023 3

iNews

Ian Birrell

The West's arrogant foreign aid has fuelled tensions between Israel and Hamas

The Government is tying itself in knots to show firm support for Israel after terrorist atrocities while avoiding condemnation of possible breaches of...

15.10.2023 2

iNews

Ian Birrell

Israel has a right to respond to Hamas, but it's in danger of repeating the mistakes of 9/11

When I wrote on Sunday as horrifying details of Hamas atrocities started emerging, my column here was starkly headlined “This is Israel’s 9/11”...

12.10.2023 3

iNews

Ian Birrell

This is Israel's 9/11 and the impact will be global

The symbolism could not be starker: young people at a rave for peace in the desert, their happiness and spirit of unity shattered by the rumble of...

08.10.2023 4

iNews

Ian Birrell

Rishi Sunak’s surreal tactics to win an election are only just beginning

Is it any wonder political satire struggles so badly these days when the leader of a party in power for 13 years presents himself as the candidate of...

01.10.2023 3

iNews

Ian Birrell

Trial by media is the best course of action in the case of Russell Brand

It is the details, as always, that are so disturbing. The violence of the alleged rape, his victim pushed up against a wall. The taxi sent to collect...

17.09.2023 5

iNews

Ian Birrell

I’ve been in Wandsworth jail - Daniel Khalife’s escape exposes the grotesque crisis I witnessed

Daniel Khalife is back behind bars after police pulled the 21-year-old former soldier from a bicycle as he pedalled along a canal towpath. Ministers...

10.09.2023 5

iNews

Ian Birrell

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