Ian Birrell

The freedom fighters who dared to take on a communist superpower

6 January 2024 9:00 am

Shibani Mahtani and Timothy McLaughlin describe the courage of the youthful protest leaders in Hong Kong who sacrificed so much for the cause of democracy

The conman who duped thousands with a patently absurd story

26 August 2023 9:00 am

Promising his investors dazzling riches with his tale of hidden Ghanaian gold, the charismatic John Ackah Blay-Miezah pulled off one of the most brazen scams of the past century

The agony and frustration of reporting from the Middle East

1 October 2022 9:00 am

For 25 years, Abed Takkoush assisted foreign reporters like Jeremy Bowen when they arrived to cover the chaos and conflicts…

Abolishing slavery was no cause for smugness

18 June 2022 9:00 am

When the 13 colonies of the United States declared independence in 1776, the first country to recognise the new nation…

America sees red: how fury prompted the slide into Trumpism

11 September 2021 9:00 am

After leaving college more than two decades ago, Evan Osnos landed a job on the Exponent Telegram, one of two…

The scandal of OxyContin, the painkiller that caused untold pain

12 June 2021 9:00 am

The Sacklers’ callous greed has unleashed a tsunami of pain, says Ian Birrell

Sacrificing to the false god of gold

15 May 2021 9:00 am

Deep in Peru’s Amazon rainforest sits a desolate zone, stretching for miles and pockmarked with chemical-tainted water that glistens orange…

The courage of a madman: Maurice Wilson’s doomed assault on Everest

14 November 2020 9:00 am

Reinhold Messner, the first person to climb all 14 of the planet’s peaks higher than 8,000 metres, is probably the…

Trump’s autocratic antics risk becoming the new normal

8 August 2020 9:00 am

It is easy to forget the abnormality of Donald Trump’s presence in the White House. Before his election it would…

A dark journey into a fanatical underworld

14 March 2020 9:00 am

Two years ago, the counter-extremist analyst Julia Ebner decided she needed to delve deeper into the extremists trying to disrupt…

Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination was one of the century’s blackest farces

26 October 2019 9:00 am

The story of Jamal Khashoggi’s death is well known. A prominent Saudi journalist, he walked into his nation’s consulate in…

In rebel-held territory, two boys contemplate the rubble of Daraa, September 2017

The tragedy of Syria: how protest spiralled into savagery

28 April 2018 9:00 am

The fateful day five years ago began like any other for the family. A pot of black tea with cardamon…

Further dispatches from Syria’s maelstrom

16 April 2016 9:00 am

The mechanic, blinded in one eye by shrapnel, spent three days searching for his family in the destroyed buildings and…

The war on drugs is stupid and counter-productive

18 July 2015 9:00 am

Rosalio Reta was 13 years old when recruited by a Mexican drug cartel. He was given a loyalty test —…

Crimean notebook: ‘They’ll have to break all my bones to make me a Russian citizen’

15 March 2014 9:00 am

Vladimir Putin still swears that there are no Russian troops in Crimea, so their mission is to say as little…