Ian Birrell

London

Foreign Correspondent and Columnist at Freelance

Foreign correspondent, columnist, campaigner, co-founder @africaexpress, citizen of the world and a bit more besides...

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Articles

Be in no doubt about the tragic consequences of assisted dying

5 days ago | inews.co.uk | Ian Birrell

The decision of the House of Commons to rush through a highly flawed measure to unleash assisted suicide into the National Health Service was wrong. It will soak up substantial sums of money and time that are in short supply, while talk of offering patients in pain the freedom to kill themselves is deceitful if there is not the same freedom for them to choose effective end-of-life care within a struggling system.
Can Steve Hilton save California?

2 weeks ago | unherd.com | Ian Birrell

CaliforniaGavin NewsomLos AngelesPoliticsSteve HiltonUS Manjit Singh Moltani was 19 years old when he arrived in the United States as an undocumented migrant from the Punjab. More than three decades later, he runs a thriving family business with five petrol stations in central California; he embodies all the clichés about the American Dream.
Can Steve Hilton save California?

2 weeks ago | flipboard.com | Ian Birrell

3 hours agoIP University introduces orphan quota, DU extends single girl child quota for postgraduate studentsGuru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (IPU) has introduced the orphan quota across all its courses.
The world’s wealthiest dynasty is growing richer from Britain's SEND crisis

3 weeks ago | inews.co.uk | Ian Birrell

The al-Nahyan dynasty has ruled Abu Dhabi since the 18th century and is almost certainly the richest family in the world. It is headed by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, whose nine children and two adopted daughters have been raised in a gilded world of astonishing opulence with glittering palaces and a fleet of private jets.
Inside secret Kharkiv where schools, bars and ballet are hidden underground

4 weeks ago | inews.co.uk | Ian Birrell

The school looks like so many others with its brightly-painted classrooms, clusters of chattering children and walls filled with colourful pictures drawn by pupils. When the headteacher shows me into one of the classrooms, a group of seven and eight-year-olds jump up in unison. Asked if they like their school, they chorus “yes” with some shy smiles before a bell rings and they rush off to another lesson. Yet this school, which opened less than a month ago, is highly abnormal.
The Tories are doomed - whoever is in charge

1 month ago | inews.co.uk | Ian Birrell

Here we go again. Another leader of the Conservatives is floundering, crushed by the job and haunted by their past. An ambitious rival stokes her pain, while Boris Johnson prowls around to remind people of his presence. The polls look disastrous. The public is not interested in anything they say. Threadbare policies expose a party bereft of confidence or ideas despite the cost of living concerns, a flailing economy, shattered public services and alarming global turbulence.
Why does this Government seem to dislike people with disabilities?

1 month ago | inews.co.uk | Ian Birrell

Sir Keir Starmer is having a torrid time in Downing Street as he grapples with a nightmare president in the White House, grinding war in Europe and the dreadful legacy left by his predecessors. His popularity has crashed to a record low – and latest YouGov polling shows that these dismal ratings are being driven by dismayed Labour voters, with half holding an unfavourable view of their prime minister.
Putin is toying with Trump - and he's falling for it

1 month ago | inews.co.uk | Ian Birrell

Donald Trump’s posts on social media have been a key tool in his fight to disrupt politics and redefine his country’s place in the world. His fusillade of impulsive and often impetuous tweets on first Twitter, and now also his own Truth Social platform, dominate headlines, shift markets and shatter diplomatic norms.
Reform is about to be put under the microscope - and it will crumble

1 month ago | inews.co.uk | Ian Birrell

Zia Yusuf, the chairman of Reform UK, has been busy in the media boasting about his party’s success in the local elections and calling for the “remoralisation of young people”. In one interview, he pointed to China and Russia as models for teaching a more patriotic version of British history in schools – two dictatorships that use their education systems to embed state propaganda with a distorted take on the past.
History will not be kind to Trump’s shameful sycophants

1 month ago | inews.co.uk | Ian Birrell

Barely two weeks after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, a Republican congresswoman called Anna Paulina Luna put forward legislation to carve his face on the famous Mount Rushmore memorial in South Dakota. “His remarkable accomplishments for our country, and the success he will continue to deliver, deserve the highest recognition,” she declared.