Lynne O'Donnell

Freelance at Freelance

Editor at Foreign Policy Magazine

🇦🇺 Si vis pacem, para bellum Journalist @warstudies [email protected]

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Articles

Guest Post: Afghanistan isn't safe. We must fight for our Afghan allies

2 weeks ago | lynneodonnell.substack.com | Lynne O'Donnell

April 26, 2025 — Afghanistan isn’t safe, yet the United States may soon be responsible for sending our most trusted partners in Afghanistan back to a corrupt and brutal reality where they will be directly targeted for serving alongside American interests – unless the administration and Congress act now.
New York watches Trump crash the world

4 weeks ago | theneweuropean.co.uk | Lynne O'Donnell

In a town that never really liked Donald Trump much anyway, it’s getting harder to find anyone who has a good word to say about him, even grudgingly. And then came the tariffs, which damaged America’s export markets and hammered the stock markets. “The consequences are still unfurling, but the stakes are high,” the NYT columnist Jeff Sommer said of the dangerous volatility the tariffs unleashed.
Project Taliban

1 month ago | lynneodonnell.substack.com | Lynne O'Donnell

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Trump’s “brutal, clumsy” Gaza intervention raises a real question

Feb 6, 2025 | theneweuropean.co.uk | Lynne O'Donnell

Has president Donald Trump had a reality check amid the global outrage that greeted his suggestion that Palestinian people be removed from the Gaza Strip, so that it can be rebuilt as a Costa Smerelda-style playground for the rich of the Middle East? Or did Trump’s incendiary announcement have exactly the impact it was meant to, by focussing minds on the failure of the Middle East’s biggest powers to bring peace to their own backyard?
Under the Taliban, Afghan Women Are Suffering From Stockholm Syndrome

Jan 24, 2025 | airmail.news | Lynne O'Donnell

In the three-plus years since the Taliban returned to power, women in Afghanistan have come through the various stages of grief to arrive at the point where many long-term hostages find themselves. “They believe now the Taliban are good for them, that they are kept safe, that the best thing for them is to be locked in their homes, that everything is for their own good,” Batool Haidari, an Afghan psychologist, said.
The Taliban’s Enemies Can’t Agree on Anything

Jul 28, 2024 | lynneodonnell.substack.com | Lynne O'Donnell

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Pakistan has jailed one of its last independent journalists

Mar 1, 2024 | spectator.co.uk | Lynne O'Donnell

Text size Line Spacing Comments Share Share Lynne O'Donnell Pakistan has jailed one of its last independent journalists Linkedin Messenger Email In a cosy Persian restaurant in an Islamabad strip mall, a young man approached Asad Ali Toor for a selfie. ‘I watch your show, I admire your work, thank you for what you do,’ he told the journalist. Toor’s real crime is speaking truth to power Days later, Toor was in jail, charged with ‘cyber crimes’ after being interrogated by Pakistan’s Federal...
Lynne O'Donnell's Podcast

Feb 27, 2024 | lynneodonnell.substack.com | Lynne O'Donnell

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"Lord" Miles Routledge, British "Danger Tourist," Thrives On Danger And His "Talibros"

Dec 22, 2023 | airmail.news | Lynne O'Donnell

“Talibros.” That’s how self-styled British adventurer and incel pinup Miles Routledge refers to the Taliban gunmen who held him hostage for eight months in a filthy Kabul guesthouse. They are not psychopaths, kidnappers, or extortionists; they are his brothers and “best mates.” He can’t wait to get back to Afghanistan for a reunion.
EXCLUSIVE: British aid worker, 54, held captive by Taliban for nine months in Afghanistan before he was released reveals the horrific conditions he endured and how he only kept sane by thinking of 'all the places I'd been with my family' | Daily Mail Onli

Nov 4, 2023 | dailymail.co.uk | Richard Marsden |Lynne O'Donnell

From a nearby cell, Kevin Cornwell heard the unerasable screams of a fellow prisoner being tortured with electrodes by Taliban captors. Though he escaped this fate, Mr Cornwell's own predicament was only marginally less bleak. For one thing his health was deteriorating rapidly. The 54-year-old humanitarian worker from Middlesbrough was denied access to basic medicine, even after contracting sepsis. He saw daylight just once a month – for 20 minutes.