Published in The Observer (February 23rd 2014) The Upside of Down by Charles Kenny (Basic Books) During the last United States presidential election, the then-rising Republican star Chris […]
Aid / Pakistan / World
How we pour millions into foreign flood zones
Published in The Daily Mail (12th February, 2014) While thousands of frightened and furious Britons fight to defend their homes from the rising waters this week, the biggest […]
Pakistan / World
Victim support charity chief ‘took armed gang to settle land dispute’
Published in the Mail on Sunday (January 26th, 2014) The head of Victim Support, the Government-backed charity for people affected by crime, has been accused of taking an […]
Israel, West Bank & Gaza / World
Summer on a kibbutz as Sharon dragged Israel into a quagmire
Published in The Independent (January 13th, 2014) In 1982, facing the long summer of a second-year student in the days of student grants, I followed a friend – […]
Israel, West Bank & Gaza / World
Ariel Sharon, the Butcher of Beirut turned peacemaker, dies at the age of 85
Published in The Mail on Sunday (January 12th, 2014) Ariel Sharon, the Israeli general and former prime minister who proved such a controversial figure across the Middle East […]
Aid / China / World
World hunger has fallen. Now what do we do about the planet’s expanding waistline?
Published in The Independent (January 11th, 2014) In the year of my birth China was engulfed in the worst famine of modern history. One chronicler remembers rushing home […]
Travel / Turkey / World
Go cold Turkey
Published in The Daily Mail (January 1st, 2014) As arrived at our flat in the heart of Istanbul, big fat flakes of snow fell around us. The medieval landmark […]
Aid / Haiti / Philippines / Sri Lanka / World
Too often incompetent, self-serving aid agencies make matters worse
Published in the Daily Mail (November 16th, 2013) The stories are heartbreaking. Families have been ripped apart, houses flattened and communities crushed. The images of towns and cities […]
North Korea / World
North Korea is treated like a joke – but the realities are deadly serious
Published in The Guardian (October 29th, 2013) Kim Song-ju sought to escape the living hell of North Korea, but after crossing a freezing river into China was returned, […]
North Korea / World
Breaking Bad in North Korea
Published in the Mail on Sunday (September 22nd, 2013) A small army of women, identical in long yellow dresses and clutching golden fans, enter the vast stadium to […]
Immigration / Policy / Syria / World
Open our borders to Syria’s refugees
Published in The Independent (September 12th, 2013) Azad Sino fled with his wife and two children from the Syrian city of Aleppo nearly two years ago, when the […]