Afghanistan’s new rulers threatened to execute a British journalist. Then they found out he could draw

In 2022 Andrew North was abducted in Kabul. Here he reveals for the first time how he was threatened with hanging — and asked to list the James Bond films he had seen

Tracing the missteps in American diplomacy.

Saeed Gul wants to go to school. Instead he’s picking up rubbish on the streets of Kabul In the chilly half-light of a Kabul dawn, two girls are walking to school, engrossed in conversation, their backpack straps neatly arranged over the folds of…

He was eating dinner with his family when the knocking began. Like many Afghans, Omid, a translator, had fled from Afghanistan in 2021 after the Taliban took over. He and his family snuck across the border to Pakistan, where they tried to keep a low…

An epic trek through the mountains brings healing and understanding to a veteran journalist Tom Parfitt does not consider himself brave. At one point in his book about a four-month journey on foot through the hills, valleys and tortured history of…

By Ruhullah Khapalwak and Andrew North Since the Taliban seized back control of Afghanistan over a year ago, even those Afghans who tried in vain to flee on the last American flights out of Kabul have settled, somehow, into a new kind of life. In…

On the left bank of the river that runs through Tbilisi is one of the less obvious legacies of Georgia’s many decades as an outpost of the Soviet Union. Sprawling along a busy road that runs beside the river Kura (also called the Mtkvari) is a vast…

An extract from a new book by Andrew North who spent 20 years in Afghanistan – and was even kidnapped by the Taliban

As fighting intensifies on the ground, unofficial “talks about talks” begin.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad discusses negotiating for peace in Afghanistan.

Andrew North is a journalist who covers Afghanistan and the Caucasus. He is based in Tbilisi. Holding contradictory policy positions and being reliably unpredictable have become a core part of the Recep Tayyip Erdogan brand in the nearly two decades…

Moscow's actions have only solidified Ukraine's desire to join Western alliance

Andrew North is a journalist who covers Afghanistan and the Caucasus. He is based in Tbilisi. The NATO flag, with its muscular-looking four-pointed star, is an unlikely protest symbol. So, too, the logo of that other cornerstone of the Western…

Government workers are unpaid and the future of girls’ education is uncertain, but life goes on in the Afghan city of Herat The dress is red and revealing. On show in the window of a wedding gown rental emporium here in Herat, it appears to challenge…

One thing never changes in Afghanistan, no matter who is in power. And that’s lunch. Whether it is a meeting with an official or a visit to someone’s home, it almost always finishes up with an invitation to break bread. It’s often awkward for the…

Following the U.S. withdrawal, desperation amid food and medicine shortages

As the Taliban took over, we used WhatsApp and hand-drawn flags to help people escape The question flashed up on my screen early on the morning of August 26th: “Do we have to get into the water?” The message was from an Afghan television host – I’ll…

Andrew North is a journalist who covers Afghanistan and was previously based in Kabul as a correspondent for the BBC. "Do not come, do not come." That was the stern injunction from Vice President Kamala Harris this June to people from Central America…