Lebanon’s Water Crisis

Lebanon’s geography means it’s blessed with water but in the capital, Beirut, and its surrounding areas more than a million and a half people suffer from serious water shortages. It’s a story of chronic mismanagement in a country that has so many problems… Economically, financially and politically. Martin Patience reports.

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Regional Palestinian Support Grows

It’s been a busy few weeks in the region and in the wake of recent events in the West bank, Gaza and Jerusalem there has been massive call for stories from all aspects of the conflict. Correspondent Martin Patience and I were tasked with doing a wider piece about the growing regional support for the Palestinian cause in the wake of what has happened.

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The ship of ‘lost lives and lost dreams’

Beirut’s Orient Queen was the cities only cruise ship… She offered an escape from the city, a family run floating party boat that was a summer haven for some and a home for the people who worked on board. On August 6th last year she became one of the casualties of the Beirut port explosion in which over 200 people lost their lives, thousands were injured and hundreds of thousands were made homeless in an instant.

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Covering the Beirut explosion

On August 4th the Lebanese capital Beirut was hit by a man made disaster. An explosion so devastating great swathes of the city were destroyed. In this strange mid-pandemic world deploying to a disaster isn’t as straight forward as it used to be 2 flights and 2 covid-19 tests in 24 hours and I was finally there to join the gathering team. This was the first major foreign deployment since the pandemic started and we were all feeling our way through it.

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A remote edit – Police brutality in India

Due to the lockdown as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic the world of newsgathering has changed dramatically. Social distancing, quarantines and lack of worldwide travel has meant that we are relying more and more on Zoom, Skype and Facetime for interviews and verified UGC for a good portion of our meaningful content. This is an example of many stories from around the world that we are having to cover from afar.

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Reopening for Rehab

After being stuck in lockdown for a while now it was great to be shooting again. I was tasked to join a team to film at the former military rehabilitation centre at Headley Court in surrey which reopened recently, not as a recovery centre for the limbless or the battle scarred, but as a recovery centre for the patients of Coronavirus. The Seacole Centre as it is now named has opened to cater for Covid patients and others who need help with their recovery.

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Decision imminent over seized supertanker off Gibraltar

The global trade and transportation of oil has for many decades been at the forefront of Middle Eastern brinkmanship as has control of the sea lanes that this valuable resource travels along. In July 2019 the UK became embroiled in a political standoff with Iran when Royal Marines were sent to board and take control of a supertanker called Grace 1 as she sailed past the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The UK had information that she was full of Iranian oil and was headed to Syria in breach of international sanctions. Tom Bateman, producer Zeynep Edim and myself travelled to Gibraltar to cover the story.

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Into the blue – A documentary

This was one shoot that I’m particularly proud of and very lucky to have been asked to contribute to. BBC News Correspondent Sophie Raworth traces the story of her pioneering grandfather who was one of the brave pilots who flew in the RAF during the First World War. I had the pleasure along with Julius Peacock of filming some elements of this lovely documentary directed and produced by the amazing BBC correspondent Robert Hall.

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Spin Room Politics

Here is a glimpse into last night’s ‘Spin Room’ at Sky News where Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn were grilled as part of the “Battle for Number 10 programme”. It was my first time anywhere in the Sky campus and it is a pretty impressive setup. Our main political correspondent was Ben Wright and it was our job as a team inside the Spin Room to provide live’s and ENG material for News Channel, Radio, the Ten bulletin and for a BBC Breakfast package in the morning.

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Pippa’s Wedding

Yesterday was the day the Duchess of Cambridge’s sister Pippa Middleton tied the knot with James Matthews in Englefield and the Royal attended event had the press coverage given to official Royal events with the world’s press turning up to try to get a glimpse of the wedding party which included, Harry, William, Kate and or course Princess Charlotte and Prince George.

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Zeebrugge Disaster – 30 years on

The Cross channel ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized minutes after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on the 6th March 1987. The tragic events that night resulted in 193 passengers and crew losing their lives in what was the biggest peacetime maritime disaster since the Titanic. Commemorations were held this weekend in both the ports of Zeebrugge and its intended destination of Dover and I was tasked by ITV News to be their shoot edit to cover both events over two days.

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From the Dockyard to the Scrapyard

Last Wednesday I was tasked by BBC News to cover the final departure of the Royal Navy Aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious from her home port of Portsmouth as she sets off for a scrapyard in Turkey. She has been sold for a measly 2 million pounds and will follow the fate of her two sister ships and be broken up for scrap metal.

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Battle of Hastings 950th Year

Yesterday I was sent down by BBC News to the lovely town of Battle to cover a reenactment of the Battle of Hastings, commemorating the 950th Anniversary of that fateful day. I arrived at about 2pm to find that Tim and Duncan had organised a mock battle just for me to film for our piece and the action made up a major part of our edit.

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Nato Exercise Estonia with Jonathan Beale

The BBC’s Defense Correspondent Jonathan Beale reports from Estonia about Nato Exercises on the North East flank of the alliance’s borders with Russia. This report was shot by me with Jonathan in June and we edited using FCPX back in the UK for it to go out ahead of the Nato Summit in Warsaw in July 2016.

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Terror attack at the Radisson Blu – Mali

Gunmen attacked western tourists and local workers in the Radisson Blu Hotel, in Bamako, Mali… I was called the morning after the attack and I was flown out that very night by the BBC to meet up with the team to cover the story. Our West Africa Correspondent Thomas Fessy had flown out from Dakar and was already in the city by the time I arrived.

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Migrant Jungles – Filming for Newsnight

Earlier this year I was tasked to meet a team from Newsnight in Calais to cover the possible clearing of the Migrant Camp called the Jungle. While waiting for the authorities to confirm the start of the clearing process we decided to film our first nightly piece concentrating on another camp just a few kilometres away in Dunkirk.

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