Alistair Bunkall
@AliBunkallSKY
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Sky News Middle East Correspondent, مراسل سكاي نيوز (formerly Defence & Security Correspondent) | Podcast: ‘Off The Record’ available on Spotify and iTunes
London
Joined August 2008
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Pinned Tweet
Do follow me on Instagram though, if you want explainers/videos/news/pictures from the Middle East.
For example:
I’ve already noticed less engagement with my tweets in recent months (although maybe that’s just me being uninteresting) but don’t think most people will both to pay subscription fees.
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I gather all Ministers were asked to tweet support for Cummings today.
One Minister, who didn’t, texted me: “a piece of you dies every time you see a friend or colleague tweet their support, after they’ve given you an entirely different view of Cummings in private”
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The first victim of Wednesday’s tragic incident in The Channel has been named tonight as Mariam Nouri Hamadameen, a 21 year old Kurdish from northern Iraq.
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Video has emerged of soldiers on a shooting range in Kabul firing at a target of Jeremy Corbyn. MOD confirms it as legit:
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Beautician in Jerusalem to my wife today, as she had nails done: “better to kill them (Palestinians) as babies now before they grow up to become terrorists”
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Open this photo. Extraordinary global respect the Queen commands. When she speaks, the world listens. Every US news network aired it. Via
@PhilippeCorbe
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Jess Phillips impassioned tonight, on last night’s expulsion of Tory MPs.
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Five weeks away from my wife. Just called for daily FaceTime chat: “Do you mind if we speak another time? Ocado are just about to release new delivery slots.”
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Often overlooked, 1.5 million soldiers from pre-partition India fought in WW1. 74,000 were killed and 11 Victoria Crosses awarded.
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The Russian Ambassador to the UK accused Bellingcat of being an arm of the “British deep state”. This is the moment I challenged him to prove that:
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Some of the supportive tweets by senior Cabinet Ministers before
@PippaCrerar
’s latest revelation that Cummings paid a SECOND visit to County Durham:
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UKRAINE: fear amongst western officials now is that Russia will start bombing Ukrainians indiscriminately and even with thermobaric weapons, if their progress continues to be impeded.
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GENEVA: Western diplomats walk-out en masse from a virtual speech made by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov
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Spoken to Gavin Williamson. He swore on his children’s life to me that he didn’t leak the Huawei news and neither did his staff. Said he believes this is the settling of a vendetta between him and Mark Sedwill
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So if you donate to Donald Trump’s legal fund to challenge the election, it seems from the small print that the first 60% of your money goes towards paying down his campaign debt:
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Jamie, an NHS Doctor has recorded his own version of Frozen’s Let It Go, called Stay At Home. This is great, please share!
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We rightly question and scrutinise the politics, timing and dire consequences of the NATO withdrawal, but we can’t question the professionalism, bravery and compassion of the soldiers from
@16AirAssltBde
who were sent to make it happen. They’re on their way home now.
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Israel claims Hamas are preventing people from leaving their homes in northern Gaza.
Our team in Gaza say they’ve seen no evidence of that.
I asked for the IDF surveillance footage that proves the Israeli claim, 24 hours ago, but not received yet.
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Mariam had recently travelled to Germany and onto France, hoping to join her fiancé who already lives in Britain.
She was a student and newly engaged – she left her studies early to be with her fiancé.
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Mass co-ordinated expulsion of Russian diplomats:
US - 60
Czech - 3
Ukraine - 13
Lithuania - 3
Latvia - 1
Poland - 4
Germany - 4
France - 4
Good day for Downing St.
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Switzerland has just announced it will forgo its traditional neutrality and sanction Russia.
Oligarchs seen Switzerland as a safe haven for their cash - an estimated $11bn kept here.
This will hurt.
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Getting my haircut in Baka, Jerusalem a few weeks ago:
Hairdresser: where do you live?
Me: Abu Tor
Hairdresser: Lovely! But dangerous.
Me: Why?
Him: The Arabs.
Imagine a similar exchange in London??
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I’m told it happened in the last few days. Here is the MOD statement:
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UKRAINE: I’ve been told by a senior Ukrainian official that Ukrainian Special Forces carried out the operation on a Russian airbase in Crimea yesterday.
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AFGHANISTAN: I hear there’s a mad scramble to find RAF aircraft from operations around the world so they can go to Kabul to help with repatriations.
Initial plans were to start evacuating people on Thursday, that’s been scrapped. It’s a case of ASAP now
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I’ve lived through these comments for ages, but it is racism and it needs to be called out? For example:
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“Here mother and father are totally devastated,” her cousin told us this evening.
“The situation is just awful. She was a woman in the prime of her life. It’s a total tragedy and the whole family are in shock.”
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“I know South Korea better than anybody...do you know how many people are in Seoul? Do you know how big the city of Seoul is? 38 million people.”
It’s actually 9.9 million.
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Probably the first photo ever of Philip Mountbatten meeting a young Princess Elizabeth at Dartmouth Naval College. Looks like it was taken secretly over a wall:
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Interesting: Twitter has now started labelling certain news organisations as state-affiliated-media. Here are examples from
@SputnikInt
@RT_com
and
@CGTNOfficial
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“I agree with what Boris said” - now
@MattHancock
implies he would get rid of Sir Kim Darroch from Washington.
“Why should any civil servant want to work for you in any department if you’re not going to back them up doing their job?” asks
@adamboultonSKY
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Many of the images from Syria were too horrific to put in my report tonight. Children, dead in stairwells, frothing at the mouth. To them it makes no difference if it was chlorine or sarin that killed them, or even who dropped the bombs.
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Given that members of the royal family, like politicians, often choose to ignore questions thrown at them, that Prince William decided to engage in this speaks volumes.
BREAKING The Duke of Cambridge has today hit back at accusations of racism from
#HarryandMeghanonOprah
Prince William said: “We’re very much not a racist family” adding he’s not yet been in touch with Harry: “No I haven’t spoken to him yet but I will do.”
#HarryandMeghan
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Very sad to hear that Field Marshall the Lord Bramall has died aged 95. Chief of the Defence Staff, DDay veteran, Lord Lieutenant of London, President of the MCC. One of the great men of our time.
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I’m told there are simulated paint rounds, not bullets. But “this is a terrible look” as one senior defence source just said to me.
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A list of the 19 different and contradictory narratives Russia has given for the Salisbury poisoning, as being discussed in the UNSC right now:
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Body parts of Jamal Khashoggi have been found in the garden of the Saudi Consul General's home,
@AlexCrawfordSky
is reporting from Istanbul.
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After an Israeli air strike collapsed an Iranian consulate building in Damascus and killed seven Iranian military officers, violating the Vienna Convention.
Sure, Iran’s response might have been disproportionate, but this strike was why Iran attacked Israel.
Iran has been waging a shadow war against Israel, and now it has stepped out of the shadows.
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Mariam was most commonly known to her family and friends informally as Baran.
Another relative has confirmed to us she was among Wednesday’s victims.
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I’ve booked two travel PCRs today to fly tomorrow -
UK: £145
Israel: £20
How can there still be such a vast difference in price?
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The Taliban in the Presidential Palace tonight.
You can debate the rights and wrongs of the withdrawal, but this was not an image the White House or Downing St expected:
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Downing St has stopped British Ministers attending the Munich Security Council this week.
Given attendees include Macron, Trudeau, Pompeo, Stoltenberg, Zuckerberg etc, this seems like a miss and not very Global Britain.
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It’s estimated seven Russian fighter jets were destroyed and others damaged. They were fuelled and ready to fly.
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Sat in an Italian restaurant by myself. Feel cannelloni.
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They arrived from Russia, on Russian passports, with visas obtained in Russia and then returned to Russia. But yeah, suppose they could have been Madagascan.
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London Bridge: There are now trauma packs strategically based in office buildings around the city of London area, with trained private workers, to respond to major attacks. One of the lessons learnt from 2017.
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There are images of celebrities on the range, but as VIPs to be protected rather than shot at.
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When May eventually goes, watch her rivals fall over themselves to say how admirable she was in impossible circumstances. Fact is whoever became PM after Brexit was doomed. Everyone thinks they could have done the job better but when it came to it, none were willing to try.
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My youngest daughter called my wife to the sitting room today.
“Mummy, mummy, come quick. Daddy’s on TV!”
It was Matt Hancock.
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Can someone explain to me how parliament can decide to go on holiday five days early, eight days before they were due to go on holiday anyway?
Now that really is out of touch with how normal life works.
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Just spent three days in Kabul with
@GavinWilliamson
. Was notable how he spent every moment he could with the troops, ate dinner with them, sat with them on flights and took an interest in what they were doing. Very different to his predecessors.
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Amazing photo of rockets being fired from Gaza on the right, and Iron Dome intercepting on the left. 📸
@AFP
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SYRIA: British Special Forces are involved in the operation to retake Gweiran prison in NE Syria, multiple sources have confirmed to me.
Islamic State is still in control of pockets of the prison.
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I’ve rarely seen a serving Cabinet Minister take failure so personally. Wallace is a soldier, he knows the sacrifices made by his comrades in Afghanistan and he has been commendably honest in his criticism of the US withdrawal:
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace breaks down admitting to
@NickFerrariLBC
"some people won't get back" from Afghanistan.
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Whether or not the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza has actually started (I don’t think it’s that clear) I’m hearing from contacts in Jordan and Iraq that people there assume it has, and that might or might not trigger a response
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I can't help but have a bit of admiration for this.
The acting chief of the French air force has been accused of using a fighter jet to commute home at weekends
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IF this turns out to be Russian missiles, and not stray Ukrainian air defence missiles:
* Unlikely to be a deliberate attack on Poland, (although that doesn’t lessen the tragedy of two who’ve died).
* More likely to result in NATO Article IV consultations rather than Article V
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The range is in the loft of New Kabul Compound in Afghanistan. Soldiers practice 'guardian angel' drills here - protecting VIPs.
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So forget the politicians for a sec. How do you bring the beauticians and hairdressers, who I mentioned here, how do they become players in peace?
At some point, the average Israeli and average Palestinian needs to be persuaded to make peace. I think that’s very very far away.
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Sonic boom: two RAF Typhoons were launched from Coningsby to intercept a private jet that lost communications. Jets authorised to fly supersonic hence boom over Cambridgeshire area. Jet escorted safely into Stansted. Incident now over.
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The most withering, brutal political cartoon I can remember by
@mortenmorland
in today's Times:
http://t.co/VKMAnOVM9j
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Question for my many Russian trolls:
There is CCTV of two men arriving from Russia, visiting Salisbury twice in 48hrs, and then flying back to Moscow.
If those men weren’t GRU agents, then what were they doing that weekend, the very same weekend the Skripal’s were poisoned?
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V low key, no crowd control - this was no manufactured photo-op:
BREAKING: The Duchess of Cambridge has been paying tribute to
#SarahEverard
at the band stand on Clapham Common - close to where she was last seen. Her Royal Highness paused to read the notes and look at the many flowers that have been laid.
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Breaking: The PM will announce the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the UK. Not as many as in 1971 but “significant” I’m told.
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AFGHANISTAN: I’m told the U.K. is considering sending more troops to Kabul if needed. Focus is currently on securing the airport and perimeter - US forces leading the operation and have control of air traffic control tower.
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He’s not a journalist!
#Zakharova
(on the sentence of
#journalist
and civil activist Tommy Robinson): We will continue to closely monitor this case, mainly from the perspective of
#Britain
’s declared commitment to the immutability of high human rights standards.
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The British soldier killed in Iraq last night has been named as Lance Corporal Brodie Gillon. She was 26 years old
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Journalists should agree to ask the same question four times over.
Jeremy Corbyn's refusal to take questions one at a time - today it's groups of 4 (FOUR) - is infuriating but effective. Enables him to swerve answers and deliver speeches
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Finally able to reveal that Sir Alex Younger, Chief of MI6 is my latest podcast guest. It is the first time ever that a serving Chief has given a recorded interview. He tells me about life as a young spy, the challenges facing the world today:
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The poignancy of what we didn’t see: The haunting echo of a lone bagpiper as the camera cuts away and allows the Queen a final private moment with her husband’s coffin as it lowers into the vault.
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Interesting which Cabinet Minusters haven’t tweeted support for Cummings, including
@BWallaceMP
and
@trussliz
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ISRAEL: IDF update as of 0745 this morning:
* IDF has taken back control of 29 incursion points along Gaza fence.
* Still 8 points of engagement in southern Israel but not same severity as yesterday.
* Focus is on searching and clearing areas in the south now.
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But if we’re looking at this in the context of current events and the ‘’day after’ the Gaza War, why is it important?
Well because on both sides, BOTH sides there is deep hatred and mistrust.
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Yesterday General Nick Carter said the Taliban were “country boys” who should be given a chance and there was no evidence of violence against women.
@ramsaysky
is in Kabul, looking them in the eye, and this is what he thinks:
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All bases covered. Silverstone, Lords, Wimbers. Do not disturb.
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Priti Patel met her French counterpart with a mask, outside. And then it was removed inside. No wonder people are confused. 😷
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Also the first US President to have lost the popular vote, twice.
71,000,000 Legal Votes. The most EVER for a sitting President!
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Confirmed by sources: RAF has been involved in the defence of Israel tonight:
Rumours, not confirmed, that RAF Typhoons from Akrotiri, Cyprus are involved in protecting Israel tonight.
I have been told though that more Typhoons were sent to Akrotiri on Friday in anticipation of an Iranian attack.
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Streatham terrorist, Sudesh Amman, was 17 when he started collecting terror material.
He encouraged his girlfriend at the time to behead her own parents.
He was convicted in 2018, news article here:
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Strongest statement I've ever known from a UK intelligence agency.
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What happens when the
@RoyalAirForce
are scrambled to intercept an aircraft and cleared to go supersonic? Watch this extract from my documentary a few years ago:
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Cummings drove from London - parents farm in Durham - Barnard Castle - Farm - London.
And never needed to fill up?
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On Children In Need night, it’s probably the moment to reveal that I was once Pudsey Bear in my younger days on work experience at the BBC.
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Now the operation is over, I can report that the SBS has retaken control of the ship in the Thames Estuary.
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Defence Sources: UK military have increased their security and readiness at bases in the Middle East region following Soleimani killing.
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The killing of seven aid workers last night is getting a lot of international attention because at least 5 of them were foreigners.
But since October 2023 at least 196 humanitarian workers have been killed, most of them Palestinian.
Last night’s incident was not the first.
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Missing sub: An Argentinian pilot greets a British pilot on the tarmac in Argentina - the first time an RAF plane has landed in Argentina "in living memory" I'm told. The Voyager has flown in supplies for the ongoing search:
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Argentina has accepted the British offer for help finding the missing submarine. HMS Protector is on her way and should be in the search area later today.
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UKRAINE: The regional governor of Luhansk has told us that at least 70% of Severodonetsk is now under Russian control but the fighting is ongoing.
This morning that figure was said to be 50%.
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Having Sunday lunch with my family in a London pub. Every table around us made up of groups that clearly don’t live together (obv by the way they arrived at different times and openly greeted one another) - if this is indicative of the norm, quite clear Govt has lost public will
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Patel confirms new counter-terror related measures will be announced by the government tomorrow. Sounds like they’ll legislate to stop terror offenders being released early from prison unchecked.
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Foreign Sec
@Jeremy_Hunt
on sentencing of Matthew Hedges:
“I am deeply shocked and disappointed by the verdict today.
“Today’s verdict is not what we expect from a friend and trusted partner of the United Kingdom“
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