News
The Military Press Officer
Lieutenant Commander Mike Parr of the Royal Navy has been with me wherever I go in Helmand. I would not have been allowed to come here without a “minderâ€. Mike’s main job is to make sure that I don’t compromise operational security. To check that I don’t put the soldiers lives at risk by what […]
Andrew Mwenda at TED
Over on the excellent TED Talks Blog Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda gives a provocative speech on how the media should focus less on the bad news coming out of the continent and more on the good and how the answer to Africa’s problems is not more aid. As Ethan Zuckerman notes, The talk so incensed […]
From Pyongyang with pictures
On 27th September Yannis Kontos will be at the Frontline Club showing and talking about the photographs he took during 17 days in North Korea. It’s not the easiest place to get to, and certainly not a simple spot to work in. Yannis will be telling us how he did it. If you’re hungry for […]
17 years young
And it doesn’t look a day older… Transnistria, or to give it it’s full name – Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica – the breakaway republic of Moldova and only remaining Stalinist outhold in Europe, is 17 years old this week. Click the video above to see the celebrations in the teenage republic or arrange your next holiday […]
Gereshk Evening Patrol and Fighting
[video:youtube:vF2Ec9_r4qY] Now I have arrived in a forward operating base in Gereshk, still in Helmand, where I am staying with 3 Company, Grenadier Guards. I have been told that the base is frequently mortared but the soldiers seem jovial. But it’s more than jovial. It is as if they don’t think that life can throw […]
Helicopter Deliveries in Helmand
[video:youtube:jJS124JAQ7I] Everyone likes a helicopter ride. I have been flying around with the Royal Air Force Chinooks over the British Army’s 12 Brigade’s area in Helmand as they delivered ammunition in under-slung loads. The helicopters are armed with machine guns and a chain gun to counter the ever-present threat from the Taliban. They are essential […]
Mortared in Gereshk
[video:youtube:ac0TXK6yuj0] I woke up early in the morning, and was sitting up on my camp-bed, when I heard a distant “popâ€. It took me about a second to realise what I thought it was and I reassured myself that I was under protective cover. I was right. Shortly after there was a loud explosion in […]
Chocolate Melts!
[video:youtube:x0FeOOHDcKQ] The soldiers have been living on field rations, many of them for months on end. The rations aren’t bad. They contain the right balance of nourishment that the soldiers need but they are boring day after day. Some of the Guardsmen were joking with me that their protective jackets don’t fit them anymore because […]
Shot by a sniper
Last week photographer John D McHugh popped into the Frontline Club to give a talk about his time in Afghanistan and to explain how he was shot by a Taleban sniper. He blogs about it on his personal blog, I went and got myself shot. Yes, that’s right, shot. In the chest. With a real […]
Khmer Fried Chicken
In our global search for the cutting culinary edge and following on from the latest in Khartoum, we discover – courtesy of Phnomenon – that the devil’s spawn American fastfood chain KFC is coming to Cambodia and it’s coming soon, QSR Brands Bhd is expanding its restaurant business under the KFC brand to Cambodia. The […]
You too can be Hassan Nasrallah
That’s right, you too can be the leader of Hezbollah. The Lebanese group have entered the world of video gaming bringing the frontline to a living room near you. No surprises for guessing who the enemy is, The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has launched a new computer game with Israel as the enemy. Special Force […]
Fuel from the frontline
Alive in Baghdad brings the Iraqi capital to the internet – direct from the streets, unfiltered and outside the green zone. It’s produced by “a team of Americans and Iraqi correspondents on the ground” But, as the Philadelphia-based show producers Brian Conley and Steve Wyshywaniuk say, it’s not easy keeping on keeping on with the […]
Khartoum cuisine
As far as I recall Khartoum didn’t figure in the World’s Best 50 restaurants this year and with highlights like the above it’s no wonder. Frontline Club social network member Andrew Heavens takes the cork off the Sudanese dining scene after his recent move from Addis Ababa, where dinner time was somewhat different.
May the Mastiff be with you
Yesterday Frontline Club head honcho, Vaughan Smith, met the blast-proof ‘Mastiff PPV’ for the first time. As 25 tonne, £265,000 combustion engine powered vehicles go, it’s rather impressive. Introduced in September 2006, the gargantuan armour plated truck is quite literally a lifesaver, according to the Royal Tank Regiment’s Corporal Upton who speaks in Vaughan’s video […]
Get your Frontline
This blog will focus on the lives of Frontline Club members, foreign correspondents, war reporters, interested and disgruntled parties from around the world. One day we might have an in-depth interview with a reporter in Moldova, or taking a swipe at the crumbiest bar in Bogota, the following night we’ll be gossiping about something he-said-she-said […]
Afghan Army Training
[video:youtube:kQ-S-ipUmQk] I have now attached myself to Colour Sergeant Jim Bastin of the Inkerman Company of the Grenadier Guards. He is part of the 3rd Kandak training team. I have been able to film him running through some basic drills with them on the helicopter pad. I am going to spend more time with both […]
Camel Spider!
I have never seen a camel spider (solifugae) before but have heard stories about them. I had company last night.
Sangin Patrol and the Mastiff
[video:youtube:z7oJLwUUEHg] This morning I went on patrol with the Queen’s Company of the Grenadier Guards and the First Kandak of the Afghan National Army commanded by Major Attaullah. The commander of the British ‘mentors†was Colour Sergeant “Spook†Boak. The job of training and fighting with indigenous forces is the sort of role that Special […]
Lucha Libre fighter shows off bite scars
Whilst lurking around the parking lot of Arena Mexico waiting for the press pass that we've been promised, NewCorrespondent noticed that sitting around chatting to the attendant was Ringo Mendoza, a well known Lucha Libre fighter. At the ripe old age of around sixty, he is still getting in the ring, and also teaches at […]
Photos from Basilan
New on Flickr, my photos from Basilan For hi-res downloads, low-res comps and so on, go to my photoshelter page.
Conversation with a Nationalist Socialist
La Lagunilla, one of the biggest markets in Mexico City, is a boiling mass of furniture, cheap jeans, cameras, shoes, tacos, antique fur coats, old photographs, contemporary art, beer stalls, BBQs and practically anything else that you can think of. Whilst ambling through the hundreds of stalls that spring up each weekend at the market, […]
Sangin River
[video:youtube:aP9WHMG2a90] I arrived in Sangin this morning by helicopter and met up with the Queens Company, Grenadier Guards. The was a soldier in the Queens Company 20 years ago. When the Parachute Regiment were in Sangin last year they were subject to almost constant attack from the Taliban. Attacks now are relatively infrequent but you […]
Lack of events, dear boy, lack of events
It was a good choice, it seems. This weekend’s supposed Major Offensive turned out to be a let down – even if I’d been there, there was nothing to actually cover. Two soldiers were injured in a small firefight, but other than that, there was no contact with Abu Sayyaf or the MILF. Indeed, it’s […]
Peter and the Gandamac Lodge
[video:youtube:2iltEbDjM_M] While waiting in Kabul, to come down to Helmand, I stayed at Peter Jouvenal’s Gandamac Lodge. It’s run by Peter and his Afghan wife, Hassina, and I have never stayed anywhere quite like it. I was in Kabul in 2001 when Peter decided to open a guesthouse there. He had just finished as John […]
Or, for course, not
An eventful day, yesterday. With nothing to see, no access to any refugees, and very little possibility of any travel closer to the frontline, by an hour after I’d written the last post, I was ready to get off Basilan and return to Zamboanga. Zamboanga is only a 40 minute boat ride away, and with […]
Choices, choices
Written on 24 August, 07:49 local Choices choices. With a new Colonel in command, and the need to not get as many soldiers killed as they did last time, the planning for the next Big Operation Against Abu Sayyaf is taking a long time. The common story, no matter who I ask, is that there […]
Afghanistan and the Grenadier Guards
I am off to spend some time with my old army unit who are currently in the thick of it in Helmand, Afghanistan. I used to be a Captain in the Grenadier Guards 20 years ago. I left in 1987 and went out to Afghanistan to become an independent video journalist. I have been back […]
One man dies and 24 are injured in Huamantla’s amateur bullfighting festival, Mexico
[video:bliptv:422064] One man dies and 24 are injured in Huamantla’s amateur bullfighting festival, Mexico One man died and 24 people, including one women, were injured in Huamantla’s amateur bullfighting festival in Mexico this weekend. Each year, the small town of Huamantla in the state of Tlaxcala celebrates the day of the Virgin Mary by creating […]