John Sparks @sparkomat Twitter profile

Last Seen Profiles

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

2 years

Our report on Iran, featuring an interview with a teammate of professional footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani, now facing the death penalty as a popular rebellion sweeps through the country... produced by @SkyGreenfield

Iran: Teammate of footballer facing death penalty speaks out

A friend of an Iranian footballer facing execution has spoken of his shock that Amir Nasr Asadani could die for taking part in a peaceful protest.The 26-year...

www.youtube.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

Sky News speaks to acclaimed author Tsitsi Dangarembga and MDC Alliance spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere after their bail hearings in Harare:

An illustration of how Mnangagwa is willing to emulate Mugabe

Emmerson Mnangagwa orders a nationwide shutdown as high-profile figures are arrested during protests against his government.

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

To confirm, the Sky News team was traveling to Epworth in Harare to conduct an interview with the head of the National Vendors Union on the morning of 26 January, 2019. At 8:30 am, at the junction of Chiremba Road and Glenara Avenue, we witnessed a man being beaten by...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

5 years

Tens of thousands gathering tonight in front of Sudan's military headquarters in Khartoum. A massive display of people-power, lit by smart-phone, accompanied by chants for revolution: "the people want to overthrow the regime"... #SudanProtests

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

Reports of new air strikes in the Tigrayan capital, Mekelle - happening now - two days after the Ethiopian government said it had bombed 'communications infrastructures' in the city ....

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@sparkomat

6 years

We’ve spoken with President Mnangagwa’s spokesman @GeorgeCharamba and he says Nelson Chamisa will win the popular vote... what is absolutely clear is that @nelsonchamisa has done far better than the experts predicted...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

had his handcuffs removed and ordered to drive. The van pulled away at 9:00 am with uniformed and plain-clothes members of the security forces inside. We stand by our reporting.

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

The funeral procession of 52-year old grandmother, Sylvia Matambo (Maphosa) who was shot in the back by a soldier as she left the office of the Water Board in Harare on Wednesday afternoon...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

Olympic legend turned entrepreneur, Haile Gebrselassie, warns the West not to push Ethiopia too far:

Olympic legend and now successful businessman Haile Gebrselassie warns West not to push Ethiopia

The two-time Olympic gold medal winner, now a thriving businessman, spent much of his 20-year career overseas, staying in hotels and using services that were unavailable in Ethiopia and is now using...

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

5 years

Emmerson Mnangagwa promised his people 'the Zimbabwe you want' - but never has a promise felt so hollow:

Emmerson Mnangagwa promised a 'Zimbabwe you want' but has failed to deliver

ZANU-PF offered "visionary and mature leadership" but, with soaring unemployment and inflation, there is little sign of it.

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

The driver who has just gone into the back of our vehicle in Zimbabwe says, “I had no idea you were planning to stop at the red light...”

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

Unconfirmed reports from Zimbabwe that journalist Hopewell Chin'ono is seriously ill in Chikurubi prison. His lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa sent a doctor to prison and is awaiting an assessment. Chin'ono has been detained for over a month after tweeting support for an opposition rally.

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

Independent election monitors say 21% of polling stations in Zimbabwe election did not post results immediately as required by law - the MDC Alliance accuses the electoral commission/government of ‘cooking the books’...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

Zimbabwean opposition leader (and pastor) Nelson Chamisa’s MDC rally has the sort of energy and top tunes that all political rallies should strive for.... @skynews

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

Sky News, the first to travel south from Tigray's capital Mekelle to villages like Cheli where major battles have been fought. Residents say soldiers murdered villagers & destroyed their homes after accusing them of siding with the enemy - more on @skynews

Ethiopia: Hundreds executed, thousands homeless - the human cost of fighting in Tigray

The breadth and depth of human suffering in the Ethiopian region of Tigray is perfectly clear to humanitarian workers, human rights groups and the international diplomatic community.

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

Sky News witnesses a vicious roadside beating by members of Zimbabwe’s security forces as they target and assault hundreds of people after protests over massive fuel price hikes...

Security officials seen beating man in Zimbabwe

Sky News has witnessed the beating of a man who was arrested in Zimbabwe by security officials. Warning: contains images of violence.

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

In other news, the Zimbabwe Republic Police confirmed Sky News' exclusive story that the authorities have arrested and detained children in the aftermath of nationwide fuel protests. A senior assistant commissioner said 36 children had been arrested:

Children held as 'enemies of the state' in Zimbabwe

Many children have been arrested in Zimbabwe over the unrest as part of president's crackdown. Sky News's John Sparks reports

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

members of the the security forces. We filmed as he was marched down the Chiremba Road in the direction of the CBD (city centre). The victim was put in a taxi van, then hauled out and beaten for an additional 4 minutes. Another man, in a red shirt, was taken out of the van....

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

Ethiopia conflict: Military sources tell Sky News that government forces are holding up large numbers of refugees and preventing them from fleeing. Our latest report on their treacherous journey:

Ethiopia conflict: Treacherous journey for thousands fleeing violence

Tens of thousands of people have fled Ethiopia to escape ethnic persecution as civil war rages in the Tigray region.Most have nothing and have walked for up ...

www.youtube.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

A 22-yr old student, Tawanda Muchehiwa says he was abducted & tortured by Zimbabwe's security services for 3 days. Civil rights groups say he is one of dozens to suffer but Muchehiwa's case is different in one respect - his abduction was caught on cctv:

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

Five riot police vehicles parked directly outside the MDC headquarters building in central Harare this morning - which looks and feels like old school intimidation to me...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

5 years

A ⁦ @SkyNews ⁩ investigation into the man who fell from the sky. Who was the stowaway found in a tidy garden in south London - and why did he take the risk?| World News | Sky News

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

Residents in Bulawayo tell Sky News that Zimbabwe police and military conduct nightly beatings on men aged 14 to 40 ... attacks are vicious, indiscriminate and given without reason say residents:

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

Disturbing release by @MSF about an attack on a military convoy on the Mekelle-Adigrat road and execution-style reprisal killings by Ethiopian soldiers on men in mini-buses. @sky news travelled this road yesterday (24/03) and saw (1/3) via @MSF_EastAfrica

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

5 years

We spent months tracking down the stowaway who hid on a Kenya Airways plane and fell out over Clapham this summer. Kenyan authorities said no one was missing but we think an airport cleaner in Nairobi called Paul Manyasi smuggled himself on board. Check out our Snapchat special:

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

When do we start to take this seriously?

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

A big anti-government protest is being held in the Zimbabwean capital Harare today - its the first demo in the city since a violent crackdown killed 6 protestors on 1 August and the police (who approved this event) are on the streets in force....

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

A 52-year old grandmother, called Sylvia Maphosa (Matambo) went to work at the Zimbabwe Water Authority last Wednesday but did not return home... watch our @SkyNews report on one family's loss and the political struggle which surrounds them ...

Zimbabwe, Aug 4, 2018 | A 52-year old grandmother, called Sylvia...

A 52-year old grandmother, called Sylvia Maphosa (Matambo) went to work at the Zimbabwe Water Authority last Wednesday but she did not return home......

www.facebook.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

MDC Alliance leader @nelsonchamisa tells @SkyNews the mood in Zimbabwe is volatile: "I'm actually trying to hold (the protestors) back, to say please hold your horses. If I were not to do it I can tell you things would happen in a particular other way."

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

Watch our exclusive report from the torched remains of Shimelba refugee camp in Tigray. More than 30000 camp residents at Shimelba and Hitsats camps were attacked by Eritrean troops in mid- November in what may be the single worst atrocity in this vicious conflict...

Sky News

@SkyNews

3 years

For the past five months the head of the Ethiopian government has adamantly denied the presence of Eritrean troops, together with their military hardware, in the northern region of Tigray. @sparkomat is one of the first journalists to cover the story 👇

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

After backing Mnangagwa as the man to reform Zimbabwe, the UK retakes the consensus line in the west after 12 months of political and state sanctioned violence ....

newZWire

@newswireZW

6 years

JUST IN: At a hearing of the UK’s International Development Committee, foreign secretary Harriet Baldwin says after the recent violent army crackdown, “it will be difficult for us” to back Zimbabwe’s debt arrears clearance plan, or to support its Commonwealth readmission

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

Sky News reports from Zimbabwe’s second city, Bulawayo, where hundreds of people have been detained and the government’s crackdown is in full swing:

Zimbabwe civilians ‘traumatised’ by unjustified attacks

A year ago Zimbabwe was supposedly turning a page with the fall of Robert Mugabe.But in recent days our screens have been filled with pictures taking us righ...

www.youtube.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

STORY UPDATE: Around this time last year, we ran a series about a Zimbabwean student called Tawanda Muchehiwa. He was doing a media studies course in Bulawayo when, without warning, he was abducted by a shadowy police unit called the ‘Ferret’. Tawanda almost lost his life....

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

5 years

Disturbing news in Zimbabwe with police effectively imprisoning head of doctors' association Dr Peter Magombeyi, inside the clinic where he sought medical attention after his alleged abduction last week. Today, the High Court ruled he could leave for treatment in South Africa...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

Dozens of children have been rounded up, arrested and detained by Zimbabwean soldiers and police and lawyers tell Sky News the courts have been ordered to convict:

Children held as 'enemies of the state' in Zimbabwe

Many children have been arrested in Zimbabwe over the unrest as part of president's crackdown. Sky News's John Sparks reports

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

2 years

Heading home after a month covering the war in Ukraine. We leave the east on the brink of an all-out assault and will worry for the extraordinary people we’ve met. Their strength has moved us deeply, as has their suffering….

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

The formidable, insuppressible Beatrice Mtetwa on the streets of Harare today....

Open Parly ZW

@OpenParlyZw

6 years

Beatrice Mtetwa: If arrested you should be accorded due legal process, there shouldn't be instant justice as we are seeing #OpenParlyZW @ZLHRLawyers @lawsocietyofzim @Wamagaisa @DougColtart @DavidColtart

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

Ethiopia's PM Abiy Ahmed has declared victory in Tigray but humanitarian agencies still can't get access to those in desperate need. "It's time for concrete action," says an increasingly exasperated @FilippoGrandi from the UNHCR:

Ethiopia govt 'takes control' of Mekelle - but humanitarian crisis...

The Ethiopian government says its troops have taken "full control" of the Tigray region's capital Mekelle, but the recent conflict has left tens out thousand...

www.youtube.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

7 years

Volunteers in Moscow office now broadcasting Navalny anti-corruption protests in 210 Russian cities ....

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

Extra-judicial killing, rape, abduction, gunshot assaults ... a horrifying list of state-perpetrated crimes in Zimbabwe, collated by the Human Rights NGO Forum over the past 3 weeks...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

At least 37 Zimbabweans died in the UK during the pandemic - the 'vast majority health and social care workers' according officials - it means some 10% of all front line staff in UK who died have come from one, relatively small African country. Our report:

Coronavirus pandemic sees '37 Zimbabweans die in Britain'

Sky News has been told that at least thirty seven Zimbabweans have died in Britain during the pandemic by officials in their embassy, with health workers com...

www.youtube.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

2 years

A sign of Russia's intent. This is Freedom Square in central Kharkiv - we stood on that spot one week ago, listing to musicians sing patriotic songs in the blue 'Freedom tent' to the left. People told us they couldn't believe the Russians would invade...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

5 years

The Zimbabwean government says it's "unthinkable it would be involved," in the abduction of the head of the doctors' association, Peter Magombeyi. Problem is, abductions of union leaders have become commonplace. Just ask Obet Masaraure (now in jail)

Emmerson Mnangagwa promised a 'Zimbabwe you want' but has failed to deliver

ZANU-PF offered "visionary and mature leadership" but, with soaring unemployment and inflation, there is little sign of it.

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

An aerial view of Zimbabwe's largest opposition party, the MDC Alliance's final election rally in Harare today ... a sea of red in 'Freedom Square' to hear Nelson Chamisa make his final pitch... @SkyNews

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

The major highways in Zimbabwe - like this one near Bulawayo - are virtually post-apocalyptic. No traffic, no cars, no petrol, no activity... accept the odd cart & donkey

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

Zimbabwean businessman tells me it's "total chaos in Zimbabwe right now." Finance Minister @MthuliNcube has dropped restrictions on some imports but hasn't made the big decisions required to restore trust & confidence.

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

The first of two @SkyNews reports from Zimbabwe challenging the ruling party's contention that the recent election was free, fair & free of violence and intimidation. It matters because they are seeking international finance to bail themselves out...

'Little change' in Zimbabwe since historic election

Sky News discovers evidence of election-related intimidation and harassment against opponents of the ruling Zanu-PF party.

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

We’re on the ground in Amhara in Ethiopia as thousands of troops assemble on the front line of an increasingly fractured nation - with ⁦ @McGarwen ⁩ ⁦ @GetachewSS ⁩

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

9 months

We join Irish UN peacekeepers on Lebanon's volatile southern frontier with Israel as their commander warns that the border clash is "progressing towards all-out war..." w/ @nevilleskynews @camera_sam via @YouTube

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

5 years

An important moment in Mozambique - a crucial highway washed away by the cyclone has been temporarily fixed - with the help of engineers from ‘China State Construction’ ... now the NGO’s can start moving far more aid... #CycloneIdai

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

Terror inhabits the Garden of Eden as we visit ‘no man’ land’ in Ethiopia’s brutal civil conflict - our latest with @McGarwen and @GetachewSS

Ethiopia civil war: 'Garden of Eden' village where hyenas eat human remains and locals are left to...

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed directed the country's military to remove the TPLF in November but the rebels pushed back in a 10-month contest that has been marked by allegations of serious human rights...

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

7 years

...plus two lawyers to represent them if the riot police come - that's what happened the last time Navalny tried this

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

It is going to be tough for @TeeMuchehiwa ... it is a huge personal change after an incredibly traumatic episode and he still has financial worries. But in Leicester and its university, he was found a wonderful place to start again...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

7 years

National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa say 65 miners workers rescued from pit in Welkom but a 1000 still underground. "There is no electricity so they are using a generator to power the cage to take workers to the surface."

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

8 years

Russian MP tells @SkyNews : We're not decriminalising violence agst women. We're decrim. 'light battery' in family

Russia softens wife-beating laws

Russia has decriminalised some forms of domestic violence, sparking outrage among women's groups.

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

5 years

Statement from the Met Police regarding our findings on the stowaway found in Clapham: Sky News has provided us with images of Paul Manyasi. Officers continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death and are taking steps to confirm identification of the deceased.

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

Defiant, uncompromising statement from Tigray’s TPLF leadership on four month anniversary of conflict in northern Ethiopia - promising to continue war while seeking international support over human rights abuses...

Getachew K Reda

@reda_getachew

3 years

Statement of the Government of Tigray

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

The alleged abduction of Zimbabwean student, Tawanda Muchehiwa - carried out, it is believed, by a secret police unit whose members refer to themselves as 'the Ferrets' - this is the first such incident to be captured on CCTV:

Zimbabwe student 'abducted and beaten'

A Zimbabwean student has told Sky News he was abducted and abused by men he claims were working for the country's government.Tawanda Muchehiwa, 22, says he e...

www.youtube.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

5 years

Leo Mugabe tells me that his uncle - & notorious long-time Zimbabwean president, ‘will get a hero’s funeral’ at Harare’s Hero’s Acre cemetery. Some family members had insisted on burying him at his rural home but it seems the government has been persuasive & got its way...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

2 years

In conversation with a Ukrainian army volunteer as he moves to the front line for the very first time. After Bucha, “the Russians must die,” he says but admits that, “everybody is a bit scared, nobody is sure they will return home.”

Ukraine war: Ukrainian soldier on his way to frontline for first time - 'After what Russians did in...

One Ukrainian battalion member in the city of Barvinkove tells Sky News of Russian forces: "I look at them as people but after the stuff they did in Bucha... they must die."

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

7 years

Police in Moscow say they'll use face-recognition technology on street where Alexsey Navalny plans his main anti-corruption protest...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

Government of Botswana calls reports that up to 90 elephants were poached in a single incident ‘misleading and sensational’. Survey indicates 53 died over long period, mostly from natural causes...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

Chinja, chinja they cry (or change) at a rally for Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the MDC - and with 90% unemployment most here feel they have nothing to lose....

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

Tawanda wanted to find a way to effect positive change in his homeland and applied for one of @uniofleicester 's amazing "Citizens of Change" scholarships. Now he is first-year law student in the UK & cherishes the freedom; "the feeling of not having to watch my back is amazing."

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

7 years

Russian General Prosecutors Office calls St Petersburg blast a terrorist attack. All 62 stations on lock-down. Increased security in Moscow

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

Surviving bombs, shelling and persecution in Ethiopia, tens of thousands of refugees are on the road, heading for the national frontier. But the survivors must negotiate one final obstacle before they reach relative safety in Sudan... filmed by @McGarwen

Tigray crisis: No clothes, no money, no possessions. Ethiopian refugees flee ethnic persecution

Tens of thousands have fled Tigray, leaving everything behind - and Sudanese military think thousands more are still to come.

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

2 years

Gunfire and disorder in Wazirabad as former PM Imran Khan dodges an attempt on his life… ⁦⁦ @CordeliaSkyNews ⁩ witnesses the scene in this compelling reportage:

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin'ono @daddyhope has been remanded in custody over a tweet sent last week that damaged "public confidence in the reputation of the Zimbabwe Republic Police..." according to the authorities. Magistrate ordered that he be held in isolation....

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

Gold medalist Haile Gebreselassie’s position on the war is more nuanced than this article suggests. We’ve just interviewed him & he says he’s already helping the war effort - and he knows how to handle a gun - but he’s not heading to the front just yet

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

He was taken to a clearing in the bush and physically and emotionally tortured for the next three days. His life was saved when a judge ordered the police to find and release him. Remarkably, Tawanda's abduction was caught on a number of CCTV cameras:

Zimbabwe student abducted and beaten for three days

Tawanda Muchehiwa was abducted by men believed to be state security agents and beaten for three days.

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

Zimbabwe Election Commission @ZECzim says results from 11,000 polling stations nearly counted, official results from 3pm today, final result within 5 days .... and there’s been ‘no rigging or cheating’ they say...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

Extraordinary scenes in Mobeni in Durban as thousands of people loot food warehouses and a rice depot … people are hungry but here, people have brought trucks and cars and stuffed them full with anything they can seize.

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

... civilian population after confrontations with opposition fighters. See our report from the village of Cheli last week where local residents allege the massacre of hundreds of people after a battle in the area (3/3):

Ethiopia: Hundreds executed, thousands homeless - the human cost of fighting in Tigray

The breadth and depth of human suffering in the Ethiopian region of Tigray is perfectly clear to humanitarian workers, human rights groups and the international diplomatic community.

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

...two smouldering army vehicles. Further towards Mekelle, we saw two, undamaged minibuses and a number of bodies lying in the ground off the road. We counted four or five. It is both upsetting and increasing typical as Ethiopian & allied forces carry out attacks on the (2/3)

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

#Ethiopia Amhara nears the end of ‘keremte’ - or the 3-month rainy season…

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

5 years

Members of Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the MDC, gathered for a speech at party HQ this morning by leader Nelson Chamisa. After he entered the building, police turned on crowd with batons, tear gas, whips and water cannon. Speech cancelled. No comment from the government...

Flint Bedrock

@flintbedrock

5 years

Terrible scenes in Harare this morning, Zimbabwe Republic Police savagely beating members of the country’s main opposition party.

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

2 years

I posted this on Tuesday. Kramatorsk station is centrally located w/ multiple platforms - it can’t be mistaken for anything else. Tens of thousands have been using it to evacuate - it can’t be mistaken for any other purpose. This rocket strike is a deliberate attack on civilians.

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

Sun’s up in Kamwokya in Uganda and residents are cuing up to vote - its calm, quiet and people waiting for the polling booth to cast their vote - in this case, a washing-up tub with a pen attached (which seems to work) ...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

5 years

Ironic really, that Robert Mugabe died in a well-appointed Singaporean hospital while Zimbabwean hospitals and clinics struggle to provide their patients with paracetamol. But it's part of his complicated legacy - a nation liberated then impoverished by a man who wouldn't let go

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

10 years

This isn't amazing Malaysia. 1/3 of #kualalumpur City Centre park flogged to #fourseasons hotels. The green is gone. http://t.co/apiXo8IvW9

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

Former govt minister Obert Mpofu tells inquiry into post-election violence in Zimbabwe that President Mnangagwa ordered troops onto streets - but deaths of 6 protestors were caused by 'snipers trying to soil government's credibility' - which will be viewed incredulously by many.

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

High Court in Uganda has set next Monday as date to rule on Bobi Wine and wife Barbra's attempt to leave their home which has been surrounded by security forces for the past week. The authorities deny holding Wine in custody, stating they are giving them "necessary protection"

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

5 years

They have been preparing for the worst in Goma and this is the worst case - the second and third Ebola victims confirmed in the city. Nearby Rwanda responds by shutting the border - threatening an economic as well as a public health emergency...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

I've spoken to the South African organisers of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University COVID19 vaccine trial - participants due for 2nd dose have been rescheduled to later in the week/early next week. The pause in trial, a 'routine occurrence' they say....

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

9 months

I'm sorry about the news from 'Newsnight' ... a former editor compared it to a 'beautiful & expensive watch' passed from one generation to another. At C4 News we often marvelled and always tried to match it. It was bold & free-thinking and should - and will be - missed....

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

7 years

Would you drink this? You wld if you were thirsty. Residents of crammed IDP camp near Mosul say drinking water comes from the Tigris River.

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 months

In Gaza youth offers no protection from the realities of war. We meet 3 children who tell us, they watched Israeli troops shoot their parents in front of them in Khan Yunis. Tragic stories & disturbing testimony w/ @Katy_Scholes @skyzein & team in Gaza.

Israel-Hamas war: Palestinian siblings see parents killed in IDF raid

Sky's team in Gaza has spoken to a young brother and sister who watched their parents killed by Israeli troops and their disabled sibling blinded in one eye ...

www.youtube.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

Breakfast in Dessie, Ethiopia. Bowls of ful and hair-thickening-grade coffee…

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

Sky News gains unique access to an overcrowded camp holding IS family members including 19-year old Briton Shamima Begun. She tells me that she and her new born son are sick - before adding, "I am willing to change," in order to return to the UK:

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

Amongst the victims of the pandemic is Abdallah al-Bashir - the brother of Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir - who died yesterday of COVID. He was being held in a Khartoum prison on corruption charges. Elsewhere, 19 members of the Sudanese PM's office have caught the virus...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

2 years

Ukrainian strawberries are bad-ass … bigger than golf balls. No wonder the world needs its produce…

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

6 years

Bulawayo update: fewer beatings by Zimbabwe’s army and police but nightly patrols mean public have to be indoors by 6:30-7 ... “it’s an unofficial curfew” say our contacts.

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

Simon Mhlanga came home at Christmas, 75 years ago, after serving in Italy during WW2. Nobody thanked him or recognised his service (he was given a bike) .... but there are moves to alter this long-time historical injustice:

South Africa: 'Whites got new homes, blacks got bicycles'

Simon Mhlanga, a veteran from the Native Military Corps, remembers segregation in South Africa after troops returned from war.

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

Three members of MSF - a Spaniard and two Ethiopians - were "brutally murdered" in Tigray. Their bodies were found close to their vehicle this morning. Another MSF team was attacked in March after they saw soldiers drag men from buses and shoot them...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

10 years

Public toilet @ #occupycental site has toothpaste, brushes, cleanser + a sign: we'll clean up the dirty things in HK http://t.co/noBz6Tcv8S

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

2 years

Room '2' in the hospital in Kramatorsk could be any room, in any ward in eastern Ukraine says the director. But their searing accounts of indiscriminate violence - and the horrifying consequences - are anything but ordinary w/ @SkyGreenfield @McGarwen

Ukraine War: Sky News visits war-torn hospital in Kramatorsk, eastern...

Sky's John Sparks visits a hospital in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. Among the patients are residents whose homes were devastated by Russian rock...

www.youtube.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

Filming us - filming them at the beginning of ‘Freedom Drive’ where Ugandan opposition leader, Bobi Wine, keeps the house that he is currently detained in. To the right, lawyer Benjamin Katana demands - and fails - to get access to his client...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

3 years

Our latest from the region of Afar in Ethiopia where a deeply troubling civil conflict now threatens the lives of millions ... with @McGarwen and @GetachewSS

'They kill us and we are helping them': Ethiopia's increasingly nasty civil conflict

A regional conflict is now becoming a national crisis which the country's leaders seem unable to solve, and the lives of millions of Ethiopians are at stake.

news.sky.com

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

4 years

Opposition leader Bobi Wine address the media in his garden and complains that the current internet blackout in Uganda is designed by President Museveni to “keep people in the dark” adding, his polling agents are being arrested and voter id machines aren’t working ...

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John Sparks

@sparkomat

7 years

Are you ready for a Brexit-fuelled exodus? Here's why some people - like me - are planning ahead....

Sky Views: I feel guilty over my new passport

news.sky.com

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