Category Archives: London

Iran International targeted by Tehran, says channel after London stabbing

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Spokesperson tells Today programme that UK-based broadcaster has been under ‘heavy threat for last 18 months’

Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards have been targeting the broadcaster Iran International, a spokesperson for the channel said after a leading journalist was stabbed in London.

The Persian-language news television channel that employed Pouria Zeraati, who was attacked outside his London home, had received an increased level of threats beforehand, Adam Baillie told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on Saturday.

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Sadiq Khan pledges new Erasmus-style overseas study scheme for London youngsters

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City’s mayor outlines ‘internationalist’ vision in manifesto as he bids for third term in May

London’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan is to offer young people studying in the capital a new version of the EU’s Erasmus scheme of student exchanges as part of his bid for a third term.

He will unveil plans under which students would receive grants and other help to study and undertake work experience, not just in the EU but other major world cities, with reciprocal arrangements for students from overseas to do the same in London.

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Vintage fans in London gear up to recreate 60s mood at festival of mod

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Tailor-made suits, live music and – of course – a scooter run are expected at this weekend’s celebration

Hundreds of vintage fanatics, dressed in tailor-made suits and berets, are expected to descend on London this weekend for a three-day event celebrating mod subculture.

Modstock, launched 30 years ago by a British vintage fanatic, Rob Bailey, and his organisation New Untouchables, returns for its fourth edition.

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Garrick Club asked to consider membership for seven leading women

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A group of men at the club who hope the male-only rule will change have nominated a set of possible new members

Seven women with leading positions in the British establishment have been nominated as prospective female members of the Garrick in the event that the club agrees to change its rules so that women are able to join.

The classicist Mary Beard, the former home secretary Amber Rudd, Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman and the new Labour peer Ayesha Hazarika are among the first names to have been put forward to the club as possible future members.

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‘Know your audience’: BBC 5 Live chief on the station’s staying power

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On 5 Live’s 30th birthday, Heidi Dawson says more of the BBC should be based outside London to reflect the national conversation

More of the BBC needs to be based outside London to reflect the “conversation of the nation” and secure its future, according to the controller of BBC Radio 5 Live.

As the station celebrates its 30th birthday on Thursday, with a series of shows and tributes, Heidi Dawson says 5 Live is well placed to see off the multiple headwinds buffeting its HQ in London, including a further £200m in annual cuts announced by the BBC’s director general this week.

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Tories delete Sadiq Khan attack ad showing New York instead of London

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Footage of people panicking, designed to attack the London mayor’s record on crime, was filmed in a New York subway station

The Conservatives have deleted an online video that used scenes of a panicked crowd at a New York subway station to criticise Sadiq Khan’s record on crime in London.

The attack ad, posted on X in support of Susan Hall – Khan’s rival for the London mayoralty, showed people panicking and rushing through New York’s Penn station after false reports of gunfire in 2017.

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Sadiq Khan rules out London Ulez expansion if he wins mayoral election

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In letter to TfL boss, Khan says plans ‘will not include new pay-per-mile road user charging scheme’

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has pledged not to expand the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) scheme if he returns to the role after May’s election.

In a letter to London’s transport commissioner, Andy Lord, Khan wrote that he had “categorically” ruled out the introduction of a pay-per-mile scheme as well as any tightening of Ulez emissions standards.

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Part of billionaire family’s empire named on London’s rogue landlord list

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Subsidiary of Lazari Investments fined £67,000 for breaches of HMO licence conditions on Camden flats

A family-owned property empire whose holdings include the former Fenwick department store building on London’s Bond Street has seen one of its subsidiaries named on the city’s rogue landlords register and hit with fines totalling £67,000.

The Lazari family have an estimated fortune of £2.5bn, placing them 72nd on the Sunday Times rich list. It is based on a property portfolio that includes some of the most luxurious addresses in central London as well as rental flats in the north of the city.

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First photos emerge of Harry Kane statue kept in storage for years

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Waltham Forest council has not yet found suitable location for statue that was completed in 2020

The first photographs of the dormant sculpture of the Bayern Munich and England striker Harry Kane have been published, five years after it was commissioned. The statue has sat in storage because Waltham Forest council in east London has been unable to find a suitable location for it.

The sculpture of the Walthamstow-born, Chingford-raised record goalscorer for Tottenham and England was completed in 2020 at a cost of £7,200, but has yet to appear in public.

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‘You have to stand out’: six Dagenham teenagers on their future prospects

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Final year students from Goresbrook school talk about housing, higher education and social media – as well as hopes and fears

Zainab Shehzadi has a long list of worries: robots stealing jobs from humans, the damage wreaked on the climate by previous generations, turmoil in other countries, fighting fierce competition to secure a job that pays enough to live a comfortable life.

It’s a lot for a 17-year-old to take on, but she sees it as a reflection of the uncertain world she has grown up in. “We’re living in an age where everything is changing very rapidly,” she says.

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‘Laced with fear and a lot of fun’: Punchdrunk announce new ‘slumber party’ show

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Company founder Felix Barrett says Viola’s Room, written by Daisy Johnson, will be an audio-driven production perfect for date nights

Punchdrunk’s last immersive production, The Burnt City, drew more than 600 masked theatregoers each night to spend three hours venturing around a sprawling saga based on Greek myths. Their next show, announced on Monday, will invite them to take off their shoes and socks for a slumber party.

“This whole thing is a bedtime story,” said the company’s founder, Felix Barrett, of Viola’s Room, which will open in May at their headquarters in Woolwich, south-east London. Audiences will wear headphones rather than masks and follow what Barrett called an audio-driven “linear story” rather than explore the “open world” of Punchdrunk’s trademark shows, which let you roam freely around the space. Theatregoers will, according to publicity material, “feel their way through a maze-like installation as an unseen narrator guides them on a sensory journey”.

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Diane Abbott thanks supporters at anti-racism rally in east London

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Hackney MP tells large crowd ‘this is not about me, this is about the level of racism in Britain’

Diane Abbott greeted large crowds of people who gathered at a rally in support of her on Friday night, telling the crowd they had to “stand firm” against racism.

The rally was organised by local black women in Hackney after remarks emerged about the longstanding MP by Frank Hester, the Tories’ biggest donor, that were widely condemned as racist and misogynistic.

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Met to pay £10,000 to woman detained overnight after Sarah Everard vigil

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Jennifer Edmunds sued police, which have now settled after dropping charges relating to 2021 gathering on Clapham Common

The Metropolitan police has agreed to pay £10,000 in damages to a woman arrested at the Sarah Everard vigil in Clapham, her solicitors have said.

Jennifer Edmunds was detained overnight and charged with breaching Covid restrictions at the Clapham Common gathering on 13 March 2021, said Bhatt Murphy Solicitors.

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Thames Water absent from industry’s £180m anti-pollution drive

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Ministers disappointed by decision of one of worst sewage dumpers not to join England-wide initiative

Thames Water has risked a fresh backlash over its commitment to tackling sewage dumping after it declined to commit funds to a £180m industry-wide initiative to fast-track efforts to reduce pollution in England’s waterways.

The government said on Monday that the sum would be spent by six companies over the next 12 months to prevent more than 8,000 sewage spills, as water companies attempt to address their woeful record on tackling spills.

However, Britain’s biggest water company, which has a £14bn debt mountain, has not taken part in the drive and it is understood that government officials are disappointed in its refusal to do so.

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‘I’m Jewish and feel totally safe marching for Gaza’: London protesters defy Sunak’s ‘extremist’ slur

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Marchers on Saturday came from wide range of backgrounds as rightwing press characterises city as ‘no-go zone for Jews’

As on previous Saturdays in the past six months, there were two marches taking place in London yesterday. The first, a gathering of tens of thousands of full-throated, flag-waving supporters of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza gathered at Hyde Park Corner at noon, and shuffled peaceably and patiently in the sunshine in the direction of the American embassy at Vauxhall, over the river.

The second march was taking place mostly in the imaginations of right-wing commentators and politicians who increasingly choose to see these displays of solidarity with the Palestinian cause only as a provocation and a threat. Following the prime minister’s Downing Street address on 1 March which represented these gatherings as representative of “forces trying to tear apart” our democracy, the latest figure to loud-hailer that version of reality was the government-appointed commissioner for countering extremism, Robin Simcox, who argued on Friday the marches were “a permissive environment for radicalisation”, leading to a hysterical Daily Telegraph front-page headline that read: “London is now a no-go zone for Jews”.

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Tens of thousands of pro-Palestine protesters march through London

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Attenders reiterate call for ceasefire in Gaza and condemn PM’s comments linking protests to ‘extremism’

Tens of thousands of people marched through central London on Saturday reiterating calls for a ceasefire in Gaza in the first national demonstration since Rishi Sunak suggested pro-Palestine demonstrations were a display of “extremism”.

The march began in Hyde Park Corner and ended outside the US embassy in Nine Elms. Near the start of the march, a crowd gathered around drummers, whose instruments were clad with the Palestinian flag and who played to chants calling for an end to Israeli occupation.

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East London fertility clinic has licence suspended after losing embryos

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Investigation begins into Homerton Fertility Centre after errors discovered in freezing processes

A fertility clinic in London has had its licence to operate suspended because of “significant concerns” about the unit, the regulator has said.

The Homerton Fertility Centre has been ordered by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to halt any new procedures while investigations continue.

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Health gains of low-traffic schemes up to 100 times greater than costs, study finds

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Research looked at three London boroughs to value overall health benefits of active travel over 20 years at up to £4,800 per head

Policies to help people walk and cycle such as low-traffic neighbourhoods can create public health benefits as much as 100 times greater than the cost of the schemes, a long-term study of active travel measures has concluded.

The research, based on six years of surveys among thousands of people living in three outer London boroughs that introduced LTNs or similar schemes, found they tended to prompt people to switch some trips from cars to active travel, although the effects were varied.

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