Category Archives: London

Protesters block London’s Oxford Street in pro-Palestine demonstration

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Free Palestine Coalition’s sit-in stops traffic in central shopping district as protests continue across UK over Israel-Hamas war

More than 350 protesters shut down part of Oxford Street on Saturday as they staged a sit-in protest during the shopping district’s busiest hours.

The demonstration, organised by the Free Palestine Coalition, a collective of grassroots groups standing in solidarity with Palestine, occupied a busy junction and stopped traffic for more than an hour by sitting down in the road.

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Bong! Big Ben broadcasts to return to Radio 4’s regular schedule

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Westminster’s famous bell will be heard live from next week after years of only occasional appearances

It is one of the most recognisable sounds in the UK, and one that hasn’t been heard on BBC Radio 4 since New Year’s Eve last year, but from next week the famous bongs of Big Ben will be heard once again on the station.

The most famous bell in the UK will be heard live once again on Monday 6 November, just before the 6pm news bulletin and again before midnight. Listeners will be able to hear the chimes again before Radio 4’s Westminster Hour political discussion programme at 10pm on Sundays.

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Tenant killed himself after landlord failed to resolve repeated noise complaints

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Ombudsman orders UK housing association Clarion to apologise to family in ‘deeply distressing’ case

A tenant killed himself after his landlord dismissed his pleas for help with a noisy neighbour as “whining” and told him he could not expect silence if he lived in London.

Clarion, the UK’s largest housing association, had been warned by the vulnerable resident’s doctor that the effect of noise from the upstairs flat on the tenant’s mental health was such that he had already attempted suicide twice.

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Ulez expansion: 45% fewer ‘dirty’ vehicles now on London’s roads, says TfL

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Sadiq Khan hails ‘huge progress’ as progress report finds more than 95% of vehicles are now compliant

The number of the most polluting vehicles driven in London has fallen by almost half since the capital’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) was expanded, taking almost 80,000 older cars off the roads.

About 77,000, or 45%, fewer non-compliant cars and vans were detected on average a day in September, the first month of operation of the expanded zone – compared with June 2023.

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UK ministers to hold Cobra meeting on terrorism threat from Israel-Hamas conflict

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Suella Braverman will meet police and national security officials at No 10 to discuss ‘accelerated’ risk

UK ministers will hold an emergency meeting of its Cobra committee amid concerns that the Israel-Gaza conflict has raised the possibility of a domestic terrorist incident.

The home secretary, Suella Braverman, will meet national security officials and police at No 10 on Monday to assess the security risk after the deadly Hamas attack on Israel more than three weeks ago.

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Police seek four people for ‘pro-Hamas’ signs at Palestine demo in London

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Placards declaring support for Hamas and featuring images of paragliders used to attack Israel would break UK terrorism law

Police are looking for four people alleged to have shown support for terrorism, including a man who held a placard declaring full support for Hamas, and three women alleged to have brandished photos of paragliders, which may be a reference to those that were used to attack Israel.

The Metropolitan police’s counter-terrorism command issued photos of the suspects and said hate crimes continued to increase. Another big pro-Palestinian demonstration through central London is scheduled for Saturday.

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TfL suspends tube driver who began ‘free Palestine’ chant

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Video footage posted online appeared to show a driver using the PA system to lead a chant with passengers

A tube driver who appeared to lead a chant of “free, free Palestine” on a train has been suspended while Transport for London investigates the incident.

TfL said it had identified the driver responsible for the incident on a central London service on Saturday, as about 100,000 protesters took part in a pro-Palestine demonstration and demanded an end to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

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Met must explain decision over ‘jihad’ chant at protest, says minister

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Mark Harper says police should use full force of the law, as Met chief due to meet Suella Braverman

The Metropolitan police will be asked to explain to the home secretary why they failed to take action against demonstrators who chanted about “jihad” in London at the weekend, the transport secretary, Mark Harper, has said.

Suella Braverman is to meet the force’s commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, after video footage from a rally on Saturday organised by the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir showed a man talking about Palestine and asking what the solution was, before the word “jihad” was heard.

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England and South Africa rugby fans gather around UK for World Cup semi-final

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Pubs in south-west London, where many of the UK’s 200,000-plus South Africans live, are hosting viewing parties

Excited fans of England and South Africa are gathering in bars, pubs and community centres around the UK to watch the tense Rugby World Cup semi-final between the two nations.

England secured their spot in the final four after overcoming Fiji 30-24 in a close-run quarter-final in Marseille, while South Africa narrowly defeated the hosts – and erstwhile favourites – France last weekend, 29-28.

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Family of black boy rammed by Met police car win fight for IOPC inquiry

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Watchdog to investigate why 13-year-old with water pistol was knocked off bike by armed police in Hackney

The family of the black boy rammed off his pedal cycle by police who mistook his water pistol for a real gun have won their fight to have an independent investigation into the incident launched.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) on Friday reversed a decision it had made twice to let the Metropolitan police investigate the actions of its own officers.

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A radical piece of cake: feminist sculptural installation restaged at Tate Britain

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Bobby Baker’s An Edible Family in a Mobile Home (1976) will be recreated – this time with a vegan option

When Bobby Baker’s sculptural work An Edible Family in a Mobile Home was installed nearly 50 years ago, art lovers were invited to not only touch her work but eat it. Now, the seminal work by the intersectional feminist is coming back – except this time, there’s going to be a vegan option.

From 8 November, Tate Britain will present a restaging of Baker’s radical installation.

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Two-thirds of prisons officially overcrowded in England and Wales

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HMP Wandsworth holding more extra prisoners than any other jail despite recent high-profile problems

Two-thirds of prisons in England and Wales are officially overcrowded, with HMP Wandsworth holding more extra prisoners than any other jail despite the alleged escape of a terror suspect last month.

In September there were 663 more men in Wandsworth than the 950 the south London prison has “good, decent” accommodation for, under the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) definition. That means prisoners sharing cells designed for one, often with a toilet in the middle shielded by a curtain.

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Ambiguous Japanese eco-drama wins London film festival top prize

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Evil Does Not Exist, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, is about community’s fight against ‘glamping’ development

A Japanese eco-drama about a lakeside community’s resistance to a corporate “glamping” development in their beautiful unspoilt village has won the top prize at the London film festival.

Evil Does Not Exist, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, tells the story of a community fighting to preserve its principles and the integrity of the natural world. They are up against a Tokyo company that has bought up swathes of nearby land, intending to turn it into a destination for well-off city tourists.

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Tens of thousands of protesters across UK call for a free Palestine

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Fifteen arrested at march in London, while demonstrations also take place in Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen

Tens of thousands of people have marched through cities across the UK calling for a free Palestine as tensions grew over an impending Israeli ground offensive in Gaza.

Protesters gathered in Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and London, carrying flags and flares and calling for world leaders to condemn the actions of the Israeli army.

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BBC building sprayed with red paint in ‘protest over Israel-Hamas coverage’

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Palestine Action says it was behind incident in London, accusing BBC of ‘manufacturing consent for Israel’s war crimes’

A pro-Palestinian protest group has claimed responsibility for throwing red paint over the BBC’s headquarters, accusing the broadcaster of having “blood on its hands” over its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

The organisation Palestine Action identified itself as being behind the incident, which took place early on Saturday morning at Broadcasting House. It alleged that the broadcaster was “manufacturing consent for Israel’s war crimes”.

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Two Jewish schools in London to close over security fears

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Ministers announce £3m extra funding for charity that helps protect Jewish community sites

Two Jewish schools in north-west London are set to close temporarily because of safety fears after the crisis in Israel and Gaza, as ministers announced £3m for a charity that helps protect Jewish community sites.

The extra support for the Community Security Trust (CST) was announced after a roundtable discussion at Downing Street involving ministers, police and the charity, which recorded a quadrupling of antisemitic incidents in the UK since Hamas’s attack on Israel.

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Martial arts enthusiast who stabbed partner to death in London jailed for life

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Jason Bell, 42, must serve minimum term of 22 years after he murdered Nicole Hurley, 37, and then held a friend captive

A martial arts enthusiast has been jailed for life after stabbing his partner to death before holding captive a friend he believed to be her lover.

Jason Bell, 42, attacked Nicole Hurley, 37, with at least two knives at their home in Primrose Hill, north-west London, in the early hours of 10 October 2021.

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First minister says SNP MP who defected to Tories ‘probably never believed’ in Scottish independence – as it happened

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Humza Yousaf says Lisa Cameron’s move was ‘the least surprising news I’ve had as leader of the SNP’

NHS waiting lists have hit a new record high, with more people facing long waits, PA Media reports. PA says:

Figures for the NHS in England show 7.75 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of August, up from 7.68 million in July.

This is the highest number since records began in August 2007 and comes despite Rishi Sunak saying cutting waiting lists is one of his priorities.

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Spanish rail firm planning London to Paris service to rival Eurostar

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Evolyn says route is ‘strategic and high demand’ and it intends to launch its first service in 2025

A Spanish rail company has announced plans to launch a Paris to London high-speed train service to rival Eurostar.

The company, Evolyn, said the route was “strategic and high demand” and that it intended to launch its first service in 2025. It had reached an agreement to buy 12 high-speed trains from the French manufacturer Alstom and had the option of acquiring four more, it added.

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Thousands attend protests and vigils in London over Israel-Hamas war

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Pro-Palestinian groups gather near Israeli embassy while pro-Israelis attend vigil in Westminster

Thousands of people have attended vigils and protests in London over the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Pro-Palestinian protesters rallied outside the boarded-up Israeli embassy in Kensington on Monday night, chanting “Israel is a terrorist state” and “free Palestine” while letting off flares and fireworks.

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