Family say couple were not offered support to evacuate despite living near British embassy in Khartoum
An 85-year-old British citizen was shot by snipers and his wife died of starvation after they were left behind in Sudan, their family has said.
Abdalla Sholgami, who owns a hotel in London, lived with his 80-year-old wife, Alaweya Rishwan, who is disabled, close to the UK’s diplomatic base in Khartoum, the BBC said.
Continue reading...Peter Lam Bui posted his video after a Vietnamese official visited the celebrity chef’s London steakhouse
A Vietnam court has jailed a noodle seller who went viral for impersonating celebrity chef Salt Bae, after the restaurateur served a gold-leaf steak to a powerful official, his lawyer said.
In 2021, Peter Lam Bui posted a parody video impersonating Salt Bae – Nusret Gökçe, a Turkish chef who parlayed his meme stardom into high-end eateries – by sprinkling herbs on noodle soup and calling himself “Green Onion Bae”.
Continue reading...Thinktank warns against wholesale switch to working from home and raises fears over lost productivity in capital
Office workers in central London are spending on average 2.3 days a week in the workplace, according to a report that warns against a wholesale switch to working from home.
The thinktank Centre for Cities carried out polling of office workers in the capital and found they were spending 59% of the time in their workplace compared with pre-Covid levels.
Continue reading...Annual RHS show uses theme of accessibility in effort to broaden appeal of horticulture
Chelsea flower show has long been a staple of the society calendar, with celebrities and royals making an appearance among the peonies and roses.
However, this year, the Royal Horticultural Society is trying to make the show – and horticulture – more inclusive, by putting on special events for children, and encouraging the creation of gardens with an accessibility theme.
Continue reading...Samantha Lee tells hearing she could not have prevented kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard
The former Met police officer accused of botching the Wayne Couzens flashing case has admitted she made some mistakes, but said nothing she could have done would have changed the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.
Samantha Lee has been accused of conducting an “extremely poor” investigation after Couzens, 50, exposed himself to female staff at a drive-through McDonald’s in Kent on 14 and 27 February 2021, a police disciplinary hearing was told.
Continue reading...Supermarket is consulting about removing a 60p an hour supplement at 39 stores outside M25 despite the cost of living crisis
Asda is planning to cut pay for about 7,000 workers in stores close to London by about 5% despite the surge in the cost of living in Britain.
The UK’s third biggest supermarket, which was bought by the billionaire Issa brothers and private equity firm TDR Capital in 2020, said it was in consultation about removing a 60p an hour supplement from workers at 39 stores sited outside the M25 but near to the capital.
Continue reading...Chain resolves heated debate with council amid concerns over antisocial behaviour
A heated debate over Greggs’ right to trade into the early hours in central London, amid warnings it could cause a wave of crime and disorder, has been resolved.
Greggs said it could now open its Leicester Square flagship store until 2am from Thursday to Saturday and until midnight through the rest of the week after Westminster council allowed it to sell hot drinks, such as tea and coffee, as well as its sausage rolls, pizza slices and steak bakes, after an 11pm curfew.
Continue reading...The actor, who has previously starred as Hamlet at the Young Vic, is to play Lady Macbeth among a wave of star-powered Shakespeare productions this year
Cush Jumbo is to play Lady Macbeth this winter in a production at London’s Donmar Warehouse that reunites her with David Tennant, her co-star in the Channel 4 TV series Deadwater Fell.
Earlier this month it was announced that Tennant would take on the title role in Max Webster’s production of Macbeth, expected to be one of this year’s hottest tickets. Jumbo’s casting marks her return to the Covent Garden theatre where she played Mark Antony in an acclaimed all-female production of Julius Caesar in 2012, directed by Phyllida Lloyd.
Continue reading...Capital’s mayor lauds achievement but warns skyrocketing rents pose threat to ‘the soul of our city’
Sadiq Khan is to announce the surpassing of a landmark housebuilding target in London, but will warn that the capital’s skyrocketing rents pose a threat to “the soul of our city”.
In a speech on Monday setting out his stall before the 2024 election for city hall, the mayor of London will say that nearly 120,000 affordable homes have been built in the capital since 2015, equivalent to the housing stock of Plymouth.
Continue reading...Police watchdog to launch inquiry after incident involving man with two dogs along canal in Limehouse
An investigation will be launched after a man was Tasered and two dogs were shot dead by Metropolitan police officers in front of witnesses, the police watchdog has announced.
On Friday, the Independent Office for Police Conduct said it was “appropriate” that complaints linked to the incident in Poplar, east London, on 7 May should be “independently investigated”. The IOPC said it understood the “public concern” caused by the shooting.
Continue reading...Father had criticised force for failing to reinvestigate killing of 8-year-old son who disappeared in 1981
Sussex police are to re-examine the case of a murdered schoolboy who disappeared on his way home more than 40 years ago.
Vishal Mehrotra, eight, vanished from west London in July 1981 and part of his remains were found in Rogate, West Sussex, seven months later. No one has been convicted for his murder.
Continue reading...Clock dials atop Elizabeth Tower in London briefly stopped at 12.55pm on Wednesday
Time stood still in London on Wednesday, it has emerged.
Big Ben, the famous bell at the top of the 96-metre Elizabeth Tower in Westminster, failed to chime when the dials of the clock briefly stopped.
Continue reading...Met left dozens of documents in locked cabinet instead of passing to inquiry into its own corruption
Dozens of documents that Scotland Yard should have handed over to an official inquiry into its corruption were instead left in a locked cabinet located on the same floor as its commissioner, the Guardian has learned.
The revelation relates to 95 pages of documents the force now accepts it should have given to the Daniel Morgan inquiry, investigating the unsolved murder of the private detective and the role corruption played in shielding his killers.
Continue reading...Passengers faced average 30-minute wait, slightly worse than Manchester during 2022’s travel chaos
Passengers flying from Birmingham airport experienced the longest delays in the UK last year, official figures show.
Flight departures from Birmingham were on average half an hour behind schedule in 2022, marginally worse than Manchester, in a year marked by chaos for travellers.
Continue reading...A wildflower planting operation is under way in Green Park, near Buckingham Palace, as part of The Big Help Out
After two days of playing host to thousands of flag-waving royal supporters, visitors were invited back to Green Park on Monday – this time to do some gardening.
As the machinery moved in and the clean-up effort got under way around Buckingham Palace, a few metres away, along a meandering line marked out in white through the park, volunteers got down on their hands and knees to plant wildflowers.
Continue reading...Footage on social media showed officers pursuing a man holding two dogs on a short lead along a canal in Limehouse
The Metropolitan police has defended its officers after a suspect was Tasered and two dogs were shot in front of screaming witnesses.
Footage posted on social media showed officers pursuing a man holding the two dogs on a short lead along a canal in Limehouse, east London, on Sunday afternoon. The situation appeared to become heated, as the man was Tasered to the floor and the animals were shot dead.
Continue reading...Graham Smith said Met officers should hang their heads in shame after 52 detained in central London
Police who arrested anti-monarchy protesters before King Charles III’s coronation have “destroyed whatever trust might have existed between peaceful protesters and the Metropolitan police,” the chief executive of the campaign group Republic has said.
After six members of the group were arrested at about 7.30am on Saturday – before their protest had begun – and had their placards seized, Graham Smith said officers “should hang their heads in shame” and that police had shown “no judgment, no common sense and no basic decency”.
Continue reading...Headteacher of Kelmscott school in Walthamstow says killing of 16-year-old was ‘darkest of days’
A 16-year-old boy was ambushed as he left a school in east London and stabbed to death on Friday in a “senseless attack”.
The pupil at Kelmscott school, Walthamstow, was met outside by his attackers who were “waiting for him”, an eyewitness said. He tried to escape but was stabbed a short distance away outside an auto parts store as other pupils watched.
Continue reading...Crowning of new king and queen will include UK’s biggest military spectacle in 70 years
Foreign royalty, heads of state and other dignitaries from around the globe have descended on London for the crowning of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, which will include a military spectacle unmatched in Britain in 70 years.
Seven thousand troops will be on parade with 19 military bands in a coronation procession stretching one mile from front to rear, the most at any state occasion since the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Continue reading...London fire brigade suggest smoke probably caused by train’s brakes and police say nobody hurt in incident
Passengers climbed out of the smashed windows of a tube train at Clapham Common station in London on Friday evening amid a fire alert.
A video posted on social media shows a man with a hammer cracking one of the Northern Line tube windows to allow travellers trapped inside to get out, while other videos show smashed windows.
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