Category Archives: London

Chris Kaba’s family to be shown police video of events that led to his killing

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IOPC watchdog insists review of evidence led it to investigate firearms officer for homicide

The family of Chris Kaba will be allowed to watch police video of the incident that led to his killing, the Guardian has learned, as the police watchdog insisted evidence and not public pressure led it to investigate an officer for homicide offences.

Kaba, 24, who was unarmed, was shot once by an officer from the Metropolitan police on 5 September. The bullet struck him in the head as he sat in the driver’s seat of a car which had come under suspicion in Lambeth, south London. He died just over two hours later.

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Extra trains planned as people head to London to mourn Queen

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South Western, Southeastern and Greater Anglia among operators expected to run more late services

Extra late-night trains will run from the capital from Wednesday to help people pay their respects to the Queen, as Transport for London predicted that the late monarch’s funeral would be a bigger logistical challenge for public transport than the 2012 Olympics.

TfL has set up a dedicated command centre and enlisted a large number of volunteers from its ranks as it anticipates handling more than 1 million people travelling to attend the lying in state of the Queen in Westminster Hall and her funeral.

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Chris Kaba’s family demands suspension of Met officer involved in shooting

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Hundreds of protesters march through Whitehall demanding justice as police watchdog launches homicide investigation

The family of Chris Kaba has called for the immediate suspension of the Metropolitan police officer involved in his fatal shooting.

The 24-year-old, who was due to become a father for the first time, was shot dead by a firearms officer in Streatham, south London, on Monday night.

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Police watchdog launches homicide investigation into Met shooting of Chris Kaba

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Metropolitan police firearms officers fatally shot 24-year-old in Streatham Hill, south London, on Monday

The police watchdog has launched a homicide investigation into the fatal shooting of Chris Kaba by armed Metropolitan police officers in south London.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said this followed its review of the evidence gathered so far after the incident in Streatham Hill on Monday night.

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17-year-old boy stabbed to death in brawl in east London

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18-year-old also in critical condition after disturbance in Bow but police cast doubt on reports of armed throngs

A 17-year-old boy has been stabbed to death and another teenager is in hospital after a brawl in east London.

Police were called to Bow just after midnight on Sunday to reports of a disturbance involving about 100 people, some armed with machetes.

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Dave Grohl pays tribute to Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins at Wembley concert

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Celebration of drummer who died in March included performances by Nile Rodgers, the Pretenders and Supergrass

Dave Grohl paid an emotional tribute to his late friend and Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins at a star-studded tribute concert at Wembley Stadium.

Speaking at the event in London on Saturday, he said: “Taylor loved to jam and record with anybody and everybody. He loved to play music every day. And there aren’t too many people that he’s never jammed with.

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Officer who wrote Met’s drug strategy smoked cannabis daily, panel told

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Commander Julian Bennett refused to take a drug test in 2020 after his lodger contacted police alleging drug use

A senior Metropolitan police commander who wrote the force’s drug strategy allegedly smoked cannabis in front of his lodger every day, a gross misconduct hearing has been told.

Commander Julian Bennett later threatened to resign when he was asked to take a drug test on 21 July 2020, a disciplinary panel heard.

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No clear winners after Winsor report on Cressida Dick’s exit

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Former Met chief given support by findings, but London mayor Sadiq Khan’s move against her remains popular

Amid the claim and counter-claim, the huffing and puffing and the machinations detailed by Tom Winsor’s report on the ousting of Cressida Dick, one thing is clear: there definitely was a political hit job. The mystery is: who was the target?

Winsor’s version has Dick, a hard-working Metropolitan police commissioner, taken out by an ambitious local politician, when the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, had no good reason to.

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TfL funding deal means tube fares must rise and bus services be cut

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Sadiq Khan accepts ‘far from ideal’ settlement but says it secures long-term future for transport network

Tube fares will rise and more bus services will be cut in the capital, the mayor, Sadiq Khan, warned, after Transport for London agreed to accept a £1.2bn funding settlement from the government.

The deal, slightly improved from a “final offer” made in July by the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, was welcomed by TfL as allowing it to avert the “managed decline” of its transport network.

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Stephen Port: murder victims’ families say Met ‘insensitive’ to make settlements public

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Relatives ‘caught completely off guard’ by announcement of compensation – and two families have still to settle

The Metropolitan police have been accused of “insensitivity” over their announcement that they have settled compensation claims with relatives of some of the victims murdered by the serial killer Stephen Port.

Families were taken completely by surprise at the public announcement, while claims brought by relatives of two of the victims have yet to be settled, the families’ spokesperson said.

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British Museum receives major bequest of Chinese porcelain and jades

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Sir Joseph Hotung’s gift is ‘one of the most generous ever received’ by museum

An outstanding collection of Chinese porcelain and jades has been left to the British Museum in “one of the most significant bequests” of its history.

The artworks come from the collections of Sir Joseph Hotung, a businessman, philanthropist and art collector, who died last year.

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Billionaire closes main road in South Kensington for gardening work

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Ivy owner Richard Caring wins council permission to close part of Onslow Square, a busy ambulance and bus route, for two weeks

Richard Caring, the billionaire owner of the celebrity hotspot restaurant the Ivy and private members’ club Annabel’s, has won permission to close a main road in South Kensington, central London, in order to have dozens of trees planted in the grounds of his £40m mansion.

Caring, who has built up an estimated personal fortune of more than £1bn from his clubs and restaurants empire, which also includes the Sexy Fish in Mayfair, secured permission from the council to close part of Onslow Square for two weeks in order to install a crane to carry the mature trees over a row of neighbouring terraced houses.

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IOPC rules out inquiry into armed police stop of Ricardo dos Santos

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Watchdog refers case back to Met police for its own investigation over sprinter’s claims of aggression and racism

The police watchdog has ruled out an investigation into the Metropolitan police’s treatment of an athlete who was pulled over in his car by seven armed officers.

Ricardo dos Santos, a Portuguese sprinter based in London, released a video of the incident in central London that took place earlier this month.

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Anoosheh Ashoori: London Marathon dream of Iran detainee nears reality

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British-Iranian who set goal while at notorious Evin prison says he wants ‘something good to come out of all that pain’

Serving a minimum 10-year sentence in Iran’s notorious Evin prison on spying charges, Anoosheh Ashoori, a 68-year-old British-Iranian retired engineer, knew he must find purpose if he was to avoid insanity.

He pledged that one day, when he was released, he would run the London Marathon. It was an ambitious dream, especially for a man who was not very fit and or expecting to be freed before the age of 73.

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Owami Davies: police issued CCTV images showing wrong woman

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Met hurriedly apologised and withdrew images that it initially said showed missing woman in a shop

The Metropolitan police issued pictures of the wrong black woman in an early appeal for information about the missing student nurse Owami Davies, it has emerged.

As the force’s handling of the case faces increased scrutiny, it has come to light that Scotland Yard issued CCTV images on 3 August that it said showed Davies in a shop in Croydon, but in fact showed another woman.

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Further disruption on rail and bus services as transport strikes continue

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Rail services will be much-reduced, and buses in west and south-west London and Surrey also affected

Travellers are facing a further day of disruption on Saturday as thousands of transport workers go on strike in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.

Network Rail, several train companies, and bus services in London and parts of Surrey will be hit by industrial action by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT), TSSA and Unite unions which will also affect Sunday morning train services.

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M&S pledges to put recycling at heart of Marble Arch store redevelopment

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Mark & Spencer says 95% of materials will be recovered, recycled or reused amid growing opposition

Marks & Spencer has pledged that 95% of the materials in its Marble Arch building in Oxford Street, west London, will be recovered, recycled or reused as it fights back against heavy opposition to its plan to flatten the shop.

In the run-up an inquiry into the scheme, scheduled to begin on 25 October, the retailer said some materials would be reused directly on site within its new building as part of its efforts to “promote circular economy principles”.

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Storms and flash floods hit southern England

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Amber warning issued for London with risk of transport disruption and power cuts

Thunderstorms and flash floods have hit parts of southern England, amid warnings that the unsettled weather is expected to continue into the weekend.

There were torrential downpours in London, with the rain spreading across the south-east until about 10pm. An amber warning for the area has been issued by the Met Office, with a risk of transport disruption and power cuts.

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Man on mobility scooter stabbed to death in west London

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Police are appealing for information after the man, believed to be in his 80s, was killed in Greenford

An elderly man who had been riding a mobility scooter in west London has been stabbed to death.

Metropolitan police officers were called at 4.06pm on Tuesday to Cayton Road, Greenford, to reports of a man with stab injuries, and despite the efforts of paramedics he was declared dead at the scene.

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‘A hotel is not home’: Afghan families still wait for a place of their own in UK

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Families who fled Taliban rule say they are grateful for the help they have received but long for a home where they can settle

The west London hotel where Fawzia Amini, a senior Afghan judge, her husband and their four daughters have lived for the last nine months has comfortable sofas in the foyer, a restaurant serving tasty meals on the first floor, and friendly reception staff – but it isn’t home.

After the turmoil and danger of fleeing their spacious home in Kabul when the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital, the family say that while they are grateful for everything the UK government has done for them, they long to be in a place of their own where they can cook their own food, work, study, and entertain relatives and friends.

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