Category Archives: London

What really happened to Edson Da Costa?

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He was 25, a father and a car mechanic. Five minutes after being stopped by police on 15 June 2017, he was lying unresponsive on the ground. After an inquest and inquiry, family and friends are still fighting for justice

They were cruising at speed down Tollgate Road, the stereo turned high. They all knew they shouldn’t be there, not at this time, not after dark. If you’re from London’s Stratford, showing up in nearby Beckton carried its risks.

Jussara Gomes was driving, a fast-talking 23-year-old with an infectious laugh. Beside her, in the passenger seat of the black A-class Mercedes, was Edir Da Costa, known as Edson, a 25-year-old father and car mechanic, swaying exuberantly to hip-hop.

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Pavement Picassos: the locked-down artists showing work in their windows

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Galleries are closed due to Covid – so a group of artists have taken to displaying their work from their houses for passersby. Our writer takes to the streets

It is not a good time for art lovers. The second lockdown has closed galleries once more – I’m imagining portraits waiting moodily in the National Gallery in London to be admired again; Van Gogh’s sunflowers wilting further – and so it is not a good time for artists.

Artists Walk is an initiative that aims to improve that state of affairs. It’s a simple idea for an art trail that began as a joint endeavour between printmaker and painter Rosha Nutt, and her art marketing consultant friend Holly Collier. Those who in normal times would be exhibiting in galleries or community spaces can now place their work in the windows or surroundings of their homes for passers-by to admire. Kind of like “how much is that doggy in the window?” Except that it might be that Picasso sketch of his dachshund.

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Lockdown: Met apologises for arrest threats to journalists covering protest

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Police showed ‘disregard of the the principles of a free media’, says Society of Editors

Scotland Yard has apologised after journalists and photographers covering an anti-lockdown protest were told to leave and threatened with arrest.

Journalists at the demonstration protesting the new national lockdown in England in Trafalgar Square on Thursday were reportedly told by officers they were not seen as essential workers and needed special permission from the Metropolitan police service (MPS) to be present.

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Ex-wives of undercover police tell of marriages ‘based on lies’

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Three women share ‘shattering’ experiences in statement made to public inquiry

The former wives of undercover police officers have told a public inquiry about the “shattering” discovery that their marriages were “imbued with deceit” as a result of their husbands’ covert deployments.

A statement was made to the inquiry on behalf of three women who believed they were making personal sacrifices so their husbands could go undercover to infiltrate political groups during long-term deployments.

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Met police told to reveal if spies still used in political groups

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Head of undercover policing inquiry says he expects to be told if practice is continuing

The head of the inquiry into undercover policing has insisted that Scotland Yard reveal whether it is currently deploying spies in political groups.

The surprise intervention from Sir John Mitting came on the second day of public hearings in the inquiry into spying operations that targeted mostly leftwing groups for at least four decades.

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Lone child migrants cannot be put in adult hotels, high court rules

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More under-18s seeking asylum likely to be affected by ruling against Hillingdon council

The high court has ruled that unaccompanied child migrants cannot be placed in adult hotel accommodation after three young asylum seekers won the right to be placed in the care of social services in the first case of its kind.

The three, who cannot be identified, say they are 17 years old. They arrived in the UK in July and August 2020.

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Nollywood’s new generation in the spotlight at Film Africa in London

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Gender equality, postnatal depression and transatlantic migration are all tackled in quest for international audiences

Once Nollywood might have meant films that were low budget and high drama and aimed mostly at a west African audience. But Nigerian cinema has evolved and this year a slew of new film-makers are tackling grittier subjects – and winning international acclaim.

A roster of screenings at autumn’s Film Africa festival in London reveal directors unafraid to look at issues such as gender equality, postnatal depression and transatlantic migration.

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UK coronavirus live: Gove says lockdown could be extended; Starmer rejects union calls to close schools

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Latest updates: Cabinet Office minister says easing depends on R value coming down; Labour leader says schools should stay open

Sir Desmond Swayne, one of the Conservative MPs most opposed to a second lockdown, told Sky News that the policy announced by the PM yesterday would have “disastrous consequences”. He said:

I’m worried about the disastrous consequences for unemployment, for wrecked businesses, for years of under-investment while we try and pay this off, when the reality is that the number of deaths for the time of year is normal and expected.

It is very difficult to believe scientists who tell you that there is a deadly pandemic taking place when there are no excess deaths beyond the normal five-year average.

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has called for schools in his region to close for a period during the lockdown to help drive down the virus. He was speaking at a joint conference with Steve Rotheram, the mayor of Liverpool city region, who also backed the proposal. Burnham said:

It’s my view, and it’s shared by Steve, that we do need to see a period of closure in our schools if we are to get those cases right down, and if we are to avoid a scenario where large parts of the north-west are simply put back in tier 3 coming out of this.

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Transport for London secures £1.8bn government bailout

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Government backs down on demands for fare increases in significant win for Sadiq Khan

Transport for London (TfL) has secured a bailout from the government worth about £1.8bn just a fortnight after Boris Johnson said Sadiq Khan had “effectively bankrupted” the tube and bus service in the capital.

In a significant win for the London mayor, the government has backed down on demands for fare increases, an extension of the congestion zone to cover the entire city and the scrapping of free fares for children and over-60s.

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How plot linked to Kremlin fooled UK peers into fake ‘murder’ probe

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Son-in-law of Russian oligarch seeks apology from parliamentarians

It was a murder straight from the McMafia playbook, a killing that connected Moscow to London and high finance to a criminal underworld.

In its aftermath, a group of Siberian miners launched a campaign to get justice for the murdered man – Evgeny Lazarevich, a coal mine manager who had apparently fallen foul of a magnate whose profits flowed into London via Cyprus.

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Police spying inquiry to examine targeting of UK black justice groups

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Judge will hear evidence on undercover operations against campaigns such as Stephen Lawrence

A public inquiry into undercover policing is poised to reveal details of how police repeatedly spied on black justice groups, including several run by grieving families whose relatives were killed by police or died in custody.

The judge-led inquiry was launched six years ago by the home secretary at the time, Theresa May, after the Guardian revealed police covertly monitored the campaign for justice over the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence.

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Met police criticised for multiple errors in stop and search practice

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London force accepts watchdog advice over flawed tactics undermining community confidence

The Metropolitan police force has been getting its use of stop and search wrong with multiple errors that have undermined its legitimacy, the police watchdog has found.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct said police in one case stopped and searched two black men who were innocently fist bumping, because officers wrongly thought they were drug dealing.

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Top London restaurants find loophole in tier 2 Covid rules

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An exception meant for freelancers sees a roaring lunch trade, and No 10 doesn’t seem too bothered

“A table for six? No, sir, that is against the Covid-19 restrictions … unless you promise that your party will discuss business, not pleasure.”

Some of London’s fanciest restaurants have discovered a loophole in the tier-2 coronavirus lockdowns restrictions designed to prevent households from mixing and thereby slow the spread of the virus.

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Banksy’s Show me the Monet painting sells for £7.5m at auction

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Reimagining of Claude Monet’s Impressionist water lilies easily surpassed expectations at Sotheby’s event

Banksy’s reimagining of Claude Monet’s impressionist water lilies has fetched more than £7.5m at auction, easily surpassing expectations.

Show Me The Monet was created in 2005 and adds abandoned shopping trolleys and a traffic cone to the famous garden scene.

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London the worst city in Europe for health costs from air pollution

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Study measured financial impact of car emissions on deaths, health and lost working days in 432 urban areas

The health costs of air pollution from roads are higher in London than any other city in Europe, a study has found.

Two other urban areas in the UK, Manchester and the West Midlands, have the 15th and 19th highest costs respectively among the 432 European cities analysed.

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Revealed: Sheikh Khalifa’s £5bn London property empire

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Documents reveal UAE president owns multibillion-pound property portfolio spanning London’s most expensive neighbourhoods

The row of 1960s-built houses with untidy gardens on a quiet cul-de-sac near Richmond upon Thames appears to have little in common with Ecuador’s red-brick embassy in Knightsbridge, where Julian Assange spent seven years in hiding, just across the road from Harrods.

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Matt Hancock raises Covid alert level for parts of England including London – video

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The health secretary told the Commons that several areas of England were being moved to the tier 2 level of coronavirus restrictions designed for high-risk areas. The new rules will come into force at one minute past midnight on Saturday, for an undetermined amount of time, in areas including London, Essex, York and north-east Derbyshire

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UK coronavirus live: London, Essex, York and north-east Derbyshire among areas put into tier 2 restrictions

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Barrow-in-Furness, York, north-east Derbyshire, Erewash and Chesterfield move into tier 2 alongside London, Essex and Elmbridge; no decision yet on moving Greater Manchester and Lancashire into tier 3

In his response to Matt Hancock, Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, asked why some contractors were being paid more than £6,000 a day to work on the much-criticised NHS Test and Trace. He said:

Today, new figures show just 62% of contacts reached, that’s the equivalent to 81,000 people not reached circulating in society - even though they’ve been exposed to the virus. This is another record low.

And yesterday we learnt that consultants working on test and trace are being paid over £6,000 a day to run this failing service. In a single week this government is paying these senior consultants more than they pay an experienced nurse in a year.

In the Commons the Manchester MP Lucy Powell said there were was “unanimous fury” from local MPs earlier when they were being briefed on the situation by one of Matt Hancock’s ministerial colleagues.

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London to face tighter Covid restrictions from Friday night

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No 10 also set to extend tier 3 lockdown measures to Greater Manchester as cases rise

London will be placed in high-risk, tier 2 coronavirus restrictions from Friday night as infection rates in the capital continue to increase, MPs and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, have confirmed.

The decision came as Boris Johnson was expected to sign off on the harshest tier 3 coronavirus measures for millions more people in the north of England later on Thursday, with Downing Street putting last minute pressure on local leaders in Greater Manchester to accept the changes.

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