Photographer Anselm Ebulue found revellers feeling hot, hot, hot on the festival’s scorching second day
As temperatures soared to over 30C (86F) in London, the tempo picked up at the Notting Hill carnival – and so did the costumes. The elaborate handmade outfits known as mas – short for masquerade – are at the heart of the annual spectacular.
Continue reading...Guardian columnist claims attack was ‘premeditated assault’
The Guardian columnist and activist Owen Jones has been physically assaulted in London while celebrating his 35th birthday with friends.
In an attack he called “a blatant premeditated assault”, Jones said he was kicked, punched and thrown to the ground by a group of men in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Continue reading...Gambian woman, 46, has no access to possessions after being evicted without notice
An asylum seeker with an active case has been locked out of her Home Office accommodation in west London by a government contractor who told her: “When you’re asked to leave this country you have to leave.”
The woman, 46, who fled her country in west Africa after refusing to perform FGM on young girls, has an active asylum claim. She said her life will be at risk if she is forced to return to Gambia where FGM is prevalent because she defied her community by opposing the practice.
Continue reading...Large police cordon in place and murder inquiry launched after latest attack in north-west London
A 16-year-old boy has died after a stabbing in north-west London.
The Metropolitan police were called to Munster Square in Camden, close to Regent’s Park, at about 11.10pm on Monday. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene, with paramedics in attendance.
Continue reading...Luton airport apologises after heavy rainfall caused water to pour through the roof of the terminal on Friday. Passengers posted videos on social media of flooding inside the building. The airport reported damage at a number of locations after a period of unprecedented rainfall
Continue reading...Outage caused travel chaos and cut electricity to almost 1m people in England and Wales
The energy watchdog, Ofgem, is demanding answers from the National Grid after a power cut left people stuck in trains for up to nine hours and cut electricity to almost 1 million people in England and Wales.
The biggest power outage in a decade caused widespread disruption on the rail network during the evening rush hour on Friday. Traffic light systems stopped working, causing gridlock in some areas, and Newcastle airport was left in darkness. Power had been restored to 900,000 customers by Saturday, but the rail network was struggling to get services back to normal.
Continue reading...Failure on National Grid network affects train services and road users
Large parts of England and Wales have been left without electricity following a major power cut, electricity network operators have said, with a serious impact reported on rail and road services, including city traffic lights.
Passengers were shut out of some of the country’s busiest train stations during the Friday evening rush hour, while hundreds of thousands of homes were left without electricity after what the National Grid described as a problem with two generators.
Continue reading...Police contradict charity helping family of London schoolgirl found to be missing on holiday
Malaysian police have denied that the disappearance of a 15-year-old London schoolgirl is being treated as a possible abduction, contradicting a statement from a charity supporting her family.
Nora Quoirin, who has special needs, is the daughter of an Irish-French couple who have lived in London for about 20 years. She went missing while on holiday with her family at the Dusun resort in a nature reserve near Seremban, 40 miles south of the capital, Kuala Lumpur. The resort is adjacent to the 4,000-acre (1,600-hectare) Berembun forest reserve.
Continue reading...Fire alarm was set off during fight at Bank station, sparking false rumours of terror attack and causing scenes of panic
Commuters stampeded out of an underground station in the City of London on Friday after a fire alarm was set off during a fight and false rumours circulated that somebody had a bomb.
Passengers have described terrifying scenes at Bank station in the heart of the capital’s financial district during the Friday morning rush hour, when hundreds of people ran for their lives and dropped their luggage following an altercation.
Continue reading...Over 6,300 officers deployed for June trip, at time of mounting pressure on police resources
Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK cost the Metropolitan police nearly £3.5m, figures have revealed, at a time of rising pressure on police resources.
Tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated against the US president in the capital before he attended a D-day commemoration service in Portsmouth.
Continue reading...Rona Mcseveny, a former patient of UCHL, is showcasing her photos of the continent at the hospital’s Street Gallery. The exhibition is a thank-you to the NHS for the treatment she received. Below, she details the spellbinding sights she captured on her trip
It sounds just like the kind of joke that is ubiquitous in today’s cheap-and-cheerful souvenir industry: “I went to Rome and all I got you was this lousy pen.” But the tongue-in-cheek inscription recently deciphered on a cheap writing implement during excavations in the City of London is in fact about 2,000 years old.
“I have come from the city. I bring you a welcome gift with a sharp point that you may remember me. I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able [to give] as generously as the way is long [and] as my purse is empty,” it reads.
Continue reading...Police are searching for three people after earlier finding body of man at a Gloucestershire water park
Police are searching for three people who have gone missing in the river Thames.
The Metropolitan police said a swimmer went missing at Shadwell Basin on Tuesday evening, a second at Waterloo Bridge and a third near Kingston High Street.
Continue reading...Pair ate fur-covered dead animals in front of children in London despite pleas to stop
Two pro-meat protesters have been fined after eating raw squirrels at a food market.
Related: View to a cull: is grey squirrel the ultimate sustainable meat?
Continue reading...Major incident declared as more than 150 firefighters tackle flames at the Mall
More than 150 firefighters are tackling a huge blaze at a shopping centre in east London.
A major incident has been declared at the Mall on Selborne Walk in Walthamstow. A London ambulance service spokeswoman said one woman had been taken to hospital.
Continue reading...US president refers to message about Met police twitter account, calling London mayor ‘incompetent’
Donald Trump has retweeted the British far-right commentator Katie Hopkins and launched another attack on Sadiq Khan.
Referring to a message from Hopkins that the Met’s Twitter account had been targeted by hackers on Friday night, in which she said officers had “lost control of London streets” and “lost control of their Twitter account too”, Trump tweeted: “With the incompetent mayor of London, you will never have safe streets!”
Continue reading...Passengers treated for coughing and shortness of breath at Oxford Circus station
Police are looking for two male suspects after gas was released in a tube train carriage in central London.
A number of people were treated at the scene by paramedics at Oxford Circus station for coughing and lack of breath.
Continue reading...‘Unauthorised access’ led to series of messages being posted and emailed to subscribers
Scotland Yard’s principal Twitter account, which is followed by more than 1.2 million people and is used to provide important alerts in times of crisis, tweeted a series of bizarre messages on Friday night after becoming “subject to unauthorised access”.
Many of the dozen errant tweets, some of which referred to the British rapper Digga D, were also repeated in press releases emailed out to journalists from the force’s official email address. Officers said they were “assessing to establish what criminal offences have been committed” over the security breach.
Continue reading...Force had said that publishing leaked diplomatic cables may breach Official Secrets Act
The Metropolitan police has rowed back from its warning that journalists could face prosecution if they publish any further leaked diplomatic cables such as those that ran in the Mail on Sunday last weekend, precipitating the resignation of the British ambassador to the US, Kim Darroch.
In a statement released on Saturday afternoon, the Met assistant commissioner Neil Basu said the force “respects the rights of the media and has no intention of seeking to prevent editors from publishing stories in the public interest in a liberal democracy. The media hold an important role in scrutinising the actions of the state.”
Continue reading...Services began again at 7.10pm but airport warns that there may be further delays
Gatwick airport suspended all inbound and outbound flights for around two hours on Wednesday due to an “air traffic control system issue”.
Eight flights into Gatwick, in West Sussex, were cancelled and 26 diverted before operations resumed at 7.10pm and passengers were warned there would be further delays into the evening, with the airport advising them to check with their airlines.
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