Category Archives: London

Global heating: London to have climate similar to Barcelona by 2050

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Nearly 80% of cities to undergo dramatic and potentially disastrous changes, study finds

London will have a similar climate in three decades’ time to that of Barcelona today, according to research – but if that seems enticing, a warning: the change could be accompanied by severe drought.

Madrid will feel like present-day Marrakech by 2050, and Stockholm like Budapest, according to a report on the likely impacts of the climate crisis. Around the world, cities that are currently in temperate or cold zones in the northern hemisphere will resemble cities more than 600 miles (1,000km) closer to the equator, with damaging effects on health and infrastructure.

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This year’s Pride biggest yet, claim march organisers

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Estimated 1.5 million people attended London parade

“I’m trying to be a walking piece of political art,” said actor Billy Porter ahead of headlining London Pride. “Just as a human being, as an out black gay Christian man, my very existence is political.”

The star of Kinky Boots and TV series Pose performed to thousands in Trafalgar Square on Saturday at what organisers claimed was the biggest, most inclusive Pride yet. About 30,000 people from more than 600 groups took part in the official parade through central London, which was attended by an estimated 1.5 million people.

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Pride in London: many thousands take to the streets to celebrate LGBT rights – video

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Huge crowds gathered on Saturday to celebrate LGBT rights in London’s biggest Pride parade yet. This year’s theme is Pride Jubilee, marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York, regarded as the birth of the Pride movement. Organisers predicted as many as 1.5 million people would attend

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Aviation security under scrutiny after death of stowaway in London

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Experts suggest heat sensors could help detect people hiding in landing gear compartment

There have been calls for fresh scrutiny of aviation security as efforts continue to identify a man whose frozen body fell into a garden in London from the landing gear of a Kenya Airways plane.

Investigations have centred on Nairobi airport, where the man is believed to have concealed himself in the aircraft, but one aviation expert suggested airlines and plane manufacturers could take steps including fitting heat sensors to detect stowaways.

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London Bridge attack: Victims’ families criticise authorities for clearing MI5 and police

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Relatives of eight people killed in terrorist attack said security services had fallen short

The families of the London Bridge victims criticised the authorities on Friday after a coroner cleared MI5 and police of failing to prevent the terror attack despite having the ringleader under investigation.

After more than seven weeks of harrowing evidence, the inquests into the deaths of the eight victims of the June 2017 attack came to an end with the conclusion that they had been unlawfully killed.

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London gay nightclub XXL faces closure to make way for flats

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Club complains of ‘social cleansing’ after being given three months to wind up

One of London’s biggest gay nightclubs is facing closure to make way for a £1.3bn apartment, hotel and office development, in a move that the club’s founder say amounts to “social cleansing”.

XXL is believed to be the last “bear” club in London, and DJ Fat Tony, a close friend of Elton John, regularly performs to 2,000 people a night. This week, developers backed by investors from Malaysia and Singapore gave the club three months to wind up after its owners lost a court appeal. The club has been operating for 19 years and 40 jobs will go.

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Woman ‘poses as dead cyclist’s aunt’ to oppose new London bike lane

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Heather Cairns says woman ‘masqueraded’ as her daughter Eilidh’s aunt at council meeting

A woman posed as the aunt of a cyclist who was killed in London in order to oppose plans for a new segregated bike lane, according to the victim’s mother.

Eilidh Cairns, a television producer from Alnwick in Northumberland, died aged 30 in 2009 after being hit by a tipper truck while riding in Notting Hill in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

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Man jailed for life for pushing 91-year-old on to tube tracks

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Paul Crossley will serve at least 12 years after judge dismisses schizophrenia as ‘excuse’

A man with paranoid schizophrenia who pushed a 91-year-old on to London Underground tracks has been jailed for life by a judge who described him as “a grave and enduring risk to the public”.

Paul Crossley shoved Sir Robert Malpas on to the rails at Marble Arch station on 27 April last year, minutes after attempting to do the same to another man at Tottenham Court Road.

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Public to have say on renaming White Hart Lane station Tottenham Hotspur

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Exclusive: FoI request reveals proposal was at advanced stage after lobbying by Tottenham Hotspur football club

The public will be given a say on controversial plans to rename a train station near Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium after it was revealed the proposal was at an advanced stage after intensive lobbying by the club.

The Guardian reported in March that White Hart Lane station was to be rebranded after the football club lobbied the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, and Transport for London (TfL). The transport body had been insisting the club should pay more than £14.7m for the privilege, in the face of vigorous resistance from Spurs.

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Boris Johnson under fire over row with partner as top Tories raise fears

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Leadership campaign falters as he refuses to respond to questions at hustings about late-night argument with Carrie Symonds

Boris Johnson was struggling to keep his campaign to become prime minister on course on Saturday night as he repeatedly refused to explain why police had been called to his home after a loud, late-night altercation with his partner.

Senior Tories were quick to raise fresh concerns over the former foreign secretary’s suitablity for No 10 as the favourite to succeed Theresa May stonewalled question after question about the incident at the first hustings of the leadership contest in front of party members.

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Police called to loud altercation at Boris Johnson’s home

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Neighbour records shouting and banging at flat potential PM shares with Carrie Symonds

Police were called to the home of Boris Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, in the early hours of Friday morning after neighbours heard a loud altercation involving screaming, shouting and banging.

The argument could be heard outside the property where the potential future prime minister is living with Symonds, a former Conservative party head of press.

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Greenpeace activist: ‘Mark Field needs anger management’

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Janet Barker recounts assault by suspended MP and says it will not stop her activism

Bruised and still shaken, Janet Barker is incredulous at the violent reaction of the Foreign Office minister Mark Field to her peaceful protest with fellow Greenpeace activists at the chancellor’s Mansion House speech.

However, she has no plans to press criminal charges over the physical assault. “I think it is something best dealt with in the court of opinion,” she said, while welcoming his suspension as a minister.

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Police stop and search is working in London, says anti-violence chief

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Lib Peck insists tactics are succeeding despite Londoners ‘feeling powerless’ over crime

The head of London’s newly formed violence reduction unit has said Londoners feel powerless about levels of street crime but insisted that increased use of stop and search powers had been successful.

Lib Peck, the former leader of Lambeth council who was appointed to the role in January, made the comments while on a two-day fact-finding trip to Glasgow, visiting some of the Scottish unit’s key projects and meeting senior officials.

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Hunt defends Trump quoting Katie Hopkins in attack on Sadiq Khan

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Foreign secretary says he agrees 150% with sentiment of tweet which quoted Katie Hopkins

Jeremy Hunt has vigorously defended Donald Trump for quoting the far-right commentator Katie Hopkins in an attack on the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, as Downing Street declined to condemn the US president’s words.

The foreign secretary said that while he would not have used the same words as Trump he would “150% agree” with the overall sentiment.

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Egypt tries to stop sale of Tutankhamun statue in London

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Officials fear bust of pharaoh might have been looted from Karnak temple in Luxor

Egyptian authorities are trying to stop the auction of a statue of Tutankhamun’s head at Christie’s auction house in London next month after concerns were raised that the bust might have been stolen from the Karnak temple in Luxor.

The statue, a brown quartzite head of the young pharaoh, which portrays him as the ancient god Amun, is expected to raise more than £4m at auction on 4 July.

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Barking fire: residents claim safety fears about flats were downplayed

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Occupants emailed Bellway Homes with concerns about fire risk a month before blaze

Residents at a six-storey block of flats in Barking, east London, that was engulfed in flames on Sunday have claimed their concerns about potential fire safety breaches were downplayed by its builders only last month.

About 100 firefighters and 15 fire engines were dispatched to deal with the blaze on De Pass Gardens that tore through wooden balconies forcing it and neighbouring flats to be evacuated.

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Teenagers held over homophobic attack on two women on London bus

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Lesbian couple assaulted by group of young males blame rise of rightwing populism for growth in hate crime

The two women left needing hospital treatment after they were attacked on a bus in a homophobic assault have blamed a rise in rightwing populism for growing hate crime and called on people to stand up for each other.

Melania Geymonat, 28, and her girlfriend, Chris, 29, defiantly announced they would not be intimidated into hiding their sexuality, days after they said they were attacked by several young men when they refused to kiss upon demand.

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Thousands of people protest against Donald Trump’s state visit – video

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Trafalgar Square in central London became the focal point for tens of thousands of anti-Trump protesters on Tuesday. The US president dismissed the demonstrations as 'fake news', saying they were very small, while claiming thousands had lined the streets to cheer him on Monday

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Donald Trump is like a 20th-century fascist, says Sadiq Khan

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London mayor hits out at US president before his state visit to Britain

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has compared the language used by Donald Trump to rally his supporters to that of “the fascists of the 20th century” in an explosive intervention before the US president’s state visit to London that begins on Monday.

Writing in the Observer, Khan condemned the red-carpet treatment being afforded to Trump who, with his wife Melania, will be a guest of the Queen during his three-day stay, which is expected to provoke massive protests in the capital on Tuesday.

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