Author: Henry Caldwell

Armed officers were dispatched to a Lidl supermarket in north-west London on Monday afternoon after reports that a man had been seen with a gun inside the store, the Metropolitan Police has confirmed. The incident, which unfolded on Ealing Road in Alperton, was reported to police at around 4.10pm on 21 April. A 62-year-old man was subsequently arrested at the scene on suspicion of possession of a firearm and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life. He has been taken into custody. What the Met has said about the incident A Metropolitan Police spokesperson confirmed that the situation had…

Four years of the same nightmare, four years of government silence and Londoners are done pretending this is normal LONDON — Wake up, drag yourself out of a flat you can barely afford, check your phone, and see the news you already knew was coming: the Tube is out. Again. For the millions of Londoners who spent Wednesday morning scrambling for alternative routes, squeezing onto packed buses, shelling out for Ubers they can’t afford, or simply giving up and working from a kitchen table, April 2026 feels like a grim rerun of 2025. And 2024. And 2023. And 2022. The…

Teenager admits north London synagogue arson as seven held over alleged plot A 17-year-old boy has admitted carrying out an arson attack on a synagogue in north-west London, becoming the first person convicted over a recent wave of attacks targeting venues linked to Jewish, Israeli and Iranian communities. His guilty plea on Tuesday coincided with the arrest of seven further individuals suspected of plotting a separate attack on the Jewish community. What happened at Kenton United Synagogue The teenager, a British national from Brent who cannot be identified for legal reasons, pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court to arson not…

Two double stabbings in different parts of London have left three men injured and prompted four arrests, with the incidents occurring within a matter of hours of one another between late Monday night and the early hours of Tuesday morning. One man has been left with potentially life-changing injuries following an attack in Bromley, while a separate incident in Mill Hill shortly after 1am on Tuesday saw two further men rushed to hospital. The Metropolitan Police has confirmed arrests in connection with both investigations. What happened across two boroughs The first incident took place on Shroffold Road, close to Five…

London Underground drivers represented by the RMT began a 24-hour walkout at midday on Tuesday, the first of six planned strikes in a dispute that has divided the network’s two biggest unions and left Transport for London defending a working-pattern reform it insists is voluntary. The stoppage, which is scheduled to end at 11:59 on Wednesday, has forced the suspension of the Circle line in full and the Piccadilly line almost in its entirety, with drone images showing trains lined up at the Cockfosters depot in north London. TfL confirmed that only half of its passenger services were running by…

Millions of Londoners have spent the past fortnight reaching for antihistamines earlier than they can remember. The reason is not imagination. Britain has just recorded its warmest start to April in eighty years, with temperatures briefly pushing past 26°C in the south-west of the capital, and the Met Office has confirmed that tree pollen levels across central and southern England are now running at high or very high, with birch pollen becoming increasingly dominant alongside ash and the first traces of oak. For an estimated 13 to 16 million hay fever sufferers in the UK — roughly one in five…

London’s counter-terrorism command is investigating a string of arson attacks on Jewish and Israeli-linked premises in the capital, with senior officers warning that Britain may be witnessing Iranian-backed “violence as a service” carried out by hired criminals. Speaking outside Kenton United Synagogue on Sunday, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, the Senior National Co-ordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said the attacks form part of what appears to be a co-ordinated campaign. The latest struck overnight: a synagogue in the Brent-Harrow area was set alight, while bins outside a communal block in Barnet were torched. A Jewish business in Barnet had been…

A 29-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a car was driven into pedestrians in central London in the early hours of Sunday morning, the Metropolitan Police have confirmed. Two people are being treated in hospital for serious injuries. One of them, a woman in her 30s, remains in a critical condition. A man in his 50s sustained what officers describe as life-changing injuries. A third pedestrian, also a woman in her 30s, suffered only minor injuries and was treated at the scene. The driver was detained by officers at the scene and is being held…

Britain’s Chief Rabbi has warned that violence directed at the Jewish community is escalating, following the latest in a string of suspected arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites across north-west London. The warning came after Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow was targeted overnight, becoming the third Jewish location in the capital to be attacked in under a week. According to the Community Security Trust (CST), which coordinates security for Jewish institutions, no one was hurt in the incident and damage was limited to minor smoke marks inside a single room. Sir Ephraim Mirvis condemned the attack as “cowardly”…

As RMT drivers prepare to walk out on 21 and 23 April, a London Chronicle analysis finds the spring strike wave could cost the capital more than £1.8 billion — and the hidden bill is landing in commuters’ pockets and small business tills, not just TfL’s budget. The Tuesday nobody is budgeting for At noon on Tuesday 21 April, roughly 1,800 London Underground drivers belonging to the RMT union will begin the first of six 24-hour walkouts spread across April, May and June. The headlines will focus on the drama — the four-day working week dispute, the closed stations, the…