Simon Israel

The number of homicides in the capital is the highest for a decade. There’s been a surge in gang and knife related crimes. Last year – 149 people were killed across London – the vast majority were stabbed.

Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson have paid tribute to NHS staff and others working through the holiday period.

“It’s breadcrumbs for peasants.” That’s how a victim of the Windrush scandal has responded to one of the first offers of compensation from the Home Office.

An independent panel ruled that PC Mark Alstons was not the officer who struck Alfie Meadows over the head.

Nine years ago when student Alfie Meadows was, in his words, “thrashed with a police baton” – during the 2010 Westminster student protests against tuition fees – he was “nearly killed and lucky to survive.”

Born in Britain and raised here until they were ten, yet children are being charged over £1,000 to apply to become a British citizen. 

A human rights protester has lodged a criminal complaint against staff at the Bahrain Embassy alleging attempted murder on the night of his rooftop demonstration. Moosa Mohammed claimed he was beaten up and threatened with being thrown from the embassy roof. The embassy has described his claims as baseless and accused him of trespass.

The man accused of running military death squads during decades of civil war in Sri Lanka has been elected President with an overwhelming majority.

An investigation is underway into the fire which swept through a six storey student accommodation block in Bolton – gutting and badly damaging several floors.

A police constable has appeared in court, charged with the murder of former footballer, Dalian Atkinson.

In an official report released today, Sir Martin Moore-Bick castigated the London Fire Brigade and blamed the presence of cladding at Grenfell Tower as a key factor in the rapid spread of the flames.

It is two years since the terrible fire which killed 72 people at Grenfell Tower.

The Vietnamese Embassy in London says it has received requests from a number of  families asking for help to find out if their relatives were among the 39 people found dead inside a refrigerated trailer in Essex. In the last few minutes police say a fourth person has been arrested.

It’s all about the lure of the snakehead – the Chinese term for human smuggling syndicates which seek to transport migrants halfway across the world for profit. They are undoubtedly behind this latest tragedy.

Today’s events bear many of the hallmarks of a similar tragedy at Dover 19 years ago.