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☆ Photo of Princess Charlotte released for her eighth birthday
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Issy Ronald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —The Prince and Princess of Wales have released a new photograph of their daughter, Princess Charlotte, to mark her eighth birthday on Tuesday. Shared the evening before her birthday, the photo shows Charlotte sitting in a white chair wearing a white floral dress and smiling at the camera. “Wishing Princess Charlotte a very happy birthday! 8 tomorrow,” the Prince and Princess of Wales’ official Twitter account said, alongside a balloon and birthday cake emoji. Charlotte was born at St. Mary’s Hospital in west London and is third in line to the British throne, after her father Prince William and older brother Prince George, 9.

[1/5] Terry Hutt, aged 87, a life long royals fan sits surrounded by royals memorabilia he has collected since he was a child, at his home in Weston-super-Mare, Britain, April 25, 2023. REUTERS/Molly DarlingtonLONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - Margaret Tyler's fascination with the British royal family began as a child, when she would cut out photos of the now-King Charles III and his sister, Princess Anne. The 79-year-old, just four years older than the British monarch, is among the royal super fans who cannot contain her excitement for his coronation this Saturday. I sort of followed them, Princess Anne as a toddler, really, Prince Charles a bit older. Tyler's obsession has filled her home in northwest London, with rooms named after members of the royal family and little space to move among piles of royal memorabilia including flags, photos and china.

☆ Brentford deepen Chelsea's slump with 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( William Schomberg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The loss left toothless Chelsea 11th in the Premier League table, stumbling towards possibly their worst campaign since the 1993/94 season - when they finished 14th under Glenn Hoddle - despite their new U.S. owners' huge outlay on players. The three points pushed Brentford up a spot to ninth in the league, eight points ahead of their big-spending west London neighbours for whom this season cannot finish quickly enough. Media reports said Chelsea were close to hiring former Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino as coach from next season. It doesn’t come in football because the Premier League moves so fast, it’s competitive," the former midfielder who is Chelsea's all-time top scorer, said. Brentford coach Thomas Frank was able to celebrate surpassing his side's points tally for all of last season - their first in the Premier League - with Wednesday's win.

☆ Factbox: Little known facts about King Charles: One-time jockey and hedgelayer
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, April 18 (Reuters) - King Charles will be crowned next month at London's Westminster Abbey, following in a tradition that dates back some 1,000 years. Here are some little known facts about the monarch:FIRST REGAL SCHOOLBOYCharles is the first monarch to have gone to school, as all his predecessors were educated by private tutors. As part of his education, he spent two terms at Geelong Church of England Grammar School in Melbourne, Australia. SPORTYAs a young prince, Charles loved skiing, surfing, and scuba diving. MUSIC AND ARTS LOVERCAMBERLEY, ENGLAND - APRIL 14: King Charles III inspects the 200th Sovereign's parade at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on April 14, 2023 in Camberley, England.

☆ Swinging Sixties fashion designer Mary Quant dies aged 93
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Farouq Suleiman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, April 13 (Reuters) - Fashion designer Mary Quant, often credited with popularising the miniskirt that helped define Britain's "Swinging Sixties" era, has died aged 93. Born and brought up in Blackheath, south east London, Quant helped pioneer bold new styles during the 1960s - a decade in which fashion, music and art subculture challenged and forever changed Britain's post-war national identity. "It’s impossible to overstate Quant's contribution to fashion," the Victoria and Albert Museum, which held a 2019 exhibition focused on her work, said in a statement. "She represented the joyful freedom of 1960s fashion, and provided a new role model for young women. A self-taught designer, Quant opened a west London boutique called Bazaar in the 1950s alongside her fashion entrepreneur husband Alexander Plunket Greene and their business partner.

☆ Man City cruise to win over Saints, Newcastle maintain top-four push
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Martyn Herman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

loadingLeaders Arsenal play Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday where the London side seek a first league win since 2012. Manchester United maintained their top-four pursuit while at the bottom there were vital victories for Bournemouth and West Ham United. Leicester City's plight worsened as the 2015-16 Premier League champions suffered a seventh defeat in eight league games as they lost 1-0 at home to Bournemouth to stay 19th. Newcastle's fifth consecutive win moved them up to 56 points from 29 games -- the same as Manchester United who beat Everton 2-0 in Saturday's early kickoff. SON MILESTONETottenham's Son Heung-min scored his 100th Premier League goal with a sublime 10th-minute curler -- the first Asian player to reach that milestone.

☆ Zadie Smith Never Meant to Write a Play
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Emily Bobrow | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Zadie Smith did not intend to write a play. Brent won, and Ms. Smith had to write something for the celebration. “I feel guilty that all of this is my fault,” Ms. Smith says over the phone from her hotel in Boston, just before her play’s recent run at Harvard’s American Repertory Theater. She explains that it has been both “extraordinary” and discomfiting to watch her words performed to packed houses. “I’m in awe of people who work in this form because real-time rejection is not something I’m used to.”

To compound the problem, British shoppers are themselves starting to spend more in the European Union, where they can also reclaim the value-added tax (VAT) charged on goods. OWN GOALBurberry BRBY.L, Britain's biggest luxury retail brand, warned last year that London was losing out to other European cities over the VAT rule. "That's why tax-free was so important for them, and now we are the only country in Europe that doesn't offer it." Cadogan, the main landlord in the west London districts of Chelsea and Knightsbridge, whose estate spans over 90 acres, also called on the government to act. He said he had not considered the VAT issue before, because he was generally spending his parents' money.

He joins junior doctors across England who will go on strike on March 13 for three days, protesting over pay and burnout that risks driving staff out of the health service as it tackles record-high patient waiting lists. "We've reached a boiling point where we have had enough," said Wang - a council member of the British Medical Association (BMA), which represents doctors and medical students. Junior doctors are qualified physicians, often with several years of experience, who work under the guidance of senior doctors and represent a large part of the country's medical community. The BMA says junior doctors' take-home pay has been cut by more than a quarter over the last 15 years, when using the Retail Price Index (RPI) gauge of inflation. The walkouts by junior doctors will put more pressure on the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) which is experiencing waves of strike action by nurses, ambulance workers and other staff.

☆ Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page Battles Neighbor Robbie Williams Over a Basement Man Cave
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Max Colchester | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON— Jimmy Page shot to fame in the 1960s playing earsplitting concerts as the lead guitarist in the band Led Zeppelin. But in the past decade, the ponytailed 79-year-old Brit has pined for the quiet life. Page has said he doesn’t hold raucous house parties at his 19th-century manor the Tower House in west London. Instead, he has thrown himself into restoring the frescos and stained-glass windows that adorn the interior of the historic building.

☆ Brentford beat Fulham to fuel European dream
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - Brentford fuelled their ambition of playing European football with a 3-2 home victory over fellow hopefuls Fulham to extend their unbeaten run in the Premier League to 12 games on Monday. Ivan Toney's second-half penalty and a late effort by Mathias Jensen sealed the points for ninth-placed Brentford against their west London rivals to edge them closer to the European qualification places. Brentford had taken an early lead with a deflected shot by Ethan Pinnock but Fulham hit back shortly before halftime when Manor Solomon scored for the fourth successive league match. The hosts were rampant and Bryan Mbeumo grazed the upright with a free kick before Toney also saw a free kick bounce back off the woodwork. Fulham levelled in the 39th minute when another free kick hit the frame of the goal but this time Andreas Pereira's superb effort bounced down for Israeli Solomon to nod home.

☆ The Barnes & Noble CEO says sales are rising because he trusts his booksellers to 'create good bookshops' and run each store the way they want to
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Sales at Barnes & Noble are rising because staff are it's not trying to make stores "homogenous," its CEO said. "Sensible retailing principles" equal "terrible bookstores," Daunt told the Business Studies podcast. He took over as CEO of Barnes & Noble in 2019 with plans to update the chain's 600 stores across the US. By 2022, total sales at Barnes & Noble were 3% higher than pre-pandemic levels, with book sales up by 14%. "If you're in Alabama, you should run a very different bookstore to if you're on the Upper West Side of Manhattan," he told Business Studies.

European demand is deepening a shortage of agave, the prickly plant native to Mexico's Jalisco region that's used to make tequila. Tequila prices have leapt. Compounding matters, the flow to Europe of high-quality 100% agave tequila - which has to be bottled in Mexico - has also been constrained by the supply-chain chaos from COVID-19. Michael Merolli, head of Pernod Ricard's tequila business, which includes Olmeca, said there were far fewer tequila brands in Europe than the United States, where the market was more mature and competitive, with new brands emerging every week. U.S. A-listers like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Kendall Jenner and Kevin Hart have all launched tequila brands in recent years.

☆ Fact Check-Video of London Ambulance blocked by ‘low traffic neighbourhood’ filters is from 2021
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Footage of an ambulance navigating around wooden roadblocks during a “low traffic neighbourhood” (LTN) trial in Ealing, West London, is from 2021 but is being shared online as if new. “This footage is of a low traffic neighbourhood scheme that was removed in May 2021, so it’s not contemporaneous footage,” an Ealing Council spokesperson told Reuters. The area of Ealing is identifiable by visible road signs indicating the area is a controlled parking area in the area called “Zone GG” (here). Reuters previously addressed misleading narratives about a traffic filter scheme in Oxford, including that it is a “climate lockdown” here and here . The video of a London Ambulance rerouting around traffic filters is not new but was filmed during a low traffic neighbourhood trial in Ealing, which finished in 2021.

☆ Seen Big Ben already? Here's a Londoner's guide to visiting other parts of the city
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Lucy Handley | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

Central London's City of Westminster is its political heart, while the City of London is where the capital's financial decisions happen. But be warned: Several paths across Hyde Park are pedestrian-only, and police often fine people who cycle on them. The City of London is a blend of old and new, with St Paul's Cathedral close to skyscrapers as well as Roman ruins. While north London has Hampstead Heath, south of the river is Richmond Park, which dwarfs its northern counterpart in size. There's also a branch in central London's Covent Garden — the flower-filled restaurant The Petersham — that has an sit-down deli and bar.

☆ London’s rental market is in crisis. Here’s why and how renters are struggling
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Sophie Kiderlin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The city's rental market is in crisis, and renters are facing the consequences. After living in their two-bedroom apartment for almost a year, their landlord asked them to pay 27% more rent. "We were shocked at how high the rent increase was," he told CNBC's Make It. "None of the areas that we've found potential properties for would really suit our living situation," Lloyd said. Some of Lloyd's neighbors have heard back from their landlord through the property manager and new, lower rent increases have been suggested, but most are still worriedly waiting.

☆ Government bears some blame for Grenfell fire, UK housing minister says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A woman places a white rose during a memorial service for those who died in the Grenfell Tower fire on June 14 2018, outside Westminster Abbey in London, Britain June 14, 2022. In June 2017, Grenfell Tower, a 23-storey social housing block in west London, was destroyed by a fire started by an electrical fault in a refrigerator, Britain's deadliest fire in a residential building since World War Two. "I think that if you look at what happened to Grenfell, there were lots of factors. But it is undeniably the case that the system of building regulation was not right." Following the blaze, a public inquiry found numerous faults in the planning and administration of the Grenfell refurbishment, and hundreds of buildings were found to have similar cladding.

☆ Struggling Everton sack manager Lampard - reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Soccer Football - Carabao Cup Second Round - Fleetwood Town v Everton - Highbury Stadium, Fleetwood, Britain - August 23, 2022 Everton manager Frank Lampard before the match Action Images via Reuters/Ed SykesJan 23 (Reuters) - Everton have sacked manager Frank Lampard, British media reported on Monday, after a poor run of form that has left the Premier League club in a relegation battle. Lampard was appointed by Everton in January 2022 after he managed Chelsea from 2019-2021 and Derby County in the second tier in 2018-19. The 44-year-old was sacked as Chelsea manager in January 2021, having returned to the west London club where he holds the goalscoring record. He took over at Everton after the Merseyside club parted ways with Rafa Benitez, continuing the managerial revolving door at a club struggling to revive former glories. Everton next host leaders Arsenal on Feb. 4 followed by the Merseyside derby at Liverpool on Feb. 13.

☆ Saying Goodbye to Their Ancestral Homes Is a Necessary, Yet ‘Terribly Sad’ Affair
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Ruth Bloomfield | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Roderick Thomas has vivid childhood memories of days spent rampaging around Boulston Manor, his grandparents’ late-18th-century country home in Wales, playing chase with his sister and their cousins and exploring its grounds on horseback. Rochelle Westropp has similar recollections of idyllic summers spent at The Warren, the West London riverside house she, her mother and her grandmother all grew up in.

☆ Felix red mist another blow for Chelsea and Potter
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Chelsea manager Graham Potter said "the hits keep coming" after his new signing Joao Felix was sent off on his Premier League debut as the Blues lost 2-1 at Fulham on Thursday. Felix, whose loan signing cost Chelsea a reported nine million pounds, is now set to miss the next three league matches against Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Fulham. "It was another blow, the hits keep coming, I thought he (Felix) was very good up until then," Potter told BT Sport. Carlos Vinicius scored the decisive goal in the second half after Chelsea defender Kalidou Koulibaly had cancelled out Willian's opening strike. There's no other solution, keep focused go to the next match and try to get three points," Potter said.

☆ Shoppers lined up outside Aldi stores to buy Logan Paul and KSI's coveted Prime drink. The retailer used a clever strategy to lure customers in.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Aldi confirmed it had sold out of Prime just one day after the drink hit its shelves. Aldi used clever strategy to create a notion of scarcity and lure customers in, experts told Insider. Experts say Aldi used a clever strategy to lure in shoppers by create a feeling of exclusivity and notion of scarcity. Logan Paul has 24.6 million Instagram followers and 23.6 million YouTube subscribers, while for KSI those numbers are 12.4 million and 16.1 million respectively. Aldi sold the drink at £1.99 a bottle, and Prime sold 12-packs for £24.99 ($29.60) on its UK website before they sold out.

☆ Shoppers scrambled to grab the Prime energy drink promoted by YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI at Aldi, leaving shelves bare
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Aldi says it's sold out of Prime just one day after it started selling the energy drink. "It's not a nice drink at all," one shopper who bought the drink for his son told Insider. Leat told Insider he had followed KSI for a long time, "so I wanted to see for myself if his product lived up to the hype." Sam Kinsella, a landscape gardener from Bedfordshire, told Insider that he'd bought it because his son had seen it on TikTok. Jake Dickinson, a motor factory manager from Lincoln, told Insider that some flavors were better than others.

☆ Meet the small hedge fund that thinks it can oust Larry Fink from BlackRock
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The fund has a tiny stake in BlackRock and is calling for the firm to replace Larry Fink as CEO. On one side stands a small, relatively unknown activist hedge fund with a tiny stake in a giant company. 1, the young hedge fund run by a longtime activist investor, and ExxonMobil. Joining a wave of heavy scrutiny of BlackRock and Fink over ESG, Bluebell accused BlackRock of a hypocritical posture toward sustainable investing, according to the letter, which was viewed by Insider. Bloomberg News ran the headline: "Tiny Activist Bluebell Quickly Becomes CEOs' Worst Nightmare."

☆ City stunned by Toney, Spurs comeback sinks Leeds, Lampard under more pressure
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Richard Martin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Liverpool beat Southampton 3-1 as Darwin Nunez scored his first double for the team and Roberto Firmino also got on the scoresheet. Leicester coach Brendan Rodgers sought to calm fears about the midfielder's fitness, stating he had taken him off as a precautionary measure. For this reason I think we showed great character, great will to not give up and to believe," said Conte. Leeds coach Jesse Marsch added: "I'm gutted, I feel like someone has ripped my heart out." Newcastle United were in action against Chelsea later on Saturday while league leaders Arsenal visit Wolverhampton Wanderers with the chance to increase their advantage over City to five points.

☆ The sisterhood of Muslim women uniting football and faith in London team
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Anuja Jaiman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Fatima Ali, 26, prays between matches during the Ladies Super Liga 5-A-side tournament at The Colombo Centre in London, Britain, October 9, 2022. Founded in 2018, Sisterhood FC offers a chance for Muslim women to enjoy a break from traditional roles that many say are expected of them. "Even your brothers might be like what's the point of you going all the way from west London to southeast but I'll be like: 'I enjoy playing, we've got a team, this is it, we've got a match, we've got to go to do this," said Fatima. REUTERS/Hannah McKayClose

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