The numbers of murders, knife crimes and street robberies in London have fallen, the latest figures from the British capital's authorities show.
The city's reputation as a safe place to live and visit has been blighted by mobile phone thefts and gangs of “Rolex ripper” robbers taking luxury brand watches from peoples' wrists.
US President Donald Trump even had something to say, accusing thr London Mayor Sadiq Khan of doing a “terrible job” and claiming that “crime in London is through the roof”, in their long-running war of words.
But new crime figures from Mr Khan’s office show that murders for the first nine months of the year are at the lowest level since 2003.
There were 70 homicides in the city, down 16 per cent on the same period last year.
Figures for this year show also a 50 per cent reduction number of homicides of under-25s compared to last year, when the number was at its lowest for more than 22 years.
The city has also earned a reputation as a knife crime hotspot in recent years but the new figures show this is also falling.
There were 1,154 fewer knife offences in the 12 months to August, a seven per cent drop. Hospital admissions of under-25s for knife injuries in the capital fell by 10 per cent in the 12 months to June 2025.
In the first quarter of the financial year 2025-2026, theft from persons and personal robbery both fell by 13 per cent.
“There are some politicians and commentators who continue to denigrate London and talk our great city down, but the facts are showing a very different picture,” said Mr Khan.
“We're making good progress, but there's clearly much more to do. That's why there will be no let-up in our citywide effort to further reduce serious violence and protect more Londoners as we continue building a safer London for everyone.”
About 80,000 phones were stolen in the city last year, Greater London's Metropolitan Police force estimated and thefts have been described as having reached “epidemic” proportions.
But the force has sought to get on top of offences in tackling thieves on the streets and the gangs trading in stolen devices.
The force recently announced its largest operation yet to tackle phone theft in London led to the discovery of 1,000 iPhones in a warehouse near London Heathrow Airport, which led to the busting of a suspected international smuggling gang.
An investigation which began last December caught street thieves, dealers and handlers including two leaders from Afghanistan.
A man was charged with handling stolen goods after he was caught carrying 10 suspected stolen phones at Heathrow.
It was discovered the passenger, who was also found with two iPads, two laptops and two Rolex watches, had travelled between London and Algeria more than 200 times in two years.
Susan Hall, leader of the opposition Conservatives in London's City Hall, told The National that Mr Khan's “misleading claim” about crime “is cherry-picking at its finest”.
“What Khan doesn't say is that the Met Police have changed how they count crime, which has led to a reduction of certain offences – through accounting, not through policing – on paper only,” she said.
“The publicly available Met Police data shows that crime is up across a number of offences, contrary to Khan's claims. When the Mayor cynically manipulates data to cover up for his failures, Londoners will eventually lose faith in the data put before them because they can see with their own eyes that he just is not telling the truth.”
SQUADS
South Africa:
JP Duminy (capt), Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wkt), AB de Villiers, Robbie Frylinck, Beuran Hendricks, David Miller, Mangaliso Mosehle (wkt), Dane Paterson, Aaron Phangiso, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Tabraiz Shamsi
Bangladesh
Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Imrul Kayes, Liton Das (wkt), Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim (wkt), Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shafiul Islam, Soumya Sarkar, Taskin Ahmed
Fixtures
Oct 26: Bloemfontein
Oct 29: Potchefstroom
Visit Abu Dhabi culinary team's top Emirati restaurants in Abu Dhabi
Yadoo’s House Restaurant & Cafe
For the karak and Yoodo's house platter with includes eggs, balaleet, khamir and chebab bread.
Golden Dallah
For the cappuccino, luqaimat and aseeda.
Al Mrzab Restaurant
For the shrimp murabian and Kuwaiti options including Kuwaiti machboos with kebab and spicy sauce.
Al Derwaza
For the fish hubul, regag bread, biryani and special seafood soup.
Profile
Name: Carzaty
Founders: Marwan Chaar and Hassan Jaffar
Launched: 2017
Employees: 22
Based: Dubai and Muscat
Sector: Automobile retail
Funding to date: $5.5 million
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ETwin-turbo%2C%20V8%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E8-speed%20automatic%20and%20manual%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E503%20bhp%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E513Nm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Efrom%20Dh646%2C800%20(%24176%2C095)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Enow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
As You Were
Liam Gallagher
(Warner Bros)
The Lowdown
Kesari
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
Produced by: Dharma Productions, Azure Entertainment
Directed by: Anubhav Singh
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Parineeti Chopra
Recipe
Garlicky shrimp in olive oil
Gambas Al Ajillo
Preparation time: 5 to 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients
180ml extra virgin olive oil; 4 to 5 large cloves of garlic, minced or pureed (or 3 to 4 garlic scapes, roughly chopped); 1 or 2 small hot red chillies, dried (or ¼ teaspoon dried red chilli flakes); 400g raw prawns, deveined, heads removed and tails left intact; a generous splash of sweet chilli vinegar; sea salt flakes for seasoning; a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Method
▶ Heat the oil in a terracotta dish or frying pan. Once the oil is sizzling hot, add the garlic and chilli, stirring continuously for about 10 seconds until golden and aromatic.
▶ Add a splash of sweet chilli vinegar and as it vigorously simmers, releasing perfumed aromas, add the prawns and cook, stirring a few times.
▶ Once the prawns turn pink, after 1 or 2 minutes of cooking, remove from the heat and season with sea salt flakes.
▶ Once the prawns are cool enough to eat, scatter with parsley and serve with small forks or toothpicks as the perfect sharing starter. Finish off with crusty bread to soak up all that flavour-infused olive oil.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
