By Damien Gayle and Allan Hall
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Three people were arrested in Amsterdam and London today after a Europe-wide probe into blackmail linked to animal rights extremism.
A 50-year-old woman was held in Croydon, south London, on suspicion of conspiracy to blackmail, while a man and a woman, both 25, were arrested in the Dutch capital under a European arrest warrant.
The woman detained in Croydon was arrested by officers from Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism command, who led the investigation into the plot.
Scotland Yard: Officers from the Yard's Counter Terrorism Command coordinated the arrests in south London and Amsterdam today
Officers are searching the South London home and a business address in central London, while Dutch counterparts are searching a home and business in Amsterdam.
The alleged plot focused on a target in the UK but Scotland Yard would not reveal whether it was an individual or a business.
Two of the people arrested are British and one is Dutch, the force said.
The two suspects held by Dutch police were arrested at an apartment in the city. An office believed to have been used by them was also searched and a quantity of paperwork, computer disks and files taken away.
As is customary in The Netherlands, the names of the arrested suspects were withheld.
The Dutch National Crime Squad said Britain has maintained a surveillance operation with its assistance on radical animal rights activists in The Netherlands for some time.
These activists routinely go for 'training' in the UK - learning such things as sabotage, mail bomb making and how to target the personnel of companies involved in animal experiments - and return to their homeland as 'sleepers' waiting to be activated for a specific mission.
Three years ago Holland's General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) produced a report entitled 'Animal rights extremism in the Netherlands – fragmented but growing.'
It pointed out a group called RvD - Respect for Animals - as being among the most radical with links to British groups which targeted the Huntingdon Life Sciences group for years because of its experiments on live animals.
There are also two strong right-wing groups in operation - Voorpost ('Outpost') and With The Animals Against The Beasts (Met de Dieren tegen de Beesten, MDTB).
Police would not confirm which group the man and woman arrested in Amsterdam are affiliated with.
A fourth group is called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty Netherlands (SHAC-NL) and also has 'strong ties with English animal rights extremists,' according to police.
Animal rights activists outside Huntingdon Life Sciences' plant at Occold, Suffolk: Dutch authorities say extremists in the Netherlands have close links with groups in the UK. (There is no suggestion anyone in this picture has committed a crime)
The AIVD said; 'Due primarily to the system of cells into which animal rights extremists organise themselves, as well as their extremely high level of security awareness, it has proven difficult for criminal investigators to discover plans for violent direct action in advance or to track down the perpetrators of actual criminal acts.
'In some cases the culprits are so-called "lone wolves", who prepare and carry out deeds inspired by radical ideas concerning animal rights in total isolation from the rest of the movement.
'Although afew actions occur spontaneously, as a rule they are meticulously planned. Preparations include research in publicly available information, as well as reconnaissance of the intended target and its surrounding area.
'With the exception of those drawn from the extreme right, all the animal rights extremist groups operating in the Netherlands remain heavily influenced by their British counterparts. Many joint actions were carried out in the past, most of them on the continent including some in the Netherlands.'
Extradition proceedings will start in the Netherlands to try to bring the arrested pair back to this country.
Rain, rain go away: A London slog for Olympics? - The Guardian
DANICA KIRKA
Associated Press= LONDON (AP) — After a sodden spring, is Britain heading for a summer washout?
It's lurched from the cold, wet drizzle that dampened the queen's Diamond Jubilee flotilla on the Thames to a sea of mud at the Isle of Wight music festival to frequent delays at Wimbledon, where even the retractable roof couldn't make the event all strawberries and cream.
And now that the country has recorded its wettest June on record, should Olympic officials be concerned? The games are just 21 days away.
"Oh, goodness! It's only a bit of British weather," said Charles Powell, a spokesman for the Met office, the national forecaster. "It's naturally variable."
Britain is an island nation, at the mercy of winds scooping up water from the Atlantic Ocean and breezes bringing in dry air from the European continent. There's a reason trench coats are classic here. This is a country that can have four seasons in an afternoon, where one should never leave home without both an umbrella and sunglasses.
In other words, if the weather is not to your liking, hang on, it will change. And if it doesn't, London Olympic organizers say they are ready for every eventuality.
"The main thing is that we are used to it and we have planned accordingly," said Debbie Jevans, director of sport for the games. "It is something that is a fact of life. That is why our country is so lovely and green."
There are five different sailing routes at Weymouth, on England's south coast, in case of poor weather. The BMX cycling track has a cover and improved drainage following lessons learned from downpours during a test event.
Care has also gone into drainage at the equestrian venue at London's Greenwich Park. This is likely to be extremely important — several big British equestrian events, including the Badminton Horse Trials, were rained out this year because the ground was too sodden.
Plans have been drawn to make sure organizers and spectators get the most up-to-date information possible. Five Met Office forecasters will be embedded with the games and working around the clock, providing long- and short-range forecasts for the event, which starts July 27 and ends Aug. 12.
The sport most susceptible to rain is tennis, as any Wimbledon fan will tell you. Wet grass is problematic for players, who can easily slip and suffer injury — so you can't just "keep calm and carry on" the way athletes can if they are playing, say, beach volleyball.
Some extreme weather patterns may cause some delays if the safety of athletes and spectators is endangered. That includes thunderstorms and lightning bolts — as in the atmosphere, not the kind coming from the speedy shoes of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.
Beyond that, the Olympics will go on.
That hasn't stopped bookmakers from going into overdrive over all the rain-soaked bets that can be placed. British bookmaker Ladbrokes has offered odds at 50-to-1 that it will rain every day at Olympic Stadium in east London. The odds are 25-to-1 that the weather causes the flame to go out during the opening ceremony and 500-to-1 that the person lighting the flame will be wearing an umbrella hat.
The only time rain is assured is during the opening ceremony. Director Danny Boyle has written it into his script and made provisions should the heavens not comply.
It's too early even for predictions, with the Met office saying it will have a good idea only five days before an event. London Games chair Sebastian Coe has proclaimed himself unconcerned, though he says he'll "have a flicker of nervousness about it" on July 27, the day of the opening ceremony.
Weather is a great unifying factor in Britain, where the BBC shipping forecast is a national tradition and where Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, won rave reviews for reading the weather report on TV during a visit to BBC studios in Glasgow, Scotland.
The sight of the heir to the British throne giving a credible performance as a weatherman prompted Britain's Sun newspaper to wonder if there was "any chance of reign?"
No matter what, the Brits will press on. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip have showed the way. During the Jubilee flotilla, they stood under an awning for hours, watching the parade through wind and rain as if it were blazing sunshine.
Beyond that, Olympic organizers are urging spectators to be prepared. Bring a hat. Bring an umbrella — a small one because big ones are banned.
And take sunscreen. Because you never know.
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Associated Press Writer Stephen Wilson contributed to this story.
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Follow Danica Kirka on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DanicaKirka
Follow Stephen Wilson on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/stevewilsonap
Comment: London Mayor accused over WorldPride fiasco - pinknews.co.uk
The World Pride organisers have made considerable mistakes and must share some of the blame for the current fiasco. However, they are not the sole villains. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, could have rescued Pride but has apparently chosen to not do so. The actions and inactions of the Greater London Authority (GLA) have compounded the problems that Pride now faces.
I speak with some authority; having helped organise Britain’s first Gay Pride parade, held in London 40 years ago, in July 1972. I’ve attended every Pride since and I have been a Patron of Pride London for two decades.
This month is the 40th anniversary of the first ever Pride parade. Veterans from 1972 will lead Saturday’s London march.
This major anniversary makes the shambles of Saturday’s Pride parade, rally and parties all the more appalling.
A lack of official transparency and apparent economy with the truth at City Hall is part of the problem. Another issue is the Mayor’s unwillingness to consult with the wider lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community to find a solution.
City Hall has known about the problems for many weeks. Like Pride, the mayoral team failed to involve other LGBT stakeholders and financiers to raise extra cash and to draft a credible rescue plan. If the Mayor had acted weeks ago, we would not be in this mess.
I have received information from insiders at City Hall. There is concern about the behaviour of some officials connected to the Mayor and perhaps the Mayor himself.
Among other things, it is alleged as follows:
Corporate giants, Gaydar and Smirnoff, last week reportedly offered well in excess of £60,000 to cover Pride’s funding shortfall but the Mayor’s office spurned this offer claiming it was “too late”. This “too late” claim is disputed, with some people suggesting that there was still sufficient time last week to produce a viable rescue package, if the Mayor’s team had the will to do so.
Last year, the costs involved in the post-parade rally in Trafalgar Square were reportedly in the region of £50,000. This year they are allegedly £100,000. If true, it seems hard to justify a 100% increase which has, in part, created the funding shortfall.
It is claimed that the GLA is forcing Pride to use certain contractors, who are not necessarily the cheapest. This may be artificially exacerbating Pride’s money problems.
The financial difficulties faced by Pride are mostly a cash-flow problem. The GLA has forced Pride to pay for everything upfront as a condition for the events to go head. Pride says the sponsorship money it expects to receive by the end of the festivities would have bridged most of the funding gap.
The GLA has reportedly not paid all the money it promised to Pride; thereby compounding the cash-flow difficulties.
The Mayor’s office says there are “problems” and “safety issues” related to the Pride parade which require the start time to be bought forward to 11am and which require huge insurance premiums to be paid. However, they refuse to say what these problems and safety issues are. This is tantamount to demonising Pride as a troublesome event. In contrast, the police say it is one of the most trouble-free events held in London. Previously the police have adopted a very low presence, confident that Pride has no problem or safety issues.
Mayor Johnson’s sudden change in the parade start-time from 1pm to 11am is very unfair to people who have pre-booked trains and coaches for a1pm start. The march will have left before many people have arrived. This is a recipe for chaos and disruption. Instead of an orderly march, tens of thousands of disorganised people will swarm through the streets towards Trafalgar Square and Soho, blocking traffic and causing grid-lock.
The 11am kick-off clashes with Jewish Sabbath services, which means that many Jewish people will be unable to attend. The lack of religious and cultural sensitivity by the mayoral team is surprising and shocking.
The Metropolitan Police are to be commended for their sympathetic, supportive relations with the Pride organisers. In contrast to City Hall and Westminster council, the police have gone out of their way to facilitate the Pride events, as much as possible given other official obstructions.
The Mayor’s team has, in effect, gagged the Pride organisers by requiring them to submit all news releases to City Hall for approval. Changes in wording have been demanded by City Hall, which some say suit the spin the Mayor’s office wants to put on the Pride fiasco. The Pride committee is not free to communicate with the LGBT community. It is alleged that Pride’s contract with City Hall gives mayoral bosses a veto over what the Pride committee can and cannot say publicly.
Not only have the city authorities forced Pride to cancel all official street parties in Soho, they also want to stop any unofficial parties. Well over 100,000 people are expected to pour into Soho after the parade and rally. Westminster council has sent what reads like a threatening letter to gay venues warning them that their licences could be revoked if they play music that is “audible outside of your premises” and if they allow customers to drink in the street. Ignoring the exceptional circumstances on Saturday, venues are expected to operate on Saturday “as on any normal day.” All celebrations must take place “within licensed premises,” the letter says. Westminster council has not explained how up to 250,000 people are expected to cram into 20 Soho gay venues with a maximum capacity of 5,000 people.
No plans have been made by the Mayor or Westminster council to deal with the vast numbers of people expected on Saturday; apart from turning people away and dispersing them, which could lead to angry crowds and potential public order problems. This lack of contingency planning also risks creating traffic snarl-ups throughout central London, as crowds spill out into the streets with nowhere to go.
Cynics suggest that City Hall is not unhappy with all the bad publicity around Pride, in the hope that it will deter people from coming and keep the numbers low; making the festivities more manageable and easier to control.
Even though London is this year hosting World Pride, with LGBT delegations from around the world, the Mayor is not attending. Many LGBT people are interpreting his non-attendance as a snub. He did not attend last year either.
The Mayor’s office demanded that Pride drop me as a keynote speaker at the post-parade rally in Trafalgar Square, giving the organisers the impression that if I spoke City Hall’s authorisation for the entire rally could be withdrawn. Pride caved in to this pressure and informed me that I was being dropped from the speaker’s list. When this was exposed at Mayor’s Question Time on Wednesday, the Mayor agreed that I could speak, providing there were other political party speakers. He falsely claimed that I am a “Green politician”. I am not a politician. I am not elected, or standing for election, to any public office. I’m a non-party-political human rights campaigner. I was planning to speak exclusively on LGBT issues, with no mention of the Green Party. The political affiliations of other rally speakers have not been questioned or used against them. I was singled out.
Watch Mayor’s Question Time here: http://goo.gl/ufwf3
Because of my exposure of this shambles, I expect the Mayor’s office may find some new excuse to bar me from speaking on Saturday. City Hall has form. In previous years, I have been banned by Boris aides from attending mayoral LGBT events and receptions.
The decision to axe floats, buses and cars in the parade is disastrous for older and disabled LGBT people. Many will not now be able to participate. This is against the spirit of legislation intended to protect disabled and older people against exclusion and discrimination.
Banning floats in the parade is also a big blow to the many LGBT charities that have spent thousands of pounds on hiring and decorating them. They will lose a major opportunity to raise their profile, publicise their work and secure donation pledges.
Corporate bosses are already discussing a take-over of Pride. They are not displeased with the current failings. They see Pride as a commodity and a financial opportunity. They want to turn Pride into a largely depoliticised commercial event. The GLA is understood to be sympathetic to their interests. This would diminish the LGBT community links and betray the ideals and values of Pride.
It is difficult to say which of these problems have been compounded by the Mayor and which ones are the result of over-zealous officials.
Although I believe these allegations to be true, based on information I have received, they are, at this stage, allegations not proven facts. Nevertheless, they have more than a whiff of credibility and they demand open disclosure and honest answers from Mayor Johnson.
Regardless of the current shambles, the parade will go head. Without the floats and parties, it will revert to its roots – a protest march for LGBT human rights. The Pride slogan is: “Decriminalise homosexuality worldwide – Global equality for LGBT people.” This is entirely appropriate, given that July is the 40th anniversary of the UK’s first-ever Gay Pride parade.
The Mayor has a duty to help save Pride. If the event flops it will be a huge embarrassment to London, just three weeks before the Olympics.
I urge the mayor, police and Westminster council to re-open negotiations with the Pride organisers and other LGBT stakeholders to reinstate the start time of 1pm and to allow a small number of vehicles for older and disabled people.
For the sake of the many thousands of people expected to participate, and to avoid widespread disruption across central London, the city authorities have a public duty to make changes to ensure a happy, successful Pride.
For more info about Peter Tatchell’s human rights campaigns, visit www.PeterTatchellFoundation.org.
This article first appeared on the Huffington Post.
From PinkNews.co.uk: The GLA responded to certain claims yesterday saying that Pride organisers had changed the time of the parade “to help create a safe event, in consultation with the police, Westminster and the GLA”.
They added that it was the responsibility of the organisers of Pride to liaise with and facilitate the different communities.
They denied the Mayor was ‘snubbing’ Pride, saying that he had attended previously, but is not able to this year, adding that it was not possible to attend every event every year. Assembly Member Andrew Boff will be representing the Mayor on Saturday.
Discuss this →London's 2012 Olympics wins my green gold medal - Daily Telegraph
The next year, the International Olympic Committee officially adopted it as its third dimension, after sport and culture, with the result that green aspirations have to be part of every bid. Indeed, London beat Paris in 2005 to this summer’s shindig precisely because of its environmental undertakings and its promise to regenerate London’s East End.
It was quite a challenge. The site, the size of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens combined, was contaminated by past industry, and the deadline, seven years on, was immutable. But a special team, advised by WWF (the former World Wildlife Fund) and the sustainability enterprise Bioregional, was already at work.
More than two million tons of soil have since been removed, cleaned and – mostly – reused, and covered with habitats including the largest area of wildflower meadows ever sown in Britain plus the biggest rare wet woodland in the country. Some 200 largely derelict buildings were demolished and 98.5 per cent of the resulting waste was reused or recycled.
No waste will go to landfill, for the first time in any Games. They will also be the first to monitor their carbon footprint throughout and to enforce strict green standards on catering – all eggs will be free range, all fish sustainably sourced. Water is being reclaimed from a local sewer, treated, and used for irrigation and flushing lavatories.
There are solar panels and flat roofs covered in vegetation to encourage wildlife. Spectators are to come by public transport. Staff uniforms are fashioned from recycled polyester and officials will even wear trilbys made entirely of “responsibly sourced paper”.
Not everything worked out: a planned big wind turbine was abandoned, as was a “bespoke fuel” made of elephant grass for the torch. As The Sunday Telegraph has revealed, 350 tons of ore must be mined to produce each gold medal. And, most damaging of all, sponsors Dow Chemicals and BP have been widely attacked for tarnishing the Games’ green credentials.
If the new campaign, Sustainability in Sport, gets its way, future Games will be far greener still for, it points out, even London 2012’s reduced carbon footprint is almost as large as Cardiff’s. The campaign draws on a drive by its other founder – Dale Vince, head of the green energy firm Ecotricity – to turn his Conference League football team, Forest Green Rovers, into the world’s most environmentally friendly.
The club has banned red meat for players and fans, installed solar panels, and established the world’s first organic football pitch, free of artificial fertilisers and herbicides and mowed by a sun-powered robot. It’s quite a way from its 5,147 capacity ground at Stroud to the new Olympic Stadium, but even Gary Neville started from humble beginnings.
The shoots of recovery are green for good reason, George
Earth to George Osborne. If you can spare the time from squabbling with your “good friend” Ed Balls – as you called him, to everyone’s mild amusement, at a Policy Exchange party on Thursday – you might care to read the latest CBI report. For it resoundingly endorses the green growth you have been undermining for the past nine months.
Green business, the report shows, George, is one of the few vibrant areas of the British economy, “growing steadily” even through the downturn: despite its youth it apparently accounted for a third of all the nation’s growth last year.
Already employing some 940,000 people, it accounts for about 8 per cent of GDP, and – the CBI goes on – could add an extra £20 billion to the economy and halve the trade deficit on its own over the next three years, if the policies are got just right.
But director general John Cridland adds that “mixed signals from the Government” – from your sceptical speeches, George – “are setting the UK back” while “umm-ing and err-ing about the level of support for wind energy” – you again – “scares markets and drives up the cost of capital”.
This threatens a “green business slowdown”, which could “knock around a quarter of a percentage point off the UK’s annual growth rate by 2014/15, costing nearly £10 billion a year in lost GDP”.
Not as much fun, of course, as scrapping with Ed, but perhaps worthy of some overdue attention.
Tiny terror that feasts on ants’ brains takes a bow
Small may be beautiful, but it can also have a reputation for ruthlessness. And scientists seem to have proved the point by discovering the Bonaparte of flies.
The fly, just 0.4mm long, is about half the size of the tiniest of the biting midges and so minute that they go under the name of “no see-ums”. Indeed, says Dr Brian Brown, curator of entomology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, who reports the finding in Thailand in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America, “it is so small you can barely see it a on microscope slide”.
The smallest fly yet discovered, Euryplatea nanaknihali really does appear to be a little horror. It is believed to lay its eggs in the bodies of almost equally tiny ants. The larvae work their way up to the ant’s head, causing the creature to wander about aimlessly as they progressively devour its brains. Eventually, the scientists think, the head drops off and the parasites take up residence in the disembodied occiput, before emerging as fully grown flies to seek more victims. It just shows that it’s the little ones you have to watch.
London's Shard skyscraper celebrated with laser show - BBC News
The Shard's inauguration was celebrated with a sound and light show
A laser show has been staged to celebrate the inauguration of London's Shard skyscraper.
Earlier, the Duke of York and the Qatari prime minister attended a ceremony to mark the unveiling of the 1,016ft (310m) structure, which has been funded by the Qatar National Bank.
At about 22:15 BST a light show began firing beams from the summit to London landmarks including the BT Tower.
The spectacle could be seen across the city.
During Thursday afternoon's inauguration of the building, which is yards from the banks of the River Thames in Southwark, Prince Andrew said the building was a "huge new boost".
He added: "I'm sure that we would all be extremely glad if this could be repeated in a number of other areas across the UK."
The Shard is joint-owned by the state of Qatar, and the country's prime minister Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani also attended the ceremony.
From the scene
There was a distinctly War of the Worlds look to the London skyline from the top of the BBC's New Broadcasting House.
The Shard resembled an awkward and somewhat immobile spider spinning an intricate web of green from its lair in SE1. It must have looked curious to air traffic. Was this London? Or Bladerunner?
But from the West End it would be an exaggeration to call the effect mind-blowingly spectacular. From a distance the lasers were rather lost in the bigness of the city - perhaps the beams were tempered for fear of putting people's eyes out.
'Like a rubbish disco' was the comment of one BBC night owl.
In truth, exploring the darkened nether-reaches of New Broadcasting House's half-finished top floor to watch it was as much fun as the laser show itself.
However there was dismay from some Londoners about the cost of a visit to the Shard, as it was revealed it will cost nearly £90 for a family of four to ascend to the viewing platform.
Tickets to the platform - which opens in February - will cost £24.95 for an adult and £18.95 for a child.
By comparison, an adult ticket to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris is currently priced at 14 euros - just over £11.
Russell Gray, of the Bermondsey Village Action Group, said: "It does sound pretty exorbitant.
"I don't think many local people will be going up to the viewing platform at that price."
He continued: "We have this massive pyramid slapped down here as a monument to the munificence of the Emirate of Qatar.
"Yet the price is yet another of the many examples of how the Shard is clearly at odds with the community in which it's defiantly planted itself."
But the PR firm representing the project insisted it was competitively priced compared to other major London attractions.
A spokesman also pointed out that the "visitor experience" would include such attractions as "kaleidoscopic lifts".
Sheikh Abdullah Bin Saoud Al Thani, governor of Qatar Central Bank, which joint-owns the tower, said: "The Shard is the newest London landmark and a beacon of the city of London's resilience and expansion, even during tough economic times.
"The light show will mark a key moment for the Shard, and one people around the world can enjoy."
The laser show will culminate in the illumination of the Shard itself, with the ceremony streamed on the internet.
Architect Renzo Piano said: "Up until now the building was ours. Now the building is yours.
"This building is not going to be a symbol of power."
Former London mayor Ken Livingstone told BBC Radio Four's Today programme: "It will define London and it's our equivalent to the Empire State building.
"It brought 10,000 jobs to one of the most run down and deprived areas of London but unlike a lot of the other tall buildings, Londoners will have access to this one."
London 2012 Olympics: 21 days to go - live blog - The Guardian
Hello, and welcome to today’s Olympics live blog. Seven years ago today London won its bid to host the 2012 Olympics. In 21 days, 11 hours and 20 minutes, the London Olympics will start with Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony at the Olympic Stadium.
Coming up today:
• UK athletics will be hearing appeals from those who didn't make the squad. The appeals process is confidential and names will only be confirmed if their appeals are successful. Some athletes – including the Linford Christie-trained sprinter Richard Kilty and the 800m runner Gareth Warburton – have already confirmed they will appeal. Jenny Meadows, the 2009 world bronze silver medalist who missed out to Lynsey Sharp in the women's 800m, has said she will not appeal. Kilty said on Twitter that the decision not to select him for the 200m or the relay was an "absolute disgrace" and claimed the relay coach had a "personal problem" with him. Marilyn Okoro, who missed out on the 800m due to the decision to select Sharp, but was selected for the 4x400m relay, said she had quit the squad but later deleted her tweet. Head coach Charles Van Commenee has said he expects a rash of appeals but believes the selection criteria are watertight. "When there are a lot of successful appeals, the selection panel hasn't done its job correctly," he said after the squad was announced. "Our process is solid and it's short."
• The only way is Essex for the Olympic torch today, as it travels from Ipswich to Chelmsford, via Colchester, Basildon and Southend. It will visit a mountain bike track and the world’s longest pier. Send your pictures to paul.owen@guardian.co.uk or tweet me @paultowen.
• There has been a remarkable amount of excitement about the rehearsals for the Olympic tennis tournament, currently taking place at the All-England Club, Wimbledon, the soon-to-be Olympic venue. Today Britain’s Andy Murray will take on France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Centre Court in the semi-finals – Murray’s fourth Wimbledon semi-final in a row. Before that, starting at 1pm, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic will face Switzerland’s Roger Federer in the other half of the draw. Full live coverage of Wimbledon here.
Here is today’s Olympics news so far:
• Sandra Laville and Vikram Dodd report on yesterday’s two terrorism alerts which put the police and security services through the two extremes of engagement that are likely to dominate their work in the run-up to the Games. Meanwhile detectives investigating the death of a man who was stabbed at the Westfield shopping centre near the Olympic Park have charged a 10th man in connection with the incident.
• Does anything say "the magic of sport" quite like being patted down by a member of the British army at an Olympic Park checkpoint, asks Marina Hyde.
Quite an achievement, considering that even the masterminds of the Beijing Olympics resisted the PR triumph of stationing the People's Liberation Army at the gateway to their Games. But then, which of us wants to come across as being as laissez-faire as the Chinese?
• India traditionally underperforms at the Olympics. But a spurt in the popularity of boxing has given it a fighting chance in 2012, reports Jason Burke.
• Pakistan's Olympic hockey team faces big hurdles at London 2012, writes Jon Boone.
• I reported yesterday that Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt has pulled out of the Monaco Diamond League due to an unspecified “slight problem”. He is now unlikely to compete again before the Olympics. “I will be in London to defend my titles,” the man who won gold for the 100m and 200m in Beijing said. The Daily Mail says it’s a back injury and he’s flown to Germany to have it treated.
• The father of Australia's only female archery competitor at the London Olympics has had a restraining order against him dismissed after a judge ruled he did not attempt to intimidate his daughter's main rival during qualifying events. Jonathan Barnard, father of Elisa Barnard, was accused of trying to put 18-year-old Odette Snazelle off her performance during several events in January and February. Snazelle took out an interim apprehended violence order against Barnard, preventing him from coming within 200m of her.
• David Beckham has been banned for one game and fined an undisclosed amount after kicking a ball at a San Jose’s Sam Cronin, who was lying on the pitch, with a minute remaining in stoppage time. The incident happened just two days after it was announced that Beckham would not be part of Team GB’s football squad for the Olympics.
• I promised you less David Cameron today. But here is Hélène Mulholland’s report on the PM’s big Olympic speech yesterday. I can’t promise you no David Cameron at all. He’s the prime minister. He’s bound to turn up somewhere.
Stay tuned for all this and more throughout the day today.
London 2012 Olympics: how the Games will boost the UK economy by £16.5bn - Daily Telegraph
The Olympics of today are far-removed from the state-sponsored vanity projects of the 1970s and 1980s. They are now as much about redefining their host cities and providing a catalyst for regeneration.
The Games will doubtless help build London's image as a truly modern city. But the bigger impact will be the regeneration of a neglected area of East London, with ripple effects that will benefit everything from living standards in the local area, to the prospects of businesses across the country. That's not to say we would not have achieved such redevelopment without London 2012, but it would have taken 20 years at least.
So, to the numbers. Our new study shows that the GDP impact of London 2012 could reach £16.5bn. That's an impact driven largely by construction, as contracts for the building of the Olympic venues have filtered through to businesses across the UK.
Scotland is a case in point. Companies such as Glasgow's Barr, which built the basketball arena, are contributing to a likely £1bn GDP impact for the country as a whole. We have seen first-hand many of our customers benefiting from contracts and sub-contracts in a difficult economic period.
But there are also huge benefits from tourism as London's new-found status as an Olympic city draws in new visitors from overseas who then go on to visit other parts of the UK.
Although most Olympic host cities see a dip in tourism in the immediate run-up to opening, there tends to be a major boost during the actual event. And London will be no exception. But the real impact from tourism is in the years after the Games. Not just from curious visitors, but from business conferences and sporting events keen to see a city and country at its best.
Jobs and training have also contributed to this GDP growth. Our estimate is that the Games could create and support a total of 354,000 years of employment across the UK – both through direct employment for the Games, and though developing skills of the working population that help raise their prospects of jobs in the future.
With more than 8,000 NVQ awards and apprenticeships on the Olympic Park, our estimate is that this will lead to a £500m benefit over the life of this study.
And what about the impact on businesses? Our study shows that small and medium-sized firms could be helping to deliver more than half of the total GDP contribution of the Games – and there are countless examples of businesses that have gained from London 2012, either directly or through the supply chain. One such firm, Golden Bear, a Shropshire-based company supplying the official mascots, has gone on to win a world-wide contract to produce toy Minis for BMW. And another small business that won a licensing contract for the Games has since doubled turnover and broken into export markets.
The experience of other big sporting events also leads us to believe that the Games will have a "happiness effect" – which, in turn, is likely to encourage consumer spending.
A number of economists have tried to answer the question of whether consumer confidence is affected by major sporting spectacles and the broad view is that it improves when a nation hosts a championships. In the case of the Euro 96 football tournament, the feel-good factor was equivalent to a £165 gift for each of the UK population, so we can expect at least that for London 2012.
A question on many people's minds is whether the London 2012 budget could have been spent on something else, perhaps with bigger benefits?
There are some who might argue events such as the Olympics simply divert resources away from other projects – displacing, rather than creating GDP.
The economics are complex, but the bottom line is that in today's economic climate this is unlikely to be an issue. What we are about to witness is an event that will change the face of London, and deliver benefits to the wider UK and thousands of businesses and our economy for many years to come.
Patrick Foley is chief economist at Lloyds Banking Group
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