Broadcaster Kirsty Gallacher said she was “really sad” about “what’s going on on the streets of London” after she was attacked by a masked assailant in the capital last week.

Politicians have also raised the alarm about safety in London in recent months. But Mayor Sadiq Khan accused them of “spreading misinformation”, as latest statistics show that violent crime resulting in injury have fallen in every borough over the past year.

What are London’s murder rates?
A “rolling” murder rate has been published monthly by the Metropolitan Police since 2003, when the 12-month total was 216 killings. That rolling total is now 89, even as London’s population has soared by around two million.

The city may be experiencing the lowest number of murders in many decades, Fraser Nelson said on his Substack. Comparing today’s figures to archived records pre-dating 2003 suggests London is “likely back to – or below – the murder counts of the 1970s”.

What about other crimes?
Nearly 9,000 fewer violent crimes resulting in injury were recorded across the capital in the 12 months to August 2025 than in the previous 12 months, a fall of nearly 12%, according to latest figures from City Hall. Knife crime between April and June of this year fell by 19% compared with the same period in 2024, but some offences, such as possession of weapons, and rape, went up.

Overall, recorded crime in London has increased by 31.5% in the last 10 years, according to Office for National Statistics data.

What have politicians said?
After visiting the UK in September, Donald Trump said Khan was doing a “terrible job” and claimed “crime in London is through the roof”. But the mayor said “the evidence was clear” that his policies are working, adding that the drop in violent crime with injury was “testament to the incredible work of our brave police officers”.

If Khan thinks London is “getting more safe, he needs to get out more”, Reform UK London Assembly Member Alex Wilson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service. For the mayor to point to “incremental changes” in “just a few categories is ridiculous”.

India’s first victory in cricket’s Women’s World Cup will have huge ramifications for the sport worldwide. Harmanpreet Kaur’s team beat South Africa by 52 runs in yesterday’s final, in front of a 45,000-strong crowd in Navi Mumbai – ending Australia’s decade-long dominance in the women’s game.

It’s a “a wake-up call” for the rest of the world,  said Sonia Twigg in The Telegraph, and a win that could “spell the end for women’s cricket as we know it”. India has become the first country other than Australia or England to win a Women’s World Cup since 2000. With greater funding and increased home support, “it is hard to believe” their women cricketers “will stop there”.

‘New levels of stardom’
As Kaur clung on to her match-winning catch, India’s women cricketers entered a “brave new world”, said P.K. Ajith Kumar in The Hindu. Top players including Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma and Shafali Verma have become “household names” overnight, propelled to “new levels of stardom across India”.

India were “late to develop the women’s game”, said Twigg in The Telegraph, and the last time the Women’s World Cup was held in India, in 2013, it “made barely a ripple” in the country’s consciousness. The national team was put up in a “budget hotel”, and had to warm up against under-16 and under-19 boys’ teams. The publicised venue for the final – Mumbai’s historic Wankhede Stadium – was even changed at the last minute to accommodate the men’s domestic Ranji Trophy final.

‘Dared to believe’
India’s victory on Sunday owes much to the performances of Verma and by Sharma (named Player of the Tournament), but many also attribute the team’s success to major administrative and strategic overhauls behind the scenes.

India’s win was a “vindication” for policy changes that “dared to believe women deserved more”, said Amar Sunil Panicker in India Today. In October 2022, the Board of Control for Cricket in India unanimously passed a resolution for pay parity between men and women. Women’s cricket in India was once defined by the “exceptionalism” of a few individuals who “succeeded despite the system”. Now, “for perhaps the first time, success feels like the result of the system working for them”.

Survivors search the rubble of a house in the town of Tashkurgan after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck northern Afghanistan overnight. At least 20 people were killed and more than 300 were injured, just two months after a 6.0 quake in the country’s east killed more than 2,000.

Atif Aryan / AFP / Getty Images

Dire harvests in the world’s key cocoa-growing regions have sent the price of cocoa beans soaring and sparked a crisis in the chocolate bar sector. Some manufacturers are simply downsizing their bars while others are adjusting their products, using fewer cocoa solids and more palm oil or shea oil. As a result, it’s getting harder to find a flavourful bar of chocolate, made with good-quality ingredients, for a reasonable price.

“Dark chocolate with a higher cocoa percentage typically has a richer, savoury taste,” Which? said, while bars with “lower cocoa percentage may be sweeter and more mellow”. For most people, a “70% cocoa content provides the perfect balance between sweetness and intensity”, said Tom Hunt in The Guardian.

The majority of chocolate is made from processed cocoa beans, which are then “conched” and “tempered” – the aerating, heating and cooling steps that give good chocolate its glossy finish and distinct snap. If you’re after a higher-end, “more distinctive” product, said Hunt, look for “high-value bean-to-bar chocolate”, where the beans are “roasted and processed entirely in-house”.

For milk chocolate, Pierre Marcolini Chocolat au Lait is the “best posh” choice, said Tony Turnbull in The Times. The Belgian chocolatier’s 44% milk bar “uses amelonado cocoa beans from São Tomé and Príncipe”, providing notes of “caramel and honey”. Tony’s Chocolonely Milk is a great supermarket choice. Although it only contains 32% cocoa solids, this still “gives it the edge over” Lindt Excellence (30%), and the “chunkiness” of Tony’s bars an added bonus.

The US right should stop fearing the female
Rana Foroohar in the Financial Times
A much-quoted speech at the recent US National Conservatism conference blamed “the ‘great feminisation’ of American workplaces” and institutions for “everything from the demise of free speech to competitive decline”, writes Rana Foroohar. But the reality is that women are “succeeding in the marketplace of jobs, ideas and politics” because “the world needs more of what women” bring. The issue isn’t “which gender is ‘better’ or ‘worse’”, it’s that “we need balance and diversity in all things”.

After Peterborough, paranoia is quickly becoming the new normal
Rowan Pelling in The Telegraph
The “measure of a civilised society” is that people can “use public transport in every expectation of safety”, writes Rowan Pelling. Yet “drunks” spewing vomit “are an everyday occurrence on late-night” trains, while stations “like Cambridge and Peterborough” are a “county lines route for drug pushers”. There’s also “basic rail maintenance worries”, with “whistle blowers” pointing to the “neglect of our ancient” tracks and signalling. And “all of this” before you even consider “hate-filled lunatics running amok”.

How to be a rebel today: get a hobby you’re bad at
Sathnam Sanghera in The Times
Hobbies are “an admirable act of rebellion in a society that increasingly values work above all else”, writes Sathnam Sanghera. And the “best hobbies are those we are not good at”, because if they are “to be a real holiday from the exhausting pressure to ‘use time well’, you can’t be too competent, otherwise it’s basically work”. People pursuing such pastimes “aren’t freaks” but rather “individuals who have worked out how to be happy”.