08/08/2017 London News

Welcome to BBC London News. is all from us for now.

We start this lunchtime with police saying they're committed

to tackling all forms of hate crime, after figures revealed

a year-on-year rise since records began five years ago,

with a real spike following terror attacks.

Well, the BBC's Rickin Majithia has been out on patrol with a unit

dedicated to tackling the problem finding out what they're doing

Following a rise in reported hate crimes in the capital,

these officers are trying to reassure the local community

For me coming out, I really do get scared.

So how do officers patrolling these neighbourhoods decide

which incidents should be treated as hate crimes?

Racially aggravated public order, where people get called names

just purely on the basis of their colour, religion.

It can be a racially aggravated attack where somebody has come

along and purely attacks you because of your colour,

just because of your race or your religion.

The Mustapha family live in East Ham.

Last year during the debates around EU referendum,

they were subjected to abuse from youths living nearby.

One day I left my window open by mistake and when I came back,

about three kilos of tomatoes were here on the window,

kitchen shelf, floor, on the wall, everywhere.

Three kilograms of tomatoes thrown through your kitchen window?

Yes, yes, yes, and then they started called my husband names,

by his beard, calling him Osama bin Laden.

It's the kind of case that Superintendant Waheed Khan

He's the Met's Deputy Lead on combating hate crimes.

Hate crime can take many forms and all of them

I think you can be online and increasingly we are seeing

online activity for hate crime, because of the fact that nowadays

you have social media, you have a lot more people that have

activity online, a presence and a digital footprint online.

The war against hate crimes on the Internet is fought

It was launched in April by Mayor Sadiq Khan and works

closely with social media sites to identify and prosecute offenders.

The police hope that this combined approach of police and cyber patrols

will help to reassure London's diverse communities that they can

And the Met Commissioner has this morning spoken

to the BBC's Asian Network, saying the clampdown on hate crime

One of the ways that we can tackle extremism together is to ensure that

Muslims for example feel protected and feel properly protected

and we are taking hate crime very, very seriously.

Now, as she prepares to end her three years

Sylvie Bermann has been speaking to BBC London

Although she believes that the relationship between Paris

she says uncertainty is still a major concern

She spoke to our Brexit reporter Katharine Carpenter.

When Sylvie Bermann was posted to the embassy here in London three

years ago, colleagues warned her it would be boring after

But, she says, it's been anything but.

I think it has been a historic period because I arrived just before

the referendum in Scotland and then I had two general elections

The ambassador says Brexit negotiations so far have done little

to allay the concerns of the 300,000 or so French citizens the embassy

Not a huge number of people but some decided to leave because they feel

Again, the main problem is uncertainty.

You've talked about the Brexit negotiations as being a bit

Do you still think that's a good analogy?

I hope in the future there will be no losers.

I'm not sure it's going to be the case.

So does she think the city will be one of those losers?

I think that London will remain a very important financial centre

but, at the same time, some people and some

activities will be relocated as a consequence of Brexit.

But she says the bond between Paris and London is still strong

and she will miss the city when she leaves

I like the culture and the sense of humour, as well, so I've really

It's a bit too short but that's the diplomatic life.

The French Ambassador Sylvie Bermann ending that report

Now, how would you fancy having the choice of 900 ales,

Well, that's exactly what anyone going to this year's Great British

Well, Egon Cossou is there in Olympia for us this lunchtime.

Is very difficult job for you this afternoon, isn't it? I get all the

difficult jobs but things are picking up here. This is the 40th

annual celebration of beer. It's not all about the big breweries, though.

Microbreweries are also getting in on the act. Let's check on one of

them from Walthamstow. Wildcard Brewery, we are

six-barrelled brewery plant. We started the brewery

because we really, really like beer, so we thought let's do this

for a living. My colleagues, Andrew and Will,

old friends from uni. They were kind of home-brewing

and I was home-brewing as well and they were like,

it's session time, you know what, It was very, very difficult

for us to kind of start up and that was mainly

because of the lack We don't come from rich families,

so what we did was we started out as kookaburras, so we were brewing

using other breweries' equipment and then getting the beer

back and selling that. And we did that a few times

until we eventually got investment from the Brightside Trust,

which was a scheme investing in young people at the time and we

were able to afford this place. It's been quite challenging getting

the business kind of started and a lot of that is to do

with lack of capital. We're just about to do our first

beer order to Russia which we are so, so excited

about so next on the horizon for Wildcard, we are in

the middle of moving sites. We've got another 12,000

litres of capacity, It's pretty easy making

beer when you love it, so you basically get to do

what you love as a job, We are expecting 50,000 people

through the doors here this week. Not all of them leaving as steadily

Babs as they came in. That's it from me. Back to you. I believe you'd get

back to all about hard work. So are we ever going

to get a summer? Or will there just be rain,

rain and more rain? Here's Kate Kinsella

with the weather. Well, it stays rather unsettled

for the next 24 hours or so. We started the day with a bit

of mist and fog, as you can see here We've also seen a fair

amount of cloud around, but by the same measure,

some breaks in the cloud as well, We are likely to see,

this afternoon, some The Met Office has issued a yellow

weather warning for heavy rain. These showers, you may hear a rumble

or two of thunder in them Quite slow-moving, so we could get

quite a lot of rain in them before they start to disappear,

as the wind is very light. The temperature is

feeling a touch cooler. The maximum today around

17 or 18 Celsius. The shower risk continues

into the evening, but we will gradually get one

or two drier spells. The wind stays very light overnight,

but we hang on to the cloud. Could still see a bit

of rain around as well. Minimum temperature

between 13 and 14 Celsius. You see this rain -

that's tomorrow's, and the Met Office has another

yellow weather warning in place as that starts

to make its way south again. Again, rumbles of thunder,

and some heavy, more persistent rain It will feel that bit cooler,

as we have a northerly breeze developing, so that's going to make

it feel quite chilly, That rain's going to continue

for a time overnight on Wednesday. Thursday morning it should

start to clear away. Becoming a bit drier and brighter

through the course of Thursday. Still the chance, of

course, of a shower. Similar conditions for Friday, and

staying unsettled into the weekend. Riz will be here tonight

with the 6:30 evening programme. But for now, from us all,

a very good afternoon.