18/12/2016 London News

Good evening. I'm Asad Ahmad.

Specialist officers from the Metropolitan Police,

who deal with cases of female genital mutilation,

are at airports in these final days before Christmas,

trying to stop young girls from being taken abroad and forced

June Kelly has been with the team and spoken to a victim of FGM.

Heathrow Airport, and families have already started

Sergeant Natalie Rezi of the Metropolitan Police

is briefing colleagues, officers from the Border Force

So we need to make sure that we are engaging

This team are on the lookout for young girls who are being taken

to countries, often in Africa and the Middle East,

where female genital mutilation is practised.

As in the summer, officers know that families can use the Christmas

holidays to take the child abroad to undergo FGM.

One campaigner who works with the airport team says

communities have to learn that FGM is child abuse.

She was cut as a six-year-old in Somalia.

You're going through emotional things, psychological stuff.

Physically, you are in pain constantly and no one

ever sits down and says, "Let's talk about what happened".

It is done, that is it, you have to move on after that.

The team are concerned about one youngster who has been taken out

of school before the official end of term.

A phone call to the school confirms her mother's story

as to why they are travelling, and they are finally

This is our last opportunity to engage with families before

they fly off to countries where FGM and other harmful practices

might be conducted in the school holiday period.

What we are doing is speaking to people to see what they know

A big part of this exercise is trying to

I don't think it should be practised on any little girl, never ever,

so I am so happy to see them around going to make a campaign like this.

The airport team will be back at Heathrow in the coming week.

Just days after the government said it was considering allowing local

authorities to raise council tax to pay for social care,

London councils say the cash will do little to solve

And a former government minister agrees with them,

A rapidly rising population is adding ever more

to the bill for caring for the capital's elderly.

London councils say there is little benefit in the government telling

them this week that they can raise more council tax

It's simply a shifting of money, it's bringing money forward.

Now that doesn't really help us address the total funding

There are 150,000 people in our city who require social care support.

By 2020, London boroughs as a whole will have an ?800 million funding

A former Liberal Democrat minister has told us there now needs

What we really need is a radical overhaul in the way in which we pay

I think what we need now is a hypothecation,

an earmarking of National Insurance, so people know when they see

their payslip that the money being paid for National Insurance

is going towards their health care and their care services.

Pressure is now mounting for a lasting formula which meets

Thick fog continued to cause travel disruption across London

This is what the London Eye looked like, but on a more serious note,

hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled at

City airport was affected too, with visibility down

There were also problems on the motorways in and out of London.

Well, let's see what tomorrow holds for us.

Fog continues to be a theme of the weather and the Met office

has issued a yellow warning for fog, so be prepared for further

As you head through the day, we will see a little sunshine

breaking through and the fog will lift, but it will be chilly

Fog yet again on Tuesday morning but as we head towards Wednesday,

With more fog predicted tomorrow, and another strike

on Southern Railways staring in around half an hour's time,

everything you need to know will be on radio, online and TV.

Good evening. It's a big week for pre-Christmas travel plans and the

weather can be quite challenging at times, too. We start the week with

the issue of fog once again. Just about anywhere on the hills on

Monday morning but at its most extensive at lower levels across

parts of western England and Wales, particularly towards the south-west,

it could hamper your morning journey and some of the airports. Maybe not

as extensive as it has been through the