London Mayor Sadiq Khan named in Britain’s New Year honors

London Mayor Sadiq Khan is among the hundreds named in King Charles’s New Year honors list published on Monday. (@SadiqKhan)
Short Url
Updated 31 December 2024
Follow

London Mayor Sadiq Khan named in Britain’s New Year honors

  • Khan said he was “truly humbled to have received a knighthood”
  • He was elected mayor of the capital for the third time this year

LONDON: London Mayor Sadiq Khan is among the hundreds named in King Charles’s New Year honors list published on Monday.
Khan, a member of Britain’s governing Labour Party, will receive a knighthood. He was elected mayor of the capital for the third time this year but has faced criticism for crime levels and a housing crisis in the city.
Khan said he was “truly humbled to have received a knighthood.”
“I couldn’t have dreamed when growing up on a council estate in south London that I’d one day be Mayor of London.
“It’s the honor of my life to serve the city I love,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. 
The full list includes more than 1,200 people in politics, sport, the arts or community service to be awarded honors ranging from Member, Commander or Officer of the Order of the British Empire (MBE, CBE or OBE) up to knighthoods and damehoods.
Former England soccer boss Gareth Southgate and Paris Olympics gold medallist Keely Hodgkinson also featured on the list. 
Southgate, who led England to two straight European Championship finals before stepping down as the national side’s manager in July, receives a knighthood.
MI5’s Ken McCallum, who has served as the domestic intelligence service’s director general since 2020, was also set to receive a knighthood.
Among business executives, ex-Rolls-Royce boss Warren East and former HSBC chief executive Noel Quinn will be knighted, while Ruth Cairnie, chair of defense group Babcock , receives a damehood.
Andy Street, a former boss of retailer John Lewis who failed to win re-election as a regional mayor this year, will also receive a knighthood.
Among those receiving a CBE are actors Sarah Lancashire and Carey Mulligan and TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh.
The New Year honors, which have been awarded since at least 1890, aim to recognize not just well-known figures but people who have contributed to national life through often unsung work over many years.
Children’s author Jacqueline Wilson was awarded a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire, while Nobel laureate novelist Kazuo Ishiguro was given a Companion of Honour, of which there are only 65 recipients at any time.
In sport, Paris 800 meters gold medallist Hodgkinson receives an MBE while Olympic champion rower Helen Glover is recognized with an OBE.
For his work on mental health awareness, actor Stephen Fry will receive a knighthood.


Russian drones, missiles hit railway hub near Ukraine’s capital, railway says

Updated 4 sec ago
Follow

Russian drones, missiles hit railway hub near Ukraine’s capital, railway says

KYIV: A railway hub near Kyiv was attacked during a large-scale Russian drone and missile attack that damaged the depot and railway carriages, Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia said on Saturday.
The railway did not report any casualties from the overnight attack in the town of Fastiv.
Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector and infrastructure in recent weeks, targeting power stations and railway hubs.
Ukrzaliznytsia said on the Telegram messaging app that it was forced to cancel several suburban trains near the capital and the city of Chernihiv in northeastern Ukraine.
Emergency services reported a fire and destruction on the territory of the railway station and depot but gave no more details. The report also cited an attack on infrastructure in the Chernihiv region.
Power and heat generation facilities in Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions were targeted in the attack, Ukraine’s ministry for development of communities and territories said.
It said on Telegram that 9,500 customers remained without heat and 34,000 without water supply in the southern Odesa region.
“Port facilities (in Odesa) have also been attacked: part of the infrastructure has been de-energised, and operators have switched to backup power from generators,” the ministry said.
The ministry also reported damages to energy infrastructure in the Kyiv region.