London, England
By Chris Hampson, NBC News Director of International News
LONDON – Of all the
G-20 moments, it was always tipped by those of us in the know as the meeting to watch, because the unthinkable could always happen. And it did.
It wasn’t President Barack Obama talking to Prime Minister Gordon Brown about how to bail out the world’s economies. Not the nuclear discussions with those tricky Russians either. Nor even what the Axis of Evil might get up to in London (France’s Sarkozy and Germany’s Merkel, that is!).
No. It was a simple touch.
It came when the first lady of the United States of America met the first lady of Great Britain – Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Head of State of the United Kingdom and of 15 other Commonwealth realms. She is our Head of the Armed Forces, Fount of Justice and Defender of the Faith.
The queen’s been on the world stage for more than five decades; Michelle Obama for about five minutes – but all of them quite dazzling.
Yesterday she showed Britons why.
It wasn’t only President Obama who slayed Britain with his charm. His wife was also successful, standing head and shoulders above the best.
She strode across the plush Buckingham Palace carpet to shake the queen’s hand with the kind of courteous informality that characterizes Americans. Unlike the British royals, they don’t do "stuffy." And they don’t curtsey much either.
The queen – accustomed to pomp and protocol at every step – seemed surprisingly at ease too. She took hold of Mrs. Obama’s hand firmly – not her usual end-of-fingertips, don’t-come-too-close handshake.
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By F. Brinley Bruton, msnbc.com reporter
LONDON – Thousands of protesters from disparate walks of life danced and chanted in downtown London on Wednesday ahead of the G-20 meeting of world leaders.
Some came dressed as "zombie" bankers, while others donned crazy wigs and platform shoes. Many just wore jeans and t-shirts. A few even wore suits.
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| Brinley Bruton / msnbc.com |
| Lucien Windridge, 50, a skull painted on his face, attended the protests with his wife, son and daughters. |
Dozens got bloodied scuffling with police, and more than a few drank beer out of tall cans.
Smiling through the skull painted on his face, Lucien Windridge said he was protesting because he believed regular people should have more of a voice in the global financial system.
"If people don’t protest, if people don’t have a voice, it means that they are complicit with corruption," the 50-year-old said at the start of one major protest in the heart of London’s ancient financial capital, The City.
"People must be able to express their anger at the system that has let them down," he said, standing next to his wife, son and two daughters.
Windridge was diplomatic, but his daughter Aeyla was less so. What did the 12-year-old want? "The death of capitalism," she said.
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By Jennifer Carlile, msnbc.com reporter
London on a winter’s day evokes images out of a Dickens novel – quaint and covered in snow – which makes one wonder how a few inches of the white stuff could bring this world-class city of 8 million to a standstill more than 150 years after the author penned "A Christmas Carol."
The images of Scrooge awakening on Christmas morning, watching residents "scraping the snow from the pavements in front of their dwellings, and from the tops of their houses" are more fairytale than reality to modern-day Londoners.
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| Jennifer Carlile/msnbc.com |
| Becky Prince, Claire Shropshall, Sally Reid and Susie Webb, pictured left to right, pose with their snow man, woman and dog in Clapham Common, southwest London. |
But Monday morning brought the heaviest snowstorm in 18 years, and Dickensian scenes of the "mad delight to see it come plumping down into the road below, and splitting into artificial little snowstorms" came to life for millions.
Along with the delight came the delays, and then the cancellations.
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By Chris Hampson, NBC News Director of International News
LONDON – And now some really big breaking news from the U.K.:
It’s snowing.
Not the sort of chill-you-to-the-bones white stuff that freezes thermometers across whole swathes of the United States, where the snow comes to the eaves and you have to chisel your way out of an upstairs window.
No, this is British snow. Light fluffy cotton-wool stuff you see on pretty calendars in December.
It’s about 28 degrees Fahrenheit – just below tee-shirt weather in some parts of the world. But here it’s enough to bring much of the country and its capital to a standstill.
It’s chaos.
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By Jason Cumming, msnbc.com reporter
LONDON – The morning after Barack Obama's election triumph, the front-page headline in Britain's Metro newspaper read: "The Day America Became a Little Bit Cool Again."
As Obama was sworn-in as president 3,600 miles away today, there were few signs of such widespread ardor waning in London.
Morning newspapers vied for the best coverage of an event that hadn’t even occurred yet with The Independent devoting no fewer than 23 pages to the looming inauguration. Tuesday’s Guardian came complete with a section featuring Obama’s "finest" speeches.
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| Jason Cumming/ msnbc.com |
| Emma Betsy, 21, left, and Whitney Calvert, 24, right, celebrating Obama’s inauguration at a London pub. |
How Obama could – or couldn’t – change the world was practically the only topic being discussed on Britain’s talk-radio stations, while the BBC devoted much of the day to events in D.C.
Packed pubs
But in a society where many people don't need an excuse to enjoy a pint, the sheer number of pubs showcasing a uniquely American piece of political theater was perhaps the best illustration of how Obama has captured the imagination of many Britons.
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By Chris Hampson, NBC News Director of International News
LONDON – Amid the economic gloom and coming pall of winter, it is perhaps unsurprising that we British are looking for a glimmer of light to brighten our damp and dreary evenings.
Quickstep forward our very own ray of sunshine – in the unlikely shape of John Sergeant, a roly-poly former political reporter for the BBC.
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| John Sergeant and his dancing partner Kristina Rihanoff seen in a promotional photo for "Strictly Come Dancing." |
Sergeant, 64, made his name in the hallowed corridors of Westminster, interviewing such political heavyweights as Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair.
It is only fair to point out that, in the intervening years, Sergeant has become something of a heavyweight himself.
He was also born with two left feet.
All of which makes it somewhat unlikely that he would become a national pin-up.
But for six weeks now, thousands of TV viewers have defied common sense to keep Sergeant on "Strictly Come Dancing," the British equivalent of "Dancing with the Stars," booting off more accomplished contestants.
Some two dozen Facebook sites now are devoted to keeping him there.
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By Chris Hampson, NBC News Director of International News
LONDON – Remembrance Day has always been a special part of my life. As a kid, my home in the North of England was full of talk about the wars.
My parents had lived, struggled – and danced – through World War II. My nimble-footed dad was the "Master of Ceremonies" at his munitions factory weekly "socials," and whisked his soon-to-be-bride (my mum) off her feet there.
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| Getty Images |
| The last surviving British World War I veterans from left to right, Henry Allingham,112, Harry Patch, 110, and Bill Stone, 108, gather at the start of the Armistice Day commemorations on Nov. 11 in London. |
My uncle had fought the Japanese in Burma, and looked thin and gaunt the rest of his days. That may have been jungle warfare, or marrying my mum’s bad-tempered sister. Either way, it was a battle.
But my grandfather could beat them all, by fighting in what was once called the Great War – ironically, "the war to end wars" – World War I.
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By Jennifer Carlile, msnbc.com reporter
LONDON, ENGLAND – Britons awoke Wednesday to headlines like the Daily Express’ "A New World Dawns," and The Independent’s "Mr. President" in bold print below a full-page picture of Barack Obama wearing a winning grin.
From all-night television coverage to special, late editions of the morning papers, not printed until most polls had closed, the U.S. election has eclipsed all national news here. Although Obama’s win wasn’t announced until 4 a.m. GMT, early morning commuters across the capital already new the verdict from across the pond.
"It’s fantastic news; great for the U.S., great for the world – just an absolute milestone in history," 41-year-old Londoner Jamie Davies said as he sipped a coffee from Starbucks before heading to work.
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| Luke Macgregor / Reuters |
| Supporters celebrate as Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is announced President during an election party held at the U.S. Embassy in London, early Wednesday morning. |
Ahead of the election, four out of five British citizens said the outcome would make a difference to their country, according to a Gallup Poll taken in October. That figure was higher than from any other country polled.
"Everyone knows that whatever America faces, the world faces," said Evans Olekanma, a shopping center employee in Hammersmith, West London.
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By Jason Cumming, msnbc.com reporter
LAKENHEATH, England – In a country where "football" means "soccer" and "American football" is derided as an inferior version of rugby, the quarterback painted on the bookie’s front window is an unusual sight to say the least.
On the other side of the High Street, the Stars and Stripes are on display outside the Costlow cell phone shop. A laminated U.S. map welcomes customers to R & B Property Agency and there are noticeably more SUVs and Ford F-350s on quaintly named streets like Dumpling Bridge Lane than in most places in Britain.
With the U.S. Air Force’s 48th Fighter Wing based on 2,000 acres of countryside at the edge of this village, about 500 of the community's 2,000 dwellings are occupied by Americans and their families, giving the area a distinctively American flavor.
But the absence of "McCain 2008" or "Obama for President" signs sprouting from lawns in Lakenheath has much more to do with geography than a lack of interest in the race for the White House.
As a home to American airmen for 60 years, RAF Lakenheath is one of three U.S. military outposts within a 15-minute drive of the village. Officials estimate there are as many as 30,000 Americans in the area.
Long considered a source of aggravation, the conversation-halting roar of F-15s overhead now provides local residents with regular reminders that the looming U.S. election could have a dramatic impact on their livelihoods.
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By Jim Maceda, NBC News Correspondent
LONDON – Just typing his name brings back an old, deeply buried dread. Thirteen years since the end of the war in Bosnia,
Radovan Karadzic – along with Gen. Ratko Mladic – remains, for many of us who covered them, one of that war's "faces of evil," even if the austere, white-bearded version of Karadzic seen today looks nothing like the slick poet-psychiatrist of those days, with his rock-star mane of gray hair and European suits.
Karadzic was the perfect front man for the horrors that were allegedly carried out against thousands by his paramilitary henchmen. He was a kind of mafia warlord who was cleverly articulate – even if crazed – when it came to explaining the history of Serbs victimized over the centuries at the hands of the West.
According to investigators, he used "ethnic cleansing" to justify beatings, rapes, mass murder, starvation and unspeakable torture of non-Serbs.
And, for years, Karadzic managed to evade U.N. forces, Serb police and a hoard of international media – including NBC News – only to be arrested, in the end, on a city bus near Belgrade.
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