Sadiq Khan is considering a ban on log burners in parts of London as part of a fresh drive to improve the capital’s air quality.

Wood-burning stoves have become a sought-after feature in many middle-class British homes in recent years, joining Aga cookers and Smeg refrigerators as fashionable household status symbols.

However, London residents who have fitted wood stoves into their fireplaces — often spending between £2,000 and £4,000 — could be required to remove them under proposals being considered by the Mayor of London.

Lord Khan is seeking to enforce the restrictions through new zero-emission zones, with bans tailored to specific areas of the city.

The potential log burner restrictions form part of a wider package of emissions-cutting measures, which also proposes tighter limits on domestic bonfires.

Yet the mayor faces obstacles in bringing in the measures, as his existing powers do not provide a straightforward route to impose such a broad clampdown.

At present, local councils can designate smoke control areas and prohibit bonfires on council-owned land, including allotments.

Those rules generally bar the use of particular fuels, including wet wood. Homeowners can usually still burn seasoned dry logs in modern wood-burning stoves, provided the appliances comply with efficiency requirements.

Lord Khan is asking the Government to devolve additional powers to him and other local authority leaders while urging ministers to ‘go further’ in their efforts to clamp down on so-called ‘solid fuel burning’. 

He has argued that the current rules are hindering his efforts to reduce emissions while also claiming that small increases in solid-fuel burning can lead to disproportionate harm to health.   

Labour have already mulled fresh restrictions on wood-burning stoves in a bid to bring emission targets in line with the EU.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Sir James Cleverly accused Lord Khan of intruding into people’s lives.

He said: ‘Londoners need a mayor who will put policing our streets before policing our homes and gardens, prioritising getting things built over having a row with people about log burners.

‘Instead of finding new ways to tie up London and Londoners in new red tape and bans, we need to unshackle London’s potential and build a safer, cheaper, and more ambitious city we can be proud of again.’

MORE STORY: OJ Simpson Accomplice Claim Could Reignite Murder Case Questions

During his tenure as mayor, Lord Khan has focused on cutting emissions across the capital.

These include the expansion of London’s ultra-low-emission zone (ULEZ), and his backing of ‘active travel’ policies such as low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) and giving over more of the road network to cyclists. 

However, the expansion of ULEZ into areas of car-dependent outer London has angered many voters who accused Lord Khan of launching a war on motorists.

In June, the Daily Mail found that ULEZ had not improved the air quality in the Big Smoke as the Mayor had claimed.

Last year, the Mayor of London credited the £12.50-per-day ultra low emission zone with bringing levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) across the capital to within legal limits for the first time.

But analysis of official air quality figures from local authorities suggests more than half of all boroughs are still recording illegal levels of the toxic gas, which is largely emitted from diesel vehicles.

The NO2 is an annual average of 40 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3) of air. Last year, a report from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs claimed London fell wholly within this limit for 2024.

However, at least 18 areas of the capital are still recording annual average levels above this at individual monitoring stations.

One in the centre of Romford recorded an annualised average almost twice the limit in 2024, as did several stations in the City of London – where ULEZ was introduced seven years ago.

In June, a spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: ‘London’s ULEZ, the world’s largest clean air zone, has been a huge success in cleaning up London’s air, with harmful roadside NO2 concentrations now 24 per cent lower in outer London compared to without the ULEZ in place.

‘Air quality data from Defra shows that London met legal limits for nitrogen dioxide for the first time in 2024.

‘We know the damage that air pollution can cause to the health of Londoners so we always look at all the data available in the capital to get a clear picture of the work that still needs to be done.

‘All Londoners are now breathing much cleaner air, but there is still more to do and the Mayor will continue to take action as we build a greener, fairer London for everyone.’

Vladimir Putin has expanded Russia’s nuclear arsenal while warning Nato nations that deploying troops to Ukraine would amount to “war” with Moscow.

Russia added 78 nuclear warheads assigned to missiles and bombers over the past year, lifting the total to 1,796 — its highest level in nine years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Putin has increased the number of deployed warheads each year since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The United States recorded no increase, while Britain and France made no additional deployments, with 170 and 280 warheads respectively.

Although Putin insisted Russia did not pose a danger to Nato members in Europe, he followed that denial with a stark warning about the prospect of conflict.

Addressing the BRICS summit in New Delhi, he said: “Now they [the West] are talking about how they are thinking about bringing troops to the territory of Ukraine. This means war with Russia.”

The comments came as former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned that Putin could use nuclear weapons to reduce Nato member Lithuania to “scorched earth” and erase it from the “world map”.

Putin, who previously said he had no aggressive aims in Ukraine, again maintained that Russia has no intention of invading or threatening current Nato states in Europe.

He said: ‘There is no such threat, and there has never been. We are not threatening European countries, nor are we going to threaten them. Why would we?

‘No one seems to even consider that we have no grounds for any conflict with Europe.’

Yet Mr Medvedev, Mr Putin’s number two on the Russian Security Council, said the deployment of nuclear weapons in Lithuania, a former part of the Soviet Union, could trigger a doomsday response from the president.

He said: ‘They would like to amend their constitution, which stated the non-nuclear nature of this large Baltic state, and thus open the door to the possible deployment of any weapons, including nuclear weapons.

ALSO READ: Kamala Harris Accuses GOP of ‘Cheating’ as Midterm Battle Intensifies

‘No one will stand up for them. Even if it becomes a scorched earth, no other [Western] countries will go to war for them.

‘And the well-known Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty will not be implemented, everyone recognises this.

‘Because if it is implemented, it will be a global catastrophe, planetary. They are not fools but Lithuania will disappear from the world map.’

Russia staged yet more overnight strikes on civilians, with 16 wounded in Odesa, including a five-month-old baby, as the upper floors of a residential high-rise were completely destroyed in a cruise missile strike, with a children’s playground covered in debris.

In Volodymyr Zelensky’s birthplace, Kryvyi Rih, one person was confirmed killed and another was missing in a brutal Russian ballistic missile attack.

In Zaporizhzhia, a woman, 64, and man, 37, were killed by Mr Putin’s forces which also claimed to have destroyed a military logistics hub in Dnipro.

Ukraine used drones to attack a major Russian air force base and military airfield in Taganrog, igniting fires.

One target was a plant which services military planes including Russia’s A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft.

Ukrainian drones attacked the military-linked KuibyshevAzot chemical plant in Tolyatti, Samara region.

It was the second Russian chemical manufacturer blitzed in two days.

This came as Britain revealed Mr Putin’s toll of shame from the war at half a million dead – more than the UK’s total losses in the six years of the Second World War.

On top of this, one million Russians have been wounded in a conflict Mr Putin refuses to halt.

The figures on Mr Putin’s ‘senseless and futile waste of human life’ were released by Britain’s Chief of Defence Staff Sir Richard Knighton.

Political commentator Van Jones said Thursday that President Donald Trump appeared out of step with public sentiment during an appearance on CNN’s “The Source.”

Earlier that morning, speaking at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, Trump said, “We salute the service members working right now to ensure the world’s number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never, ever have a nuclear weapon.”

Host Kaitlan Collins asked Jones whether he believed the president’s remarks were appropriate.

“I think he was out of touch with the feelings of most Americans today,” Jones responded.

RELATED: Harry and Meghan ‘Expect to Be Let Back In,’ Alison Boshoff Reveals

Collins also noted that Trump had reposted on social media the video he originally shared on Jan. 6, in which he urged Capitol rioters to go home and called for peace. “We love you. You’re very special,” Trump said in the video, referring to people who had ransacked the Capitol.

Jones said the repost caught his attention but left him confused. He described those who attacked the Capitol as “not patriotic,” “not heroes,” “traitors” and “treasonous,” arguing that Jan. 6 should not have been brought back into focus on a day meant to honor the “actual patriots and the heroes of 9/11.” Jones added that Trump was “just not in sync with where the American people are,” saying he did not believe anyone woke up wanting to discuss Jan. 6 that day.

Follow Pam Key on X @pamkeyNEN

News that Emma Barnett will leave the BBC’s flagship Today programme emerged yesterday, only a day after her combative interview with Kemi Badenoch — a sequence of events that quickly drew attention.

Barnett, 41, has spent two years as a host on the breakfast news programme and is expected to move on to lead a current affairs show of her own. Her departure follows months of reported disruption linked to a fraught working relationship with fellow presenter Nick Robinson.

The former Woman’s Hour presenter was reportedly growing unhappy with what sources described as Robinson’s “overbearing” manner. The pair are said not to have presented an edition together for 90 days.

With insiders indicating that Barnett could exit the BBC Today programme within weeks, fresh scrutiny has fallen on Thursday’s tense exchange with the Conservative leader.

According to reports, unease surrounded the interview before it went to air. Some listeners were surprised that Barnett, rather than Robinson — the BBC’s former political editor — was assigned to question Badenoch.

It remains unclear whether the choice was made by programme editors or came at Barnett’s request, though sources said Robinson had not expected it.

Speaking on the broadcast, Robinson remarked: “When I was told I was doing The Gruffalo this morning, I thought I had got the best item on the programme.”

There was little warmth in the ensuing 10-minute Kemi Badenoch interview. Barnett pressed the Tory leader with a series of pointed questions, while both women repeatedly spoke over each other and accused the other of interrupting.

Focusing on welfare v defence spending, the opening question embodied the tone of the exchange, with Ms Barnett asking: ‘Are you willing to make people homeless in the name of national defence?’

After it was over, those on the left applauded the presenter for her no-nonsense approach, while those on the right accused her of having got the tone of the interview completely wrong.

Although seen as a car-crash by some, BBC sources are said to insist Ms Barnett’s departure is completely unrelated and has been planned for some time.

It is understood that in addition to tensions with her co-host, the early mornings took a toll, especially given her recent health struggles with endometriosis.

Having filmed a documentary, Fighting Endometriosis, for BBC Two, she was absent from Today for some time after being rushed to hospital to undergo a hysterectomy and recovering at home for several weeks.

The news of her departure also comes only a week after Amol Rajan presented the programme for the last time.

It’s not a good look for Today, especially given the reports of the relationship between the former Woman’s Hour presenter and Mr Robinson.

The Mail on Sunday previously revealed she had lodged a complaint about the Today Programme veteran, calling him ‘overbearing’, when she joined the show in April 2024.

READ MORE: Saudi Arabia Halts Oil Pipeline Operations Following Drone Attack

Insiders said the matter was resolved with no action taken and there had been no suggestion Nick had done anything wrong.

Sources were keen to present the issue as nothing more than ‘clashing egos’ – but other reports suggested the two fundamentally cannot get on. 

Ms Barnett is said to be keen to get started on her ‘next challenge’, understood to be a current affairs programme that has been in ‘long discussions’ with BBC bosses.

She already hosts her own weekly podcast, Ready to Talk with Emma Barnett. 

Since joining the BBC, Ms Barnett has made headlines with her tough interview style.

In May 2017, she rose to national attention following a car crash interview with then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, prompting abuse from his supporters.

During the segment in the run-up to the 2017 General Election, Mr Corbyn was left frantically searching his iPad after he was unable to say how much his own party’s pledge to extend free childcare would cost.

The floundering Labour leader was speechless when faced with the question about his flagship policy.

Listeners branded the interview ‘painful’ and ‘excruciating’ on Twitter, while many of his supporters lashed out at Ms Barnett.

Mr Corbyn himself condemned the abuse, telling supporters: ‘It is totally and absolutely completely unacceptable for anyone to throw abuse at anyone else.

‘Journalists do ask difficult questions and journalists do a job that does require asking difficult questions sometimes in difficult circumstances.’

A separate incident in June 2024 saw her condemned for a wider BBC reluctance to call Hamas terrorists, after she described how a 75-year-old grandmother of six was snatched at gunpoint on October 7.

She said: ‘On October 7 last year Ada Sagi’s life changed forever. She was having a morning coffee at home in Nir Oz kibbutz on the border with Gaza, when suddenly several men working for Hamas burst into her home and forced her barefoot by gunpoint onto a motorbike and took her hostage.’

Ms Barnett went on to say that 116 hostages taken by Hamas were still unaccounted for. 

The weekly audience for Today now stands at 5.73 million, according to industry figures. While it has declined since the 7.5 million it reached in 2016, its performance is relatively stable.

A source at the BBC said: ‘Today has a great, fairly new editor, with loads of new ideas and vision.

‘There’s always rumour and speculation about Today and its presenters.’ 

Saudi Arabia has suspended operations on a key oil pipeline, one day after Iraqi drones struck the route on Thursday.

The kingdom’s East-West pipeline, which transports roughly 5 percent of the world’s oil supply, was taken offline as a “precautionary measure,” according to the Saudi Ministry of Energy.

In comments published by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, Saudi Arabia said it would hold off on any response in order to give Baghdad “an opportunity to take the necessary measures.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who also serves as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, ordered an inquiry into the Maysan province operations command and removed its leader after officials concluded that attacks on Saudi Arabia had been launched from a site in the province. Government spokesman Sabah al-Numan announced the measures in a statement issued early Saturday.

Saudi Arabia and the United States carried out strikes against Iranian-backed militias in Iraq in July, after accusing the groups of launching drone assaults on Saudi oil infrastructure that the Houthis had claimed responsibility for.

Officials across the region told The Associated Press that Yemen’s Houthi movement assisted Iraqi militias in preparing and carrying out those attacks.

Constructed in the 1980s, the East-West pipeline has long been central to Saudi Arabia’s oil export strategy, particularly after disruption in the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran war highlighted the need for alternative routes.

By early June, Saudi oil exports from the Red Sea terminal at the pipeline’s western end had climbed to more than five million barrels a day, more than double previous levels, International Energy Agency data showed.

The shutdown came only hours after Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels seized the strategically important island of Mayun at the southern gateway to the Red Sea, creating another front in the Iran war.

The capture of the tiny island was confirmed by a senior military official with Yemen’s internationally recognized government and by a Houthi official.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has increasingly relied on the Red Sea to get its crude to market as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has been striking ships. 

Houthi efforts to close the 17-mile Bab el-Mandeb channel have made that route more complicated. 

In a statement Friday, the Houthi armed forces boasted of gains along the coast without mentioning the island, Mokha or the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. 

They vowed ‘escalation for escalation’ in the confrontation with Saudi Arabia, while declaring that ‘maritime navigation is safe for all companies except for Saudi vessels.’

RELATED: Trump’s $5,000 Promise Won’t Save Republicans in the Midterms

Still, markets are nervous, and experts have described the Houthis as highly unpredictable. 

Crude prices this week soared again above $100 a barrel, giving Tehran more leverage in any talks.

The Houthis have been attacking Saudi shipping on the Red Sea since declaring a blockade in July, as well as hitting oil infrastructure inside Saudi Arabia. 

The rebels said they acted in response to the kingdom’s yearslong blockade of Houthi-held parts of Yemen.

Saudi Arabia struck the airport in the port city of Mokha after the Houthis seized it Thursday, a Houthi broadcaster said. There were no reports of damage or deaths.

A senior military official with Yemen’s internationally recognized government told the AP they were stunned that the Saudi air force did not try to prevent the capture of Mokha, about 50 miles from the strait.

 He assessed that Saudi Arabia didn’t get a green light from the U.S. to embark on a large-scale air campaign.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t allowed to speak to the media, also blamed ‘lack of coordination’ between Yemen’s army and multiple allied militias, saying it gave the Houthis ‘a priceless opportunity.’

Shipping through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait had fallen by about 60% since the Houthis began attacking some ships there in late 2023 and expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. 

Shipping increased this year as Saudi Arabia sought alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz, but renewed Houthi threats have ‘curtailed’ that activity, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

That has forced Saudi Arabia to find yet another alternative, sending its oil north out of the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, either via the Suez Canal or a pipeline through Egypt, a far longer route for its clients in Asia. 

The Houthis have threatened that route as well, striking a Saudi vessel in the north of the Red Sea in late August.