Each week, Ben Hopkinson looks back at a serious, crazy, and happy news story from the past week.
Serious News
The countdown to 2025 is on as 65,000 tickets for London's New Year's Eve fireworks have gone on sale.
Tickets are priced between £20 and £50 – with Londoners being charged £15 less than visitors. This year's price increase is to “enhance security and crowd management” according to the City Hall, allowing it to comply with Martyn's Law following the Manchester Arena attack in 2017.
City Hall will be working closely with the Metropolitan Police, Transport for London, local authorities and the emergency services to follow compliance with the new rules.
This is the first of two batches of tickets to be made available – for those that don't get tickets the 12 minute display will be televised
Crazy News
The Victoria Line is experiencing the noisiest part of the Underground.
Reaching up to 112.3 decibels between Finsbury Park and Highbury & Islington, it is louder than a concert, and almost as loud as a chainsaw. The cause is due to a speed restriction due to flooding at Green Park and having to speed up to make back the time further on where the tracks are eroded – known as ‘rail pitting'.
Franki Oliver from the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) claims that 115dB may be painful and could “damage the hearing for commuters”.
To battle the noise, London Underground will deploy more rail-grinding engineers across the Victoria Line at 60 sites until February.
Happy News
Paddington Bear has been issued with a British passport 66 years after he was first alleged to have arrived in London.
The film Paddington in Peru requires a passport for the bear, so they asked for a replica from the Home Office but was given an official one according to co-producer Rob Silva. However, the Home Office confirmed it was a specimen document and can't actually be used.
Speaking about the passport being issued, Silva said: “You wouldn’t think the Home Office would have a sense of humour, but under official observations, they've just listed him as Bear”.
The third film in the series will be released in November, and features Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington.
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