David Cohen
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Investigations Editor and Campaigns Editor of the London Evening Standard and The Independent and founder of the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund
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Articles by David Cohen
'Eventually, I hit more than I missed and realised: missing is a means to an end. It made me braver and I took more risks'
Fourteen-year-old Jemima is on a roll. This year, she represented her Stratford school at the UK’s largest youth public speaking competition and won, becoming the East London regional champion. She was one of 120 girls invited to a science day where the top five were rewarded with a week of work experience at Microsoft, and Jemima nailed that too. In addition, she secured a competitive work experience placement with Onside Law, the sports law firm representing Jannik Sinner and Rory McIlroy.
'Our aim is to create champions in the ring and champions in life'
Luna signed up for a boxing class with a Fight for Peace coach for one reason: she saw a video of the session on TikTok and thought taking part would be a fun story to tell her friends. “I had no interest in sports and was extremely unfit,” says the 25-year-old. “I could not do a single burpee and running for the bus would leave me breathless. I had no intention of attending more than one session.” But to Luna’s surprise, she went back.
Kayaking became my escape — out on the water, all my troubles disappeared
When Elsa was 11 years old, her parents enrolled her on a holiday scheme at nearby Laburnum Boat Club in Hackney, provoking feelings of overwhelming anxiety and dread. Elsa suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and felt intense distress at the thought of leaving the house and subjecting herself to a completely new experience she could not control. “I had visions of capsizing the kayak, falling into the water and getting a face full of algae,” she says.
'Coach was like an aunty to us — things I wouldn’t tell my parents, I could tell her'
The first time Grace tried basketball was in the summer term of year 8 when a charity called Greenhouse Sports arrived at her school in Croydon and their coach started running basketball during PE. Grace was sporty but, other than netball, girls' sport at school was patchy and inconsistent. "I found netball very constricting," she says. "As soon as you touch somebody, it's a foul. But the Greenhouse coach started doing dribbling and shooting drills and what I loved most was the physical contact.
'How do you get young people out of a gang? Get them into another gang, but a positive one'
Nabil was 16 and about to write his GCSEs when a 3am knock on the door changed everything. It was the police calling to say that his older brother Abdullah, 23, had been stabbed in the neck and killed. Suddenly Nabil was thrust into the role of head of the family. His single mother, an asylum seeker from Algeria, could barely speak English and had no job, and Nabil, known in the family as "the clever one", had four younger siblings who needed his support.
How British table tennis champion Jason Sugrue shapes London's youth
Jason Sugrue had just returned from a summer training camp in China and was about to become the UK's number one-ranked U15 table tennis player when his mother sat him down to tell him that his father, Buxton, had been shot and killed while he was away. Jason was incredibly close to his father — a warm, charismatic figure who ran a local table tennis club and was much loved in the community — and in that instant, his world collapsed.
'When I am gliding around the court, I forget my troubles and feel exhilarated'
Thu, September 10, 2026 at 10:55 AM UTC Fourteen-year-old Aakeeshen is a softly spoken slip of a boy, but his words carry a punch. “Sometimes uncontrollable thoughts come into my head that I can’t do anything about,” he says.
'Football has been a saviour for our son — without it he would have been isolated'
The date July 7, 2022 is seared in Alexia’s memory. That was the day, aged 14, she first arrived at Bloomsbury Football Foundation to try out for its competitive squad. She remembers it as the day her life changed. Alexia was the fastest in her year over 100 metres, beating both all the girls and boys, and dreamed of becoming a serious footballer. But at school, female sport was patchy and she was criticised by the other girls as “always the try-hard” for taking sport too earnestly.
'Without Greenhouse, I would have been an ordinary kid — now I am extraordinary'
Maryam started secondary school full of excitement, but the pace and volume of the work soon got to her and she began to skip lessons, and then to bunk off entire mornings. “I would leave home in my school uniform and go and hang out in a local park,” she says.
How sports coaching and mentoring are transforming the lives of disadvantaged young Londoners
Josh was just nine years old when his mother died of cancer. After that he would come home from school to an empty house, as his father worked night shifts as a security guard. While this gave him freedom to stay out late, it left him vulnerable: home was a tough housing estate in Harlesden where gang violence and stabbings were common.
Wimbledon 2026: Expert guide to budget tickets and beating the queues
It is early evening, my favourite time of day at Wimbledon, and I am sitting so close to the action that I can see the angles of individual blades of grass and tap the service line judge on the shoulder. In front of me on Court 14, two players I have never heard of are leathering the ball at each other in probing rallies and as the balls fizz by metres away, it feels so intimate as to be visceral.
Wimbledon 2026: Expert guide to budget tickets and beating the queues
It is early evening, my favourite time of day at Wimbledon, and I am sitting so close to the action that I can see the angles of individual blades of grass and tap the service line judge on the shoulder. In front of me on Court 14, two players I have never heard of are leathering the ball at each other in probing rallies and as the balls fizz by metres away, it feels so intimate as to be visceral.
Abortion Access Can’t Depend on Rage Donations
Clinic escorts help arrivals at Camelback Family Planning, an abortion clinic in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 18, 2024. (Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images) Now, almost three and a half years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the numbers are clear that abortion in the United States has, to the shock of most, continued to rise. But we also have data showing that a small but not trivial number of people are continuing their pregnancies to birth due to abortion bans.
Sir Ian McKellen lends his support as Number One Apple Peeler, as our Winter Appeal passes £2.6M
Ian McKellan and Evgeny Lebedev, proprietor of The Standard, help deliver food from The Felix Project to Neighbours in Poplar (ES) Ian McKellen sits at a trestle table in a London East End church and begins to peel his third apple of the day. Looking dashing in his colourful scarf, he flashes his trademark devilish grin and chats to the other volunteers about “the art of peeling” as they prepare a hot roast with apple crumble to feed around 130 of the most vulnerable people in Tower Hamlets.
The mother who unites a community around her cooking in Bristol
Meriam with Eloise and Laura, who work with ACH (Daniel Loveday/Comic Relief) For Meriam, a young mother who left Ethiopia to come to the UK in 2013, the barriers to integration seemed insurmountable. The 30-year-old arrived alone, hoping her husband and four children could follow once she had secured refugee status. She spoke no English and had never travelled outside Africa.
Activist mother of three who fled Zimbabwe to be reunited with her children after 7 years apart
As a child growing up in a prominent middle-class family in Zimbabwe, Christmas was always a magical time for Cathy. It meant returning to her parents’ farm, connecting with relatives and villagers she hadn’t seen for months, wearing new clothes, dancing to music, playing games, and sharing delicious food.
'Christmas day was a painful reminder of the family I don’t have'
Lemn Sissay shared his story of being in care and not having a family Christmas ( ) Fourteen people gathered for a sumptuous brunch around a table in central London, and the conversation soon turned to the festive season. “Christmas was the worst day of the year for me from when I was put into care at age 12, because it was a reminder of everything I never had,” declared Lemn, seated next to the host at the head of the table.
From Bond Street to sleeping in parks: the dramatic fall and subsequent rise of Guan
Guan running art classes at Barons Court Project in West London (Elliot Morgan) For over 20 years, Guan worked on fashionable Bond Street managing a high-end clothing retailer, but when the 2008 financial crisis hit, spending dried up, and following a change in ownership, he was made redundant. Guan was hopeful he’d soon find another job. But two years — and more than 200 applications — later, he was still unemployed. “Mentally, I started to struggle,” he says. “I stopped going out socially.
From Iran to Yorkshire: How a refugee found his drive
David Cohen When Mo, a long-haul truck driver from Iran, arrived in the South Yorkshire town of Barnsley with his wife and two children five years ago, everything felt alien. The family were moved between hotels in London and Bradford before being placed in Barnsley — a town they knew nothing about. “I left for “religious reasons”, Mo, 55, explains.
'I know that if I work hard, one day I will have a good future'
; ; ; Continue reading More for You ; ; ; Continue reading More for You
'I know that if I work hard, one day I will have a good future'
Hamza, who has chosen not to be photographed (Young Roots) When the war in Sudan began in April 2023, Hamza thought the power struggle would soon end. The 23-year-old entrepreneur was running the family’s successful clothing business and he planned to expand it. Never did he dream he might have to flee to a foreign country where he knew no one, could not speak the language, and would need to start his life over.
'I know what it is to go hungry - now I deliver food to others in need'
The first time Shelaine experienced real hunger was when she was 13 and her parents split up. “We went from being a solid working class family living in Hammersmith to a family plunged into poverty,” she says. “When we ran short of food, mum would cook old potatoes that were well past their ‘use-by’ date, but I was revolted by their sprouting alien fingers and couldn’t eat them.
Strictly star Neil Jones and Greens leader Zack Polanski back our appeal
Dancer and choreographer Neil Jones and leader of the Green Party, Zack Polanski, are backing our campaign — Who’s at Your Table? — in partnership with Comic Relief, calling on people to think about what it means to not have a home or to be displaced. The professional dancer, best known for his starring role in BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing, says he has known first-hand what it is to be homeless, and that having a home now means “everything” to him.
‘I arrived here as a child refugee - now I’m a chef at Michelin-star restaurants’
When Nestor was a teenager and living in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he became a target of armed militias recruiting child soldiers. They came to his school, pulling pupils out against their will. As the conflict escalated and with his life in peril, his uncle flew with him to Scotland, doing his best to get him to safety — but then left him to his own devices at a Glasgow train station. Nestor would never see his uncle again. At the time, he was just 16.
Stephen Fry and Andi Oliver back our appeal
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Destination unlimited: our campaign smashes through the £1 million mark
Thirty young job seekers perch expectantly on the tiered seating, pens and notepads at the ready, eager to pick up tips from the assembled employers that could make the critical difference. They include school leavers and graduates, all hoping that this Get Hired event — run by The King’s Trust and hosted over two days by Octopus Energy — will be their breakthrough moment.
'Because of 20/20 Levels, I’m not just surviving — I am building something meaningful'
Samuel, who was helped by 2020 levels and now has a job with Virgin media O2 - (John Nguyen/JNVisuals) “I was 16 but I still remember it like it was yesterday,” said Samuel. “There was a knock at the door and the police asked to come in. They told us my father had passed. My world stopped. I still remember what I was wearing, what was on TV. He had health issues but it was still out of the blue.” Now 29, Samuel says his father’s death marked him deeply.
'I never imagined I could get into a university like UCL'
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'I never imagined I could get into a university like UCL'
When Alanis Hernandez was 17, she was taken on a school trip that would shape her future. It wasn’t your typical excursion — such as to the seaside or the Science Museum — but to a London law firm, and it changed what she imagined was possible for a Spanish-speaking teenager from the Dominican Republic. Alanis had come to the UK aged 11 speaking no English. Living with her mum, she worked hard at her A-levels but didn’t expect to go to a top university.
‘I had all these work mums who were so encouraging — it changed my life’
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‘I had all these work mums who were so encouraging - it changed my life’
It began with a small cohort — and a mix of excitement and apprehension. Sarah Findlater, now People Director at Marks & Spencer, was then the HR manager at the retailer’s flagship Marble Arch store, and still vividly remembers the day that first group of eight young people walked through the door 21 years ago.
From no prospects to employment: ‘I no longer feel lost — I feel purposeful and happy’
Microsoft Cares About Your Privacy Microsoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
He told the King: 'What you are doing is amazing for young people'
As Nial lined up with around 40 young people to meet the King of England, a ripple of nervous excitement passed through the group. “Are you ready?” someone asked. The King moved down the line, stopping to speak to each participant. When it was Nial’s turn, the 25-year-old felt overcome. “Sir, what you are doing with The King’s Trust for young people is amazing,” he said.
From no prospects to employment: ‘I no longer feel lost - I feel purposeful and happy’
For Alfie, school was a daily ordeal. The death of his father at 14 devastated him and he soon became a target for bullying. “People would randomly punch me and push me around,” he said. “They taunted me and made jokes about my dad dying. At 15, I had a mental breakdown and began misusing drugs to self-medicate. By 17, I was admitted to CAMHS [Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service] inpatient unit.” Eryn had a similarly painful start.
Bethany’s disorders meant she was unlikely to get a job — then Toucan stepped in
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Bethany’s disorders meant she was unlikely to get a job - then Toucan stepped in
Bethany Scott-Wright desperately wanted to work but the odds were stacked against her. The 22-year-old from Bromley has autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) — a behavioural condition marked by frequent temper outbursts, defiance and hostility, particularly toward authority figures like teachers and bosses.
Futurama S13E10 1080p WEB h264-ETHEL
Futurama S13E09 Versions: 775MB Riverdale S01 Pack Versions: 8.2GB Futurama S13E08 Versions: 74MB 671MB Futurama S13E10 Versions: 86MB 746MB 1.2GB Futurama S13E06 Versions: 88MB 664MB Futurama S13E03 Versions: 89MB 701MB Futurama S13E02 Versions: 87MB 725MB The Twelve S03E07 Versions: 134MB 179MB 232MB 1.1GB Teen Titans Go! S09E23 Versions: 55MB 56MB 74MB 122MB 144MB 289MB 505MB Summer Pockets S01E24 Versions: 53MB 54MB 64MB 106MB 110MB 714MB 1.4GB Grand Blue Dreaming S02E11 Versions: 81MB...
From the call centre to the BAFTAs: A story of remarkable transformation
Thomas Stogdon did not know it at the time, but the day he walked into the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in north London would prove to be a sliding doors moment. A graduate with a degree in film and TV from Brunel University and living in Tottenham, he had faced rejection after rejection while trying to pitch his ideas or find work in the UK film and television industry.
'I was a child carer for my mute parents and lacked confidence - The King’s Trust changed that'
Miira, 26, an only child, grew up caring for her deaf and mute Sri Lankan parents from the age of six. She arrived in London at 11 speaking little English and life in a silent household made her quiet and shy, and she struggled to make friends at school. Still, despite these obstacles — and the weight of being a young carer — Miira got herself into university, where she studied Accounting and Financial Information Systems, and then landed a job as a financial assistant.
We can all help get young London working again
Today Gina — charismatic, energetic and a mother of four in her forties — runs a florist named Blooming Scent and a thriving Afro-Caribbean restaurant called Gina’s on Tottenham High Road, which seats 130 and has catered events for Buckingham Palace and Scotland Yard. Among her most valued employees is Tosin, now in his early thirties, who, she says, has matured under her care and knows the business inside out.
Expert guide to budget tickets and beating the queues as Wimbledon 2026 ballot opens
It is early evening, my favourite time of day at Wimbledon, and I am sitting so close to the action that I can see the angles of individual blades of grass and tap the service line judge on the shoulder. In front of me on Court 14, two players I have never heard of are leathering the ball at each other in probing rallies and as the balls fizz by metres away, it feels so intimate as to be visceral.
Local opinion: City's reckless spending makes Prop 414 untenable
The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer: I am an independent voter residing in Ward 2 who has lived and worked in Tucson for 40 years. I have always loved living in Tucson and usually support initiatives that seek to improve the lives of all Tucsonans including voting for tax increases. However, I cannot support Proposition 414.
Winter Appeal: 'Places like this pick people up from the ground'
When Jason was released on tag from prison in March this year, having spent three years inside for class-A drug dealing, his third stint in prison, he was determined to make a clean break. The 26-year-old knew that finding a stable place to live and securing a job were the keys to rebuilding his life, but he faced one big obstacle that terrified him. As a care leaver, he had no family home to go back to.
Zoe Wanamaker, Anita Rani and Jo Brand latest stars to support our winter appeal
Comedian Jo Brand, actress Zoe Wanamaker and TV presenter Anita Rani have all got behind our Winter Appeal in support of refugees and people experiencing homelessness, with Brand insisting “we all deserve a place to live”. Their support for our joint appeal in partnership with Comic Relief comes as leading charity Centrepoint predict that nearly 23,000 young people will face homelessness this winter.
Winter Appeal: 'I Was Pregnant And Homeless After A Family Rupture And Didn't Know Where To Turn' - Evening Standard
A laughing, happy four-year-old girl leaves her classroom at the end of a school day and runs to her mother Naomi who sweeps her off her feet in a loving embrace. Few people observing this warm, everyday domestic scene would guess at the incredible hardship Naomi faces as a homeless mother on a daily basis - because Naomi is not the face we typically associate with homelessness. Naomi, 31, became homeless five years ago after she fell out with her family.
Winter Appeal: ‘I was told I could stay in the UK - then kicked out of my asylum accommodation’
The day Habib received his decision letter granting him refugee status in the UK was one of the happiest of his life. The 29-year-old had fled imminent threats to his life in Afghanistan weeks before the Taliban seized power in 2021, leaving behind his pregnant wife and daughter, and had endured a perilous four-month journey across Asia and Europe. He travelled in trucks and walked across Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Austria, Germany and France.
A Place To Call Home: Winter Appeal ...The Standard podcast
Listen here on your chosen podcast platform. The London Standard has combined with Comic Relief to launch our 2024 winter appeal, A Place to Call Home, to help organisations in London and across the country that support the sustenance and better integration of refugees and people experiencing homelessness. On this special edition of The Standard podcast, we’re joined by our campaigns editor, David Cohen, and CEO of Comic Relief, Samir Patel.
A Place To Call Home: Standard launches Winter Appeal to help refugees and homeless in London
Claude was four years old when he was led on a forced march to a clearing that would later become known as the killing fields of Rwanda. “It comes back to me in flashes,” he says. “I was living with my mother and father and two younger siblings and I remember hiding in our home for a few days before my parents decided to try find a way out. We were captured by Hutu militia with machetes.
It’s spooky season. Here are some scary stories from around the world you probably haven’t heard
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Some are well-worn warnings as familiar as the changing of seasons. Others are slow burns that end with a bang. Still others are just plain eerie. Stories of spiritual entities, paranormal activity and creepy cryptids are passed through generations the world over, becoming local legends that only sometimes reach across borders and cultures.
By David Cohen Verified, John Leicester Verified, Emily Wang Fujiyama Verified, David Biller Verified
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