Poet Sought to 'Celebrate' London Bridges

Big Ben is shown with lights switched on after Earth Hour in London, Britain, March 23, 2024. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Big Ben is shown with lights switched on after Earth Hour in London, Britain, March 23, 2024. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
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Poet Sought to 'Celebrate' London Bridges

Big Ben is shown with lights switched on after Earth Hour in London, Britain, March 23, 2024. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Big Ben is shown with lights switched on after Earth Hour in London, Britain, March 23, 2024. REUTERS/Hollie Adams

A poet is being sought to "celebrate" five of London's bridges as a charity hires a poet-in-residence for the first time in its 900-year history, the BCC reported.

The City Bridge Foundation said the job involves writing about the capital's major Thames crossings, their history and the role they play in the life of Londoners today.

The selected poet will be paid £10,000 for the year-long role, the BCC said.

The foundation said the job was "the only one of its kind anywhere.”

The City Bridge Foundation maintains five of the bridges leading into the City of London, which are Tower, London, Southwark, Millennium and Blackfriars bridges.

"For hundreds of years, our bridges have been central to the story of London during its happiest and its darkest moments, yet tributes to them in verse are surprisingly scarce," said foundation chairman Giles Shilson.

"Our new poet will celebrate the bridges' long history, their relationship with the city and the river and the vital role they play in the day-to-day life of modern Londoners."



Trump Says He Will Quickly Release JFK, Robert Kennedy, MLK Assassination Files 

People attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial marking MLK Day in Washington, Jan. 16, 2023. (AP)
People attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial marking MLK Day in Washington, Jan. 16, 2023. (AP)
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Trump Says He Will Quickly Release JFK, Robert Kennedy, MLK Assassination Files 

People attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial marking MLK Day in Washington, Jan. 16, 2023. (AP)
People attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial marking MLK Day in Washington, Jan. 16, 2023. (AP)

President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday he would release classified documents in the coming days related to the assassinations of US President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Trump, who returns to the White House on Monday, promised on the campaign trail to release classified intelligence and law enforcement files on the 1963 assassination of JFK, as America's 35th president is widely known.

He had made a similar promise during his 2017 to 2021 term, and he did in fact release some documents related to JFK's 1963 slaying. But he ultimately bowed to pressure from the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation, and kept a significant chunk of documents under wraps, citing national security concerns.

"In the coming days, we are going to make public remaining records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other topics of great public interest," Trump said at a rally in downtown Washington, the day before he takes office for a second, non-consecutive term.

Trump did not specify which documents would be released, and he did not promise a blanket declassification. King and Robert Kennedy were both assassinated in 1968.

The JFK assassination, in particular, is a source of enduring fascination in the United States. The murder has been attributed to a sole gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, and the Justice Department and other federal government bodies have reaffirmed that conclusion in the intervening decades. But polls show many Americans believe his death was a result of a wider conspiracy.

Trump's health and human services secretary-designate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of Robert Kennedy and nephew of JFK, has said he believes the CIA was involved in his uncle's death, an allegation the agency has described as baseless.

Kennedy Jr. has also said he believes his father was killed by multiple gunmen, an assertion that contradicts official accounts.