STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The mayor of London says there's no need for his country to host President Trump. He's repeating a call to cancel President Trump's state visit later this year. The mayor opposed this visit even before the president of the United States lifted his words out of context to suggest the mayor was not alarmed enough about the weekend attack at London Bridge. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports from London.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: London mayor Sadiq Khan says the U.K. shouldn't roll out a state visit for a president who has been mischaracterizing his statements about the attack and taking them out of context and instead of apologizing, doubling down and calling him pathetic.
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BEARDSLEY: Thousands of people gathered along the Thames River near London Bridge to remember those killed in Saturday's terrorist attack. They represented all the diversity of this multicultural city. There were priests, Buddhist monks and many Muslims wearing T-shirts with the words "I am a Muslim; ask me anything." One of them was Tim Pashun.
TIM PASHUN: I just want to stand here on behalf of my community, and all the Londoners here because we all share the same pain today.
BEARDSLEY: Mayor Khan said the attackers would never beat Londoners.
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SADIQ KHAN: As a proud and patriotic British Muslim, I say this. You do not commit these disgusting acts in my name.
BEARDSLEY: Background to all of this was reaction to President Trump's tweets criticizing London's popular mayor. Trump is scheduled to make a visit here this fall, and many Londoners are not happy about it. One of them is Nik Randal.
NIK RANDAL: You need to get your Donald Trump in order. He would not have said what he said about Sadiq Khan's comments if he had been white, if it had been Boris Johnson is still in power. That was an anti-Muslim comment. Donald Trump is trying to drive the same division that the extremists are trying to drive.
BEARDSLEY: Today Britain's foreign minister said Trump's visit will go ahead. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, London.
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INSKEEP: The London police have released a little more information about the London Bridge attackers. Two of their names were already known, and now police have released the name of a third. He was Youssef Zaghba. He's described as 22 years old, living in east London, an Italian national who was of Moroccan descent.
The other two attackers were previously identified as a British citizen born in Pakistan and a man of uncertain origins who claimed to be Moroccan as well as Libyan. All three attackers were killed, but police continue as recently as this morning to make more arrests. And we'll bring you more as we learn it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BIRDS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
