London hours are 19 GMT - 22:30 GMT I believe (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). They were playing around with the London hours recently, until relatively recently we'd get inserts from London in the 18 GMT NewsHour, but I haven't noticed this these days. There was a short time during the start of the lockdown (in the UK) when Halla and Dareen were in London alongside the majority of the usual UK team, where it seemed we got a lot more live news from London.
It's a shame they don't utilise the London centre more tbh...
On another note, can someone explain to me why the there is such a huge gap between the last NewsHour and the first one the following day (UK time)? It feels like a missed opportunity... I get it's the graveyard shift in Doha, but still?
Halla and Dareen are unable to return to Qatar due to the border being closed, hence they may have done some shifts in London waiting for Qatar to reopen.
Similarly, the Doha based team also cannot fly out (although flights are operating) because they will be unable to Re enter the country for the time being.
Martine Dennis and Richelle Carey are the only two I know of leaving. Did I miss some others? I didn’t notice any other absences to be honest, apart from those stranded outside of Qatar due to a border closure.
Julie is still in the London freelance pool. But, since there are more permanent anchors there stranded outside of Doha, they’re doing quite a bit of the London presenting. Stan left.
Whatever happened to Sue Turton? There was a period I'd say about 18 months or so back where it seemed to mainly be her and the brilliant Maryam Namazee anchoring the output from London but I haven't seen Sue on AJE in a good while.
A shame to see Richelle Carey depart AJE - I know there are no set shifts really on AJE but she seemed to be one of the more frequent anchors whenever I tuned in and was always very capable.
Sue Turton is now a producer at an independent production company working on docu series for Channel 4, although the production has been suspended for the time being due to the Covid situation.
Julie is still in the London freelance pool. But, since there are more permanent anchors there stranded outside of Doha, they’re doing quite a bit of the London presenting. Stan left.
Strange, London-wise haven’t seen Maryam present from The Shard in ages either, I’ve seen her do inserts from what appears to be her living room ages ago when we were put into lockdown. Also the other night Charlie Angela was presenting the London shift, she very rarely presents, nice to see her there. Though it kind of feels as if someone is missing from the London rota even with Dareen jumping in...