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No pants? No problem. London subway riders bare their legs to brighten a gray winter day

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No pants? No problem. London subway riders bare their legs to brighten a gray winter day
ENT

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No pants? No problem. London subway riders bare their legs to brighten a gray winter day

2025-01-13 03:40 Last Updated At:03:53

LONDON (AP) — Mind the pants.

Hundreds of Londoners headed down to the Underground on Sunday afternoon, stripped down to their underwear and travelled around a bit, trying to look as though nothing unusual was going on.

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People on board a tube as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People on board a tube as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Women on an escalator at Westminster Station as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Women on an escalator at Westminster Station as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People on board a tube as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People on board a tube as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People on board a tube as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People on board a tube as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People walk along an underground station's platform as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People walk along an underground station's platform as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

A man sits by the platform of an underground station, during the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

A man sits by the platform of an underground station, during the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

As if.

This was the Official No Trousers Tube Ride, an annual event with no point other than injecting a little levity into the bleak midwinter. No deep meaning, no bigger motive. The only goal was to be silly, if but for one afternoon.

“There’s so much bad, so much not fun going on,’’ said ringleader Dave Selkirk, a 40-year-old personal trainer. “It’s nice to do something just for the sake of it.”

After gathering at the entrance to Chinatown, dozens of clothing anarchists trooped through the icy streets to the Piccadilly Circus Underground station in central London where they boarded their first train. The only hiccup was that the cars were so crowded some people couldn’t shed their trousers.

Selfies were taken. Grins were exchanged. Tourists looked puzzled.

The first stunt in this vein was held in New York in 2002, the brainchild of local comedian Charlie Todd. His idea was this: Wouldn’t it be funny if someone walked onto a subway train in the middle of winter wearing hat, gloves, scarf — everything but pants? Or trousers as they’re known in London, pants being synonymous with underpants in Britain.

“It would be unusual in New York, although you can see anything on our subway system, but what would really be funny is if at the next stop, a couple of minutes later, when the doors open and additional persons got on, not wearing trousers as well,” Todd told the BBC. “And they act like they don’t know each other, and they act like … it’s no big deal and they just forgot their trousers.’’

The idea took off, and no pants days have been held all over: in Berlin, Prague, Jerusalem, Warsaw and Washington, D.C., among other cities.

London hosted its first big reveal in 2009.

“You know, it’s meant to be a bit of harmless fun,’’ Todd said. “Certainly we are living in a climate where, you know, people like to have culture war fights. My rule in New York was always the goal of this event is to amuse other people, to give people a laugh. It’s not to be provocative, it’s not to irritate someone. So hopefully the spirit of that continues.”

Basil Long, a lawyer, showed up at the meeting point in a down coat and hat on a freezing winter afternoon. But after his journey underground in the warm tunnels of the Tube, he had been transformed, wearing only a white shirt with bold rainbow stripes, pink underwear and Underground-themed socks.

“I just saw it online and I just thought, why not? It’s always a question, isn’t it?’’ he said. “When someone is asked why they climbed Everest, they were just like, why not?”

But Miriam Correa had a purpose. The 43-year-old chef wanted to come because she had seen pictures of previous no trouser rides that featured lots of thin, scantily clad women.

“I am a real woman,’’ she said, adding that there was no reason to be ashamed of her shape. “All bodies are perfect."

People on board a tube as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People on board a tube as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Women on an escalator at Westminster Station as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Women on an escalator at Westminster Station as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People on board a tube as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People on board a tube as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People on board a tube as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People on board a tube as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People walk along an underground station's platform as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

People walk along an underground station's platform as they take part in the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

A man sits by the platform of an underground station, during the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

A man sits by the platform of an underground station, during the annual event "No Trousers Tube Ride" in London, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

HONG KONG (AP) — Stocks in Asia were mostly down Tuesday, after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on all U.S. imports of steel and aluminum.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined 0.87% to 21,335.38, while the Shanghai Composite dipped 0.12% to 3,318.06. Japan markets were closed for a national holiday. Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia remained largely unchanged and South Korea’s KOSPI was up 0.71% to 2,539.05.

Trump said over the weekend he would announce 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, with more import duties to come later in the week.

Fear around tariffs has been at the center of Wall Street’s moves recently, and experts say the market likely has more swings ahead. The price of gold, which often rises when investors are feeling nervous, climbed again Monday to top $2,930 per ounce and set another record.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slid 82 points, about 0.18%. The S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures respectively fell 0.28% and 0.36%.

But Trump has shown he can be just as quick to pull back on threats, like he did with 25% tariffs he had announced on Canada and Mexico, suggesting they may be merely a negotiating chip rather than a true long-term policy.

Trump has pressed ahead with 10% tariffs on Chinese goods, while China has retaliated by imposing tariffs on U.S. coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars.

“Beijing’s restraint in targeting only a small sliver of U.S. goods is deemed to be a deliberately less than proportionate response to avert an escalatory tit-for-tat spiral,” said Vishnu Varathan, head of macro research at Mizuho.

“Nonetheless, the reality is that U.S.-China trade tensions are set to structurally ramp-up, even if a negotiated compromise is the endgame for Trump 2.0 tariffs," Varathan added.

The S&P 500 rose 40.45 points to 6,066.44 on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 167.01 to 44,4701.41, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 190.87 to 19,714.27.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury held steady at 4.50%. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do with short-term interest rates, fell to 4.27% from 4.29%.

The Fed cut its main interest rate several times through the end of last year, but traders have been sharply curtailing their expectations for more reductions in 2025, in part because of fears about potentially higher inflation from tariffs. While lower rates can give a boost to the economy and investment prices, they can also give inflation more fuel.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell will be offering testimony before Congress later this week, where he could offer more hints about what the Fed is thinking. In December, Fed officials sent financial markets sharply lower after indicating they may cut rates only twice this year.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S crude added 51 cents to $72.83 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 44 cents to $76.31 a barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar remained largely unchanged at about 151.95 Japanese yen. The euro cost $1.0305, also largely unchanged.

AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed.

A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

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