Police removed from Ecuadorian embassy

After 40 months, UK police call off their 24-hour surveillance of the Ecuadorian embassy. The cost of the operation is over $17 million. Police:

[It is] no longer proportionate to commit officers to a permanent presence…The MPS will not discuss what form its continuing operation will take or the resourcing implications surrounding it. Whilst no tactics guarantee success in the event of Julian Assange leaving the embassy, the MPS will deploy a number of overt and covert tactics to arrest him.

WikiLeaks spokesperson:

My interpretation is that it has not been lifted. They are calling off the uniformed presence but escalating the covert operation and will arrest him if he steps out off the embassy.