Pic-Nathaniel Armstrong died at the scene before paramedics arrived Crime reporter(wp/bbc):::
A man has been charged with the fatal stabbing of a man in south-west London.
Nathaniel Armstrong, 29, died at the scene of the attack in Gowan Avenue, Fulham, on 16 March.
Lovel Bailey, 29, of Bromwich Walk, Birmingham, has been charged with murder after being arrested at Gatwick Airport on Tuesday. He will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court later.
Mr Armstrong's cousin Alex Beresford, Good Morning Britain's weatherman, said the victim was a "bright young man".
Trains will run from Reading and Heathrow in the west through 13 miles of new tunnels to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.
Crossrail says the new line will connect Paddington to Canary Wharf in 17 minutes and described the 10-year project as "hugely complex".
An estimated 200 million passengers will use the new underground line annually, increasing central London rail capacity by 10% - the largest increase since World War Two.
Political reporter(wp/reuters)::: The prospect of a further delay to Brexit pushed up London’s midcap index and more domestically exposed sectors including banks and homebuilders on Wednesday, as it eased some fears of a disruptive no-deal departure.
The FTSE 250 bounced to a two-week high, climbing 0.6 percent in its fifth straight session of gains, while the exporter-heavy FTSE 100 lagged its European peers as the pound firmed.
Prime Minister Theresa May, after seven hours of cabinet meetings on Tuesday, said she would seek another Brexit delay beyond April 12 to try to agree a European Union divorce deal with the opposition Labour leader.
Dublin’s main index, seen as a gauge of Brexit jitters, added 0.6 percent on its fourth consecutive session of gains.
“None of this guarantees Britain won’t bumble out of the EU sans deal, especially given the frothing fury May’s cross-party olive branch has caused among the hard right of her Tory party. However, it is better than nothing,” said Spreadex Analyst Connor Campbell.
Although the default remained that Britain would leave the bloc without a deal, May’s move offered the prospect of keeping the UK in a much closer economic relationship with the EU after Brexit.
That boosted shares in housebuilders with blue-chips Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Barratt all rising between 2 and 3 percent.
British banks including Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Barclays also thrived.
However, exporters felt the brunt of a stronger sterling and kept the main index in the red.
Burberry slipped 4.2 percent to be the biggest blue-chip faller as JP Morgan analysts slashed annual core profit estimates for the luxury goods brand on Brexit-related sterling volatility.
Topping the FTSE 250 leaderboard was transport company Stagecoach that surged 11 percent after it hiked its annual adjusted profit target on what it called “strong trading and positive progress” in the UK rail business.
The small-cap index saw some steep news-driven moves.
Superdry slumped another 12 percent as the return of its co-founder and former boss Julian Dunkerton as interim CEO prompted the majority of its board members to step down on Tuesday.
CMC Markets slid 7 percent to its lowest level on record as it forecast a plunge in net operating income for fiscal 2019 as new rules curbed client trading activity and announced the departure of its CFO.
Financial advisory firm Lighthouse surged 24.5 pct and was on course for its best day in nearly seven years after a 33 pence per share buyout offer from Quilter’s unit Intrinsic Financial.
Political reporter*wp/reuters)::: British Prime Minister Theresa May will meet opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn on Wednesday to thrash out a Brexit compromise, a gamble that could finally see a European Union divorce deal agreed but also tear her party apart.
After her EU withdrawal deal was rejected three times by lawmakers, with parliament and her Conservative Party hopelessly divided over Brexit, May said on Tuesday she would reach out to Corbyn in a bid to break the impasse.
The United Kingdom was supposed to leave the EU last Friday, but three years after Britons backed leaving the bloc in a referendum, it is still unclear how, when or even if it will do so.
May has been unable to persuade a hardcore eurosceptic group of own lawmakers to back the divorce agreement she struck with the EU because they argued it did not provide a decisive break with Europe.
Her decision to seek another short delay to the current Brexit date of April 12 and turn instead for support from Labour, which wants to stay in a customs union with the EU, may make a “soft” Brexit more likely - one that keeps Britain’s economy closely aligned to the world’s biggest trading bloc.
Sterling rose on Wednesday over hopes for a “softer” Brexit, hitting its highest level since March 28.
“I personally think a customs union is highly undesirable,” Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay told BBC radio.
“It is regrettable that what we have been saying for several months now is coming to pass, but that is the remorseless logic of not backing the prime minister’s deal.”
May’s decision to approach Corbyn, a veteran socialist deeply disliked by many Conservatives and mocked by May herself as unfit to govern, still leaves many questions unanswered.
She did not spell out how long a delay to Brexit she wanted, merely saying it should be “as short as possible and which ends when we pass a deal”. She has repeatedly said she did not want an extension which would see Britain having to take part in elections to the European Parliament on May 23.
European Council President Donald Tusk said the bloc should be patient with Britain as May tries to find a way forward but it was not certain how European leaders would view her request.
As it stands, Britain will still leave the EU on April 12 without a deal, something many Conservative lawmakers would like to happen but a scenario businesses fear could wreak chaos and cause huge economic damage.
A cross-party group of British lawmakers will try on Wednesday try to rush through legislation in parliament to make such an outcome impossible.
WHAT DOES LABOUR WANT?
Ahead of their talks, May and Corbyn said there would be no preconditions, but the leaders might well struggle to find a compromise position that can satisfy their own parties.
“This isn’t a blank cheque,” Barclay said.
The Conservatives have been divided over Europe for three decades, leading to the demise of three former prime ministers, David Cameron, John Major and Margaret Thatcher.
But Labour is far from united itself. Corbyn, who voted against joining the bloc in 1975, has previously set out a series of demands he wanted May to agree to before he would back her deal.
“Labour has put forward our proposals to ensure there is a customs union with the EU, access to vital markets and protections of our standards of consumer, environmental and workers’ rights,” he said on Tuesday.
However, many Labour supporters want the party to throw its weight behind a second referendum, while some Labour lawmakers, who represent areas that voted strongly to leave the EU, are fearful that they will be viewed as betraying such traditional voters if they do not strongly back Brexit.
IT’S A TRAP
“I thought momentarily last night May’s ‘offer’ might be genuine,” said one pro-EU Labour lawmaker Bradshaw.
“Having heard Barclay...it is clearly a trap designed to try to get May’s terrible deal through, which some people have fallen for, but Labour mustn’t,” he wrote on Twitter.
It is also unclear where May’s last-ditch attempt to get a Brexit deal through will ultimately leave her minority government.
She had already promised to step down if her withdrawal agreement was passed by parliament, although that failed to persuade all her lawmakers to back her, and her overture to Corbyn has alienated some Conservatives still further.
“She needs to take a long look in the mirror and for the good of our country, our democracy and the Conservative Party she needs to go now,” lawmaker Andrew Bridgen told Sky News.
The Democratic Unionist Party, the small Northern Irish party on whose support May relies on to govern, were also wary of her plans.
“It remains to be seen if sub-contracting out the future of Brexit to Jeremy Corbyn, someone whom the Conservatives have demonised for four years, will end happily,” the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said in a statement following May’s change of strategy.
Mumps - a contagious viral infection that causes swelling of the glands - has been in the news this week following a confirmed outbreak at two universities.
A total of 223 suspected cases were reported, with 40 confirmed, across Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham.
That has now risen to 241 suspected cases with 51 confirmed by Public Health England (PHE).
BBC News has taken a look at why this is and whether university students are still at risk.
Where else is this happening?
The numbers seem particularly high in Nottingham.
PHE said latest figures showed cases of mumps in England had decreased in 2018, with 1,024 confirmed cases compared with 1,796 in 2017.
There have also been a handful of reported cases at the universities of Bath, Hull and Liverpool and in the US - specifically Temple University, in Philadelphia, which has recorded about 100 people with signs of the infection.
There does not appear to be any reason as to why the Nottingham numbers are much higher, though experts have said it could be that there are more in the city who are not immune.
Professor Jonathan Ball, from the University of Nottingham - an expert in viruses and viral vaccines and treatments - said it was affecting students because they gathered in "close proximity for fairly large periods of time".
This would include in halls of residence, lecture theatres or even at nightclubs, which hold specific nights aimed at students.
"The virus [could] spread fairly easy, especially if there are relatively large numbers of people who have not been vaccinated," he said.
A marine biology student at the University of Hull, who did not want to give his name, said he started feeling ill while on a field trip to the Isle of Cumbrae in Scotland.
The 19-year-old, who said he knew at least two others who had the symptoms, had to be isolated and driven home, avoiding public transport because of the risk of others being infected.
Can you catch it if you have been vaccinated?
Yes. Dr Vanessa MacGregor, from PHE, said it had seen a rise in figures recently, with teenagers and young adults who have not had two doses of the MMR vaccine "particularly vulnerable".
The NHS says the vaccine is part of the routine childhood immunisation schedule, in which a child is given one dose when they are 12 to 13 months old, and a second at three years and four months.
Dr MacGregor urged those who have not had the MMR vaccine - or only received one dose - to ensure they took up the offer of MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination.
The University of Hull student also said it was "strange" he had contracted the infection because he had received both doses and this had been confirmed by his father.
According to Prof Ball, the mumps part of the vaccine is the "least effective".
He said: "For the mumps vaccine, we expect about 88% of people vaccinated to be protected, whereas for the measles vaccine this is as high as 98%.
"If you then add unvaccinated people into the mix, it is easy to see how a relatively contagious virus as mumps can spread so easily."
He said this was further complicated, because some people who are infected show little or no symptoms at all.
However, if the majority were vaccinated, those susceptible to the infection would benefit from "herd immunity", the level considered by experts to protect a population from a disease.
But, as Prof Ball states: "If you start to reduce the numbers of people being vaccinated, then that herd protection just isn't there."
Why is uptake of the MMR vaccine declining?
According to BBC Health Editor Hugh Pym, the reason for uptake declining in many countries was not clear.
The "damaging" work of discredited scientist and struck-off medic Andrew Wakefield in the 1990s "helped fuel the fire of the anti-vaccine movement," according to Prof Ball.
In 1998, the doctor led a study that linked the MMR vaccine to autism, impacting on the coverage of the vaccine, with rates dropping to about 80% in the late 1990s and a low of 79% in 2003.
Rates partially recovered after the research was disproved but the volume of anti-vaccine sentiment on social media has increased in recent years.
This led Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock to call for new laws to force social media companies to remove content that promoted false information about vaccines.
Prof Ball said there were rarely "side effects" with vaccines and even if there was, the benefits outweighed these.
"Because we have lived through a golden age of vaccination, we have forgotten just how harmful, and sometimes even fatal, these virus infections can be," he said.
Are students and others still at risk?
Dr Natalie Riddell, a lecturer in immunology and ageing at the University of Surrey, said a reduced amount of people being vaccinated against any contagious disease was dangerous.
"Babies and immuno-compromised people [such as the elderly or those receiving chemotherapy] rely on the rest of us to be vaccinated to prevent the spread of disease," she said.
"It is totally unnecessary for people to risk their friends and family becoming ill, or even dying, from measles or mumps, as there is a safe and effective vaccine to protect against both."
Prof Ball said poor vaccine uptake worldwide had led to an increase in outbreaks of mumps and measles and we should "expect things to get worse" before they get better.
A man who was stabbed to death inside his car in south-west London was the victim of a "vicious and targeted" attack, police have said.
The 40-year-old driver was knifed multiple times by three men as he was turning onto Clapham Park Road, near Clapham Common Tube station, on Friday.
The victim died at the scene and his next of kin have been informed, Scotland Yard said.
No-one has been arrested in connection with the killing.
Det Ch Insp Paul Healy said: "This was a vicious and targeted attack on a man inside his car in a busy area."
The force is trying to track down three male suspects, "all of slim build", who were seen leaving the area immediately after the attack at about 14:30 GMT, he added.
The Met also urged any witnesses or people with dashcam footage to get in contact.
There have been 22 fatal stabbings in the capital this year so far.
