Three teenage boys rushed to hospital after being knifed outside school

Crime reporter,barmingham(wp/es):

Three teenage boys have been rushed to hospital after being stabbed outside a school in Birmingham.

Emergency services were called to University of Birmingham School, on the university's campus in Selly Oak, at about 4.20pm on Monday.

They found the three boys suffering from knife wounds in Weoley Park Road.

They were rushed to hospital after the triple stabbing, which happened at the end of the school day.

Police said their injuries are not believed to be life threatening.

A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said: “Enquiries are on-going to establish what took place this afternoon and to find those responsible.

“Part of Weoley Park Road remains closed at this time.”

Victoria and David Beckham make rare red carpet appearance at The Fashion Awards

Pic:David backham&victoria backham(wp)
Sports reporter(wp/es):

On Monday evening power couple Victoria and David Beckhammade a rare joint red carpet appearance as they arrived hand-in-hand at The Fashion Awards 2018.

Victoria Beckham is nominated for British Designer of the Year Womenswear at the annual awards for her eponymous brand, Victoria Beckham, which celebrated its 10th anniversary earlier this year.

VB looked every inch a style icon in one of her own designs, an elegant black evening gown with wrap front detail. The classic dress from her spring/summer 2019 collection also featured pockets, giving it an androgynous twist. 

Her husband, David Beckham, who is the Ambassadorial President of the British Fashion Council, cut a suave figure in a tailored black suit with an unbuttoned white shirt showing off his tattooed chest, the monochrome colour scheme perfectly complimenting his wife's ensemble.

 In recent years the private couple have only made a handful of joint red carpet appearances, Monday's ceremony being just the second time the former footballer and Spice Girl have walked a red carpet together in almost three years.  

The last time the duo attended The Fashion Awards was in 2015, when they put on a chic sartorial display in matching black suits.

Uber plans to integrate London bus, Tube timetables into its app: FT

ICT reporter(wp/Reuters):

Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] is planning to integrate into its app the bus and Tube timetables of Transport for London, the government body in charge of the capital’s transport network, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The move would put Uber into direct competition with venture capital-backed start-up Citymapper, the report said.

Uber did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours.

Brexit in turmoil as May pulls vote to seek changes to EU divorce

Political reporter(wp/Reuters):
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday postponed a parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal to seek more concessions but the European Union refused to renegotiate and lawmakers doubted her chances of winning big changes.

May’s abrupt move less than 30 hours before parliament was to vote opens up a range of possibilities from a Brexit without a deal, a last-minute agreement or another EU referendum.

Admitting she faced defeat on Britain’s potentially biggest political and economic shift since World War Two, May was laughed at by some lawmakers when she said there was broad support for key aspects of her deal reached with the EU last month.

However, “If we went ahead and held the vote tomorrow, the deal would be rejected by a significant margin,” she told parliament of the agreement she clinched after 18 months of tortuous negotiations.

With her position in jeopardy, May said she would now go back to the EU and seek reassurances over the so-called Irish “backstop”, an insurance policy to ensure no return to a hard border on the island of Ireland.

She questioned whether parliament was trying to frustrate the democratic will of Britons to leave the EU and warned that without agreement the world’s fifth largest economy would leave on March 29 without a deal.

The EU reacted coolly, with European Council President Donald Tusk saying it was ready to discuss how to smooth ratification, but that neither the withdrawal agreement nor the Irish backstop would be renegotiated.

“As time is running out, we will also discuss our preparedness for a no-deal scenario,” Tusk said. Brexit will be discussed at a previously scheduled EU summit on Dec. 13-14.

May will first meet Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday.

Sterling GBP=D3 skidded to its weakest level since April 2017, falling to $1.2507. It was trading at $1.50 on the day of the 2016 Brexit referendum. Yields on U.S. 10-year bonds dropped to the lowest since late August.

MAY’S STRATEGY?

The vote postponement marks what many lawmakers cast as the collapse of May’s two-year attempt to forge compromise under which the United Kingdom would exit the EU while staying closely within its orbit.

The EU’s 27 other members, with a combined economic might six times that of the United Kingdom, appeared unlikely to countenance substantive changes which could convince her domestic opponents.

A costly British exit without a negotiated accord looks increasingly likely, French European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau said following May’s decision.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said there were no possibilities to amend Britain’s 585-page withdrawal deal and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said preparations for a no-deal Brexit should intensify.

May indicated she was seeking further assurances from the EU on the working of the backstop and would seek to give the British parliament more power over its application to satisfy sovereignty demands.

May said other EU leaders were open to discussion about the backstop, but few in parliament were convinced.

Any assurances May secures from the EU over the contentious backstop will be “completely irrelevant” if they are not included in the withdrawal agreement, lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg, a leading Brexit supporter, told reporters.

“It would be transformative if the backstop were removed,” Rees-Mogg said. “But, this is the whole backstop, this isn’t some paragraph saying it will finish in 2025 or something. It has to be out.”

“MAKE WAY”, SAYS LABOUR

The Northern Irish party which props up May’s minority government bluntly told her to ditch the backstop altogether or face the collapse of her deal. The Democratic Unionist Party is upset as the backstop could align Northern Ireland more closely with the EU than the rest of the United Kingdom.

The leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, said Britain no longer had a functioning government and called on May to “make way” for Labour.

Just a handful of MPs publicly supported her deal on Monday.

May said the deeper question was whether parliament wanted to deliver on the people’s will from the 2016 referendum, or open up divisions with another national vote.

“If you take a step back, it is clear that this house faces a much more fundamental question: does this house want to deliver Brexit?” May asked.

Her decision to halt the vote came just hours after the EU’s top court, the Court of Justice, said in an emergency judgment that London could revoke its Article 50 formal divorce notice with no penalty.

Both May’s ruling Conservatives and the main opposition Labour Party are publicly committed to carrying out Brexit. But a no-deal Brexit is seen as so disruptive, with customs checks potentially blocking ports and hitting trade, that parliament would be under strong pressure to block it.

The ultimate outcome will shape Britain’s $2.8 trillion economy, have far-reaching consequences for the unity of the United Kingdom and determine whether London can keep its place as one of the top two global financial centres.

“The only way not to have no deal is to have a deal and to agree a deal,” May said. Parliament will hold a three-hour emergency debate on Tuesday on May’s decision to defer the vote.

Greenwich stabbing: 18-year-old man knifed to death at flat in south London town

Crime reporter,London(wp/es):

A 18-year-old man has been stabbed to death at a flat in Greenwich town centre, police said.

The teenager was knifed on Saturday night at an apartment in the south London town. 

Police and paramedics raced to the flat in Topham House, Prior Street, at 10.40pm. 

Medics fought to save the victim but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Scotland Yard said a 17-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with the attack and remains at a south London police station. 

A Met Police spokesman said: "His [the victim's] next of kin have been informed. A post-mortem examination will be held in due course. Formal identification awaits. "

A crime scene remained in place on Sunday morning and murder detectives are investigating with police from Greenwich.

Police are appealing for witnesses and those with information about this attack to contact police them 101 quoting CAD 7621/8Dec or calling Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. 

UK economy slows in three months to October, trade prospects darker

Business reporter(wp/Reuters):
Britain’s economy lost speed as expected in the three months to October, reflecting falling car sales and factory stoppages due to weaker demand, raising questions about the economy’s health ahead of Brexit.
Gross domestic product growth in the three months to October slowed to 0.4 percent from an unusually robust 0.6 percent in the third quarter of 2018, in line with a Reuters poll of economists.

However, the Office for National Statistics warned that the third-quarter growth data was at risk of being revised downwards, due to a big upwards revision in Britain’s trade deficit for the three months to September.

Compared with a year earlier, growth in October held at September’s 1.5 percent, against expectations of a slight pick-up, while in October alone GDP rose by 0.1 percent as expected.

Monday’s data confirm the British economy’s strength in the third quarter of 2018 represented something of a blip, caused by a boost to consumer spending from an unusually warm summer.

More recent business surveys suggest Britain’s economy is slowing sharply as businesses stall in the face of uncertainty about the terms on which the country will leave the European Union on March 29 next year.

A closely watched purchasing managers’ index for November last week pointed to growth of just 0.1 percent in the final quarter of 2018.

Monday’s data do not give updated details of business investment, which fell sharply in the three months to September.

Britain’s economy has slowed since the June 2016 Brexit vote, its annual growth rate slipping from top spot among the Group of Seven group of rich nations to vying with Japan and Italy for bottom place in the rankings.

Monday’s data showed annual growth in Britain’s dominant services sector picked up to 1.8 percent from 1.6 percent, but factory output recorded its largest fall since March 2016, down 1.0 percent on the year.

EU court ruling boosts Brexit opponents

Political reporter(wp/Reuters):
The European Union’s top court ruled on Monday that the British government may reverse its decision to leave the bloc without consulting other member states in a decision welcomed by those campaigning to stop Brexit.

In an emergency judgement delivered just a day before the British parliament is due to vote on a Brexit deal agreed with the EU by Prime Minister Theresa May, the Court of Justice (ECJ) said: “The United Kingdom is free to revoke unilaterally the notification of its intention to withdraw from the EU.”

The ruling is in line with an opinion delivered last week by a Court legal adviser. That had boosted the hopes of British Brexit opponents that a new referendum could be held that would prevent Britain’s scheduled departure on March 29, 2019.

May faces heavy opposition in parliament to her Brexit deal and many expect her quest for approval to be defeated, setting up further tense talks with the EU when she goes to Brussels on Thursday for a summit of national leaders.

Alyn Smith, a Scottish nationalist member of the European Parliament and one of those Brexit opponents who raised the case seeking clarification of Article 50 of the EU treaty to the European Union’s supreme court in Luxembourg said:

“Today’s ruling sends a clear message to UK MPs ahead of tomorrow’s vote that there is a way out of this mess. A light at the end of the tunnel for the economy, for jobs and for the UK’s standing on the world stage. Now it’s up to the UK.

“If the UK chooses to change their minds on Brexit, then revoking Article 50 is an option and the European side should make every effort to welcome the UK back with open arms.”

May’s environment minister Michael Gove, who campaigned for Brexit, dismissed the ruling by repeating the government’s insistence that it would not reverse its decision to leave.

The ECJ said in its statement that Britain should suffer no penalties if it halts the Article 50 process which May triggered last year after a June 2016 referendum: “Such a revocation, decided in accordance with its own national constitutional requirements, would have the effect that the United Kingdom remains in the EU under terms that are unchanged.”

EU leaders have long insisted they would welcome Britain changing its mind, but many EU officials and legal experts had believed that the approval of either all or most of the other 27 members states would be needed to halt Brexit altogether.

Some senior EU officials have also said that Britain should be allowed to remain but could be asked to give up some of the special terms it has acquired over the past four decades, notably a hefty rebate on its payments to the bloc’s budget.

It is far from clear whether or how Britain could organise a new referendum, notably given the short time left until Brexit.

If May wins her vote on Tuesday, the withdrawal seems likely to proceed as agreed with Brussels last month. If she loses, her own position could be in jeopardy, there could be a move for a new election, or possibly to hold a new referendum.

Many warn, however, that it could stir unrest. Opinion polls suggest that any new majority for staying in the EU is narrow.