LONDON, England —

Kevin Spacey took a dramatic pause in his testimony Thursday and appeared to almost choke up as he recalled the “intimate” and “somewhat sexual” friendship he shared with a man now accusing the actor of violently groping him. He said he was “crushed” when he learned of the allegations.

“I never thought that (the man) I knew would ... 20 years later stab me in the back,” Spacey testified in his own defense in his sexual assault trial in what could be the most consequential speaking part of his life.

Spacey spoke in a calm voice and earnest demeanor — humorous, humble and self-deprecating at times — as he breezed over his career and then fast-forwarded to the early 2000s when he was in London working at the Old Vic Theatre.

Four men have accused the two-time Oscar winner of sexually assaulting them between 2001 and 2013, describing disturbing encounters that escalated from unwanted touching to aggressive crotch grabbing. One man who called Spacey a “vile sexual predator” said he passed out or fell asleep at the actor’s London flat and woke up to find the actor performing oral sex on him.

Prosecutor Christine Agnew has called Spacey a “sexual bully” who “delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable.”

Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges that include sexual and indecent assault counts and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.

One of his accusers said Spacey on several occasions over the years had touched his inner thigh, buttocks and crotch in unwelcome ways that made him uncomfortable.

The fondling culminated when the man was once driving Spacey and the actor grabbed his crotch so violently he almost ran off the road, the man had testified.

The alleged victim told police he warned Spacey to never do it again and threatened to knock him out.

“That never happened,” Spacey testified. “I was not on a suicide mission in any of those years.”

He described the relationship much differently, appearing wistful as he looked at a photo the man sent him from a mountainous trek he took to raise money for charity.

Spacey said the man was funny and charming and recalled their flirtatious time together, saying he probably took the lead in making physical contact: “I'm a big flirt.”

Slowly, the two men began touching each other, Spacey said, but it never went much further, because the man made it clear he didn't want that.

“He said things like, ‘This is new for me,’ so I think he may have been surprised by his reaction,” Spacey said. “The only thing he made clear was he didn’t want to go further than we were going and I respected that.”

Spacey's description of gentle stroking was in direct contradiction to what the alleged victims testified about. They said he caught them by surprise when he aggressively grabbed their privates through their clothing.

“It wasn’t like a caress," one man testified. "It was like a cobra coming out and getting hold.”

Spacey called that man's account “madness” and said it never happened. He also denied he made racially offensive remarks to the man during a rehearsal for a charity theater event.

Spacey poked a hole in the driver's story by calling the timing of the account into question. The man testified he was grabbed while driving Spacey in 2004 or 2005 to an annual gala that Elton John holds.

Spacey presented work schedules and itineraries that showed he was filming far away — once in Australia — those years. He said he only attended the event in 2001.

The man said he could have had the dates wrong, but that he remembered the groping incident being the last straw. He said he stopped spending time around him after that incident.

Spacey testified that the man still has photos of the two of them together posted on social media.

Spacey began his testimony revisiting his start in theater and transition to the big screen, career, joking that his mother would say that he began acting the moment he emerged from the womb.

The American actor was one of the biggest stars of the silver and small screens when sexual misconduct accusations brought his career to a halt. If convicted, he could face a prison term that would doom his hopes of a comeback.

Spacey told German magazine Zeit in an article published last month: “There are people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London.”

Spacey, who owns homes in London and the U.S., is free on unconditional bail.

The U.K. weather office says Britain has shattered its record for the highest temperature ever registered, with 40 degrees Celsius in London.

The highest temperature previously recorded in Britain was 38.7 C, a record set in 2019. The high Tuesday came as the country sweltered in a heat wave that also scorched mainland Europe for the past week.

Travel, health care and schools were disrupted in a country not prepared for such extremes. Parts of England are under a “red” alert, a warning for extreme heat that poses a risk of serious illness and even death among healthy people.

The high temperature in London reached 104 degrees on Tuesday, nearly 30 degrees warmer than its average summer high.

Cheering crowds greeted King Charles III on Tuesday in Northern Ireland on his tour of the four parts of the United Kingdom, where the visit drew a rare moment of unity from politicians in a region with a contested British and Irish identity that is deeply divided over the monarchy.

Hundreds of people lined the street leading to Hillsborough Castle near Belfast, the royal family's official residence in Northern Ireland, in the latest outpouring of affection following Queen Elizabeth II's death on Sept. 8. The area in front of the gates to the castle was carpeted with hundreds of floral tributes.

Charles and his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, got out of their car to meet villagers — waving to the crowd and sometimes using both hands to reach out to people, including schoolchildren in bright blue uniforms.

Charles even petted a corgi — famously his late mother's favorite breed of dog — held up by one person, and some chanted "God save the king!"

"Today means so much to me and my family, just to be present in my home village with my children to witness the arrival of the new king is a truly historic moment for us all," said Hillsborough resident Robin Campbell as he waited for Charles.

But he added: "It is also a day tinged with great sadness as we witness a loving son coming to our village while we are all in mourning for the loss of a truly magnificent queen and his loving mother."

While there was a warm welcome in Hillsborough, the British monarchy draws mixed emotions in Northern Ireland, where there are two main communities: mostly Protestant unionists who consider themselves British and largely Roman Catholic nationalists who see themselves as Irish.

Video above: Queen Elizabeth's hearse arrives in Edinburgh

That split fueled three decades of violence known as "the Troubles" involving paramilitary groups on both sides and U.K. security forces, in which 3,600 people died. The royal family was touched personally by the violence: Lord Louis Mountbatten, a cousin of the queen and a much-loved mentor to Charles, was killed by an Irish Republican Army bomb in 1979.

A deep sectarian divide remains, a quarter century after Northern Ireland's 1998 peace agreement.

For some Irish nationalists, the British monarch represents an oppressive foreign power. But others acknowledge the queen's role in forging peace. On a visit to Northern Ireland in 2012, she shook hands with Sinn Fein deputy leader Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander – a once-unthinkable moment of reconciliation.

Alex Maskey, a Sinn Fein politician who is speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, said the queen had "demonstrated how individual acts of positive leadership can help break down barriers and encourage reconciliation."

In a sign of how far Northern Ireland has come on the road to peace, representatives of Sinn Fein are attending commemorative events for the queen and meeting the king on Tuesday.

Maskey expressed condolences to the king at an event in Hillsborough Castle attended by leaders from all the main political parties in Northern Ireland.

Charles responded that his mother "felt deeply, I know, the significance of the role she herself played in bringing together those whom history had separated, and in extending a hand to make possible the healing of long-held hurts."

He said he would draw on his mother's "shining example" and "seek the welfare of all the inhabitants of Northern Ireland."

Still, not everyone was welcoming the new king.

On the Falls Road in Belfast, a nationalist stronghold, several walls are decorated with murals of Bobby Sands, an IRA member who died while on a hunger strike in prison in 1981, and others killed in the Troubles.

"No, he's not our king. Bobby Sands was our king here," said 52-year-old Bobby Jones. "Queen never done nothing for us. Never did. None of the royals do."

Later, Charles and Northern Ireland politicians are to attend a "service of reflection" for the queen at St. Anne's Cathedral in Belfast.

The president and prime minister of the neighboring Republic of Ireland also are due to attend, despite tense relations between Dublin and London over Brexit. Since Britain left the European Union in 2020, the U.K. and the EU have been wrangling over trade rules for Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that shares a border with a member of the bloc.

On Monday night, Charles and siblings Anne, Andrew and Edward briefly stood vigil around their mother's flag-draped coffin in St. Giles Cathedral as members of the public filed past.

Video above: King Charles says he feels the 'weight of history'

The following morning, a man wearing a suit adorned with medals stood silently, bowed his head and moved on. A woman dabbed away tears with a handkerchief. Another woman with two young children in school uniforms walked slowly past the coffin.

In the line of mourners outside the cathedral in the historic heart of Edinburgh, Sheila McLeay called the queen "a wonderful ambassador for our country."

"She was such an example for every single one of us. She was dignified. She was just, she was beautiful inside and out. And I have known her all of my life. And I miss her very much," she added.

The queen's coffin was scheduled to leave Scotland later Tuesday to be flown back to London and driven to her official London home, Buckingham Palace. On Wednesday, it will be taken through central London to Parliament, where the queen will lie in state until her funeral in Westminster Abbey on Monday. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to line up to pay their last respects at the coffin.

The Royal Air Force C-17 Globemaster that will carry the coffin has been used to evacuate people from Afghanistan and to take humanitarian aid and weapons to Ukraine following Russia's invasion, U.K. Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston said.

Early Tuesday, scores of workers cleaned litter and weeds from the road from the air force base where the plane carrying the coffin will land.

Video above: Who is and who is not attending the Queen’s funeral

Flights to and from London's Heathrow Airport on the day of the Queen's funeral are being canceled or re-timed "as a mark of respect" to the late monarch.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the U.K.'s busiest airport confirmed that it would be making "appropriate changes" to operations "in order to avoid noise disruption" during Queen Elizabeth II's state funeral at Westminster Abbey and the Committal Service at Windsor Castle on Monday.

U.K.'s national carrier British Airways has already canceled 50 flights short-haul on Monday, while Virgin Atlantic has canceled four U.S. flights to and from Heathrow Airport.

The operational changes, likely to impact thousands of passengers, have been put in place to ensure "quiet skies" during specific times during the day, and will affect about 15% of Heathrow's schedule.

There will be no aircraft movement at the airport for 30 minutes from 11:40 a.m. and 12:10 p.m (GMT) to ensure that there is no disruption during a two-minute silence at the end of the funeral is not disrupted.

'Quiet skies'

Arrivals to Heathrow will also be halted from 1:45 p.m. and 2:20 p.m. "to ensure silence during the ceremonial procession" (GMT,) and there are to be no departures for one hour and 40 minutes from 3:05 p.m. (GMT) as the ceremonial procession approaches Windsor Castle for the interment.

Meanwhile, departures are to be "reduced" from 4:45 p.m. to 9 p.m. during the committal service at St George's Chapel.

"In order to observe these moments on Monday, airlines will need to adjust their schedules accordingly, which will mean some changes to flights," reads a statement from Heathrow.

Video below: Mourners pay respects as queen lies in state

"Passengers affected by these changes will be contacted directly by their airlines about their travel plans and the options available to them."

Flights will also be diverted around Windsor Castle, located around 12 miles from Heathrow, on the day "to minimize noise during the private family service and interment."

Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic has stressed that while "the vast majority" of flights are scheduled to operate as normal, there will be some adjustments to "accommodate restrictions" during the state funeral and committal ceremony.

A number of shops at Heathrow Airport will also be shutting their doors on Monday, which has been declared a public holiday in the U.K.

"As a mark of respect for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the day of her State Funeral, we have reduced our schedule and re-timed some flights at Heathrow to ensure the skies are quiet at certain moments on Monday September 19th," reads a statement from British Airways.

Video below: Royals walk behind Queen's coffin in Edinburgh

"Our thoughts remain with the Royal Family and the nation."

CNN has contacted Heathrow Airport for further comment.

LONDON — King Charles III and his three siblings have stood around their mother’s coffin as it lies in state at Westminster Hall in London.

Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward stood with their backs to the flag-draped coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, their heads bowed.

Members of the public who had lined up for hours to pay their last respects continued to file past as the royals stood vigil in the historic event.

On Saturday, the queen's eight grandchildren will hold a similar vigil.

The line of people waiting to pay their final respects covered 5 miles on Friday. Some people were told the wait could be as long as 24 hours. The government also warned that “overnight temperatures will be cold.”

British soccer star David Beckham was among the crowd who lined up to see the queen's coffin. He reportedly waited in line for 13 hours before arriving in Westminster Hall.

“We have been lucky as a nation to have had someone who has led us the way her majesty has led us, for the amount of time, with kindness, with caring and always reassuring," Beckham said. "I think that’s the one thing that we all felt safe and we will continue that with the royal family. But I think (her) majesty was someone special and will be missed, not just by everyone in our country but everyone around the world.”

Queen Elizabeth II will lie in state until Monday morning. The casket will then be moved to Westminster Abbey for the queen's funeral.

LONDON, England —

Britain and the world are laying Queen Elizabeth II to rest on Monday at a state funeral that will draw presidents and kings, princes and prime ministers — and up to a million people lining the streets of London to say a final goodbye to a monarch whose 70-year reign defined an age.

All updates are in EST.

3:35 a.m.

Mourners are arriving at Westminster Abbey to take their seats for Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral service.

Guests began entering the Gothic medieval abbey shortly after 8 a.m. (0700 GMT; 3 a.m. EDT) on Monday.

Dignitaries were arriving later, with many heads of state gathering at a nearby hospital to be driven by bus to the abbey.

Westminster Abbey is where Elizabeth was married in 1947 and crowned in 1953.

A day packed with funeral events in London and Windsor began early when the doors of 900-year-old Westminster Hall were closed to mourners after hundreds of thousands had filed in front of her coffin since Sept 14.

---

Read the original story below:

A day packed with funeral events in London and Windsor began early when the doors of 900-year-old Westminster Hall were closed to mourners after hundreds of thousands had filed in front of her coffin since Sept 14. Many of them had spent cold nights outdoors to pay their respects around the queen’s flag-draped coffin in a moving outpouring of national grief and respect.

The closing of the hall marked the end of more than four days of the coffin lying in state and the start of the U.K.’s first state funeral since the one held in 1965 for Winston Churchill, the first of 15 prime ministers during Elizabeth's reign. Two days before her Sept. 8 death at her Balmoral summer retreat, the queen appointed her last prime minister, Liz Truss.

Among the last mourners to join the line to see the coffin was Tracy Dobson from Hertfordshire, just north of London.

"I felt like I had to come and pay my final respects to our majestic queen, she has done so much for us and just a little thank you really from the people,” she said.

Monday has been declared a public holiday in honor of Elizabeth, who died Sept. 8 at 96. Her funeral will be broadcast live to more than 200 countries and territories worldwide and screened to crowds in parks and public spaces across the U.K.

Police officers from around the country will be on duty as part of the biggest one-day policing operation in London’s history.

On the evening before the funeral, King Charles III issued a message of thanks to people in the U.K. and around the world, saying he and his wife Camilla, the queen consort, have been “moved beyond measure” by the large numbers of people who have turned out to pay their respects to the queen.

“As we all prepare to say our last farewell, I wanted simply to take this opportunity to say thank you to all those countless people who have been such a support and comfort to my family and myself in this time of grief,” he said.

For the funeral, Elizabeth's coffin will be taken from Westminster Hall, across the road to Westminster Abbey, on a royal gun carriage drawn by 142 Royal Navy sailors. The same carriage was used to carry the coffins of late kings Edward VII, George V and George VI, and of Churchill.

Video below: Biden pays tribute to queen's 'notion of service'

The service, in the Gothic medieval abbey where Elizabeth was married in 1947 and crowned in 1953, will be attended by 2,000 people ranging from world leaders to health care workers and volunteers.

Mourners started arriving to take their seats shortly after 8 a.m. (0700 GMT; 3 a.m. EDT). Dignitaries were arriving later, with many heads of state gathering at a nearby hospital to be driven by bus to the abbey.

The funeral will end with two minutes of silence followed by the national anthem and a piper’s lament, before the queen’s coffin is taken in a procession ringed by units of the armed forces in dress uniforms, with the queen's children walking behind, to Wellington Arch near Hyde Park.

There, it will be placed in a hearse to be driven to Windsor for another procession along the Long Walk, a three-mile (five-kilometer) avenue leading to the town’s castle, before a committal service in St. George’s Chapel. She will then be laid to rest with her late husband, Prince Philip, at a private family service.

Central London was already packed before dawn Monday with people seeking out a prime viewing spot, and authorities warned that it would be extremely busy.

U.S. President Joe Biden was among leaders to pay their respects at the queen's coffin on Sunday as thousands of police, hundreds of British troops and an army of officials made final preparations for the funeral — a spectacular display of national mourning that will also be the biggest gathering of world leaders for years.

Biden called Queen Elizabeth II “decent” and “honorable” and “all about service” as he signed the condolence book, saying his heart went out to the royal family.

People across Britain paused for a minute of silence at 8 p.m. Sunday in memory of the only monarch most have ever known. At Westminster Hall, the constant stream of mourners paused for 60 seconds as people observed the minute of reflection in deep silence.

In Windsor, rain began to fall as the crowd fell silent for the moment of reflection. Some set up small camps and chairs outside Windsor Castle, spending the night there to reserve the best spots to view the queen’s coffin when it arrives.

“It will all be worth it by 4 o’clock this afternoon,” said Sally McCloud, a business manager from nearby Maidenhead. "We’re all here for one reason, whether it be raining or not raining. So I’m quite happy to be here and got a little bit of sleep. I’ve had a nice cup of coffee this morning and we’ll just wait, wait in the rain.”

Fred Sweeney, 52, who kitted out his spot with two Union flags on large flagpoles, said “it’s just one night and day of our lives. Elizabeth gave us – you know – 70 years.”

One no-show for Monday's funeral will be Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose invitation drew criticism from human rights groups because of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Saudi Arabia is expected to be represented by another royal, Prince Turki bin Mohammed.

The United States has been charging visitors for electronic travel authorization since 2009, and now the United Kingdom and the European Union are rolling out entry fees, too.Visa waiver schemes have been around for a while. The United States has the $21 ESTA, valid for two years, and Europe will be introducing the 7 euro ETIAS (about $7.50 on exchange rates this week) in 2024. That one will last you three years.The United Kingdom, you may recall, rather famously fled the EU coop a couple of years back. Now it’s revealed the price tag for its own scheme, the ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation): £10 (about $12.50) for two years.Admittedly, that’s only about the price of a large fish and chips, but it does mean access to the nations that gave us the Tower of London and Edinburgh Castle will be more expensive than a pass to the home countries of the Eiffel Tower, the Coliseum, the Sagrada Familia and the Acropolis combined.The plan is for the scheme to be rolled out for people who don’t require a visa to enter the United Kingdom – including U.S. and EU nationals – by the end of 2024, with the first nation to join the scheme being Qatar later this year.

A new exhibition at the British Museum in London aims to shed new light on the ancient Stonehenge monument and on the people who built it.

Curator Neil Wilkin says many people feel like they know Stonehenge, one of Britain's most visited monuments, but less is known about the society that created it. "The World of Stonehenge" exhibition tells their story through more than 430 objects, from stone axes to gold jewelry and the oldest surviving map of the stars in the world.

It shows people who were surprisingly sophisticated and well-traveled. Wilkin said the exhibit aims to underline the human side of the shift from the Neolithic era to the Bronze Age. The exhibition opens Thursday.

Lead curator Neil Wilkin said Tuesday, “We all feel we know Stonehenge.” Wilkin said, "But often we don’t know much, or feel like we don’t know much, about the world, the people who built the monument and who came to worship at the monument.”

“People often ask, is it like the Pyramids? But there’s no pharaoh in the middle of this monument,” said Wilkin. “It’s more of a communal enterprise.”

One of the exhibited items is the Burton Agnes chalk drum, which was found in a child's grave and is said to date back to 3000 BCE. Another similar 'drum' is on display at the 'The World of Stonehenge' exhibition at the British Museum in London as well.

Also on display is a gold cape found in a Mold in Wales which dates back sometime between 1600-1900 BCE.

Jennifer Wexler, a project curator said, “It’s almost like a prehistoric souvenir.”

As the Associated Press reported, Stonehenge was not the only circular “henge” monument built in ancient Britain. The exhibition at the British Museum includes Seahenge, a circle of oak posts made about 4,000 years ago and was incredibly uncovered by the waves on an English beach in 1998.

For the first time in league history, the National Football League will host a regular-season game in Munich, Germany, in 2022.

In a press release, the league announced on Wednesday that they would host four other international games in 2022, including three in London and one in Mexico.

"We are very pleased to welcome Munich and Frankfurt to the NFL family and are excited to reward our fans in Germany for their passion by bringing them the spectacle of regular-season NFL football," said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in the news release. "We look forward to staging our first game in Germany at FC Bayern Munich's fantastic stadium later this year and to exploring areas of [a] broader collaboration with the Bundesliga."

Two of the games in the UK will be played at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and the Jacksonville Jaguars will host their home game at Wembley Stadium.

The NFL is set to play games in Germany over the next four years, with two games being hosted at Bayern Munich Stadium, the home of the Bundesliga champions, and the other two will be played at Frankfurt Stadium.

The 2022 NFL schedule will be announced later this year.

LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II will mark 70 years on the throne Sunday.

This marks the British monarch’s Platinum Jubilee, which refers to a 70^th anniversary among monarchies.

Only 15 other monarchs around the world have celebrated a Platinum Jubilee in the last 1,000 years.

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor became the queen of Britain in 1952 after her father King George VI died.

She was not originally expected to be queen.

However, her uncle and brother to King George, King Edward VIII gave up the possibility of someday being king so he could marry an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson.

The queen will mark Accession Day on Sunday in private, as is tradition.

The anniversary will be celebrated over the course of four days in June, with a series of national events.

Queen Elizabeth has met 13 U.S. presidents during her time on the throne.

She is not only Britain’s longest-serving monarch but the world’s oldest and longest-reigning current monarch as well.

ATLANTA — The United States is going to require airline travelers from Britain to get a negative COVID-19 test first.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the new policy late Thursday.

Airline passengers from the United Kingdom will have to test negative for COVID-19 within three days of their flight. The requirement goes into effect Monday.

The U.S. is the latest country to announce travel restrictions because of a new variant of the coronavirus that is spreading in Britain and elsewhere. The new of the virus is more contagious than other strains.

The CDC said because of restrictions in place since March, air travel to the U.S. from the U.K. is down by 90%.

The London apartment where Diana Spencer lived before she became the Princess of Wales has been commemorated with an official blue plaque.The plaque was posted on the Coleherne Court building on Old Brompton Street in Kensington on Sept. 29 following a successful campaign led by the London Assembly."Diana had, and still has, a very special place in the hearts of Londoners and we are thrilled to see her blue plaque formally placed as a monument to her work for others," said Andrew Boff, chair of the London Assembly, during the unveiling ceremony.The plaque reads: "Lady Diana Spencer, later Princess of Wales, lived here 1979-1981."The two years Diana spent in Flat 60, Coleherne Court, were formative ones. She purchased the apartment with money inherited from her great-grandmother. The price was £50,000 ($67,000).Diana moved to London at age 18 and worked as a nanny and at a kindergarten. She began dating Prince Charles, heir to the British throne in 1980, and they were engaged a year later.As her public profile grew, Coleherne Court was regularly besieged by photographers who hoped to capture pictures of the future princess. After Diana got engaged to Prince Charles, her mother had the apartment sold. It is still a private residence today."Lady Diana Spencer, later the Princess of Wales, is one of the most iconic figures in recent British history," said a statement issued by English Heritage, a charity that manages over 400 of England's historic buildings, monuments and sites."Her troubled marriage to Prince Charles and later relationships were the subject of fevered and intrusive press coverage, but she won a lasting reputation outside her personal life for her extensive charity and humanitarian work."The blue plaque is the second significant memorial to Diana unveiled in 2021, the year in which she would have turned 60. In July, her sons Prince William and Prince Harry jointly revealed a statue of their mother at the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace.These plaques are placed on buildings in England that are connected to important historical figures and are maintained by English Heritage. "Blue plaque spotting" is a popular hobby for sightseers and history buffs.The plaques acknowledge a range of politicians, artists, writers and other important historical figures, including Virginia Woolf, Winston Churchill and Freddie Mercury.Notable figures do not need to be British in order to be honored with a plaque. Foreigners who spent time living in the U.K., like Mahatma Gandhi and Emile Zola, have also been acknowledged.There are some 950 blue plaques in London alone.

Swedish pop band ABBA is set to release its first new album after nearly four decades.

On Thursday, the band announced that they would release the 10-track album "Voyage" on Nov. 5.

The band also announced a "revolutionary concert," which will happen in London on May 27, featuring the band members performing digitally as avatars.

The group said the concert would use "state-of-the-art motion capture technology" designed by George Lucas' special-effects company Industrial Light & Music.

ABBA also announced that two singles from the new album, "I Still Have Faith In You" and "Don’t Shut Me Down," are both out now.

LONDON (AP) — The suspected abduction and murder of a young London woman as she walked home has dismayed Britain and revived a painful question: Why are women too often not safe on the streets?

Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, disappeared as she walked home from a friend’s house in London on March 3.

Police confirmed Friday that a body found in woodland 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of the city is hers.

A Metropolitan Police officer, Wayne Couzens, was charged late Friday with kidnapping and murder. Police say Couzens joined the force in 2018 and was last assigned to the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, according to the BBC, where he patrolled mainly embassies around London.

Everard’s disappearance has caused a nationwide flood of emotion, with women sharing experiences of being threatened or attacked — or simply facing the everyday fear of violence when walking alone.

Hide Transcript
Show Transcript

what if Stephen Hawking had unlimited time. Humankind has always been enchanted by the wonders of the universe, the stars and planets, distant moons and the great mysteries presented to us from beyond the ether. But few have been able to capture and bring the cosmos to the masses, like renowned author, scientists and all round genius, Professor Stephen Hawking. This is unveiled and today we're answering the extraordinary question. What if Stephen Hawking had unlimited time? Are you offend for facts? Are you constantly curious, then why not subscribe to unveil for more clips like this one and ring the bell for more fascinating content in his life. Hawking had been defying medical professionals for decades before his death in 2018, aged 76 when he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A. L. S. Also known as motor neuron disease and Lou Gehrig's disease. At just 21 Doctors only gave him two years to live. Of course that was in 1963. And everybody knows that that diagnosis simply didn't stop him Looking at what he accomplished in his lifetime. His living on infinitely would have gifted the world with an incomprehensible amount of knowledge. In fact, when discussing with the Guardian, his baffling longevity in 2011, Hawking said, I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. Perhaps surprisingly, Hawking was a pretty rebellious student at school and university. He didn't study much and considered himself a difficult student, though it was obvious to most of his tutors that they had a genius in their midst throughout the 1960s and 70s. He made a name for himself in science and academia, especially with his early work on black holes. It was in 1974 when he first theorized that black holes emit radiation. This discovery directly disagreed with Einstein's early theories that absolutely nothing can escape a black hole, not even light. While it's true that light can't escape a black hole. Hawking suggested that black holes emit radiation in the form of leaked energy and this energy would eventually lead to them closing up and disappearing. It was named Hawking radiation, and its existence remains contested in physics today. Perhaps if he'd had more time on Earth, he'd have eventually been able to help prove, or at least see proven Hawking radiation. His work on black holes goes deeper than that though, As Hawking also came up with theories about singularities, singularities are points of infinite density at the heart of a black hole. Of course we can't see into a black hole, but if we could, Hawking suggests what we would see is a long funnel eventually leading to this singularity where all the matter of the black hole absorbs is crushed. He even said himself that he hoped he'd be remembered most for his seminal work on black holes. So it would have certainly been something to see him continue to unravel the universe's biggest mystery. All of these papers were published in the seventies, but remarkably, Hawking didn't hit the mainstream until 1988 when he published a brief history of time. It wasn't his first book, but in a lot of ways it was his most important, establishing his idea that science should be for everyone and not just an elite group of academics. Hawking wanted a book on the inner workings of our universe which cater to everybody and wasn't full of convoluted jargon and ideas. You need a degree in theoretical physics to understand this is why a brief history of time became a worldwide hit, staying on the sunday times bestseller list for five years Following the success, Hawking continued to write about cosmology in an accessible way. And 30 years later, in 2018, his final popular book brief answers to the big questions was published posthumously. It brought the wonders of space to the masses again, inspiring the kind of widespread interest beyond our own planet that Hawking became known for in an alternate world where the Man Miraculously lived forever. He'd surely have continued to write more engaging, bestselling and inspiring books. We believe that life arose spontaneously on Earth, so in an infinite universe there must be under occurrences of life on the topic of alternate worlds. That was another theory. He significantly contributed to the multiverse. Hawking actually had two different multiverse ideas revising his own initial theories in a paper published in collaboration with thomas Herzog, only weeks before his death, Hawking had scrutinized the Big Bang theory for most of his life as well as the theory of cosmic inflation, which solves what's commonly called the horizon problem in physics, the idea that light doesn't travel fast enough to have reached all the points of the observable universe. His old multiverse theory spoke of unique pocket universes separated by an inflating expanse, but his and her talks new multiverse theory appeared much less liberal in terms of what these pockets could look like, limiting every possibility to Einstein's uniform laws of physics. A radically new theory formed so close to the time of his passing. With unlimited time Hawking could have developed it further and ultimately, someday given us definitive evidence of the multiverse. It wasn't just space that Hawking sought to conquer, though it was also time back in 1983, he and James Harden suggested that were time travel possible, we'd never be able to go as far back as to witness the actual dawning of the universe. The pair said that we could never see the beginning of time because at the beginning of everything, there was only space and no time at all. In fact, for Hawking, the entire concept of the beginning of the universe is meaningless. While going back to the very start of existence is impossible. Hawking did believe that time travel might not be entirely science fiction. He mused that traveling back in time could be possible, and famously once held a party for time travelers in which the invitations were sent out until after the party was over. Unfortunately nobody showed up, but that could have been because any genuine time traveler would have certainly blown their cover if they had attended a party specifically formed time travelers held by one of the most famous people on the planet or maybe people in the future are just plain rude regardless. Hawking believed in time travel to an extent because of M theory, which was a topic in one of his other books, The Grand Design M theory says that there might actually be 11 hidden dimensions in the universe as opposed to the four dimensions. We generally believe in. The idea is that by somehow utilizing these dimensions traveling back in time might be possible. There's no doubt that Hawking is best remembered for his contributions to science and theories on the universe, but he didn't spend all of his time looking at the stars. He was also a tireless campaigner on a number of issues. Given another opportunity. He'd have continued to raise awareness for people with all kinds of disabilities, not just LS aiming to make the world a more knowledgeable and inclusive place for disabled individuals. He was also a vocal commentator on climate change and the danger it poses, continually, listing global warming as one of the major threats against humanity. His environmental activism even let him to theorize that mankind would ultimately destroy itself by the year 2600 after it uses so much energy that the earth turns into a ball of fire. This belief wasn't all doom and gloom, as he did think that humans could be saved via interplanetary expansion, moving out into space and beyond and colonizing other worlds. Clearly, Hawking could have continued to provide insight and advice, as well as dire warnings about the environmental impact of climate change. Had he been given more time as a man with so much knowledge and as a respected voice all over the world, he likely would have even led the charge to change human behavior for the better Hawking's achievements and contributions to science and culture were widely recognized during his lifetime as well as now. After his death, his early discovery of hawking radiation led to him being elected into the Royal Society of London as one of their youngest ever fellows in 1974 Elizabeth the second awarded him a CBE in 1982. Before the release of a brief history of time, though, nearly a decade after its publication, he reportedly turned down a knighthood in protest over the british government's poor science funding elsewhere. He even received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama, Among many dozens more accolades were hawking still with us. He'd have surely gone on to be even more decorated continuing as one of the most honored individuals in world history and perhaps even collecting that knighthood. If the british government finally made stem education more of a priority. Ultimately, this great genius had no fear of dying and already lived for five decades longer than the best doctors thought he would do for which the world will always be grateful. I didn't do my scientific work in the hope of winning prices and medals. I did it because I wanted to understand the universe, his thoughts, theories and papers continue to provide a basis for centuries, more scientific progress. And that's what would happen if Stephen Hawking had unlimited time. What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from unveiled and make sure you subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.

London's Science Museum and the Cambridge University library said Wednesday they have acquired a large collection of items belonging to late physicist Stephen Hawking, from his personalized wheelchairs to landmark papers on theoretical physics and his scripts from his appearance on "The Simpsons."The entire contents of Hawking's office at Cambridge — including his communications equipment, memorabilia, bets he made on scientific debates and office furniture — will be preserved as part of the collection belonging to the Science Museum Group.Hawking occupied the office at the university's department of applied mathematics and theoretical physics from 2002 until shortly before his death in 2018. Highlights will go on display at the London museum early next year. Museum officials are also hoping to create a touring exhibition in the U.K. before setting up a permanent display in London.Meanwhile, his vast archive of scientific and personal papers, including a first draft of his bestselling "A Brief History of Time" and his correspondence with leading scientists, will remain at Cambridge University's library. The institutions' acceptance of Hawking's archive and office meant that his estate settled 4.2 million pounds ($5.9 million) in inheritance tax.This was done through a U.K. government plan which allows those who have such tax bills to pay by transferring important cultural, scientific or historic objects to the nation. Artifacts accepted under the plan are allocated to public collections and available for all.Hawking studied for his PhD at Cambridge and later became the university's Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, the same post that Isaac Newton held from 1669 to 1702.Cambridge's acquisition of the 10,000-page archive means that Hawking's papers will join those of Newton and Charles Darwin at the university library, where they will soon be free for the public to access."The archive allows us to step inside Stephen's mind and to travel with him round the cosmos to, as he said, 'better understand our place in the universe,'" said Jessica Gardner, the university's librarian. "This vast archive gives extraordinary insight into the evolution of Stephen's scientific life, from childhood to research student, from disability activist to ground-breaking, world-renowned scientist," she added. Diagnosed with motor neuron disease at 22 and given just a few years to live, Hawking survived for decades, dying in 2018 at 76. His work on the mysteries of space, time and black holes captured the imagination of millions, and his popular science books made him a celebrity beyond the preserves of academia. Hollywood celebrated his life in the 2014 biopic "The Theory of Everything."Hawking's children, Lucy, Tim and Robert, said they were pleased that their father's work will be preserved for the public for generations to come. "My father would be so pleased and I think maybe at the same time, just a tiny bit overwhelmed that he was going to form part of the ... history of science, that he was going to be alongside the great scientists, the people whose work he really admired," Lucy Hawking said.

LONDON, England —

London's Science Museum and the Cambridge University library said Wednesday they have acquired a large collection of items belonging to late physicist Stephen Hawking, from his personalized wheelchairs to landmark papers on theoretical physics and his scripts from his appearance on "The Simpsons."

The entire contents of Hawking's office at Cambridge — including his communications equipment, memorabilia, bets he made on scientific debates and office furniture — will be preserved as part of the collection belonging to the Science Museum Group.

Hawking occupied the office at the university's department of applied mathematics and theoretical physics from 2002 until shortly before his death in 2018.

Highlights will go on display at the London museum early next year. Museum officials are also hoping to create a touring exhibition in the U.K. before setting up a permanent display in London.

Meanwhile, his vast archive of scientific and personal papers, including a first draft of his bestselling "A Brief History of Time" and his correspondence with leading scientists, will remain at Cambridge University's library.

The institutions' acceptance of Hawking's archive and office meant that his estate settled 4.2 million pounds ($5.9 million) in inheritance tax.

This was done through a U.K. government plan which allows those who have such tax bills to pay by transferring important cultural, scientific or historic objects to the nation. Artifacts accepted under the plan are allocated to public collections and available for all.

Bruno Vincent / Getty Images

Hawking studied for his PhD at Cambridge and later became the university's Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, the same post that Isaac Newton held from 1669 to 1702.

Cambridge's acquisition of the 10,000-page archive means that Hawking's papers will join those of Newton and Charles Darwin at the university library, where they will soon be free for the public to access.

"The archive allows us to step inside Stephen's mind and to travel with him round the cosmos to, as he said, 'better understand our place in the universe,'" said Jessica Gardner, the university's librarian.

"This vast archive gives extraordinary insight into the evolution of Stephen's scientific life, from childhood to research student, from disability activist to ground-breaking, world-renowned scientist," she added.

Diagnosed with motor neuron disease at 22 and given just a few years to live, Hawking survived for decades, dying in 2018 at 76. His work on the mysteries of space, time and black holes captured the imagination of millions, and his popular science books made him a celebrity beyond the preserves of academia. Hollywood celebrated his life in the 2014 biopic "The Theory of Everything."

Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP Photo

Hawking's children, Lucy, Tim and Robert, said they were pleased that their father's work will be preserved for the public for generations to come.

"My father would be so pleased and I think maybe at the same time, just a tiny bit overwhelmed that he was going to form part of the ... history of science, that he was going to be alongside the great scientists, the people whose work he really admired," Lucy Hawking said.