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When a man on a motorway bridge in Michigan was threatening to jump off, trucks lined up underneath to prevent a suicide attempt. The Michigan State Police came up with the ingenuous plan of calling in passing trucks to pull up and park under the bridge to prevent a fatal fall. The trucks stayed for several hours as police negotiators talked to the man on the bridge who finally walked away safely on Tuesday morning.     https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/lifestyle/nine-simple-words-stopped-man-jumping-londons-waterloo-bridge/19/10/  

The Deepwater Horizon disaster turned into one of the biggest environmental tragedies in history - because of the sun, suggests new research. Dispersants used to clean up major oil spills are almost a third less effective in sunlit waters - such as those in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the study. Researchers found that crude oil floating on the surface is chemically altered within days - or even hours. Dr Collin Ward, of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the...

EU nationals invited to test the new Settled Status app have revealed their despair after finding it doesn't work on iPhones. Home Office officials yesterday confirmed that the mobile phone app for EU nationals seeking to stay in the UK after Brexit – claimed to be as user-friendly as “an online account at LK Bennett” by Amber Rudd – will not work on devices used by more than half of the adult population in the UK. One said the Home office...

A man fined £800 after he filmed a pet dog giving Nazi salute set up a GoFundMe page to pay for his appeal - and has raised over £75,000. Mark Meechan was found guilty of a hate crime in communicating a video which was "grossly offensive". Meechan, from Coatbridge, Scotland, taught his girlfriend's pug to react to the words "gas the Jews". The 30-year-old was given six months to pay the fine. But in a new video, named "The Price...

“All too often institutions are prioritising the reputation of political leaders or the reputation of their staff, or avoiding legal liability, claims or insurance implications, over the welfare of children and tackling child sexual abuse,” the inquiry established to examine how institutions in England and Wales handled their duty to protect children from sexual abuse has found. “The UK Government must demonstrate the priority and importance of tackling child sexual abuse through its actions,” warns the report. “Children are still accused of ‘child prostitution’,...

This is the terrifying moment a councillor’s car was set alight in what has been described as a "professional" job. Cllr Mohammad Sakib, 46, could only watch on in horror as his Audi Q7 - worth around £50,000 - went up in flames after being torched by a masked arsonist who remains at large. CCTV footage shows the mindless individual pouring petrol over the car, casually getting out a lighter and setting it on fire. Fortunately, nobody was injured in...

A Windrush grandmother, who has paid taxes for almost 40 years, was sacked from her charity job last month - because she couldn't prove her right to remain. Jessica Eugene, who came to the UK in 1970, was fired from her receptionist job at a migrant charity after three years, because she was unable to prove her right to work when bosses demanded. Jessica was just ten when she came over from the Caribbean island of Dominica, on April 3,...

GMB has called the Government out over a Minister’s broken promise on the Cammell Laird miscarriage of justice. A total of 37 Cammell Laird shipyard workers were caged in 1984 after taking official strike action over job losses. They were thrown in a high security category A jail - normally reserved for violent criminals and murderers - for 30 days and were then sacked, losing all their redundancy payments and pension rights. Official documents relating to the severity of their...

A man who has lived in the UK for 60 years has suffered a similar nightmare trying to prove his British citizenship as those affected by the Windrush scandal. Michael Daley, 66, was refused permanent residence in the UK in 2015, despite living in UK since he was just a toddler and both his parents being born here. But Michael, who lives in Blackpool, Lancs., says because he was born in the United States, the Home Office refused him permanent...