2018 Other News Stories that might be missed

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Petting zoos for prisoners! Now inmates at Category B jail are given a GOAT for therapy sessions to teach them ‘responsibility for others’

Violent inmates are having therapy sessions with goats funded by the NHS, it was reported last night.
Prisoners at category B HMP Swaleside in Kent are stroking and feeding pet pygmy goats to teach them how to ‘take responsibility for others’.
Critics have slammed the courses, which are thought to be costing thousands of pounds, as a waste of taxpayers’ money.
Therapy sessions involve inmates at Swaleside’s Personality Disorder Unit with mental health problems not serious enough to be treated in hospital, according to The Sun.
The inmates care for pet goats named Karen and Faye in a farm area of the jail grounds.
David Spencer, research director of the Centre for Crime Prevention, said: ‘It beggars belief that anyone would think this is a reasonable use of resources.
Mail

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Trent Alexander-Arnold brings Christmas cheer to families

Liverpool footballer Trent Alexander-Arnold spent his Christmas Day bringing festive cheer to 60 families from underprivileged backgrounds.
Alexander-Arnold, ambassador for the An Hour for Others charity, paid for everyone's Christmas dinner and bought presents for all the children.
Jacob, 10, said it was "amazing" to get a present from the star.
Alexander-Arnold, 20, of West Derby said "he'll never forget" the looks on the children's faces.
The star, who is back to full fitness after injury, carried out the event at Liverpool's Hotel Tia.
He brought Christmas cheer between his morning training and evening match preparation for Liverpool FC's Premier League clash with Newcastle at Anfield later.
He said it was "better to give than receive", adding he hoped some of the youngsters would follow in his footsteps and "help others out".
One of the young guests, Jacob, said: "It felt amazing to meet a football player - and to get a present off a football player - I can't describe it but it feels amazing."
Even Everton fans were excited to meet the Liverpool footballer.
Liberty, eight, said she was "completely fine" with him being a Red.
Alexander-Arnold posted on his Instagram that he had had an "unbelievable day", adding: "What @anhourforothers do for deprived families and individuals is life changing and I'm honoured to be a part of that."
The charity tweeted: "He's not just a good footballer and our ambassador, he's a diamond."
Kevin Morland, founder of An Hour for Others, said: "He's just a normal lad - it's a genuine thing, it's from his heart - he understands the importance of sticking together when times are hard.
He said Alexander-Arnold had experienced hard times himself.
"He just wants to give back to his city."

BBC News

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Royal Mail accused of disrespect by mixing up D-Day beaches with Indonesia in stamp blunder

Royal Mail has been widely criticised for planning to release a stamp marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day using an image of US troops landing in what was Dutch New Guinea, almost 8,500 miles from the Normandy beaches.
The stamps, priced at £1.25 each, were due to be released in 2019 as part of a ‘Best of British’ collection.
Captioned ‘Allied soldiers and medics wade ashore’, the image was supposed to depict the amphibious landings on the coast of northern France on June 6, 1944. However, after being previewed on social media, many observers pointed out the geographic error.
One commentator on Twitter called it a “disrespectful sloppy blunder” while another said: “Having worked 3 years for Royal Mail, this does not surprise me at all”. Another tweet pointed out that the Royal Mail had released a series of stamps in 1994 commemorating 50 years since the landings, with correct imagery.
The image, an official US Coast Guard photo, appears on the website of The National WWII Museum, an American site containing thousands of photographs and oral histories of the war.
Telegraph

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Youngest MBE recipient on New Year Honours list says he feels like an ‘imposter’

The youngest person on the New Year’s Honours list said he thought it was a ‘joke’ when a letter telling him he will be made an MBE arrived. Saeed Atcha has been recognised with the prestigious recognition at the tender age of 22 after helping thousands of young people find work in Greater Manchester. He founded his youth magazine Xplode when he was only 15, and has since gone on to become a governor at his old secondary school and a social mobility commissioner.
He told Metro.co.uk: ‘I’m all about encouraging young people to take part in meaningful action on their community and if I can show you can be recognised then in the least big headed way possible, I can try to inspire and motivate people. ‘When the letter arrived it said “On Her Majesty’s service” and “urgent” and to be honest I thought I was in the running to be the next James Bond!
At first I thought it was all a joke and then I saw all the stamps and the branding and realised it was real. ‘It has been unimaginable and if I’m honest I didn’t realise people were given these things at such a young age. ‘You don’t have time to reflect on what you do in this job and the recognition has served as a pat on the shoulder to say well done.
‘I’ve not really thought a lot about the honour because I’m terrible at keeping secrets. I got told about a month ago I didn’t tell anyone until this week.’ Since he set up his magazine it has gone on to help more than 3,500 teenagers develop skills to find work.
Metro

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Found: The plane wreck that could solve a 50-year-old mystery

It's taken 10 years, but professional diver Grahame Knott has finally found a US Air Force plane that crashed into the Channel in 1969. The wreck may help resolve a mystery: did the homesick mechanic who made off with the aircraft from his base in Suffolk lose control - or was he shot down?
"It cost me a fortune in beer," says Grahame Knott, "and I had to filter out a lot of chuff."
A crucial part of his decade of research was spent in pubs along the south coast of England, looking for men who operated trawlers and scallop dredgers.
These boats scrape nets along the seabed and occasionally turn up curious pieces of metal - which is what Knott was buying beer to hear about.
By listening carefully, he could guess whether the objects were likely to have come from aircraft, and if so how old they were, though it was not always easy to know exactly where they had become snagged in the net.

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