Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 1 Nov 2018

1. Organised crime costing UK £37bn a year

Serious and organised crime in the UK is costing the economy £37bn a year, up from £24bn five years ago, according to a new report from the National Crime Agency. The Government will today announce a strategy to tackle the growing problem, with £48m allocated to the project. Crimes committed by organised crime gangs include child abuse, trafficking and drug dealing.

2. Black box retrieved from crashed Lion Air jet

Divers in Indonesia have recovered a “black box” flight recorder from the Lion Air domestic flight that crashed into the ocean with 189 people on board shortly after take-off on Monday. No survivors have been found, nor has the body of the Boeing 737 been located. There are reports of technical problems with the jet on earlier flights.

3. Google staff walk out over sexual harassment

Staff at Google’s offices around the world are staging mass walk-outs, demanding changes in the way the company handles allegations of sexual harassment or other inappropriate behaviour. Organisers want Google to end forced arbitration, a process that makes it impossible for those making the allegations to sue.

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4. Ryanair introduces new baggage allowance

Ryanair is reducing its baggage allowance from today. The budget carrier will now allow passengers only a bag small enough to fit underneath a seat in the cabin unless they pay an extra £6 charge for priority boarding. The larger carry-on bags previously used by many passengers must instead be checked into the hold for £8.

5. Lawsuit claims Weinstein assaulted teenager

A civil lawsuit filed against Harvey Weinstein claims that the Hollywood producer assaulted a 16-year-old Polish model, forcing her to touch his penis and then subjecting her to years of harassment and emotional abuse. The accuser’s identity has been protected but the alleged incidents took place in 2002.

6. Appendectomies linked to lower Parkinson’s risk

A new study has found people who have had their appendix removed are 20% less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than those who have not, strengthening theories that the debilitating condition develops in the gut. However, the US team behind the study insists that having an appendectomy was not a sensible way to avoid the disease.

7. NHS spends £3m getting things out of noses

The annual cost to the NHS in England of removing items stuck up people’s noses or in their ears is almost £3m, a study has found. Most of the patients involved are children. According to a research paper titled Will Children Ever Learn?, the average number of removals carried out each year between 2010 and 2016 was 3,697.

8. Woman survives six days in desert after crash

A woman of 53 survived six days in the desert in Arizona after a car crash, US police say. Her car plunged 50ft into a ravine and got stuck in a tree after she lost control of the vehicle on a rain-slicked road about 65 miles north of Phoenix. The woman, who lived off grass and water, was found collapsed by a local rancher chasing a missing cow. She had broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder and a head injury, local media reports.

9. Bake Off winner: more men should bake

The male winner of this year’s TV talent show Great British Bake Off has urged more men to take up baking. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Rahul Mandal, a 30-year-old research scientist born in Kolkata, said his family in India were “happy but in shock and surprise that I went for a show like this”.

10. Briefing: who is the Hat Man?

Tales of things that go bump in the night are often met with scepticism but one nightmarish figure keeps cropping up in reports from all around the world.

Numerous people claim to have woken in the dark to find a shadowy figure, dubbed the Hat Man, looming over them.

Who is the Hat Man? The nightmare shared by dreamers across the world