A public petition for the British government not to go through with Brexit gained so many signatures that the Parliament website crashed on Thursday.
“We're very sorry that the site is still experiencing problems. We are working urgently to get it back up and running as soon as possible,” the Parliament's petitions committee said in a tweet.
The petition called for Prime Minister Theresa May to revoke Article 50 and keep the UK in the European Union. Article 50 is a statute in European law that begins a withdrawal process from the international bloc. For the first time ever, The article was invoked by the UK on March 29, 2017, less than a year after voters chose to leave.
The petitions committee said that between 80,000 and 100,000 people have been simultaneously viewing the petition and nearly 2,000 signatures are being submitted every minute.
The total number of signatures surpassed 1 million before the site crashed Thursday afternoon local time, according to the BBC. Throughout the day, #RevokeA50Now was trending on Twitter and anti-Brexit lawmakers in Parliament were urging constituents to continue the petition campaign, once the site is back up.
The petition was signed by prominent supporters of the “remain” side of the debate, such as actor Hugh Grant and signer Annie Lennox.
“Worth a shot...” Game of Thrones actor Daniel Portman said on Twitter as he urged his followers to sign.
The site crashed as Prime Minister May was in Brussels trying to persuade European officials to delay the UK’s withdrawal beyond the March 29 deadline.
The request came after the British Parliament rejected yet another Brexit proposal last week, setting the stage for the UK to leave the EU without a formal agreement.
There is a new player in the mobile app stock trading space.
Zingeroo recently announced a funding round of $8.5 million. The company says it aims to bring 'friendly competition' to stock trading, by literally breaking trading down into daily and weekly competitions between friends. Zingeroo also says it hopes its new approach can make trading more accessible, educational, and social than ever before. Zingeroo co-founder and CEO Zoe Barry joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell for more.
Sweta Chakraborty, U.S. President of We Don't Have Time and climate change expert, joins Cheddar News to discuss how mining the proper resources for the clean energy sector is crucial.
Throughout 2021, several Americans found themselves finding a renewed emphasis on what work-life balance looked like. The labor market experienced several people either quitting their jobs or leaving the workforce altogether. Editor at Labor Notes Alexandra Bradbury, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Whitney Johnson, CEO of human capital consultancy Disruption Advisors and author of 'SMART GROWTH: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company', joins Cheddar News to discuss the rise in entrepreneurship and explores new opportunities to grow personally and professionally.
Two major high profile cases on opposite ends of the country, as they both now lie in the hands of the jury. In New York, jury deliberations continue in the sex trafficking trial of Jeffrey Epstein's longtime partner, Ghislaine Maxwell. Jurors in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial will be back to deliberate just a day after the judge told asked them to stay for an extra hour, as they signaled they're still far from a verdict in that sex trafficking case. The Elizabeth Holmes jury also apparently no closer to a verdict after five days of deliberations as well. Florina Altshiler criminal defense attorney & former prosecutor spoke to Cheddar about the latest on the cases.
2021 proved that crypto currency is here to stay. This year saw more and more adoptions of crypto, from top athletes looking to be paid in bitcoin, to Elon Musk even experimenting with bitcoin and dogecoin payments for a bit over at Tesla. And it wasn't all bitcoin either - other cryptos like Cardano and Solana saw some action in 2021 as well. Patrick McConlogue, CEO of Overline and former Citadel Investment Group Engineer explains why 2021 was such a good year for crypto, and what to expect in 2022.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index showed an 18.4 percent surge in October as the housing market continues to boom. October's levels are a slight downturn from the roughly 19 percent increase the index saw in September, but come roughly in line with economist expectations. Michael J. Romer, Managing Partner, Romer Debbas joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
U.S. airlines have canceled more than 6,000 flights since Christmas eve, causing headaches for travelers.
Airlines cited staffing shortages amid the omicron outbreak as the primary reason for the interruptions to service. The cancellations come at the busiest time of year for air travel. Steve Shur, President, The Travel Technology Association joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
