By Sophie Madden & Rebecca Woods BBC West Midlands reporters The leader of Birmingham City Council insisted vital services would be protected as the authority declared itself effectively bankrupt. The largest local authority in Europe is to halt all spending other than services it must provide by law such as social care, waste collections and
Month: September 2023
By Esme Stallard, Becky Dale, Jonah Fisher and Sophie Woodcock BBC Climate and BBC Verify Three major water companies illegally discharged sewage hundreds of times last year on days when it was not raining, a BBC investigation suggests. The practice, known as “dry spilling”, is banned because it can lead to higher concentrations of sewage
BBC/Alex Homer By Alice Evans BBC News A head teacher who has had to delay the start of term because one of his school buildings contains dangerous concrete was denied funding to rebuild it. “Other schools had a higher need”, the Department for Education (DfE) told Myton School, in Warwick, last year, when its application
Merope Mills By Smitha Mundasad Health reporter The parents of a teenager who died in hospital two years ago are calling for patients to be given the right to an urgent second opinion, if they feel their concerns are not being taken seriously by medical staff. Martha Mills, who would have been 16 today, died
Reuters By Paul Adams International affairs correspondent Ukrainian generals claim they have breached Russia’s formidable first line of defences in the south, as the counter-offensive launched earlier this summer may be poised to gather pace. Since June, Kyiv’s territorial gains have been very small – but is Ukraine finally at a turning point? “Yes, it’s
By Sergey Goryashko, Elizaveta Fokht and Sofiya Samokhina BBC Russian Russia’s diplomats were once a key part of President Putin’s foreign policy strategy. But that has all changed. In the years leading up to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, diplomats lost their authority, their role reduced to echoing the Kremlin’s aggressive rhetoric. BBC Russian asks
PA Media By Andre Rhoden-Paul BBC News Headteachers in England are in a race this weekend to find ways to reopen their schools after being told to shut buildings made with unsafe concrete. Many from the 100-or-so affected schools are busy rejigging timetables, seeking alternative classrooms and trying to rent temporary toilets. Frustrated parents are
Getty Images Mohamed Al Fayed, the former Harrods boss whose son Dodi was killed in a car crash alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, has died aged 94. Born in Egypt, he built a business empire in the Middle East before moving to the UK in the 1970s. However, he never realised his ambition to gain
BBC / Ed Lawrence By Hazel Shearing Education correspondent Buildings at 52 schools in England were at risk of sudden collapse due to dangerous concrete, Schools Minister Nick Gibb has said. Safety measures have since been put in place at those schools, which were deemed critical. More than 100 others, which were previously thought to
By Neve Gordon-Farleigh & Flora Thompson BBC News & PA Media Inspectors have called for the high-security jail HMP Woodhill to be put into emergency measures amid attacks on officers and “chronic” staff shortages. The prison, in Milton Keynes, was deemed to be “fundamentally unsafe” following an inspection in August. Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector