Global Trade

Military planners have been called in to help tackle mounting piles of rubbish in Birmingham following a month-long strike by refuse workers.

Thousands of tonnes of uncollected rubbish line the city's streets due to the all-out strike by Unite union members that began on 11 March. The city council has declared a major incident and asked neighbouring authorities to help tackle the crisis.

Now, after a government appeal to the Army, a small number of office-based planners will provide logistical support for a short time. Soldiers are not being deployed to collect rubbish.

Striking workers are voting on a "partial deal" to end the strike on Monday, Unite has said.

The details of that offer are not clear, but, speaking last week, the union's national lead officer Onay Kasab described it as "deficient", although it would be for the workers on the ground to decide.

A government spokesperson said: "The government has already provided a number of staff to support the council with logistics and make sure the response on the ground is swift to address the associated public health risks.

"In light of the ongoing public health risk, a small number of office-based military personnel with operational planning expertise have been made available to Birmingham City Council to further support in this area."

• Why are Birmingham bin workers on strike?

The spokesperson added this built on a range of measures on which it had supported the council, including opening household waste centres.

'Help withdrawn'

Last week, it emerged the government had asked other local authorities to help Birmingham City Council clear the backlog of rubbish on the streets.

The Minister of Housing, Communities and Local Government said a number had offered to assist.

Walsall Council was among them, offering support by extending tip opening hours so Birmingham residents could take their waste there.

However, on Monday, Walsall Council leader Gary Perry said the offer had been withdrawn.

He said: "We, in line with many other local authorities, offered support to Birmingham City Council in the form of access to our HWRCs [household waste recycling centres].

"After a week, there were no signs of this being accepted, so we have taken the decision to take this offer off the table so we can focus on continuing to deliver services in our borough."

A spokesman for Birmingham City Council said: "The council received mutual aid support from various neighbouring local authorities and made the decision based on what most benefitted residents.

"We thank all offers of support from these local authorities as we continue to clear excess waste."

The authority is facing criticism, meanwhile, for pressing ahead with plans to switch from weekly to fortnightly collections while the strike remains unresolved.

Leaflets about the change have appeared in residents' letter boxes, but Martin Mullaney, a former councillor for the city's Moseley and Kings Heath ward, said the timing was "politically insensitive".

The leaflets state residents will have a new green recycling bin to be collected fortnightly, a food bin to be collected weekly, and a black bin to be collected fortnightly on alternate weeks to recycling collections.

Mr Mullaney said: "It's just crazy.

"We've got people's rubbish not being collected, and now they're getting a leaflet telling them they're going to have extra wheelie bins.

"People will not be very happy. The timing is appalling."

Last week, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner urged striking bin workers to accept a new deal to end the dispute.

She said a "significantly improved" offer had been made and the council had "moved significantly to meet the demands of the workers so we can see an end to this dispute".

However, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the deal represented "a partial deal on pay protection for a few", and the striking bin workers were "in the driving seat around what they wish to accept".

At the end of March, the Labour-run city council declared a major incident, citing an estimated 17,000 tonnes of rubbish across Birmingham over the first four weeks of the strike.

As the prospect of Tyne and Wear Metro trains cutting through Washington takes a significant step forward, those on its doorstep are cautiously optimistic about political promises becoming a rail reality.

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness recently announced funding to repurpose part of the mothballed Leamside Line into an extension to the Metro. The bill? About £900m.

Linking up from Pelaw in Gateshead to South Hylton in Sunderland, Metro trains could one day be making their way past Follingsby Park and into two yet unplaced stations provisionally known as Washington North and South, creating the "Washington Loop".

"It'll be a good thing… if it happens," Graham Horn tells me at his home on Barmston Close, overlooking a former railway bridge now overcome with vegetation but which could be put back to use by 2033.

He has lived in the town for 63 years and proudly says he is a "Washington man".

He remembers the closure of the Leamside Line in 1964 which, by that point, was "only really coal trains and the odd train before the line was closed down".

Elsewhere on the street, and in the shadow of the old line, Laura Patton has lived here for 22 years.

She admits she is not put off by the thought of trains once again passing her home.

"It's a good thing because there's a lot of people missed having the Metro come through Washington," she said.

"It'll get used a lot."

Another resident tells me she hopes it is a "great success", but seems hesitant to show much excitement, adding: "They've talked about it for a long time but nothing has ever happened. Hopefully it will this time."

About 1.6 miles (2.5km) away, the WWT Washington Wetland is home to 57 flamingos, two otters named Buster and Musa and a whole host of other animals.

But visitors are having to use two or three buses to get there, unless they drive.

It is worse for some volunteers who travel from as far as north Newcastle.

Gill Pipes, who runs the charity-operated reserve which has just celebrated its 50th anniversary, said of the extension: "It really is essential.

"Washington is a huge town, one of the biggest in the UK, and to not have a rail network or Metro, it's quite prohibitive.

"The fact that people will be able to use the train, and then the Metro, that's going to be amazing."

Sunderland Conservatives previously raised concern over the "high cost" to extend the Metro comparing it with the lower cost of £298m to reopen the Northumberland line to Ashington.

But Labour's McGuinness said the investment had been secured after talks with Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Studies are now under way to determine how the new Metro route will work in practice, alongside design work for the three new stations, bridges and numerous additional infrastructure.

Zia Yusuf, who resigned as Reform UK chairman on Thursday, is to return to work for the party in a new role.

Yusuf will lead what the party calls its "Doge team" – which is modelled on the Department of Government Efficiency set up by US President Donald Trump.

Earlier this week, Yusuf quit the party, saying working to get it elected was no longer "a good use of my time", without expanding further.

On Saturday, Reform leader Nigel Farage told the BBC he was "delighted" Yusuf had returned to the party and that he will now take on a more public role for the party in a new role, appearing more frequently in the media.

He said: "Zia regrets what he said and did the other day. It was a combination of 11 months [of] hard work and exhaustion."

In a post on X, Yusuf said he had received a large number of messages urging him to reconsider leaving the party and explained why he quit two days ago.

"After 11 months of working as a volunteer to build a political party from scratch, with barely a single day off, my tweet was a decision born of exhaustion," he wrote.

Yusuf said he came into politics "out of belief that Nigel Farage was the man" to lead the country, adding "I believe in these things more than ever".

Before his resignation, Yusuf had criticised Sarah Pochin, who won last month's Runcorn and Helsby by-election for the party.

She urged Sir Keir Starmer to ban the burka "in the interests of public safety" during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.

Yusuf said it was "dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn't do". A burka ban is not Reform party policy.

Farage told the BBC that Yusuf, who is a Muslim, "gets even more racial abuse on X than ever" when Islam is discussed.

"In retrospect, he knows a lot of it is bots trying to damage Reform. It is not Reform members," he added.

"Yes, some of it is the alt-right, but there's a lot of bots. He regrets it and wants to continue working for us."

Speaking to BBC News on Saturday evening, Farage said Yusuf would have a "very clearly defined role", and that his previous workload was "way too much for anybody".

Asked whether Yusuf was burnt out, the Reform UK leader said that description would be accurate, adding: "I would credit much of the success we enjoyed on 1 May and since to his considerable efforts.

"Any discussion around Islam, terrorism, in this case the burka and he can't win.

"He is subjected to pretty vile abuse and… we're all human. He overreacted to it and he admits himself it was a mistake."

Other parties have criticised Reform over Yusuf's reappointment. Labour described it as "humiliating hokey-cokey" and the Liberal Democrats called it a game of "musical chairman".

But Farage rejected suggestions the episode showed the party was in disarray, saying "we will emerge from this much stronger".

Yusuf – a former banker who sold his tech company for more than £200m, and was previously a member of the Conservative Party – became Reform's chairman shortly after last year's general election and was seen as central to the party's operation.

The party's so-called Doge UK team, which was set up to identify spending cuts in councils the party now controls, was formally launched this week.

Further appointments by the party are also expected soon in what it described as an "expanded management structure".

A new party chairman is expected to be appointed next week and a deputy chairman will be hired too.

Surgeons from a specialist London eye hospital have helped save the sight of more than 20 Bangladeshi students who were wounded in last summer's protests in the country.

Mahi Muqit and Niaz Islam, consultant ophthalmologists at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, evaluated 150 patients aged 14 and 30 during their visit to Dhaka last month.

All patients had suffered bullet injuries to the eyes after taking part in protests organised by Students Against Discrimination in July 2024, with the majority receiving initial treatment last year.

Mr Muqit, a senior vitreoretinal consultant at Moorfields, said: "It was an honour to be invited to help these people, and an intense experience for all of us."

"It's such a privilege to be able to restore sight to people who have lived with sight loss for months," he added.

An Aberdeen grandmother who stole more than £1.5m from her employers has been ordered to repay £670,00.

Coleen Muirhead, 57, spent the money on holidays, cars, caravans and savings accounts for her family.

She was jailed for three years and four months in 2023 after she admitted embezzlement from the metal recycling firm.

Muirhead has been ordered to repay £668,726 the High Court in Glasgow under Proceeds of Crime laws.

A deer has died after being chased by people on Cleethorpes beach, an animal welfare group has said.

Cleethorpes Wildlife Rescue said the roe deer – one of several spotted on the beach on Monday, succumbed to exhaustion.

The charity said it was unclear whether people had been trying to assist, but added that the intervention had caused "unnecessary stress."

"It was a devastating end and one that could've been avoided," it added.

Commenting on the incident, the charity said that despite the efforts of the local beach safety team asking people to keep their distance, members of the public were seen chasing the deer.

One "exhausted" deer was later recovered, but despite receiving emergency care, "sadly died".

"Deer are extremely sensitive animals and can suffer from post-capture myopathy -a condition triggered by extreme stress that can, unfortunately, be fatal," it added.

In a post shared on social media, the charity said deer are "capable swimmers" and, in most cases, do not require intervention.

It added: "Unless a deer is collapsed, or stuck, the best course of action is to leave them undisturbed and unpanicked.

"The best approach is to allow the deer to return on their own – calmly and in their own time – which they regularly do without issue."

Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds latest episode of Look North here.

The Eurovision Song Contest is back – this time in Basel, Switzerland.

The UK's entry this year is Remember Monday – a country-pop trio who will perform their song What The Hell Just Happened.

• What time does the Eurovision 2025 final start and who is in it?

The UK's largest prison has been criticised after an inspection found a rise in levels of drug use and increased violence.

A report by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said progress at HMP Berwyn in Wrexham was being hampered by an influx of prisoners from overcrowded jails in England.

But the report added a relatively-new prison governor had displayed "capable" leadership qualities and staff recruitment had improved.

A prison service spokesperson said a "comprehensive action plan" was underway at the prison to address issues around drug use and self-harm.

A hot air balloon has crashed into an electricity line and landed in a field.

Firefighters were called to Newhouse Road, Earls Colne, where the balloon had landed, at about 19:00 BST on Thursday, Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said.

A man was taken to Colchester General Hospital for treatment, and 10 others were assessed at the scene, but did not need any treatment, an East of England Ambulance Service (EEAS) spokesman said.

Fire crews gave first aid, cooled the balloon's cylinders and worked with UK Power Networks to make the scene safe.

The EEAS spokesman added: "An ambulance, two ambulance officer vehicles and the Hazardous Area Response Team were sent to the scene."

UK Power Networks said power had been restored to the area, at about 05:00, after the overhead electricity line had been fixed.

• Five takeaways from first leaked US military chat group
• Pentagon watchdog probing Hegseth's Signal app use
• Four lingering questions about 'Signalgate'
• What is messaging app Signal and how secure is it?

The second Signal chat surfaced as controversy swirls around the head of the Pentagon, who this year is controlling a budget of $892bn (£670bn).

Hegseth last week fired three top officials for an "unauthorised disclosure" – an accusation the officials said was "baseless".

In a testy exchange outside the White House ahead of an annual Easter event, Hegseth appeared to attribute the latest story to the officials he fired.

"What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out," he said.

Hegseth criticised the media and denounced the reports. He also said he has spoken to the president and that they were "on the same page all the way".

In an op-ed for Politico magazine published on Sunday, John Ullyot, the top Pentagon spokesperson who resigned last week, wrote that the department was in "total chaos".

He added: "The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president – who deserves better from his senior leadership."

Ullyot said it was not true that the three fired officials were leaking information and wrote: "Unfortunately, Hegseth's team has developed a habit of spreading flat-out, easily debunked falsehoods anonymously about their colleagues on their way out the door."

However, in a statement on X, Sean Parnell, current chief spokesman for the Pentagon, said the "Trump-hating media" was "destroying anyone committed to President Trump's agenda".

He echoed the White House by saying that "there was no classified information in any Signal chat".

Washington says its strikes in Yemen are punishment for Houthi attacks on cargo vessels transiting through the Red Sea, a critical waterway for international trade.

Since November 2023, the Houthis have targeted dozens of merchant vessels with missiles, drones and small boat attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, saying they are acting in support of the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza . They have sunk two vessels, seized a third, and killed four crew members.

US air strikes on an oil terminal in north-western Yemen this week killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others, according to the Houthi-run health ministry.