Bus scheme driving cleaner air and better facilities for Solihull town centre.

JS Wright to sponsor Stourbridge Lions rugby team.

Labour’s West Midlands Mayor candidate pledges to build 3,000 new affordable homes per year.

"Wear a face covering out of respect for others."

UB40 help put Birmingham music heritage on the map.

Local MP amongst group seeking to end corporate anonymity.

Peter Lowe, Managing Editor of Sky News, is to be chairman of the judging panel for this year’s Midlands Media Awards, shortlisted nominations for which will be announced on Monday, May 13.

Lake District marathon to help children's cause.

Games organisers moving into new city centre premises.

New production exploring themes of regeneration to receive premiere.

Digital platform leads to 18,000 sports qualifications during lockdown.

A design team, based in Longbridge, wins a European electronics industry accolade at the Elektra Awards 2011

CEC celebrates forty years in business with commitment to Net Zero.

Red Brick Market to host celebration of Far East culture.

India's food safety regulator directed e-commerce and quick commerce companies to follow shelf life guidelines for packaged food deliveries. The regulator emphasized a minimum remaining shelf life of 30% or 45 days upon delivery. This action follows complaints about companies not disclosing expiry dates. The regulator stressed the importance of clear expiry dates and adherence to labeling regulations.

The fund will back startups in the early stage and pick stakes in pre-IPO companies through secondary transactions. It will focus on sectors such as climate and sustainability, fintech and consumer businesses.

Magniflex, an Italian luxury mattress brand, is expanding its reach in India, especially in tier 2 and 3 cities. The company, which already has a network in major cities, aims to cater to the rising demand for wellness-oriented products.

Marico Limited finalized its acquisition of Just Herbs in September 2024, securing the remaining 40% equity in Apcos Naturals Private Limited, which owns the Just Herbs brand. With this acquisition, Just Herb's expansion momentum is poised to accelerate.

We (two non-Japanese speaking Americans) will be traveling in Japan in mid-November and are looking for a Japanese speaker to help us make a few restaurant reservations by phone or email/fax ahead of time, since we won't have a concierge who can do it for us. Ideally, we'd make the reservations by the end of the first week of October.

I'm posting this as a volunteer activity, but I might be able to pay a ridiculously small amount if necessary. Really, though, it's volunteer, and it's totally fine if nobody volunteers :) That said, if you're fluent, it may take you less than three minutes. The flyer is mainly graphics, URIs, and a scannable code. -- The request is to translate the text on one flyer, accurately but keeping the spirit of the original. I'm not sure if I'll try to make one bilingual flyer or separate Spanish and English flyers. The text is: "We are building a handmade co-op alternative to Etsy!"; "Join our community!"; "ARTISANS.COOP/LINKS or scan QR"; "Follow @COOPARTISANS on [links/icons]"; "Designed by Miss Thera" -- I'm part of the grassroots campaign to built founding membership for Artisans.coop. There are many artisans and many Spanish speakers living near me in the North Carolina Triangle, and I've met spanish-speaking artisans, and I want to help get some diversity into the group ASAP. If someone will help me make a Spanish-language flyer, I can start getting it out into the world, at least here, possibly elsewhere. If you give me your e-mail address I can forward you an original, but the above text is all the text there is. If you are more comfortably staying a MeMail contact, I can send you a link to the folder where the original is, plus the file name. I asked the co-op about it, and no Spanish speaker has volunteered to translate anything so far. The site itself has a machine translation plugin, so a Spanish speaker could navigate it. A co-op is not a nonprofit entity. It is member owned, and anyone can join (even if they do not have cash to make the initial investment, in this co-op). I'd love to get some multicultural voices in immediately so they are heard early and often. Thanks a bunch!

A group of H1N1 swine influenza viruses have essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans and are of potential pandemic concern, health officials say. These viruses — referred to as G4 Eurasian (EA) avian-like H1N1 viruses — have been spreading in pigs in China since 2016 and are now the predominant set of genes that can be passed down from parents to offspring , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Atlanta United is the first professional sports team from Georgia to return to play during the coronavirus pandemic. Major League Soccer suspended play in March less than a month into the season. GPB Sports' Jon Nelson joined GPB All Things Considered host Rickey Bevington to explain why Saturday night's soccer match will be anything but normal.

While protests set off by the killing of George Floyd show no signs of letting up, another quieter protest has been stirring at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Irwin County, Georgia. There, a group of detainees staged a hunger strike and protest over video chat to raise the alarm over a lack of precautions against the spread of COVID-19 inside the detention center.

While the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Sandra Bland galvanized the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the killings of Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery have forced America to reckon with centuries of racial injustice and police brutality in unprecedented ways. Not only have protests demanding change been widespread, but major corporations — which, until now, have been largely silent and hesitant to embrace Black Lives Matter — are pledging to fight racial injustice and declaring their support of the nearly seven-year-old movement.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Distance learning in the pandemic highlights a problem that experts have warned about for years - some students have good access to the Internet, and others do not. It's called the digital divide. Many districts are about to start the school year with more distance learning, so how can they narrow that divide? Rachel Martin spoke with Nicol Turner Lee, who studies it. RACHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: When you look back at those two, sometimes three, months that students in this country were doing distance learning, what worked and what didn't? NICOL TURNER LEE: You know, I think, generally, I am in agreement with some of the folks that have looked at this short period time as somewhat of an abject failure for our children. What worked was that, you know, schools had the attention of their households to figure out what to do during a time of crisis. What didn't work was that schools were not necessarily ready to move to an online

There were two major assumptions about Latino voters throughout the presidential campaign: (1) a record number of Latinos would show up on Election Day to oppose Donald Trump's candidacy and (2) the anti-immigration rhetoric that launched Trump's campaign would push conservative-leaning Hispanics to flee the Republican Party. Neither of those assumptions entirely panned out as expected. Prediction 1: The Surge? True. A record number of Latinos did vote this November. But the truth is complicated. The official national exit poll, the one commissioned by the big media organizations, suggests the Latino share of the electorate was higher than ever before — about 11 percent, compared to 10 percent in 2012. "It's very possible that the Latino vote, while reaching a record, may have been swamped by other groups of voters," said Mark Hugo Lopez, the director of Hispanic Research at the Pew Research Center, pointing to states like Florida which Trump won. We won't know the percentage of

Major Beer Company Seeks music for advertising campaign 3 Slots $15k

The opp is for several different pieces of music as it will cover 3 major tv / film ads and several web-blog adverts and music to show off a new product. They have asked for intense and dramatic songs, positive songs, friendship songs, and holiday and travel themed songs. Once again they are choosing different songs for different territories so there are many slots they are looking for me to fill.

The videos and ads will be seen by over a million people across the globe.

All styles of music and genres will be considered as the company are looking top quality songs but also lyrical substance and they are also looking for top quality standout attention-grabbing, meaningful songs whether softer emotive ballads or harder more powerful driving tracks as the range covered by the company is huge.

THEY JUST NEED BE TOP SONGS!!

Please submit your best work, radio ready, mastered songs. You must own 100% copyright. Only songs with cleared samples. I will accept demos as I am also a music producer / studio owner so if the song is a 'no brainer' and has enough potential to fit the opp then I would consider re-cutting it for the client.

Grand Northern Sync has worked closely with companies such as: Apple, Honda, Reebok, Samsung, BBC, ABC, New Show Media, Massive Films, Rickety Shack films, Seat, H&M, Busch,

Payouts and rights: If selected you will keep 100% of your rights, royalties and payments dependent on the number of times the tracks are used. Payout is $25k dependent on usage and length of use.

If selected the songs will be passed to the company and they will have the final say, Grand Northern Sync will be on hand to help the artist all the way through the process with chosen artists (at no financial charge).

All songs submitted will be considered for all the other opps we have.

I am looking forward to hearing your music.

PLEASE DO NOT SEND US TRACKS TO OUR SOUNDCLOUD, EMAIL, LINKEDIN OR ANY SOCIAL MEDIA....Please?

- Alexander Johnston / Grand Northern Sync

Looking for commercial hit songs for a host of pop artists in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan etc. We work closely with Universal Music in Hong Kong, giving us direct access to major artists in South East Asia and Japan searching for tracks for their next and current projects.

We are looking for commercial radio tracks which have great beats, memorable hook lines and current styles. Uptempo K-Pop, ballads, R&B/Pop, Rock, Soul and MOR suitable for male, female and boy and girl-bands.

Lyrics may be translated depending on the artist so send in all language demos or masters.

We are looking forward to hearing some great music.

- Dean Hart / Afrikan Cowboy Publishing

Deal Type: Song Placement
Decision Maker: Selected tracks will be pitched for final decision
Deal Structure: Non-Exclusive
Compensation: $1,000+ based on final placement
Song Quality: Rough Demos, Fully mastered, Broadcast ready

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit NOEL KING, HOST: The effects of the coronavirus pandemic are being felt all over, even underwater. (SOUNDBITE OF WHALE SINGING) KING: That's a humpback whale singing in Glacier Bay, Alaska. Scientists are finding the oceans have been quieter as shipping traffic has fallen. Here's NPR's Lauren Sommer. LAUREN SOMMER, BYLINE: A lot of scientists have had to cancel their field work this year, but not Christine Gabriele. She can work all alone in a boat on Glacier Bay. On a cool rainy morning, she spots what she's looking for and captures it on her smartphone. CHRISTINE GABRIELE: Yeah, there are about five whales working this one little area, breathing when they're up. (SOUNDBITE OF WHALE BREATHING) SOMMER: They're humpback whales. GABRIELE: It looks to me like they might be feeding on some schools of fish. (SOUNDBITE OF WHALE BREATHING) SOMMER: Gabriele is a wildlife biologist with Glacier Bay National Park. For 35 years, the park service has been

Anton Besenko is worried. He fears all the hard-won progress made in fighting the AIDS epidemic is on a collision course with the urgent needs of the coronavirus pandemic. "For people with HIV, it's double, triple the crisis since the start of the lockdown," says the Ukrainian AIDS advocate . "I have a bad feeling that organizations and governments are so concentrated on COVID that they are completely forgetting about HIV. For marginalized people, it's a question of life and death." Besenko is no stranger to health crises. After years of injection drug use, he contracted HIV (which he now lives with) and hepatitis C (which he's now cured). He got clean in 2004. Today, he works for the International HIV/AIDS Alliance Ukraine as a coordinator for harm reduction programs that help IV drug users get clean needles or safer alternative drugs like methadone. On July 10, he led a session at the 23rd (virtual) International AIDS Conference on the impact of COVID-19 on AIDS. Suddenly, he and

AILSA CHANG, HOST: Two female firsts in the Supreme Court are retiring. We're talking about the marshal of the court and the reporter of decisions. In 2001, Marshal Pamela Talkin became the first woman to oversee security. Christine Luchok Fallon has been at the court for 31 years, the last nine as the reporter of decisions. NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg reports. NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: Pam Talkin had been at the Supreme Court in the top security job for less than two months when 9/11 hit. Her first task that morning was to evacuate the building. But Chief Justice Rehnquist was in a conference room conducting his annual meeting with the chief judges from around the country. Talkin sent in a note to no avail. Finally, she walked into the room to get everyone out of there. A month later, the anthrax attack cross-contaminated all the mail in the Capitol complex. And this time, the court had to do something it had never done since the Supreme Court building opened in 1935.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit AILSA CHANG, HOST: The United Kingdom is banning Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant, from developing Britain's 5G network. The U.S. welcomes this decision. It's just the latest move in a global struggle between the U.S. and China over technology, business and political power. As NPR's Frank Langfitt reports, it's also a sign of how China's increasingly assertive diplomacy has backfired. FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: The British government will forbid companies here from buying Huawei equipment for 5G beginning next year and require the removal of all Huawei equipment by 2027. The government says the decision was triggered by U.S. sanctions on Huawei suppliers that could make the company's equipment easier for China to use for spying. Oliver Dowden is the U.K.'s digital secretary. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) OLIVER DOWDEN: The security and resilience of our telecoms networks is of paramount importance. We have never and will never compromise that

When COVID-19 barreled into the U.S. this year the predominant public health advice for avoiding infection focused on physical isolation: No parties, concerts, or sports events. No congregating inside in bars or restaurants. No on-site family reunions. No play dates for kids. Just keep away from other people. Meanwhile, although social scientists supported that medical advice, they feared the required physical distancing would spark another epidemic — one of loneliness, which was already at a high level in the U.S. "You might expect this would make things much worse," says Julianne Holt-Lunstad , a neuroscientist and social psychologist at Brigham Young University. But several new studies suggest that huge increase in loneliness hasn't come to pass — at least, not yet. And the researchers studying the pandemic's emotional fallout say we humans may have ourselves to thank. "That sense of solidarity that people are feeling when they ... are collectively going through a challenge together

Copyright 2020 WYPR - 88.1 FM Baltimore. To see more, visit WYPR - 88.1 FM Baltimore .

An Atlanta entrepreneur is the subject of a new documentary television series premiering Tuesday on Viceland. On Sunday, about 100 Atlanta Film Festival audience members gathered at Dad's Garage Theater for a somewhat surprise screening of the Ondi Timoner project. "We planned this 48 hours ago," said Timoner. "It makes perfect sense for us to be here because Jimmy's from Atlanta." Timoner's camera follows Jimmy Stice, a small staff of mostly Americans, and a few hundred millennial interns who are building a sustainable town called Kalu Yala from scratch in the middle of the jungle. Kalu Yala means "sacred village" in the Kuna language. "We're building a town to look for the best ways we can live in terms of compassionately treating each other in a global community. Access to food access to healthcare access to socioeconomic mobility that's actually beneficial to the environment," said Stice in the show’s trailer . The 10-part series promises plenty of drama documenting young Americans

Copyright 2020 KHNS. To see more, visit KHNS . LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST: Southeast Alaska's economy is getting hammered without cruise ship tourists, who stayed home due to the pandemic. So one tiny town is using its federal relief money to write monthly $1,000 checks to every resident, paying them not to move away. Claire Stremple reports from member station KHNS. CLAIRE STREMPLE, BYLINE: The boardwalk-lined streets of Skagway, Alaska, are usually filled with tourists by midsummer. But this year, the streets are quiet. REBECCA HYLTON: I became unemployed March 13. STREMPLE: Like many people in town, Rebecca Hylton has depended on the tourism industry for decades. She ran marketing for a local brewpub. But no cruises means no business. She couldn't pay her mortgage until she and her 7-year-old son got their first $2,000 from the local government. Then she spent a little money downtown. HYLTON: So right away, we bought some new boots for him, whereas before, I definitely would've

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit NOEL KING, HOST: There's something happening in the U.K. right now that is reminiscent of Prohibition in the United States. You remember those old pictures of bar owners pouring out gallons and gallons of booze? STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Oh, yeah. Well, British pub owners today are dumping all the beer that's gone bad during the months they were in lockdown. DUNCAN SMITH: During the 14-week shutdown, a significant amount of our beers and lagers became out of date. KING: That's Duncan Smith (ph). He's been a bartender for 33 years, and one of the pubs that he operates has been around for 250 years. SMITH: It's been serving the community for that long and, you know, been through world wars and all the rest of it and, obviously, very different times that long ago. And something comes along like this, which could wipe it out, and we've got to take any benefit we possibly can, thrown out by the government and the suppliers, in order to survive. INSKEEP: The

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit NOEL KING, HOST: A New Orleans institution is closing. K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen was a temple of Cajun cooking, but after COVID closures and restrictions, it won't reopen. Ian McNulty is on the line with me. He covers New Orleans dining and food culture. Good morning. IAN MCNULTY, BYLINE: Good morning, Noel. KING: Tell me about K-Paul's. Tell me about this restaurant. MCNULTY: This is a restaurant that, in a city famous for restaurants, really stood out as one that sort of vaulted ahead of the ideas that people had for local cuisine in its time and made an impact on, really, the global restaurant scene, the global food world, the ripples of which still end up on your dinner plate today when you dine out in cities across America, not just in New Orleans or Louisiana. KING: How do it manage to do that? I imagine that the food was real good. That's probably the simple answer. But what is Cajun cooking? (LAUGHTER) MCNULTY: Right. Well, you know, New

Updated at 12:45 p.m. ET The dramatic collapse of the U.S. economy from the coronavirus is pummeling America's largest banks, raising new concerns about how much growth is slowing. Wells Fargo lost $2.4 billion in the second quarter — its first quarterly loss since 2008 during the financial crisis — and said it expects to cut its dividend to shareholders by 80%. Citigroup saw its profit drop 73% in the quarter. And JPMorgan Chase, the nation's biggest bank, was forced to set aside billions of dollars more to cover bad loans during the second quarter, although money it made from trading in the frothy financial markets assured it made a profit anyway. The results underscore the toll that the recession is taking on big banks, which serve as a barometer of how the broader U.S. economy is faring. Hopes that the economy will rebound as fast as it declined — a so-called V-shaped recovery — seem increasingly unlikely. "We still face much uncertainty regarding the future path of the economy,"

Since the coronavirus pandemic battered China's economy, tens of millions of urban and factory jobs have evaporated. Some workers and business owners have banded together to pressure companies or local governments for subsidies and payouts. But many of the newly unemployed have instead returned to their rural villages. China's vast countryside now serves as an unemployment sponge, soaking up floating migrant workers in temporary agricultural work on small family plots. "Say a factory used to hire 1,000 temporary workers; now, without new orders, these business owners can't afford to hire this many people," Yan Xiyun, a labor intermediary, told NPR. "The factory I usually go to in previous years could easily hire 2,000 people. Now there is scarcely anyone [on the factory floor]." Ten years ago, Yan left her own village near the small city of Zhumadian in Henan province for the first time and joined the migrant workforce. Now, she's a headhunter working on commission, placing thousands

After the coronavirus lockdowns forced it to shut down its 345 U.S. theaters, Texas-based Cinemark in April decided to do what a lot of companies have done: borrow money by selling bonds. The sale was made easier by the fact that the Federal Reserve was lending out trillions of dollars to businesses and governments, providing a much-needed boost to the corporate debt market in an effort to prop up the economy. Even as it was borrowing money, Cinemark also announced a number of steps "to endure a prolonged period of no revenue." They included laying off 17,500 workers with no guarantee when they'll be rehired. During the current crisis, the Fed, which began a two-day meeting on Tuesday, has pulled out all the stops to keep the economy afloat, lowering interest rates to zero and starting a series of unprecedented and historic new lending facilities practically overnight. "It has taken what were already extraordinary, exceptional, unusual, unconventional tools and has expanded them even

Updated at 4:12 p.m. ET The Federal Reserve left interest rates near zero Wednesday and once again promised to deliver whatever monetary medicine it can to an economy that's badly ailing from the coronavirus pandemic. "The Federal Reserve is committed to using its full range of tools to support the U.S. economy in this challenging time," the central bank said in a statement . While noting that "financial conditions have improved, in part reflecting policy measures to support the economy," the Fed's rate-setting committee reiterated its intent to leave interest rates at rock-bottom levels, "until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve its maximum employment and price stability goals." Notes released along with the committee's statement suggest no rate increases are expected at least through 2022. "We're not thinking about raising rates," Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a news conference. "We're not even thinking about thinking about

Our national fascination with sourdough starter appears to have stopped. Or at least slowed down a bit. The price of baking flour fell last month along with the price of eggs, suggesting that the baking craze that gripped hungry and housebound consumers in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic has cooled. "Sourdough is definitely a commitment," says Kristin Hoffman, who makes instructional YouTube videos for aspiring bakers. "I have heard a couple of people say that they really don't understand why somebody would want to put so much effort into a loaf of bread." Hoffman's Baker Bettie website saw a surge of interest from first-time bakers in late March and April, when tens of millions of Americans found themselves stuck at home with time on their hands. "I saw four to five times higher traffic than even during peak holiday-baking season," Hoffman says. "It has started to kind of level back out, now that things are reopening." Even if the bake-off was a turnoff for some, people

NYC based and UK born folk singer-songwriter Joe Holt shares "Wanting More", the first taste of his upcoming highly anticipated album I Love You, Say It Back. The artist collaborated…

Today, we hear why Alameda County's DA, Pamela Price, is facing a recall election next week and get her response. Then, SF's Prop G will expand affordable housing opportunities in the city.

Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House aide, testified that the former president directed his chief of staff to reach out to Michael Flynn and Roger Stone, who had ties to the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.