BBC Radio Stoke

A new podcast of intimate and hilarious conversations about race, love and the grey spaces in between has launched on Tuesday on BBC Radio Stoke and BBC Sounds.

Each episode features married couple Matt Hodson, 39, born and bred in Solihull and a commercial manager for a railway company, and Bongi Msimanga, 34, born in southern Africa, now living in Shropshire and a journalist with the BBC for seven years.

The questions are demanding, sometimes brutal, and the answers always raw and often comical.

Like many interracial couples during the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement, they found themselves talking about race in a different way.

They'd never really talked about racism as an institution or what it meant for their marriage. They'd fallen in love with each other's differences. But those differences were now creating fault lines through their relationship and between friends and family.

New episodes of It's Not Always Black and White will be updated weekly on all podcast platforms.

Two-week-old Ciaran Morris died after a car hit his pram in the West Midlands on Sunday.

Warwick University defeated opponents from Cambridge's Magdalene College in the BBC Two quiz show.

Mental health "hubs" for new, expectant or bereaved mothers are to be set up around England, including in the West Midlands.

Image source, Science Photo Library

The 26 sites, due to be opened by next April, will offer physical health checks and psychological therapy in one building.

NHS England said these centres would provide treatment for about 6,000 new parents in the first year.

The first 10 sites will open around England "within months", including Birmingham & Solihull and Shropshire Telford & Wrekin.

Five years ago, 40% of areas in England had no dedicated maternal mental health services.

Officers from West Midlands Police say they were assaulted with bricks and stones after a fake callout on Monday night.

Image source, West Midlands Police

The force's firearms unit posted on Twitter that they responded to reports of a stabbing in Nechells, Birmingham, but the 999 call turned out to be "false and malicious".

They said the projectiles caused "minor damage" to police vehicles before the offenders ran off.

However "every cloud", the officers tweeted, as concealed weapons including a sword were found hidden behind bins.

A fundraising appeal to support the family of a two-week old baby killed in a car crash on Sunday has so far raised more than £13,000.

Image source, Family handout

Ciaran Leigh Morris was being pushed along the pavement by family members on High Street, Brownhills, when he was hit by a car.

A 34-year-old man was charged in connection with the fatal crash and is due to appear before magistrates later.

The JustGiving appeal set a target of £2,000 to support the baby's family but has been flooded with donations.

Museum will use part of its £1.1m emergency funding for new lighting at the site.

The latest news and updates from across the West Midlands and south Cheshire.

Ian Thompsett had a leg amputated above the knee after contracting sepsis.

Two-week-old Ciaran Leigh Morris died after a car hit his pram in the West Midlands.

Arrests are made after hundreds of people travelled to the event in Dorstone at the weekend.

The community is increasingly concerned about a "large gathering" in Dorstone, police say.

The woman is in a critical but stable condition after being found injured in Wolverhampton.

Lucille Downer, a great-gran originally from Jamaica, suffered a "sustained" attack, police say.

Police are continuing their inquiries to identify the attacker, following the incident in Tipton.

Injuries are not believed to be serious following the incident in Ledbury.

Theatres, cinemas and cathedrals are also among the beneficiaries in the West Midlands region.

The family-run business is raising the cash in memory of a friend who died of the disease.

Fidel Glasgow, 21, was killed during disorder outside a Coventry nightclub in 2018.

The seller of a watch given to troops after the 1989 protests feared for their safety, auctioneers say.