The 220-mile challenge to swim the River Severn from source to sea is under way for charity.

Birmingham has "little room for error" as it prepares to stage the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the organising federation's chief executive tells BBC Sport.

A High Court trial being held next month will decide if protests can be held outside the school.

That's it for our live updates today.

We'll be back from 07:00 tomorrow with the latest news, sport, travel and weather.

Until then watch out for more updates through the night.

Alex Hamilton
BBC Weather

It will be wet with spells of heavy rain tonight with lows of 9C (12C ).

An RSPCA officer has to "scoop up" a sow and a cub after the pair fall into a drainage shaft.

The theft of a car, with a mobility scooter in the boot, has left a disabled couple in Coventry "housebound", police say.

Thieves stole the vehicle from a driveway in Greens Road, Keresley on Saturday.

The car had been modified for the driver and has specially fitted hoists for the front seat passenger.

Officers are appealing for the return of the vehicle and scooter and asking for anyone with information to come forward.

A group hoping to bring part of a canal "to life" in time for Coventry’s City of Culture year has held a festival.

Musicians, an African dance display and circus workshop were among attractions at Coventry Peace House, Foleshill, on Sunday.

The new Reclaiming the Coventry Canal group hoped the festival would “kickstart” long-term projects in the area.

Image source, Sergio Ruiz Cayuela

Sergio Ruiz Cayuela, one of the organisers, said the canal site was in a poorer area and suffered from a “lack of activity”.

“We want to bring this area to life,” he said. “We believe its very important that any development comes from the community who should have decision-making power."

The ReCC group, working with Coventry and Warwick universities, received a £2,000 grant to hold the festival as part of preparations for 2021.

Mr Cayuela, a Coventry University PHD researcher, said residents held meetings to plan the festival.

Ideas raised to rejuvenate the canal included regular gatherings to clean it up and holding a children’s summer school.

Shropshire Star

Some of the Shropshire Star headlines today are:

• Car shunted 50m into pub's beer garden by elderly driver, external
• Yobs kill swan at Telford lake, external
• Concern over impact of plans for Ironbridge Power Station site, external

A former judge has been appointed to chair an inquiry into reports of child sexual exploitation by grooming gangs in Telford.

Chair Tom Crowther QC is a barrister with "extensive experience of child abuse cases", said Eversheds Sutherland. The law firm was appointed last year to lead the organisation of the independent inquiry.

The inquiry was set up following a Sunday Mirror claim up to 1,000 girls had been abused by gangs, external in the town since the 1980s.

Image source, Eversheds Sutherland

Mr Crowther's first task will be to finalise the inquiry's terms of reference.

Telford and Wrekin Council's cabinet lead Lee Carter said: “Victims and survivors’ representatives have been involved in this appointment process and I am sure that everyone welcomes this major step for the inquiry."

He says it is in his nature to help people after stopping his cement mixer to help a woman cross the road.

A number of buildings near Birmingham's Chamberlain Square have been evacuated after a gas leak.

Gas company Cadent said contractors involved in major development work had hit a main and its workers were trying to fix it.

“There was a strong smell of gas and a number of buildings have been evacuated," a spokesperson said, adding there had been no impact on traffic.

“It is quite a deep main and we have had to bring in some equipment for the work.”

The problem caused Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery to close early for the day.

Ally Law and Ryan Taylor will not be prosecuted for allegedly stealing a cup of tea.

A Stafford Borough councillor has voiced concerns a consultation on health services could lead to changes to the emergency care at County Hospital.

Anne Hobbs, a Labour councillor said: "We have been in this situation before where we have had a consultation and we have lost many hospital services."

The 12-week consultation, Together We're Better, , externalbegan in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent last week.

Health bosses say there are no current plans to close the A&E at County Hospital.

Three pupils were treated at a hospital A&E for minor burns after a "reaction occurred" during a science experiment.

The pupils at St Thomas' CE Primary School in Kidsgrove, Stoke-on-Trent, had been watching a demonstration of the "whoosh experiment, external" - where a bottle is filled with an alcohol mixture before being ignited.

Staffordshire County Council said the "older age" pupils affected were taken to hospital as a precaution on Friday and later discharged.

“All of our health and safety procedures were followed, and the county council’s health and safety team have been on site to give us advice and guidance on how we can prevent such an incident happening in future," a statement released by the local authority on behalf of the school said.

The council said pupils' and staff safety was an "absolute priority".

"We are all shocked that this has occurred and are we are taking every step to ensure this will not happen again," it added.

A woman is also charged with assisting an offender in relation to Fahad Mohamed Nur's death.

Worcestershire are bowled out for 98 - Division Two's lowest score this season - by Lancashire's James Anderson & Graham Onions.

A cider-making couple say their business has been left devastated after vandals returned to their orchards for a second time.

Joy-riders drove tractors around Crumpton Hill farm in Storridge on Saturday night, destroying a number of old apple trees and seriously damaging vehicles.

They returned for a second time on Sunday evening leaving behind yet more damage.

Keith Knight, who runs Knights Cider from the farm with his wife, says it's left them fearing they will come back again.

Tom Symonds
Home Affairs Correspondent

Two people convicted of animal cruelty after foxes were thrown to hounds at a hunting kennels have avoided jail..

Birmingham District Judge Joanna Dickens decided not to jail Paul Oliver, 40, master of hounds at the South Herefordshire Hunt, and kennel maid Hannah Rose, partly because both have suffered an "unjustified and outrageous hate campaign" on social media during a case that took three years to resolve.

Oliver, of Sutton Crosses, near Spalding, Lincolnshire, was convicted of four counts of animal cruelty, and given a 16-week suspended sentence.

Rose, his partner, 30, found guilty of three counts of the same charge was given a 12-week suspended sentence.

Two other defendants who pleaded guilty to lesser offences were given conditional discharges.

BBC Shropshire

A swan has died after what a community group believe is an attack with a catapult or air rifle.

The swan, found with a wound to its neck at Holmer Lake, in Telford, on Saturday, is the third to die in six months.

Police are investigating and volunteers are appealing for information.

Image source, Friends of Holmer Lake