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.

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.

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.

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

About 94% of everyone aged 50 and over have received their first coronavirus vaccine dose in the Midlands, according to the latest official figures.

The figures are based on estimated populations, so are open to a margin of error.

Data from the Office of National Statistics show that 59% of people aged between 16 and 80 have also received their first dose.

The area with the highest rate of vaccinations in the West Midlands is the Malvern Hills and the lowest is Birmingham with 79%.

The figures show the rates from 8 December 2020 to 28 March 2021.

Three gymnasts from the West Midlands have been selected to represent Great Britain at the European Championships in Basel, Switzerland later this month.

Parallel bars world champion in 2019 Joe Fraser and Joshua Nathan - both from Birmingham have been picked for the men's line up.

In the women's team 2019 European beam champion Alice Kensella from the Park Wrekin gymnastics club in Shropshire will compete in the championships.

The competition will represent an opportunity for gymnasts to qualify for additional places for Team GB at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

The unseasonable warmth of the past couple of days comes to an end today, being replaced with a lot of cloud this morning.

It's going to feel much colder with temperatures staying in single figures, although some sunshine is expected later.

Mick Hazeldene spent weeks on a ventilator at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital after contracting Covid.

It will be a dry and cloudy day with some brighter spells and highs of up to 13°C (50 to 55°F).

Shropshire Star

The headlines reported by the Shropshire Star today:

• Call for end to ‘ludicrous’ rule stopping travel between border, external
• Dangerous driver ploughed into elderly couple's Telford home, external
• Six-year project to build hundreds of new homes in Ellesmere, external

Tuesday saw the warmest March day for 50 years and we can expect another sunny day today.

It will be warm and dry, with temperatures reaching up to 21C (69F).

Get the latest forecast for where you are from BBC Weather.

Marie Frayne was homeless for five years before The Shrewsbury Ark and other agencies stepped in.

A charity which helps people find employment has begun a campaign to increase diversity in workplaces.

Image source, Landau

Landau's We See You campaign will tell the stories of some of the 3,000 people it has helped into work or training.

Landau, which recently marked its 25th anniversary,says organisations also benefit from having a "more inclusive culture".

Chief executive Sonia Roberts said it would help "shine a spotlight on those people with hidden disabilities and challenges who with the right help and training can be supported into the workforce".

The initiative's start coincides with Autism Awareness Week but it will continue throughout 2021.

BBC Weather

After a cool start it will be a fine and sunny day with some unseasonably high temperatures of 22°C (72°F).

The course includes 15 holes in Wales, two in England and one that crosses the border itself.

Michelle Palser says she contracted the virus four months ago and has since got "progressively worse".

Today will be dry and very warm, with cloud fading this morning to reveal increasingly sunny skies. Under the sunshine this afternoon, temperatures will rise into the high teens. Winds easing too. Highs of 13C to 16C (55F to 61F).

This evening and tonight will be dry and clear with light winds. After a very warm day, temperatures will drop away through the course of the night. Lows of 4C to 7C (39F to 45F).

As England's stay-at-home travel rules are eased, what does that mean for people in Wales?

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