The Birmingham Dispatch

17/06/2026

A former Birmingham Mail editor recalls putting tough questions to David Sullivan — and having second thoughts.

A former Birmingham Mail editor recalls putting tough questions to the then-Blues boss — and having second thoughts

15/06/2026

Your Monday Briefing is out now:

The Selly Oak MP's friendship with a former fraudster has set tongues wagging

13/06/2026

It’s March 1940. Blackouts are in force across Birmingham. Two men are writing a note about their current research project: how to build a workable nuclear bomb.

Two refugee scientists, a spy and the unlikely flatshare that changed history

10/06/2026

To ban or not to ban: how are smartphones affecting Brum's schoolkids?

To ban or not to ban? That is the question

06/06/2026

Prof Charles Craddock claims to be at the vanguard of a revolution in UK medicine, with Birmingham at its very heart.

Can he outsmart big business and save thousands of lives?

Can Charlie Craddock outsmart big business and save thousands of lives?

04/06/2026

Delays, pint-induced rants, and one very angry Irishman. What will it take to get phase 4 of the Eastside Metro Extension finished?

Digbeth’s four-year case of pre tram-atic stress disorder

01/06/2026

Today's Monday Briefing is out now:

Member of flag-raising group faces trial after beloved pub boss killed by 'being punched'

30/05/2026

You can’t see the fire from the pavement – just wisps of smoke, coming up through a grate between the two buildings. When the firefighters arrive, they head below street level to the canal, navigating a maze of graffiti-covered walls and locks until they finally strike upon the fire. The question of how it has broken out in the first place seems answered by what they find there: a hoodie, newspapers and magazines, a tent and shoes lined up outside it. To the right of this is writing on the wall, etched in neon-green chalk: ‘I just want to belong. Somewhere. Anywhere. I’m not leaving.’

In Birmingham, this is easier said than done. The West Midlands has the highest rate of homelessness in the country after London, and Birmingham has the highest homeless population in the region. But rough sleeping in buildings is something that’s not always visible to the naked eye – from the street, disused buildings often look completely empty. You’d never know someone was trying to make their home inside.

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28/05/2026

The handlebars of the bike shake as it turns, at speed, onto a tree-lined street. Up ahead a figure is sprinting, a rucksack and jacket strewn behind him in the middle of the sun-dappled tarmac. The cyclist races over the debris and onto the pavement, chasing his target who is now scaling a brick wall.

“Stay where you are!” he screams. Leaping off the bike, he grabs the man from the wall and pins him to the ground.

The snippet of bodycam footage is part of an action-filled montage, accompanied by high-energy techno music, recently posted to the West Midlands Police Instagram page. In one similar clip, a cop leaps out of a moving car to arrest a man in a hoodie; in another, a battering ram collides with a jade-green front door.

The police launched Operation Fearless in Handsworth on Wednesday 13 May. The initiative involves 20 officers being deployed to the ‘Handsworth triangle’ and the Soho Road for an undisclosed period of targeted crime-solving. So far, just over a fortnight in, they have carried out at least 60 arrests, and recovered a cache of cash, mobile phones, and Class A drugs. They have even seized a large sword.

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23/05/2026

A £5m shortfall and some very unhappy musicians....what is going on at the Royal Shakespeare Company?

‘You can only bend the identity of the company so much before it starts to snap’