内容摘要：The decision to means-test the previously universal payment was one of the first announcements by the chancellor after Labour's landslide election victory last year.

The decision to means-test the previously universal payment was one of the first announcements by the chancellor after Labour's landslide election victory last year.

A long-running strike by bin workers in Birmingham could last until December, according to union Unite, after members voted to continue industrial action in a dispute over pay and jobs.The union said on Wednesday that 97% of those who voted backed continued strike action, on a 75% turnout.

"The decision makers at Birmingham council need to get in the room and put forward an acceptable offer," said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham, warning strikes would continue for "as long as it takes".A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said it had made a "fair and reasonable offer" and that it remained committed to resolving the dispute.It added that it had urged the union to put that offer to its members.

However, Ms Graham said: "After smearing these workers in public since January and telling them to accept a fair and reasonable offer that never existed, the council finally put a proposal in writing last week."True to form, the proposal came weeks late and was not in line with the ballpark offer discussed during Acas talks in May."

- a point denied by the council.

A spokesperson for the Labour-run local authority said the bin collection service needed to be transformed "to one that citizens of Birmingham deserve".The bridge will connect the valley region of Kashmir with the rest of the country by train for the very first time.

The showpiece infrastructure project, which is built over the Chenab river, is 35m (114ft) taller than the Eiffel Tower and took the Indian Railways more the 20 years to build.It is part of a 272km (169 miles) all-weather railway line that will pass through Jammu, ultimately going all the way to the Kashmir valley.

Thousands of criminal cases - including some of the most serious violent and sexual offences - are collapsing every year because of lost, damaged or missing evidence, the BBC has found.More than 30,000 prosecutions in England and Wales collapsed between October 2020 and September 2024, data from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reveals.