Sunderland’s Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), Fundraise & Recycle, and the city’s Foundation of Light have teamed up to install clothing banks across the city.

Clothes will be collected, sorted, and packaged in Sunderland before being sold to wholesalers or consumers in the UK and overseas.

Items unsuitable for resale will be cut up into rags and sold to cleaning companies and industries such as engineering and mechanics.

All money raised from the sale of the donated clothes will be donated to the Foundation of Light, to support people from all walks of life, to live happier and healthier lives.

The first bank will be located at the main entrance to the Beacon of Light, with two more planned at points yet to be confirmed at the seafront and Holmeside in the city centre.

Football-related donations such as shirts, shorts, shin pads, socks, and boots will go directly to the Foundation for reuse or repurposing.

The scheme was developed by Sharon Appleby and Clare Wilson.

Ms Appleby, chief executive of Sunderland BIDs, said: “Our aim with this initiative is multi-faceted.

“It’s a public service that we very much hope people will use and it will benefit not only our city but communities further afield.”

Ms Wilson, chief commercial and fundraising officer at the Foundation of Light, said: “At Foundation of Light, supporting our communities is at the heart of everything we do and we’re proud to share that commitment with Sunderland BIDs and Fundraise & Recycle through this initiative.

“By working together, we can promote more sustainable habits through the reuse of unwanted clothing while raising vital funds to support our programmes across the region and the people who need them most.”

Each clothing bank will feature a QR code on the front. Donors can scan this to learn how many kilos of clothes that specific bank has recycled, how much money it has raised, and how much CO2 it has prevented from entering the atmosphere.

David Kristopaitis, managing director of Fundraise and Recycle, said: “We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Sunderland’s BIDs and the Foundation of Light.

“These are two organisations that do incredible work for the city and its communities.”

Easington Church of England Primary School received a strong Ofsted rating across five categories and met the expected standard in two others, following an inspection in March.

The report, published earlier this month, described the school as a place where pupils flourish.

The Ofsted report praised behaviour and attendance, describing the school environment as “calm, kind and purposeful,” with high expectations understood by both pupils and staff.

The school day and environment have been intentionally designed to support positive behaviour, with playtimes restructured and whole-school singing time included as part of daily routines.

Inclusion was another area of strength, with inspectors commending the school’s identification of barriers to learning and the effective support provided to pupils.

Professional development for staff was noted as having a positive impact, with a graduated approach well embedded and regularly reviewed.

Ofsted particularly praised Easington’s early years provision, describing reception children as “happy, engaged and very settled.”

The curriculum for the youngest pupils was considered well-designed, providing a strong foundation and prioritising reading from the start.

Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the transition, nurture and education their children receive.

The report also highlighted the positive impact of professional development for staff.

It stated: “Recent staff professional development is having a positive impact with regard to staff better understanding pupils’ needs.”

The report concluded that the school is having a positive impact on pupils’ achievement and sense of belonging.

This comes shortly after MP Josh Simon agreed to relinquish his seat in order to allow Mr Burnham a path back to parliament.

But Mr Burnham confirmed he will request permission from Labour’s ruling body to stand in a by-election

In his full statement posted to X, Mr Burnham said: “I can confirm that I will be requesting the permission of the NEC to stand in the Makerfield by-election.

“I grew up in this area and have lived here for 25 years. I care deeply about it and its people. I know they have been let down by national politics. Ten years ago, I decided to leave Westminster. Why? Because, after 16 years, I came to the conclusion that our national political system does not work for areas like ours.

“I learnt this fighting its failure to invest in the Wigan borough, for justice for the Hillsborough families and against its treatment of Greater Manchester during the pandemic. Over the last decade, I have been challenging this failure from the outside and building a new and better way of doing politics.

“We have built Greater Manchester into the fastest-growing city-region in the UK and put buses back under public control, introducing a £2 fare cap to help people with cost-of-living pressures. However, there is only so much that can be done from Greater Manchester.

“Much bigger change is needed at a national level if everyday life is to be made more affordable again. This is why I now seek people’s support to return to Parliament: to bring the change we have brought to Greater Manchester to the whole of the UK and make politics work properly for people.

“Millions are struggling and they need the Labour Government to succeed. It has already made changes to make life better for them in its first two years. After this week, we owe it to people to come back together as a Labour movement, giving the Prime Minister and the Government the space and stability they need as the by-election takes place.

“I want to recognise the difficult decision taken by Josh Simons and the sacrifice he and his family are making. I have worked closely with him as Mayor on issues like flooding and illegal waste dumping and have seen first-hand how effective he has been. He has put the communities of Makerfield first, made a real difference for them and should take great pride in that.

“Finally, I truly do not take a single vote for granted and will work hard to regain the trust of people in the Makerfield constituency, many of whom have long supported our party but lost faith in recent times. We will change Labour for the better and make it a party you can believe in again.”

A man accused of running a secret Chinese spy outpost in a New York City police station has been convicted of acting as an illegal foreign agent.

Lu Jianwang, a U.S. citizen also known as “Harry Lu,” opened the station in lower Manhattan in 2022 on behalf of China’s Ministry of Public Security. The MPS is China’s primary domestic law enforcement and intelligence agency.​

On Wednesday he was convicted on one count of acting as an illegal agent of the government of the People’s Republic of China and one count of obstruction of justice for destroying related evidence. Now, he faces up to 30 years behind bars.​

“Lu Jianwang used a police station in New York City to target PRC dissidents in furtherance of the Chinese government’s political agenda,” James C. Barnacle Jr., the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office, said.

Beginning in January 2022, under orders from an official at the MPS, Lu, his co-defendant Chen Jinping, and others established the first known overseas police station in the United States.

​Located in Manhattan’s Chinatown, the police station was part of a global scheme to create similar sites all over the world, prosecutors say. ​

Lu’s MPS handler tasked him with collecting information on behalf of the Chinese government, including the location of a pro-democracy advocate who had fled China for the United States.

​In October 2022, the FBI conducted a search of the police station.

Lu and Chen were interviewed in connection with the search, and their phones were seized, with authorities noting that WeChat messages between the pair and their MPS handler had been deleted. ​

A blue banner reading “Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station, New York, USA,” was also recovered from the site.

​Chen pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an agent of the PRC in connection with the station in December 2024. He currently awaits sentencing.

​Lu, who also awaits sentencing, remains free on bail, according to The Associated Press. He faces 10 years behind bars for acting as an illegal foreign agent and up to 20 years in prison for the obstruction of justice. ​

The 64-year-old’s defense team claims that the police station was really a community center where people could renew their Chinese driver’s licenses remotely without having to go back to China, amid travel restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic. ​

Lu’s lawyer, John Carman, also claimed that people would meet there to play ping-pong and mahjong. He told reporters that he would appeal the verdict. ​

“This is not espionage. This is not spying. This is not intelligence gathering,” Carman said. “He wasn’t charged with any of that.”​

According to prosecutors, the MPS has used contacts both within China and around the world to “influence, threaten, and coerce political dissidents abroad,” in an effort to silence them, prosecutors say.​