The city won’t give its sanitation workers the rise they are asking for. But there’s no shortage of money for the police or mayor Cherelle Parker and her inner circle

If nobody stopped me, I could talk about urban sanitation for hours on end. Unfortunately, somebody (normally my wife) always stops me – usually in the first minute or two. It seems few people share my pathological fixation with littering and ways to optimise waste management.

Until recently, that is. Now every single resident of Philadelphia, my home town, is talking trash. Almost 10,000 city workers, members of the city’s largest blue-collar union, went on strike for eight days, affecting everything from libraries to public swimming pools. But the most visible signs of the strike were the huge piles of trash that accumulated (nicknamed “Parker Piles” after mayor Cherelle Parker) because there was no garbage pickup. Did I mention it has been boiling hot? You can imagine the situation. The rats are in heaven; I am in hell.

More orderly migration would ease crisis, says Amy Pope as UK and France prepare to announce plan to block crossings

The head of the UN’s organisation for migration has warned that it is too late to stop people from crossing the Channel in small boats by the time they have reached northern France, as Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron prepare to announce new measures to stop overloaded dinghies setting sail from French shores to the UK.

Amy Pope, the director general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said making safe and orderly migration possible closer to the countries people were moving from was a better approach, along with removing the toxic anti-migrant narrative that dominates much of UK politics.

• Laurent Mekies appointed as Horner’s replacement

• Red Bull have had turbulent time on and off track

Christian Horner has been sacked as Red Bull’s team principal with immediate effect. Horner, who has been in charge of Red Bull since the team was formed in 2005, will be replaced by the principal of sister team Racing Bulls, Laurent Mekies.

Horner’s surprise removal as principal and chief executive of Red Bull Racing was confirmed in a statement from Red Bull’s parent company on Wednesday morning and comes just over 17 months since Horner was embroiled in a scandal involving accusations of inappropriate behaviour by an employee, though he was later cleared by an investigation.

We need to confront the social conditions that impact them – and the toxic workplaces they’re trying to push back against

Last month, new figures showed that one in four young people in England have a mental health condition. An unwillingness to examine the challenging social and economic conditions – from housing insecurity to financial concerns – means there can be a tendency to explain this rise as a result of overdiagnosis, although there is little evidence for this claim. Clinicians cite the criteria for diagnosis to show that overreporting is not substantiated – if anything, the severity of reported conditions has increased, in part due to a reduced stigma resulting in more people seeking help.

Young people with poor mental health are nearly five times more likely to be out of work, and there is a growing understanding that inadequate support around young people’s mental health in the workplace is driving them to leave or consider leaving their job. In response, the government has proposed cuts to under-22s’ health support.

Fran Boait is a leadership coach, freelancer and writer