Workers belonging to the United Auto Workers (UAW) at General Motors’ Flint assembly plant in Michigan have narrowly voted against a proposed contract with the automaker, the union’s local chapter said.

UAW Local 598 said in a Facebook post on Thursday that 51.8% of votes cast were against the proposed deal.

Union workers are voting on contracts from each of Chrysler-owner Stellantis, General Motors and Ford Motor, after the first coordinated strike against Detroit’s Big Three automakers.

A US judge has approved a $626m (£467m) settlement for victims of the 2014-15 lead water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

Most of the money will go to the city's children exposed to drinking poisoned water, affected adults, business owners and anyone who paid water bills.

At least 12 people died after Flint switched its water supply to the Flint river in 2014 without treating the corrosive water to save money.

As a result, lead in some old pipes broke off and flowed through taps.

Rick Snyder, the Republican governor of Michigan at the time of the toxic water crisis in Flint, will face charges for his role in the public health catastrophe that poisoned the city’s supply, according to the Associated Press.

Two people who know of the prosecution told the AP that the state attorney general’s office informed defense attorneys on the case that indictments were imminent. The nature of the charges wasn’t immediately clear, but Snyder, former state health department director Nick Lyon, and others are expected to be charged.

The City of Flint, Mich., announced Tuesday it will begin destroying illegal firearms that have been seized by police instead of auctioning them off to legal bidders for profit.

Democratic Mayor Sheldon Neeley said at a press conference that banning the city from selling confiscated guns at auctions will prevent firearms from falling into the wrong hands and returning to the streets to further carry out violence. Gun auctions, however, are legal and serve lawful gun buyers.

Water coming from faucets in this city is no longer discolored or malodorous. Truckloads of bottled water from other communities have slowed to a trickle. These improvements do not mean that Flint’s water crisis is over. Instead, a new and uneasy normal has settled in.