Dani Bailey
BBC Local Live

In case you missed it at the weekend, the world's longest aircraft was brought out of its hangar for the first time.

The Airlander 10, a 302ft-long (92m) plane-airship hybrid, was piloted out of the UK's biggest hangar at Cardington Airfield, Bedfordshire on Saturday.  

Two Bedfordshire men will paddle from one side of Scotland to the other in a recycled bath tub... yes, you read that right!

Image source, #TheBathtubChallenge

Mark Brockway and Jack Burrows, both 28, are undertaking the Herculean task to raise money for the MS Therapy Centre, external in Bedford.

Mark's father Richard William Brockway regularly attended the centre after he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis about 12 years ago until he died in May, aged 69.

Image source, #TheBathtubChallenge

The pair will paddle at roughly one mile per hour and hope to finish the feat in 10 days. They begin on Saturday (13 August).

BBC Travel

Traffic is slow in Watford town centre due to ongoing work on a hole that appeared in Vicarage Road on Friday.

The road remains closed for repairs and motorists are being diverted along Wiggenhall Road.

In this video, Paul Cox from the RMT (Rail, Maritime & Transport Union, external) talks about why they are taking action:  

After Premier League teams clocked up more than 170,000 miles this pre-season, check how they got on with our full list of results.

The Southern Rail strike is "completely unjustified", according to the chief executive of parent company Govia Thameslink (GTR).

GTR chief executive Charles Horton said the five-day walkout by the RMT union is "completely unacceptable, unjustified and unnecessary" and he apologised for the "inconvenience and disruption to passengers' lives as a result".

He claimed the union rejected GTR's eight-point offer "out of hand".

Image source, Southern

Dani Bailey
BBC Local Live

A man from Watford has found himself barraged with Twitter abuse for having a very similar name to Australian swimmer Mack Horton who called defending Chinese champion Sun Yang a "drug cheat".

Image source, @_markhorton

Mark Horton, who lives in Hertfordshire, has been mistaken for the Olympic gold medallist and received angry tweets from Sun Yang fans after swimmer Horton accused Yang of deliberately splashing him in a training session, saying: "I ignored him, I don't have time or respect for drug cheats."  

Image source, Getty Images

Watford's Mark Horton has tweeted that it's been "an interesting weekend", but today it's "back to the day job".

Last night alone he was mentioned by other Twitter users 1,000 times, and they are "still coming through".

 A schoolgirl from Hertfordshire is out of the Olympics, despite winning her first heat in the 100m backstroke. 

Image source, Reuters

Gaurika Singh, 13, who attends Haberdasher's Askes' School for Girls near Elstree, has been the youngest athlete at the games, representing her home nation of Nepal. 

The swimmer, who began swimming competitively at the age of nine, was knocked out in heat two yesterday.

Commuters from Milton Keynes to London through Watford have already had their journeys disrupted since last month because of cancellations on trains. 

But today marks the first day of a five-day strike by Southern Rail train guards.

Dorothy Thornhill, Liberal Democrat Mayor of Watford, says Govia, which runs Southern Rail, should be stripped of the franchise: "To actually axe 800 trains on a critical line, this is actually telling us that they're not fit to run this franchise and there are others who could do it better.

"What is the point of having terms and conditions in contracts if the government is not willing to enforce them?"

The longest rail strike since 1968 has begun, with hundreds of trains cancelled on the Southern network across south east England.

A five-day walkout by members of the RMT union started at 00:00 in a row over the role of conductors.

Southern plans to run 60% of its normal timetable, but there is no service between Clapham Junction and Milton Keynes.

Alina Jenkins
BBC Weather

Today will be mostly dry and bright with some sunny spells, although a few showers might develop by the afternoon with a high of 19C (66F).

Here's my full forecast...

There are more details on the BBC Weather website.

Dani Bailey
BBC Local Live

Morning all, hope you had a relaxing weekend and are ready for the week ahead.

We've had a few technical problems getting the page published for 08:00 this morning, but we're up and running now and we'll be bringing you all things Beds, Herts and Bucks until 18:00.

Very shortly we'll bring you the weather - it's looking like a bright, clear day - and the latest on the Hertfordshire schoolgirl who competed in her first Olympics at the weekend.