Organisers of Sheffield's Tramlines festival have announced the event will go ahead next month as part of the government's series of test events.

Image source, Giles Smith

The three-day event which begins on 23 July will operate at full capacity as part of the Events Research Programme, external.

Royal Blood, Richard Ashcroft and The Streets are among the acts set to perform.

Culture Minister Caroline Dinenage MP said the event would provide "vital scientific evidence".

Tramlines will now take place four days after the 19 July date when the government expects to lift all limits on social contact.

Those who bought tickets to last year's cancelled festival will be able to attend, with those not wanting to go being able to roll their ticket over to next year or receive a full refund.

Ticket holders will be asked for either proof of a negative lateral flow test taken within 48 hours before arriving at the festival, or proof of full vaccination, the second dose having been received at least 14 days before the first day of attending the event.

Once on-site, people will not be required to observe social distancing or wear face masks.

Ms Dinenage said: "I know how desperately people want to get back to festivals, which is why they're a hugely important part of our Events Research Programme."

Ahead of England's crunch Euro 2020 game with Germany later, we've been speaking to people living in towns and cities in Germany which just happen to be twinned with those in Yorkshire.

Image source, Thierry Monasse via Getty Images

For Karlheinz Dannert, who lives in Halifax's twin city of Aachen (pictured), the friendship between the two places will "only go so far", he says.

The spa city, near Germany's border with Belgium and the Netherlands, has been twinned with Halifax for more than 40 years, and Herr Dannert and others have been making regular trips between the two places.

"I think Halifax looks very, very nice, including the Piece Hall," he said.

"We have a street in Aachen named Halifaxstrasse [Halifax Street]."

Herr Dannert, who is a football fan, says he thinks England might win tonight, and says he will be watching the game with cider and chips, thinking about his friends in Halifax.

"My heart beats for Germany. We were good against Portugal but had problems with Hungary and France, but now I have a bit of fear we won’t win against England," he says.

"Because it’s a partnership with Aachen and Halifax, I don’t think it’s going so far they will want to see Germany win. The friendship will only go so far. Your heart is mostly to your own country."

A man had to be airlifted to hospital after being stabbed in the chest outside a takeaway restaurant in North Yorkshire, police say.

Image source, Google

The 37-year-old victim was taken to Leeds General Infirmary after the stabbing in an alleyway next to the Golden Skewer in Selby at about 21:30 on Friday 25 June, according to North Yorkshire Police.

He's since been released from hospital.

A man in his 30s from Selby has been arrested in connection with the incident and has been released on conditional bail while an investigation takes place, officers confirmed.

Det Sgt Emma Newton said: "I’d like to reassure people living in the area a thorough investigation is under way and that there is no threat to the wider public."

Anyone with information about the incident is being asked to contact police.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Health bosses in Lincolnshire say they are seeing a "faster rate of increase than we’d like to" as the number of recorded daily cases of Covid-19 across Greater Lincolnshire hit their highest since February.

Image source, Reuters/Phil Noble

There were 264 cases confirmed across Greater Lincolnshire on Monday – the largest rise since 3 February.

Andy Fox, Lincolnshire County Council’s assistant director of public health, said that of 600 positive cases last week, the main proportion was among younger people.

He added, however, that about 50% of the youngest eligible bands have had their first dose.

Asked if he was confident in the 19 July deadline for lifting all Covid restrictions, Mr Fox said if that did happen the country could expect to see further rises, but hoped vaccine take-up and “some combination of summer weather” would counteract it.

Mr Fox said the government would be looking at vaccination data rather than case rates, so he hoped there would be a good take-up of dosage in the next few weeks.

On the latest figures and predictions for the future, he said: “We’re seeing a significant increase now in Lincolnshire. It’s following the pattern we’ve seen across the rest of the country.

"But here is a sense we’re seeing a faster rate of increase than we’d like to see at this point.”

The government’s Covid-19 dashboard on Monday recorded 185 new cases in Lincolnshire, 153 in North East Lincolnshire and 30 in North Lincolnshire.

The number is the highest since 3 February, when 299 cases were confirmed – though that could be down to a delay in reporting some cases across the weekend. North Lincolnshire’s numbers also hit 10,000 cases.

There were no deaths reported in government or NHS England figures.

Christopher Swales died during a tandem jump using a patched-up parachute, an inquest hears.

A special plant is being grown by students in York in a bid to to secure the future of an endangered beetle which is rarely seen elsewhere in the country.

The green shimmering tansy beetle was once so widespread in the UK that its wing cases were used as sequins for dresses (as pictured below), but it's now critically endangered.

In recent times, the beetle has only been found along a 20-mile stretch of the River Ouse, around York.

It mainly eats tansy (tanacetum vulgare), a perennial herb from which it gets its name.

Now, staff and students at York St John University are working together to help secure the beetle's future by growing a specialist food supply.

They've already grown over 200 tansy plants and hope to expand the plantation to increase the beetles' much-needed habitat near York's River Foss.

Police are appealing for witnesses after a motorcyclist threatened a car driver with a knife in an attempted carjacking in Bradford.

Image source, Google

The rider of a black superbike-style motorcycle pulled up alongside a blue Audi S3 at a set of traffic lights in Southfield Lane, near the junction of Little Horton Lane, at about 18:00 on 22 Jun, West Yorkshire Police said.

The motorcyclist then pulled out a knife and told the car driver to follow him as the occupants of a black BMW car behind were planning to take his vehicle.

When the lights changed, the victim continued across the junction onto Southfield Road but was not followed by the suspects who turned left onto Southfield Street, police said.

The rider of the motorcycle is described as Asian, 5ft 6ins tall and stocky, with tattoos on his arms. He was wearing a black T-shirt and black helmet.

Anyone who saw the incident is being asked to contact the West Yorkshire force.

Do you recognise any of these men? Police want to speak to them in connection with the theft of alcohol and food from a sports club in York.

Image source, North Yorkshire Police

Officers have released a CCTV image of two people they want to trace following a suspected burglary at York Sports Club, in Shipton Road, just before midnight on 8 May.

A spokesperson for North Yorkshire Police said: "Items of alcohol and food were taken from the upstairs kitchen area of a function room after the main club house was entered."

Anyone with information about the incident or the men pictured is asked to contact police.

BBC Weather

This morning, any overnight cloud will clear to leave a dry and bright day with plenty of sunny spells. It will be a warm day, with gentle north-easterly winds.

This evening, there will be a few sunny spells, but it will turn cloudy from the east into the first part of the night:

A lorry driver and a haulage firm boss are due to be sentenced later in connection with the death of two men in a motorway crash.

Image source, STEVE WHITE

Nigel Eley, 41 and John-Paul Cassidy, 37, from Manchester, died when a lorry lost control and smashed through the central barrier, hitting their car on the M62 near Goole in April 2018.

Lorry driver Jack Beston, 24, who pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving in October 2020, and Michael Holgate, 39, who was convicted of two counts of manslaughter through gross negligence and two counts of causing death whilst uninsured, are due to be sentenced at Hull Crown Court later.

A 15-year-old admits the manslaughter of Roberts Buncis in Boston, Lincolnshire, but denies murder.

A woman had to rush a dog with a large chest wound to a vet after she saw a man in Leeds taking it to be "dumped", an animal charity has said.

Image source, RSPCA

The woman saw a young man walking with the wounded greyhound on The Clearings, Belle Isle, on Thursday 16 June, according to the RSPCA.

Seeing the dog was injured, she asked the man where he was taking it and he told her it had been attacked by another dog and he was going to "dump" him, the animal welfare charity said.

The woman then took the dog to a 24-hour vet in Bradford.

The vet found the dog, whose microchip revealed he was called Blue, had a gaping 30cm-wound in his chest which someone "had attempted to glue together".

Image source, RSPCA

Blue underwent emergency surgery and is now recovering in an RSPCA hospital, the charity confirmed.

Animal rescuer inspector Emma Ellis said: “I am keen to find the owner of Blue and am appealing for anyone who knows to get in touch.

"Blue was very lucky to survive as the injury was so serious and he was losing a lot of blood," she added.

The woman who took Blue from the man described him as tall, white and in his early 20s, with dark hair.

He was wearing a blue coat and dark tracksuit bottoms.

Anyone with information about the man is being urged to contact the RSPCA.

A man has admitted killing a person and trying to kill or wound seven others in a series of stabbings in Birmingham.

Image source, West Midlands Police

Sheffield Hallam University library intern Jacob Billington (pictured below), 23, died and seven others were injured in five separate incidents in the early hours of 6 September 2020.

Zephaniah McLeod (pictured top), 28, of Nately Grove, Selly Oak, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to Mr Billington's manslaughter.

At Birmingham Crown Court, he also admitted four counts of attempted murder and three of wounding.

Image source, Family photo

Appearing via video link, McLeod was told he would be sentenced on 27 and 28 September.

Mr Billington, from Crosby, Merseyside, was stabbed in Irving Street while enjoying a night out with school friends.

A post-mortem examination found the intern died of a stab wound to the neck.

In a statement after his death, Mr Billington's family said he was "the light of our life" and his death had devastated them.

Three people fled the scene after the car they were travelling in hit a house near Leeds and burst into flames in the early hours of Sunday morning, police say.

Image source, West Yorkshire Police

A black Volkswagen Polo lost control on Eyrie Approach, Morley, and crashed into a property just after 05:00, according to West Yorkshire Police.

The car's occupants ran away in the direction of Magpie Lane, police said.

Shortly after the crash the car caught fire. The people inside the property were unharmed during the incident, officers confirmed.

CCTV images have been released in a bid to identify the three occupants of the car.

Anyone who recognises the people in the images, or who witnessed the incident or saw the Volkswagen prior to the crash, is asked to call police.

An appeal's been launched for mobile phone and dashcam footage after a teenager was "seriously injured" in an assault in Sleaford.

Image source, Google

The incident happened opposite the play park on Lincoln Road, at about 18:00 on Saturday 19 June.

Lincolnshire Police said "a number of young boys were fighting on the roadside initially and the incident then continued in the play park."

A 13-year-old boy and two boys aged 14 have been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and released on bail, while an investigation takes place.

A spokesperson for the force said: "We believe part or all of the assault has been recorded on mobile phones and we would like anyone with mobile footage to get in touch."

Motorists who were in the area at the time are being aske to check their dashcam footage as police believe the incident may have been recorded as drivers passed the scene.

Landowners across the Yorkshire Dales National Park are being asked to help remove and recycle almost 40,000 plastic tree guards from woodlands over the next 18 months.

Image source, Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust

About 38,000 "redundant" tree guards are to be collected at two central sites and then recycled, according to the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT).

The trust says most new woodland creation schemes in the Dales will have been planted using plastic tree guards to protect against voles, rabbits, and deer.

But the guards should be removed after 10 years once trees are established, it added.

Image source, Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust

Mike Appleton, YDMT project officer, said: "The concern is that if the plastic guards are left on- site, over time they will disintegrate into smaller fragments which find their way into soil and waterways.

"We're working with landowners, community groups and volunteers to collect redundant tree guards and send them to be recycled and used to make new products."

"We’re calling on landowners who want to remove these guards from their woods to get in touch. We can help to get them recycled and, in some cases, enlist volunteers to help."

Beachgoers in East Yorkshire are being warned to wear shoes for paddling in the sea after a number of people were stung by weever fish.

Weever fish are about 6ins long and have venomous spines along the dorsal fin.

Hornsea Inshore Rescue says it has dealt with seven people on one beach who were hurt in the last week.

Sue Hickson-Marsay, from the lifeboat charity, says: "The fish have been an absolute nightmare this summer.

"Just where the shoreline is, as the waves are going out, they sit just under the sand.

"If you are paddling in the water the spiny part goes into the foot. The warmer weather brings them to shallower water.

"We've had lots of casualties, so people need to wear shoes if they're going paddling."

The charity has put up posters near the beach in the resort, about 15 miles north east of Hull, to warn people of the hidden hazard.

The mayor admits the process of bringing services under public control could take several years.

Detectives in Leeds investigating the attempted abduction of a child have arrested a man in connection with the incident.

Image source, Google

The man was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of the attempted kidnap of an 11-year-old girl in Bramley on the morning of Friday 25 June.

It happened in a ginnel running between Rossefield Avenue, Rossefield Place and McLaren Fields (pictured), according to West Yorkshire Police.

The arrested man remains remains in custody and inquiries by officers from Leeds District Safeguarding Unit are ongoing, the force adds.

A police car has been involved in a three-vehicle crash in Lincolnshire as it was responding to an incident.

It happened on the the A158 near Horncastle just after 11:00 on Saturday.

A police Vauxhall Astra, a Toyota and a Mini were involved, but only minor injuries were reported by Lincolnshire Police.

An investigation is now under way into what happened, the force said.

The police vehicle was responding to an incident and was displaying blue lights with sirens sounding but was not involved in a pursuit, the force added.