Graham McGarry
BBC Radio Stoke Sport

Stoke City's Jack Butland "distinguished himself" for England, the BBC's chief football writer says, despite the side's friendly with France ending in defeat.

Harry Kane scored twice as England lost 3-2 with Ousmane Dembele hitting the winner for France, who finished the match with 10 men.

Image source, Gareth Copley/Getty Images

Butland's last England appearance in March 2016 resulted in the ankle injury that kept him sidelined for more than a year.

The BBC's Phil McNulty says Butland, who played the second-half, had a good night with some fine saves.

Lee Thomas
Newsreader, BBC Radio Stoke

Image source, Google

A cyclist has suffered serious injuries in a crash with a car in Stafford.

Staffordshire Police says the man was airlifted to the Royal Stoke University Hospital from Crooked Bridge Road yesterday evening.

Find out your club's full fixture list for the 2017-18 Premier League season.

Matt Sandoz
Stoke City commentator, BBC Radio Stoke

Stoke City's first game of next season will see them travel to Everton.

The Premier League fixtures for 2017-18 have been revealed this morning.

Image source, Gareth Copley/Getty Images

The Potters will follow their trip to Goodison Park with a home game against Arsenal.

Stoke City lost both games last season - you can see more of the fixtures on the BBC Sport website.

Allen Cook
BBC Local Live

Fire crews have spent most of the night fighting a large blaze at an industrial estate in Lichfield. , external

Staffordshire Fire Service says crews were called yesterday at 19:22 to Crossfield Industrial Estate, off the A5127 Burton Road.

Image source, Staffordshire Fire Service

They say the fire involved a lot of baled waste and they had to fight to stop it spreading to a "significant part" of the building - several surrounding roads were shut by Staffordshire Police.

West Midlands Ambulance Service says they were also called, saying a large plume of smoke crossed the A38 and a nearby railway line, external.

They say the blaze was under control by around 01:00, external.

Alex Hamilton
BBC Weather

The whole region will have another fine day with plenty of sunshine.

Some fair weather cloud will develop during the afternoon but even then we will see a lot of the sun. It will be significantly warmer than yesterday - highs of 25C (77F).

Allen Cook
BBC Local Live

There's no other word for the weather this morning - glorious.

Bright sunshine and blue skies with some fluffy white clouds around for Staffordshire and Cheshire - BBC Weather Watcher RedSkyRego caught this in Stone:

Image source, RedSkyRego

We'll see how long it'll continue for shortly with our morning weather video forecast and there'll be news, sport, travel and other updates through the day.

You can send in your thoughts, comments and photos on email or you can put your pictures of the area on Instagram with the tag #bbcstoke, external to show you agree to share them.

Crewe boss David Artell reveals his interest in signing former Manchester United and England defender Wes Brown.

We'll be back with our usual mix of news, sport, travel and weather from 08:00 on Wednesday, but keep an eye out here for more updates and breaking news before then.

A magnet is used to clear nails after a lorry shed its load, shutting a major route.

Gavin Bevis
BBC Local Live

Everton are on the verge of signing Sunderland goalkeeper Jordan Pickford for a whopping £30m.

The 23-year-old's certainly come a long way since his loan spells at Burton Albion and Alfreton Town.

Image source, Getty Images

The Sentinel

A haulage company has created 13 new jobs as part of a £1.6m, external investment to expand its current premises by 10%.

"Tens of thousands" of nails were scattered across the A500 early this morning, a Highways England spokesman said.

The incident caused part of the A500 at Eturia to be closed for most of the day.

The road has reopened but some diversions remain in place.

Highways England provides live traffic information via its website, external and on Twitter.

Clare Lissaman
BBC News Online

An investigation has been launched after some constituents in Newcastle-under-Lyme complained they were unable to vote in the general election.

Returning officer John Sellgren said the Association of Electoral Administrators inquiry would highlight "any shortcomings" in the voting process.

Complainants said some postal votes had not been issued and there were problems joining the Electoral Register online.

Image source, Google

On the day of the election, Keele University students reported turning up to polling stations and being told their "names were not on the list".

Tom Snape, chairman of the Keele Students Union, said he had taken at least 140 complaints from students.

Labour's Paul Farrelly won by 30 votes.

The Sentinel

NHS bosses at Staffordshire's biggest hospital are looking into whether any patients died as a direct result of a fire, external which led to the evacuation of hundreds of patients.

Image source, The Sentinel

Charlie Slater
BBC Weather presenter

We're forecast a largely clear night and lots of sun tomorrow, with temperatures of up to 25C (77F) in parts of the region.

Graham McGarry
Crewe Alexandra commentator, BBC Radio Stoke

Crewe boss David Artell has told BBC Radio Stoke today that he expects his captain George Ray to be part of his plans next season.

The 23-year-old is out of contract this summer but the club would receive compensation if he choses to sign elsewhere due to him being under 24.

Image source, Getty Images

Lamont Howie
Reporter, BBC Radio Stoke

Motorists are still facing long delays despite police allowing traffic along the A500 northbound at the Basford roundabout.

Highways England opened the road just after 16:00, external and within the last five minutes traffic was allowed through.

It follows a closure of several hours while a spillage of nails was cleaned up. Highways officers used a large magnet to speed up the process of picking up nails.

Stephanie Barnard
BBC Local Live

The A500 in Stoke-on-Trent has re-opened northbound after a lorry shed its load earlier this morning, scattering nail across the carriageway.

Highways England said it used a magnet, external "to speed up the cleaning process" after the route closed at about 08:00.

Drivers are warned to expect delays.

Sarah Robertson
Reporter, BBC Radio Stoke

Staff at a glue factory in Stafford are taking strike action today in the latest of a series of walk-outs.

The action is part of a six-month dispute over pay between Bostik and the union Unite.

The union members are unhappy with a 2% pay rise offered to workers and have planned industrial action until mid-July.

Image source, Google

The company says while it respects the decision of the union members, the door remains open for further talks.