The County Durham-born Countryfile star introduced the new arrival, named Ted, in a touching social media post showing the day his family chose him.

Matt revealed that the puppy had already been living with them for several weeks, although eagle-eared listeners to his pet podcast may have previously spotted a clue.

Alongside footage of the family meeting Ted, the 48-year-old wrote: “This happened a few weeks ago.

“The eagle-eared listeners of my pet podcast heard me say that we have a new pup at home and we’ve got baby gates everywhere.

Matt Baker (Image: PA MEDIA)

“Here’s the day we chose him and the start of something epic.”

Ted’s arrival comes after Matt told followers in May that his dog Bob had died.

The presenter said Bob had actually passed away some time before the announcement, but he had found the loss too painful to discuss publicly.

In an emotional tribute, Matt described Bob as a “brilliant dog” and the “ultimate companion” who had supported him through some of the greatest chapters of his life.

He wrote: “It’s with a very heavy heart that I’m letting you know our wonderful Bob is no longer with us.

“He’s been gone a while, but I haven’t been able to talk about it as I’ve been finding it so incredibly sad.”

Matt said Bob had been alongside him while he and his wife, Nicola, raised their two children and made significant changes to the family farm.

He continued: “Bob was a brilliant dog.

“He was there for me with his gentle soul as the ultimate companion through some of the greatest chapters of my life, from raising our kids to all the changes we made on our family farm.

“It’s broken my heart, but I feel hugely grateful to have had him in our lives, and I thank him from the bottom of my heart for everything he’s taught me and brought to our family.”

Concluding the tribute, Matt said: “I’m sure all you dog lovers will agree the reason we love our dogs so much is that the only time they break our hearts is when they leave us.

“RIP Bob.”

Bob, a Border Collie, died in 2025, although Matt did not feel able to announce the news until May 2026.

He has since spoken about the difficulty of losing an animal which had been present for so many important moments in his life.

Animals and farming have played a major part in Matt’s life since his childhood in the North East.

The former Blue Peter and The One Show presenter was born in Easington, County Durham, and grew up on his family’s farm in the Durham Dales.

His rural upbringing later became central to his television career, particularly through his work on the BBC’s Countryfile and the Channel 4 series Matt Baker: Our Farm in the Dales.

The latter programme followed Matt as he returned to the Durham farm to help make it safer and more accessible for his parents, Mike and Janice.

Eyewitnesses say the car overturned around 8.30am at the junction of Silver Street and Wells Lane in Barton, North Yorkshire, near the village primary school.

Staff at the nearby Barton Post Office said they heard and saw “blue flashing lights and sirens” as police, ambulances and fire crews arrived.

Damage caused by an overturned car in Barton (Image: ANDY FUTERS/NORTHERN ECHO)

Damage caused by an overturned car in Barton (Image: ANDY FUTERS/NORTHERN ECHO)

They added that one of their paper boys had witnessed the incident.

Pictures show police tape blocking off the corner of the playground where the car came to rest, while debris is strewn across the park.

A telephone pole had come down, with engineers working to make it safe at lunchtime.

Meanwhile, park exercise equipment has been uprooted from its foundations.

Damage caused by an overturned car in Barton (Image: ANDY FUTERS/NORTHERN ECHO)

Damage caused by an overturned car in Barton (Image: ANDY FUTERS/NORTHERN ECHO)

The car involved has since been removed.

It is believed a man behind the wheel of the car was not seriously injured.

The Northern Echo has contacted the police, ambulance service and fire brigade for confirmation of further details.

Damage caused by an overturned car in Barton (Image: ANDY FUTERS/NORTHERN ECHO)

Damage caused by an overturned car in Barton (Image: ANDY FUTERS/NORTHERN ECHO)

The roads will be closed overnight across the month

A busy Cambridge road is set to close for month-long works. Works will take place along the A1301 Addenbrooke’s Road in Trumpington, Cambridge, from Saturday (August 1) and are set to last until September 11.

The resurfacing work will take place overnight from 9am until 5am. Signed diversion routes will be put in place.

A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesperson said: “When roads are closed, official diversion routes must use the equivalent class of road, or higher, if there is no equivalent.

“Therefore, the signed diversion route will necessarily follow A roads: A1301; A505; A11; A1307; A1134; A1309 and vice versa.”

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The summer window continues to heat up as Arsenal take a huge step towards signing Bruno Guimaraes, while Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham also work to secure statement signings. The Gunners are said to have agreed a deal worth around £80million for the Newcastle captain, with a medical pencilled in for next week. There is also said to be an agreement with Vinicius Junior over personal terms, while Mikel Arteta is said to have identified a surprise defender signing.

For the first time in more than a century, a total solar eclipse is coming to mainland Spain with an even longer encore next summer.

Toss in a crescendoing meteor shower and a six-planet parade on the same day, and the heavens will be overflowing with awe.

Daytime darkness will descend Aug. 12 across the Iberian Peninsula close to sunset — plus slivers of Greenland and Iceland — as the sun, moon and Earth align perfectly in the sky.

Starting near the North Pole before tracking south, totality will last up to two minutes and 18 seconds, an appetizer for an even longer solar show next year — a 6 ½-minute extravaganza that will sweep from Spain to North Africa and the Middle East.

It will take 1 ½ hours for the umbra, or moon’s sun-blocking shadow, to race along the 5,130-mile (8,260-kilometer) course, most of it over an empty Atlantic. Maximum totality will occur off Iceland’s west coast. By the time it reaches a small patch of Portugal and then Spain with its massive crowds, totality will have dwindled to a minute or so. The spectacle will end in the Mediterranean.

Eclipse chasers gear up for the solar spectacle

Hundreds of millions more on the sidelines are in for a treat as well.

A partial eclipse will delight as far away as Alaska and Siberia, enveloping Canada, the northern U.S., and much of Europe and West Africa.

The closer to totality’s course, the more the sun will vanish behind the moon – 94% coverage in Dublin and 83% in Oslo, Norway. Montreal will see an 18% bite out of the sun, tapering to 9% in New York and 2% in Norfolk, Virginia.

Special eclipse glasses are crucial. even if a morsel of sun is showing.

Adding to the cosmic wonder, the day begins with six of our neighboring planets forming an arc in the sky before dawn and end with the Perseid meteor shower peaking after nightfall under the new moon. Streaking meteors could photobomb totality, with some of the brighter planets and stars visible in the background.

Eclipse mapmaker Michael Zeiler is chasing an even more elusive interloper: the northern lights.

For his 13th total solar eclipse, Zeiler will be on a cruise ship in a Greenland fjord, sailing as a guest lecturer. He’ll point a video camera toward the north to capture any aurora forming during totality. A massive outburst from the sun would be the icing on his eclipse cake.

“What gets me excited is viewing rare phenomena,” Zeiler said in an email.

He’s not the only one revved up.

See who’s hosting solar eclipse watch parties and science experiments

The European Space Agency will host a live webcast from Spain’s Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre and a public celebration in Leon. NASA will provide its own coverage, as will the Italian-based Virtual Telescope Project and others.

“For me, it’s not just a scientific moment. It’s not just an incredible alignment of heavenly bodies. It’s also a very human moment,” said ESA’s director of science Carole Mundell. “It’s a real human connection between us with our feet planted on the Earth and the cosmos.”

Two of ESA’s space telescopes will observe the eclipsed sun and its corona, or outer atmosphere. Proba-3, the space agency’s artificial eclipse-making satellite duo, will be in the wrong part of its orbit during totality as seen from Earth, but will try to sneak in some before-and-after shots.

U.S. college research teams are also pitching in, launching more than 60 high-altitude balloons from Spain and Iceland to study Earth’s atmosphere and other changes during the eclipse when the temperature momentarily drops. They launched 10 times as many balloons during the 2024 total solar eclipse that captivated North America.

“A couple of minutes isn’t a lot of time, but it’s still plenty to affect the atmosphere and to make that cold, dark shadow of the moon on Earth,” said Montana State University’s Angela Des Jardins, who leads the NASA-funded balloon project.

Southwest Research Institute’s Amir Caspi also expects a scientific bonanza from his study aboard a NASA high-altitude plane. Four cameras will record the corona in nine wavelengths as the jet chases the eclipse at 460 mph (740 kph), extending totality to nearly three minutes in the air. Caspi anticipates thousands of images gathered from each camera during those precious 180 seconds.

“It’s true the eclipse is short, but it’s still incredibly valuable,” he said.

And there’s more to come

An exceptionally long total solar eclipse is in store for 2027, yielding nearly three times more observation time.

The southern tip of Spain will take center stage on Aug. 2, 2027, with up to six minutes and 23 seconds of totality extending into Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia.

Then on Jan. 26, 2028, a ring-of-fire eclipse will round out Spain’s celestial trifecta — “a lucky coincidence,” according to ESA’s Mundell.

It’s all the more extraordinary considering Spain’s last full solar eclipse — not counting the Canary Islands — occurred two days before the Titanic’s sinking in 1912. Because that rare hybrid eclipse toggled between a ring-of-fire and just a few seconds of totality for Spain, some consider 1905 for the country’s last pull-out-all-the-stops solar eclipse.

The Royal Observatory of Belgium’s Andrei Zhukov can’t get enough of them regardless of their length or origin. His Proba-3 science mission has created more than 60 simulated total solar eclipses over the past two years, with the longest lasting five hours and 38 minutes from two satellites flying in formation.

“We’re looking forward to more eclipses,” Zhukov said, “natural or artificial.”

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Open-air art event of the month: York River Art Market, Dame Judi Dench Walk, York, August 1 & 2, August 8 & 9 and August 15 & 16, 10am to 5.30pm

YORK River Art Market returns for its 11th year from today, bringing more than 30 artists from multiple disciplines each day to the Ouse riverside over three August weekends of free art and design market stalls.

The poster for York River Art Market 2026 at Dame Judi Dench Walk. Illustration: Elliot Harrison (@York360)

Described as York’s answer to the Left Bank in Paris, the event is now run by Caroline Turner, a professional potter and ceramics teacher at Clay Space York, in Walmgate, after founder and director Charlotte Dawson stepped down to focus on her teaching role as award leader for York College’s BA (Hons) 3D creative practice course.

Political drama of the week: Handbagged, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until August 29

MOIRA Buffini’s 2014 Olivier Award-winning play imagines what happened behind closed palace doors when two of the 20th century’s most powerful women, Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, locked handbags. Meeting once a week for 11 years, one believed there was no such thing as society; the other committed her life to serving it.

Spanning 1979 to 1990, Handbaggedasks if The Queen and the Iron Lady ever found common ground or did their stiff upper lips reign supreme? Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder directs the SJT cast of Pandora Clifford, Liz Garland, Alexandra Mathie, Deven Modha, Simon Darwen and Meriel Scholfield (CORRECT). Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Coastal gigs of the week: Scarborough Open Air Theatre presents The Streets, A Grand Don’t Come For Free, today; Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter, Sunday, gates 6pm

Mike Skinner of The Streets: Performing A Grand Don’t Come For Free in full at Scarborough Open Air Theatre tonight

FOR the first time, The Streets’ Mike Skinner is performing his landmark 2004 album A Grand Don’t Come For Free in full on tour. One of the most influential British records of the 21st century, the multi-platinum-selling chart topper delivered era-defining singles Dry Your Eyes, Fit But You Know It and Blinded By The Lights while taking a cinematic journey through the love, loss, chaos, heartbreak, hope and raw emotion of everyday life with poetic wit and honesty.

Original Sex Pistols members Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock are joined by vocalist Frank Turner on Sunday to mark “50 years of chaos and celebration” since the punk iconoclasts’ brace of Summer 1976 gigs at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall. The Stranglers and The Undertones are special guests. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Candlelit concert of the week: Ignite Concerts presents The Music of ABBA, York Minster, tonight, 7.30pm

VOCALIST Maggie Wakeling, from Channel 4’s Your Song and last summer’s Greatest Shows at York Minster, unites with a band and The Ebor Quartet string ensemble to perform the Seventies and Eighties’ hits of ABBA.

Host Alistair Griffin will be inviting the audience to sing along to Dancing Queen, Waterloo, Mamma Mia, The Winner Takes It All et al at this concert by candlelight. Box office: 07966 959427 or https://igniteconcertsyork.com/events/the-music-of-abba-at-york-minster/.

York comedy gigs of the week: Hot Water Comedy Club presents Paul Smith, Happy, York Barbican, today and August 5, 7.30pm

PAUL Smith, resident MC and compere of Liverpool’s Hot Water Comedy Club, is heading to York for two nights in his biggest, boldest tour show, Happy: fearless stand-up at full throttle, brimful of observations, true stories and audience interaction. Pulling tales from real life, Smith finds joy in the chaos, laughter in the everyday and comedy in absolutely everything. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

New balls please: York Shakespeare Project presents 2026 Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York, August 7 to 15, except August 11, 6pm & 7.30pm, plus 4.30pm Saturday shows

SUMMER at the Goodramgate Lawn Tennis Club finds four doubles teams competing for the chance to play in a Wimbledon amateur tournament, whereupon partnerships and rivalries lead to sabotage and break point. Who has the advantage? Who is at fault? Will the score be love?

Expect further tennis puns aplenty as Rosy Rowley directs Stuart Green’s script that asks a new collection of ten characters to play out this new sporting and unsporting situation where each finds a way to share a Shakespeare sonnet. Taking part will be James Robert Ball, Oscar Langford, Helen Clarke, Sarah McKeagney, Stuart Lindsay, Alexa Williams, Jamie McKeller, Alan Sharp, Christine Bramwell and Effie Warboys.

Mash-up of the week: The Crescent presents New York Brass Band & Hyde Family Jam, York Barbican, August 7, 8pm

TWO of York’s biggest, bounciest musical party troupes collide at York Barbican for a co-headline show with a difference. Promoter Joe Coates has decided the four-piece Hyde Family Jam will be on stage first, followed by an eight-piece line up of New York Brass Band, each playing a 40-minute set before rampant folk-rock meets New Orleans brass head on in a collaborative finale of these street urchins’ biggest hits. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Wonderful wedding dress exhibition of the week: St Helen’s Church, Sheriff Hutton, near York, August 8 and 9, 11am to 3pm

A wedding dress from the exhibition at St Helen’s Church, Sheriff Hutton

STEP back in time for a spectacular display of wedding dresses from every decade since the 1920s at St Helen’s Church. Stroll through a century of wedding style with elegant “going away” outfits, mother-of-the-bride ensembles and men’s morning suits, as well as shoes, hats, bouquets and treasured keepsakes.

“Last year’s exhibition was a tremendous success,” says Jill Donaldson Hodges. “Visitors were captivated by the changing styles, the intricate design and the delicate fabrics that have shaped wedding fashion for over a century. So why not come along and take a trip down memory lane, or get some ideas for an upcoming event?” Admission is free. The Bluebell Cafe will be open on both days, serving homemade cakes and refreshments.

Musical theatre celebration of the week: York Stage presents brings Raise Your Voice: MTI Broadway Junior Revue, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, August 7, 7.30pm, and August 8, 2pm and 4pm

THIS uplifting showcase by the next generation of performers features iconic songs from Broadway Junior favourites, showcased by a talented young York Stage cast ready to sing out and shine as they take centre stage with confidence, courage and nascent star quality. Cue big numbers, heartfelt moments and personality aplenty. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Serena Dolnics, 32, has been charged with murder after police found the body of her father Gregory, 69, covered in blood with his heart allegedly placed on his stomach

A woman found “covered in blood” has been accused of killing her dad and surgically removing his heart.

Serena Dolnics, 32, was found by police at a house in Valparaiso, around 50 miles from Chicago, by the body of her father and she has now been charged with murder.

Police rushed to the scene following a reported emergency call over concern for the wellbeing of 69-year-old Gregory Dolnics on Sunday evening – with a call handler told by family member that the daughter had been making “odd statements” when they asked to speak with him.

And while the relative was on the phone to 911, the police received text messages from Serena Dolnics’ boyfriend, who was at the home, saying “Serena was covered in blood” – and he believed she had stabbed her father and might kill herself, the affidavit reportedly said.

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Arriving at the property, police found the boyfriend locked outside and peering in through a mirror they could see dried blood and they were unable to contact Gregory Dolnics

Forcing entry, they found the body of Gregory, who had allegedly suffered slash wounds to the head, face, neck and hands, while his heart had been cut out from his body. “Laying on his stomach was what appeared to be his heart,” police wrote in the affidavit, reported by USA Today.

According to an autopsy, all of these injuries had been committed with knives, including incisions made to the ribs to allow the removal of the heart.

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Dolnics, who was found in a bedroom at the property with blood on her feet, was arrested and taken into custody after being treated at hospital due to injuries to her hands.

According to court documents, Dolnics claimed she suffered the cuts to her hands while gardening, although police maintain that these injuries were consistent with a knife slipping through.

She told detectives that she and her father “get along really well” despite having the occasional “small tiff” that they would quickly move past. She also insisted she had not seen Gregory injured.

Dolnics made an initial court appearance on Thursday (July 30), where she wore a blue suicide-prevention smock and reportedly spoke hesitantly via a video chat link.

She has reportedly pleaded not guilty, although she is not yet believed to have arranged an attorney, and when asked in court about this, she said: “I’ll figure it out.” A further hearing has been scheduled for August 11.

Drivers are facing long delays on the M6 southbound following a fire this morning.

Two lanes of traffic have been closed and firefighters are working to tackle a blaze between junctions 28 at Leyland and 27 at Standish.

An image from the scene shows a vehicle with a severely damaged front end following the fire.

Long queues of around 50 minutes have built up on the approach.

Updates will follow in this blog.

Ms Knox is set to share her story on stage.

Amanda Knox will be performing a stand-up comedy show at Edinburgh Fringe about her wrongful imprisonment for the murder of Meredith Kercher.

In 2007, British foreign exchange student Ms Kercher was killed in Perugia, Italy. Her American roommate Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were arrested and later convicted of murder and sexual assault in 2009. The couple maintained their innocence and, after years of legal battles, were acquitted of sexual assault and murder by Italy’s highest court in 2015.

Just over a decade on, Ms Knox is now set to share her story on stage. Now 39, she is married with two children and lives on Vashon-Maury Island in rural Washington.

Ms Knox said she initially planned to make a show about motherhood – but was told by comedian friends she had to “address the elephant in the room”. Her comedy show’s title Cartwheel references a story that once claimed she did cartwheels in the police station after her friend’s death.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Ms Knox said she did not believe there were any topics off bounds for comedy, but insisted she would not poke fun at Ms Kercher’s death.

“I don’t joke about Meredith’s death. I joke a lot about how I was vilified, but I don’t joke about her murder. That’s just a line for me. I set red lines for myself that other comedians don’t. I’ve had other comedians pitch me jokes that I just would not do,” she said.

Asked about whether her loved ones were concerned about backlash to the show, she referred to a gag she says on stage: “My friends and family are actually really nervous for me, despite my spotless record in the court of public opinion.” However, The Telegraph has reported that Ms Kercher’s relatives, according to their lawyer Francesco Maresca, have called the idea of the show “offensive and deplorable”.

Ms Knox said: “If they reached out to me and actually communicated with me for the first time ever, I would absolutely want to talk to them. Something that is an unresolved wound for me is the fact that I have never been able to talk to them. I assume they still assume that I’m guilty. I would very much want to establish that kind of communication, but I’m not going to have my life dictated by what they want for me.”

She added: “We share a grief, and we both knew a real person who died, and who primarily belongs to them, but I’m a person too. I have the life that I have lived, and I have the right to tell my own story, and Meredith is a big part of that story. And I think I honour her.”

Ms Knox said that she believed Ms Kercher would “appreciate the show because it grapples with what it means to be a young woman, and it is honest”, adding that she thought her late roommate would have found it “funny”. Ms Knox has previously shared her story in documentaries, an eight-part TV drama she produced with Monica Lewinsky, and books.

Rudy Hermann Guede was convicted of Ms Kercher’s murder in 2008. He was released from prison in 2021 after serving 13 years of a 16-year term.

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Country music star Cliona Hagan has shared the sad news that her father-in-law Dan Sheerin has passed away

Country music star Cliona Hagan has announced the death of Dan Sheerin, her father-in-law and patriarch of the renowned country group The Sheerin Family Band.

Cliona broke the news to her Instagram followers today, paying heartfelt tribute to the father of her husband Simon Sheerin.

Sharing touching photographs of Dan, she said: “It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of Dan Sheerin.

“Dan Sheerin the Father of the Sheerin Family Band and husband of the late Mary Sheerin. “Dan was a truly wonderful man with one of the biggest hearts and my goodness what a singer he was!

He loved growing the most beautiful flowers, tending to his vegetables in his greenhouse, writing songs, playing the guitar, but most importantly he loved his family dearly, reports RSVP Live.

“Please say a prayer tonight for the Sheerin Family and of course for Gods newest angel, Dan Sheerin.”

Roseanna Ruane expressed her sympathies, commenting: “@clionahagan and family, I am so sorry for your great loss.”

Comedian Fred Cooke added: “Sorry for your loss guys! RIP.”, while another follower posted: “You’re all in my thoughts as always I’m so sorry to hear about Dan he was a gentleman xx.”

Describing themselves as The Royal Family of Country Music, The Sheerin Family Band issued their own statement following their father’s passing: “Last night we lost our wonderful dad. A true inspiration to us and to all who knew him.

“Himself and mam will be back singing duets tonight with their heavenly choir. Rest In Peace Dan Sheerin.”

Cliona and her husband Simon had planned to launch their gastropub in Westmeath next weekend, with the former recently telling The Sunday World: “I love music, always have and always will, but I never want to be pigeon-holed, and I love challenges, and I keep pushing myself. I’ve always had a passion for interior design as well, so working on the pub has been a labour of love.”

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