It can look like a hangover and become life-threatening within hours. Why first-year students face a much higher risk of meningococcal disease, and the warning signs every flatmate should know.

A free timeline exhibition and a pay-what-you-can evening of stories and reggae mark four decades of the festival on 3 October.

Remember the Beast from the East? Hold on to that memory. Leeds researcher Weronika Osmolska finds winter cold spells across the northern hemisphere are getting rarer, milder and shorter, and not in the way scientists predicted.

Rogue AI can't pipette a virus or walk a USB stick into a power station. It can, however, get 32 students to write about Madagascar for no reason. Sheffield professor Alessandro Di Nuovo and senior lecturer Samuele Vinanzi on the danger nobody's selling.

Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke and Craig Revel Horwood reunite on the judging panel, with tickets on sale from 9am on Friday 25 September.

Criminals are paying people to take in packages that may hold drugs, weapons or stolen goods, and whoever takes them in could end up with a criminal record.

Police say wearing an identity-concealing covering in a designated area on Saturday may be an offence, as a rightwing group and anti-fascist campaigners plan rival demonstrations.

Car theft, gunfights and a surprisingly well-run democracy. As GTA VI heads for release in November, a Leeds researcher explains why players keep inventing politics the game never asked for.

South Yorkshire Police have arrested a man in his 60s and a woman in her 50s in connection with the investigation into potential explosive substances in High Green, as the officer leading the inquiry confirms it remains active and urges the public not to speculate.

A year after opening behind Gledhow Wing at St James's, the White Rose Wellbeing Garden marked its anniversary with a mosaic-making session run by the Royal Horticultural Society, as staff and patients describe a green space that's become part of both everyday relief and recovery at the hospital.

Diggers have moved into Selby Park as North Yorkshire Council begins a £353,000 revamp that will replace the town's much-loved but ageing crazy golf course with a nine-hole adventure trail tracing Selby's history from Viking settlers to the railway age.

A new two-storey police station just off Broadway has opened its doors to Huddersfield residents, marking the final step in a programme running more than ten years to replace ageing police buildings across Kirklees.

Healthcare professionals from across the region gathered at Martin House's newly redeveloped Boston Spa hospice this week for its first dedicated conference on children's palliative care, taking in case studies, hands-on workshops and a tour of the transformed building.

What started in 1975 as three wildlife enthusiasts lobbying Barnsley Council to protect a patch of wetland known locally as Carlton Swamps has grown into a reserve with more than 2,000 recorded species, marking its 50th anniversary this year.

Landsec has expanded its partnership with the Retail Trust to Xscape Yorkshire and 12 other UK sites, offering free de-escalation and resilience training to shop-floor, security and cleaning staff, as new figures show retail workers nationally face more than 1,600 incidents of abuse or violence every day.

West Yorkshire Police is urging residents to think twice before accepting cash to take in parcels for someone else, warning that a scheme often pitched as easy home-working is being used by organised criminals to move drugs, stolen goods and dirty money.

A £20 million expansion of Seacroft's Community Diagnostic Centre has been unveiled, adding two MRI scanners and more treatment rooms, with construction starting in 2027 and the upgraded centre opening in spring/summer 2028.

Rob Wilson of LGBTQ+ community organisation Angels of Freedom reflects on what belonging means to him, drawing on his own recovery from alcohol dependency, ahead of the group's move into Woodhouse Community Centre.

Leeds Arts Centre opens its 2026/27 season with She Kills Monsters, running 14 to 17 October, featuring ten hand-built cardboard monsters created by the company's "Monster Squad" over just three days.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park's first annual progress report shows good progress on 21 of 40 objectives in its 2025-30 Management Plan, including £1.5m in farm grants and peatland restoration across 2,275 hectares.

North Yorkshire Council has set out repair plans for Middleham Bridge, closed since an HGV collision earlier this month, with temporary repairs expected by the end of October and permanent work starting spring 2027.

Leeds Playhouse has announced the full cast for Dr. Seuss's How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical, led by West End star Joel Montague, running in the Quarry Theatre from 19 November to 16 January.

A new £9.6 million community sports facility, Woodhall Sports Hub, has opened in Calverley, backed by Leeds City Council and the Football Foundation, with two further Leeds hubs planned at Holbeck and Green Park.

Railway enthusiast Anthony Pilkington has toured Network Rail's Gresley Institute in Doncaster after winning the visit in a Gresley Society charity auction marking 150 years since Sir Nigel Gresley's birth.

Northern Ballet has announced a new children's production, Robin Hood, opening at Leeds's Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre in February 2027 before touring 13 UK venues and London.

Barnsley police and council wardens have launched joint patrols to tackle shoplifting in the town centre, with officers also issuing Criminal Behavioural Orders to repeat offenders.

South Yorkshire Police has released a CCTV image of a man they want to speak to after a reported sexual assault on Fargate, Sheffield city centre, on 30 July.

The police cordon on Mapplebeck Road in Sheffield's High Green area has been lifted, allowing evacuated residents to return home, after the Army's Explosive Ordnance Team confirmed nearby properties were no longer at risk.

White Rose Shopping Centre is running a free Halloween pumpkin trail this half term, from Friday 23 to Saturday 31 October, challenging families to track down 12 hidden pumpkins across the centre.

St Gemma's Hospice holds its annual Sunset Walk at Roundhay Park this Saturday, 19 September, with participant Katie Eshelby walking in memory of her grandmother Margaret, who was cared for at the hospice.

Harewood House has revealed details of its 2026 Christmas offering, including immersive experience Magic at the Mansion and a brand-new outdoor Elf Village, running from 6 November to 3 January.

Emmerdale actress Olivia Bromley has joined the cast of Middlesbrough Theatre's Christmas pantomime Aladdin as The Fairy of the Ring, running from 5 to 31 December.

A police cordon remains in place on Mapplebeck Road in Sheffield's High Green area, after nearby households were evacuated on Tuesday while specialists search a property linked to an explosives investigation.

Yorkshire Mafia's next Leeds Business Social takes place at The Banksia, Hotel Indigo, on Thursday 24 September, as founder Geoff Shepherd sets out ambitions to significantly grow the organisation's membership through 2026.

Lotherton launches 'Spellbound', a new Halloween trail where families help ten witches mend a broken spell across the estate, running from 24 October to 1 November alongside the return of Once Upon a Nightmare.

Volunteers from South Leeds Archaeology have uncovered the 280-year-old foundations of a mystery building at Temple Newsam, alongside finds spanning thousands of years of the estate's history.

Leeds Conservatoire's Jazz department has been shortlisted for the 2026 Parliamentary Jazz Education Award, alongside graduate Olivia Cuttill and long-time collaborator Nikki Iles, both up for individual honours.

Official Blue Badge Tourist Guide training has returned to Yorkshire for the first time since 2014, with organisers seeking storytellers, local history enthusiasts and career-changers to train as the region's next professional tour guides.

Mayor Luke Campbell has confirmed continued funding for community organisations until March 2027, as Hull and East Yorkshire begins testing a new Neighbourhood Health and Prosperity model in East Hull and Bridlington this autumn.

The first phase of York Central, one of the UK's largest regeneration schemes, has been granted planning approval, paving the way for over 1,000 new homes, a hotel, a new station entrance and thousands of jobs.

Police forces across South Yorkshire, Humberside and North Yorkshire have marked National Rural Crime Week of Action, highlighting funding schemes, seasonal risks to farmers, and a rural crime picture officers say is increasingly linked to organised crime.

A £1 billion order for 29 new battery-electric trains has been announced for the TransPennine Express network, with Hull and East Yorkshire's mayor hailing the region's inclusion in the investment.

Paul Benstock, 62, of East Ardsley, has been jailed for 37 years after being convicted of more than 40 sexual and physical assault offences against five victims, including 14 counts of rape, following a Leeds Safeguarding Unit investigation.

Humanity is useless at processing doom on a global scale. Which is why we need Mr Cheeseface.

A review of North Yorkshire's 2024 school travel policy change has found it broadly working as intended, but recommends 24 improvements including removing five unsuitable routes and strengthening the appeals process.

Barnsley businesses are invited to take part in Ctrl + Alt + Learn: Digital Careers, a new event on Thursday 1 October connecting local schools with the borough's digital and technology sector.

A festive tipi run by True North Brew Co returns to The Glass Works Square from 4 December to New Year's Eve, as part of Barnsley's Christmas on The Square programme alongside the Artisan Street Fayre and Young Trader Market.

Aurora specialist José Jiménez gives a free talk on the science of the Northern Lights at The Attic in Leeds this Friday, exploring the rare conditions under which the aurora can be seen as far south as the city.

Elsecar Heritage Centre is taking part in Heritage Open Days with a programme of free talks and performances, plus an RSPB Old Moor exhibition tracing the Dearne Valley's shift from industry to wildlife conservation.

CHORAL, Leeds' child health research organisation, has appointed Professor Niina Kolehmainen as its first clinical academic health and care professions' chair, bringing two decades of clinical and research experience from Newcastle University.