The 55 pilot whales, which had to be euthanised, had been following a female having a difficult birth, scientists believe
The mass stranding and death of 55 whales on the Isle of Lewis in 2023 was caused by the mammals’ loyalty to their pod, a report has concluded.
It had been thought that the unusually large incident on Tràigh Mhòr beach, Tolsta, could have been caused by trauma, disease or acoustic disturbance from military or industrially generated noise.
Continue reading...Minister told MPs the deal had been been paused, but that was immediately denied by the Foreign Office
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has published figures showing that local authorities in England dealt with 1.26m flytipping incidents in 2024/25 – 9% increase on the previous year.
And there was an 11% increase in incidents involving a “tipper lorry load” amount of rubbish. There were 52,000 of these, up from 47,000 in 2023/24. Defra said these alone cost councils £19.3m.
These figures show the equivalent of 142 monster landfills a day took place, confirming what communities across the country know all too well – our beautiful countryside is being used by criminal gangs as their personal landfill.
For far too long, waste gangs have pocketed millions in illegal earning, poisoning our environment and our health without consequence. The Liberal Democrats are demanding an end to this environmental vandalism.
Continue reading...Opposition campaigners claim top figures in regime use state wealth to fund lifestyles counter to those they preach
Members of Iran’s ruling elite have been accused of brazen hypocrisy by allegedly using the state’s wealth to help to fund their adult children’s lives in the west while presiding over growing economic misery and repression at home.
Opposition campaigners made the accusation against some of the clerical regime’s most powerful figures as a military confrontation with the US appears increasingly likely. Donald Trump has deployed a vast armada in the Middle East and confirmed he is considering strikes.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: As suppliers get ready to meet policy makers and space agencies at the industry’s largest gathering, a look at the exploration and exploitation of space
Good morning. This week Glasgow hosts one of the UK’s largest ever gatherings of the space industry at Space-Comm. With representatives of Nasa, the UK and Scottish governments and the UK space agency among 2,000 space leaders gathering there, it is a chance for people in the commercial supply chain of the space exploration industry to meet policy makers and space agencies.
It comes at a crucial moment in the exploration – and exploitation – of space. For almost three decades the International Space Station (ISS) has bound the US and Russia into cooperation and shared interests. That project is nearing its end, and we can expect to see a realignment of missions and goals – which may bring states and scientists into conflict.
Politics | Britain’s budget watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, has said the early leak of its budget documents before Rachel Reeves made her speech last week, was the “worst failure” in its 15-year history, as its chair resigned and it emerged a similar leak had happened earlier this year.
Health | The World Health Organization has urged countries to make weight loss drugs more accessible and pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices, saying jabs including Mounjaro represent a “new chapter” in the fight against obesity.
Ukraine | The coming days may be “pivotal” for talks to end the war in Ukraine, the EU’s top diplomat said, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday and the US envoy Steve Witkoff flew out to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday.
Donald Trump | Donald Trump said he “wouldn’t have wanted” a second strike that the US military reportedly conducted on a boat in the Caribbean that it believed to be ferrying drugs, killing survivors of an initial missile attack. The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, has urged Washington to investigate, saying there was “strong evidence” of “extrajudicial” killings.
Asia-Pacific | Sri Lanka and Indonesia have deployed military personnel to help victims of the torrential floods that have killed 1,100 in four countries in Asia. Heavy cyclones and tropical monsoon rains have hit the region in recent days.
Continue reading...Staff at human rights body said to be ‘desperate for regime change’ over inertia after court’s legal definition of a woman
The ongoing impasse over guidance from the UK’s human rights watchdog on access to single-sex spaces is distracting from other pressing issues, including the rise of the far right, insiders have told the Guardian.
Some members of staff at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) are described as “desperate for regime change” ahead of the new chair, Mary-Ann Stephenson, taking up her post in December.
Continue reading...David Coburn, who was leader of Ukip in Scotland, denies involvement after Nathan Gill jailed for taking bribes
A former leading member of the group of MEPs headed by Nigel Farage has denied taking money as part of a campaign to promote Russian interests.
David Coburn, who was leader of Ukip in Scotland for four years, was responding after the jailing of his former colleague, Nathan Gill, on charges of being bribed by an alleged pro-Russian asset.
Continue reading...PM says: ‘We kept to our manifesto in terms of what we’ve promised. But I accept the challenge that we’ve asked everybody to contribute’
The Conservative party is attacking the budget on the grounds that Rachel Reeves is putting up taxes supposedly to fund more spending on benefit claimants. Even though the rationale for this claim is questionable, the Tories were making it before the budget was announced, and Kemi Badenoch firmed it up last night, claiming it was a “Benefits Street budget”.
On LBC this morning, asked if the budget meant “alarm clock Britain paying for Benefits Street”, Reeves said she did not accept that. She said 60% of the families that would benefit from the removal of the two-child benefit cap (the most expensive welfare announcement in the budget) were in work.
I don’t think children should be punished by this pernicious policy any longer. And the cost to society of this is huge, the cost for councils of temporary accommodation, when people can no longer afford the rent, putting families in B&Bs, kids having to move to school all the time because parents have moved from B&B to another lot of temporary accommodation, and there’s costs for years to come, because all the evidence shows that kids that are growing up poor are less likely to get into work and more reliant on the welfare state in the future for them.
So this is a good investment in those kids, to give them the chances that I want for my kids, and everyone wants for their kids. It also saves money for taxpayers on that accommodation, on those additional health costs, and ensuring that those kids grow up to be productive adults.
Continue reading...Environmental charity Fidra says 168 of 195 SSSIs it surveyed are contaminated with tiny pellets
Plastic nurdles have been found in 84% of important nature sites surveyed in the UK.
Nurdles are tiny pellets that the plastics industry uses to make larger products. They were found in 168 of 195 sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs), so named because of the rare wildlife they harbour. They are given extra protections in an effort to protect them from pollution.
Continue reading...Celebrations to McLean’s jaw-dropping goal picked up by seismic activity monitors at Glasgow Geothermal Observatory
When Scotland qualified for the men’s football World Cup for the first time in 28 years, supporters were propelled into wild celebration – and even made the earth move in the process.
According to the British Geological Survey (BGS), when Kenny McLean scored from the halfway line to seal a breathtaking 4-2 win over Denmark, which are ranked 18 places higher in the world than Scotland, the reaction at Hampden Park was equivalent to a very small earthquake.
Continue reading...Supreme court ruled ‘rape shield’ laws to limit intrusive cross-examination may breach men’s right to fair trial
Scotland’s most senior law officer has moved to reassure victims of sexual abuse that they will be protected after a supreme court ruling warned that Scottish laws designed to limit intrusive cross-examination could be breaching men’s right to a fair trial.
In a strongly worded statement, the lord advocate, Dorothy Bain KC, said: “I would like to make clear that I understand sexual abuse inflicted upon women and children to be the single greatest challenge our justice system faces.
Continue reading...Fallout from extraordinary briefing operation against Wes Streeting continues as calls grow for Starmer to sack his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney
Haroon Siddique is the Guardian’s legal affairs correspondent.
Five UN experts have written to ministers criticising the ban on Palestine Action as something that would be expected in an authoritarian regime rather than a liberal democracy.
In the work of UN experts in monitoring counter-terrorism laws globally, abuse of laws to proscribe organisations as terrorist that are not genuinely so has more commonly occurred in states that are authoritarian and lack legal and political cultures of respect for human rights, legality, due process and independent judicial safeguards, in order to target civil society organisations, human rights defenders, political dissidents and minorities.
It is deeply concerning that such practices appear to have spread to a number of liberal democracies. Organisations must never be listed as terrorist for engaging in protected speech or legitimate activities in defence of human rights.
We are concerned that proscription and its consequences result in unnecessary and disproportionate restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and the rights to take part in public affairs and to liberty.
The Scottish government’s tax decisions enable us to deliver higher investment in the NHS and policies like free tuition not available anywhere else in the UK.
Continue reading...Lammy, standing in for Keir Starmer, avoided answering questions on the mistaken release during PMQs
David Lammy starts by saying the PM is in Brazil.
He says the thoughts of all MPs are still with the victims of the appalling attacks in Huntingdon and Peterborough, where, he says, he was at school for seven years.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed, you can read more of our UK political coverage here
Mark Sedwill, the former cabinet secretary and former national security adviser, goes next. He is now a peer, and a member of the committee.
He says the deputy national security adviser, Matthew Collins, thought there was enough evidence for the case to go ahead. But the CPS did not agree. Who was right?
In 2017, the Law Commission flagged that the term enemy [in the legislation] was deeply problematic and it would give rise to difficulties in future prosecutions.
And I think what has played out, during this prosecution exemplifies and highlights the difficulties with that.
Continue reading...A charismatic, tweed-wearing grower from Perthshire falsely claimed to be able to create thriving tea plantations in Scotland. His elaborate deception took in luxury hotels, media outlets and tea growers across the country
With its large silver pouch, artistic label and delicate leaves, Dalreoch Scottish white tea might be expected to grace elegant cups with saucers, perhaps with a scone served on the side. Instead, it is nestled with an array of numbered polythene packets in a room just off a laboratory at the University of Aberdeen.
This is not an ordinary afternoon tea but evidence in a crime that science helped solve.
Continue reading...Dundee firefighters request return of donated appliance to avoid Nablus officials having to pay £16,000 Ashdod holding fees
A fully equipped fire engine donated by Dundee firefighters to their counterparts in the West Bank city of Nablus could be sent back to Scotland after being impounded for more than a year by Israeli authorities.
Firefighters in Dundee, which is twinned with Nablus, have regularly donated kit, equipment and medical supplies to the West Bank over the past 15 years, as well as bringing Palestinian firefighters to Scotland for training.
Continue reading...The hit Scottish comedy about suburban neighbours will move from screen to stage next year at Glasgow’s Hydro
Two Doors Down, the BBC comedy series about a suburban Scottish couple with constantly knocking neighbours, is to be brought to the stage.
Unusually, it will make that journey with the full cast from the hit TV show intact. Alex Norton and Arabella Weir will reprise their roles as Eric and Beth, whose house on Latimer Crescent is consistently besieged by the street’s residents, usually expecting a drink or two. Elaine C Smith will return as the oversharing Christine, and Doon Mackichan and Jonathan Watson are reuniting as a flashy couple, with an unhealthy interest in everyone’s intimate business. The younger couple on the street will again be played by Graeme Stevely and Joy McAvoy, while Jamie Quinn will be back as Eric and Beth’s son, Ian, with standup Kieran Hodgson once more playing his partner, Gordon.
Continue reading...Nicholas Rossi, who fled US, receives first of two sentences after being convicted of raping two women in Utah in 2008
A judge has sentenced a Rhode Island man who appeared to fake his death and flee the United States to avoid arrest of at least five years in prison for rape.
The sentence handed down Monday for Nicholas Rossi, 38, was the first of two he faces after being convicted separately in August and September of raping two women in northern Utah in 2008. He is scheduled to be sentenced in November for the second conviction.
Continue reading...FoI data shows 180,000 students and graduates weighed down by private debt amid cost of living crisis
Students have accrued nearly £500m in “hidden debts” to their universities, including library fines, unpaid accommodation and support loans, according to figures that highlight the cost of living crisis on UK campuses.
The figures from freedom of information requests sent to 148 UK universities showed that 180,000 students and graduates owe private debts totalling £486m to universities, averaging about £2,650 each.
Continue reading...Members overwhelmingly endorse leadership motion that majority at next Holyrood election is only route to second vote
SNP members have overwhelmingly backed leader John Swinney’s “clear and unambiguous” independence strategy that a majority election win is the only route to another referendum.
On the first day of the party’s annual conference in Aberdeen, the vast majority of members backed the leadership’s motion that next May’s Holyrood elections should be fought on a “clear platform of national independence” and that winning a majority in the Scottish parliament – by securing 65 seats or more – would be “the only uncontested way to deliver a new vote on Scotland’s future”.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here
Voting in the Labour deputy leadership election opens today. Lucy Powell, the former Commons leader, is seen as the favourite and, as Jessica Elgot reports, Powell told supporters yesterday that, if she is elected, she will use the post to argue for changes in the way the government is operating. “We can’t sugarcoat the fact that things aren’t going well,” she said.
Powell is no longer a government minister and, if she is elected deputy leader, she will do the job from the backbenches. In an interview on Newsnight last night, Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary standing against Powell, said a Powell victory would be “destabilising” for the party. She said:
[Electing Powell] risks destabilising the party … we best achieve what we need to do together when we have those fierce conversations, including disagreements, behind closed doors.
Members need to understand that there’s a potential challenge around all of that – that if you’re not inside when the big decisions are being made, you’re not at that table, you’re not in those conversations.
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