37 h. ago This tiny Australian bat is the size of a matchbox. But it flies up to 150km a night in search of food

Until now, little was known about foraging flights of critically endangered southern bent-wing bats, which roost in cavesGet Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an emailGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA tiny, critically endangered bat – roughly the size of a matchbox – can fly about 150km in a single night, new research has found.Southern bent-wing bats roost in caves in south-west Victoria and south-east South Australia. They fly out at night in search of food, eating about half their body weight in insects. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago This new EU deal is great for Britain. Now, Labour, focus on the future, not on Farage | Polly Toynbee

Cheaper food, passport e-gates, youth exchanges – we are finally on a path to repair the colossal damage Brexit has doneCircle the wagons: Europe draws together confronting an enemy to its east and a rogue state to its west. “Everything has changed,” said the prime minister and chancellor, and so it has. Once nestled in the arms of Nato, now alarmingly alone, we have no choice but to embrace neighbours we shunned. Thanks to Vladimir Putin, (nearly) all Europeans now see clearly what was always the case. In danger we need each other, never mind fish or dynamic alignment.But talking about less important things was always the British way. So headlines and the Today programme bang on about the 12-year continuance of the fishing deal struck by Boris Johnson, allowing French boats into our waters. It’s hard on fishing communities, but not worse than before. The Brexiters used and cheated fishers. But a government has to weigh up winners and losers when fishing contributes just 0.03% to UK...

Economics

8 d. ago British boy, eight, seriously injured on holiday in Spain after smashing through a hotel window

A British child has been seriously injured after smashing into a window at a hotel in Magaluf.

Events

9 d. ago Tina Turner musical to close in London’s West End after seven years

The show made its West End debut in April 2018.

Politics

1 week ago Water warnings as some areas have driest start to year for nearly a century

Scotland has had its driest start to the year since 1931 while north-west and north-east England have had the lowest rainfall since 1929.

Events

2 w. ago West Lothian day care centre awarded £5,000 by Scotmid members

Answer Day Care Centre in West Lothian is one of three good causes across the East of Scotland that has been awarded a share of a £25,000 Scotmid funding pot.

Economics

2 w. ago From Nurse to Deputy Manager: East Whitburn care home celebrates colleague’s ‘rollercoaster’ journey on International Nurses’ Day

This International Nurses’ Day on May 12, 2025, HC-One Scotland’s Redmill Care Home in East Whitburn, West Lothian, is proud to shine a spotlight on the inspiring journey of one of its own – Deputy Manager Carina Campos, whose determination, compassion, and leadership reflect the very best of the nursing profession.

Society

2 w. ago Geography has given the US unrivaled security. Trump is destroying it | Gil Barndollar and Rajan Menon

The US’s greatest strategic advantage is its friendly neighbors. But its ties to Canada and Mexico are being underminedThe secret to American power and pre-eminence was best summed up more than a century ago.America, observed Jean Jules Jusserand, France’s ambassador to the United States during the first world war, “is blessed among the nations”. To the north and south were friendly and militarily weak neighbors; “on the east, fish, and the west, fish”. The United States was and is both a continental power and, in strategic terms, an island – with all the security those gifts of geography provide. No world power has ever been as fortunate. This unique physical security is the real American exceptionalism.Gil Barndollar is a non-resident fellow at the Defense Priorities Foundation. Rajan Menon is Spitzer professor emeritus of international relations at the Powell School, City College of New York, and a senior research scholar at the Saltzman Institute at Columbia University. Continue...

Politics

3 w. ago A luxury lighthouse stay in northern Spain: ‘Windows look east and west to sunrise and sunset’

A renovated lighthouse on the Bay of Biscay is the perfect base for exploring Asturias’s maritime delightsI have always longed to be a lighthouse keeper and now, at last, I am one. If only for the weekend. Look at my chunky-knit jumper! Feel the waterproof weave of my Donegal tweed cap! Truth be told, I am way too toasty in this quasi-nautical ensemble, having hoped and dressed for ominous fog, murderous gales and oceanic rainstorms. Instead, it is bright, calm and warm on an early spring afternoon in the famously pretty fishing village of Cudillero in Asturias, where the Costa Verde of northern Spain drops away into the deep blue Bay of Biscay.Built in 1858, the local lighthouse – the Faro de Cudillero – stands on a shelf of rock just beyond the harbour, a short walk up stone steps and along a narrow cliff side service path. Its hexagonal beacon tower has been remodelled a few times over the years. The signal lamp inside was first fuelled by olive oil, then paraffin and petrol, bef...

Politics

3 w. ago Israel faces legal pressure at UN’s top court over Unrwa blockade

Hearings in The Hague over Palestinian aid agency ban mark major test of Israel’s compliance with international lawIsrael will come under sustained legal pressure this week at the UN’s top court when lawyers from more than 40 countries will claim the nation’s ban on all cooperation with the UN’s Palestinian rights agency Unrwa is a breach of the UN charter.The five days of hearings at the International court of justice in The Hague have been given a fresh urgency by Israel’s decision on 2 March to block all aid into Gaza, but the hearing will focus on whether Israel – as a signatory to the UN charter – acted unlawfully in overriding the immunities afforded to a UN body. Israel ended all contact and cooperation with Unrwa operations in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem in November, claiming the agency had been infiltrated by Hamas, an allegation that has been contested. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Counter terror police leading probe after two women seriously injured in Leeds

Officers were called to Otley Road at 2.47pm on Saturday and two women were found with serious injuries, West Yorkshire Police said.

Events

3 w. ago Cops seize £190k worth of drugs and weapons during raids on homes

One raid took place at around 9.30am yesterday morning - Friday, April 25, 2025 - in the West Lothian village of East Whitburn.

Events

4 w. ago Reform UK on course to win in two mayoral contests – UK politics live

Polling predicts victory for party in Greater Lincolnshire and Hull/East Yorkshire with the Greens possibly taking West of EnglandThere are six mayoral elections next week. Two of them are for single-authority mayors (Doncaster and North Tyneside), but the others are for combined-authority mayors (or regional mayors – like metro mayors, but not just covering city regions). Today YouGov has released polling covering all four of these contests and it suggests Reform UK is on course to win two of them easily. And the Green party is narrowly ahead in a third, the poll suggests.Here are the polling figures.In theory the Tories should be winning in Lincolnshire as they hold most of the parliamentary seats in the area and have dominated local politics forever. But it’s also the most Reform-friendly part of the country. It contains Richard Tice’s constituency and numerous seats in which they came second. Plus their candidate is a former Tory MP – Andrea Jenkyns, famous for her Boris Johnson...

Politics