Axel Piper

The Lahore skies had other plans on Friday as rain and rumbling clouds pushed the Pakistan vs Scotland ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier clash into an anxious, unwanted delay. What was meant to be a crisp 10:00 AM IST start at the historic Lahore City Cricket Association Ground turned into a waiting game, with both teams stuck indoors while the grounds crew kept their eyes glued to the radar and covers firmly on the pitch. Wet Skies, Dry Patience: Toss Yet to Take Place The toss, originally scheduled for half an hour before the start, never happened. Thunderstorms swept through…

Volunteering across Scotland is collapsing at a pace few predicted. A new report puts the scale of the problem into stark perspective, with hundreds of thousands stepping back — or never stepping forward — to help. A warning from Volunteer Scotland says the country is in the midst of a volunteering crisis, one that's stretching the third sector to its limits. People are burned out, skint, and simply out of time. Formal volunteering numbers plummet across the country In just one year — between 2022 and 2023 — formal volunteering dropped by four percentage points. Doesn’t sound like much? That’s…

CARDIFF – Wales has recorded the slowest recovery in bus usage anywhere in Great Britain since the Covid-19 pandemic, with new data showing passenger numbers are still more than 20% below pre-2020 levels. A Senedd climate change committee report published this week found that in the 12 months to March 2024, Welsh bus ridership stood at 78.3% of March 2020 levels. That compares unfavourably with England (89.5%), Scotland (92.5%), and Great Britain overall (89.5%). The slump has been attributed primarily to a sharp drop in older people using concessionary bus passes, with some opting for online services over public transport.…

EDINBURGH – Patients in Scotland suffering from a rare and debilitating autoimmune liver disease will soon have access to the first new treatment in nearly ten years, as Ipsen’s Iqirvo (elafibranor) has been accepted for use by NHS Scotland, the pharmaceutical company confirmed Monday. The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) approved Iqirvo for use in primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), a rare, chronic liver condition that can lead to liver failure if left inadequately treated. The green light comes after strong results in clinical trials and marks a key milestone for Ipsen’s expanding rare disease portfolio. Targeting a gap in care Iqirvo,…

Union members across Scotland’s councils are preparing to walk out after rejecting a 3% pay offer, with ballots showing overwhelming support for strike action if no improved deal is put on the table. The stage is now set for a major standoff between local authority workers and employers as discontent brews over what unions describe as years of pay erosion and disregard for the public sector’s lowest-paid staff. More Than Just a Pay Dispute This isn’t just about percentages. It’s personal now. Local government workers say they’re fed up watching their pay fall further behind as costs rise and recognition…

All 54 turbines at the 450 MW Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) offshore wind farm have now been installed, marking a major construction milestone for one of Scotland’s flagship renewable energy projects. Final Turbine Raised at Dawn The last Siemens Gamesa 8 MW turbine was installed in the early hours of April 7, completing the wind farm’s generating infrastructure. Located 15.5 kilometers off the coast of Fife in the North Sea, NnG now stands fully equipped and ready to transition into final commissioning. The installation was carried out by Fred. Olsen Windcarrier’s jack-up vessel Brave Tern, which has led the second…

They gathered around the water’s edge — some with claws, others with colossal feet, each leaving an imprint in the sand that would outlast time itself. And 167 million years later, in the cool, salt-stung air of the Isle of Skye, their presence is being felt again. Researchers have uncovered 131 fossilized dinosaur footprints at a site called Prince Charles’s Point, on the northern tip of Skye. The findings, published last week in PLOS One, offer a rare glimpse into a pivotal moment in the Middle Jurassic, when the dynamics between predator and prey — and between land and sea…

A spirited racehorse caused a brief but dramatic stir in East Lothian this week after unseating its jockey at Musselburgh Racecourse and sprinting freely through the town of Prestonpans—still in full racing gear. The horse, a 10-year-old gelding named Rufio, broke loose during the final race of the Virgin Bet Christmas Jumper Raceday event held Monday afternoon. Footage circulating on social media shows Rufio galloping at speed through residential streets, still wearing his No. 7 saddle cloth and blinkers as bemused locals looked on. Loose in Prestonpans The incident unfolded at approximately 3:15pm, shortly after the horse dislodged its rider,…

A fast-moving wildfire tearing through Scotland's Galloway Forest Park is pushing emergency services to the brink, with crews working through the night and into Saturday as fresh concerns over firefighter exhaustion grow. The fire erupted late Friday night in Glentrool and has since spread rapidly across the rugged forest landscape, with flames threatening nearby hills and reaching as far as East Ayrshire. Helicopters Called In as Flames Advance Across the Highlands Firefighters were first dispatched to Glentrool just before midnight on Friday. What they encountered was already out of control — a massive wall of fire devouring dry brush and…

While Westminster continues to stall any new referendum, a Scottish campaign group is quietly working international channels to keep the dream of independence alive. Operating outside party lines but with a clear nationalist purpose, Scotland-UN is building a case for self-determination — not just for Scots, but for the rest of the world to hear. The pitch: Scotland, a nation without a voice Scotland-UN doesn’t have an office in New York or Geneva. But make no mistake — they’re speaking to the world. Through think pieces, legal arguments, and direct engagement with foreign officials and human rights lawyers, the group…