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In a quiet Dumfries and Galloway village, Linda Galloway isn’t quite sure if she shares blood with one of the most talked-about politicians in America—but she’s leaning toward hoping not. The former Linda Vance has been fielding the same question since JD Vance took the vice-presidential oath: are they related? The Republican firebrand calls himself a “Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart,” and now that he’s vacationing in Scotland, the speculation has grown. Two Possible Ancestral Trails If the family tree lines up one way, Vance’s ancestors might have owned land where Donald Trump’s Menie golf course now sprawls along the Aberdeenshire…

Scotland’s fintech hub just got two heavyweight additions. Global law firm CMS and payments giant Mastercard have signed on as strategic partners, promising to bring fresh legal muscle, technological expertise, and international reach to the country’s growing financial innovation scene. Big Names Step Into Scotland’s Fintech Arena The announcement marks a significant step for FinTech Scotland’s cluster, which already includes more than 35 strategic partners from across finance, technology, and academia. Now, with CMS and Mastercard in the mix, there’s a sense that the collaborative network is shifting gears. FinTech Scotland says the move reflects “continued momentum” in the sector.…

Scotland woke up to sweltering heat and an urgent double weather alert on Thursday, with the Met Office warning of thunderstorms capable of dumping dangerous amounts of rain in a very short time. The national forecaster says some spots could be lashed by as much as 60mm of rain in an hour — the kind of intense downpour that turns streets into rivers and brings travel to a standstill. Storm Risk Spreads Across the Country This isn’t a localised pocket of bad weather. From the Borders to the Highlands, the yellow thunderstorm warning stretches across the map. The alerts came…

Each spring, the North Sea comes alive. Shoals of herring move like liquid silver along Scotland’s coast, following the tiny, fat-rich Calanus copepods that drift south on coastal currents. And for generations, a second migration followed — not of fish, but of people. Behind the fishermen who hauled in the catch came the women who would make the herring business possible. Known as the Herring Lassies, they gutted, salted, packed, and travelled the length of Britain, carving out a place in industrial history — and defying expectations of what women’s work could be. Following the Fish Herring were never a…

Nicola Sturgeon’s new book has re-opened an uncomfortable conversation in Scottish politics: how a seemingly unstoppable independence movement hit the brakes — and whether the Scottish National Party’s own missteps are to blame. The former first minister’s memoir, Frankly, has attracted sharp reviews and awkward interview moments, offering both her version of history and fresh fodder for critics who say the SNP squandered its advantage. A Movement That Once Seemed Inevitable For years, independence was framed as a rising tide — the political equivalent of gravity. Polling regularly showed a near-even split, with support peaking in the aftermath of Brexit.…

Scotland’s most important wetlands will now get the same level of legal protection as Europe’s top conservation sites, after the government responded to a watchdog’s investigation into a long-standing policy gap. Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) confirmed this week that ministers have updated policy so all Ramsar sites — wetlands of international significance — must now go through rigorous environmental checks before any development is approved. From Loophole to Landmark Policy Change The update may sound technical, but campaigners say it fixes a flaw that has lingered for years. Until now, protection for Ramsar sites depended on whether they were also…

Two seasoned digital media figures are relocating to Scotland to launch a consultancy focused on one of the internet’s busiest platforms — YouTube. Caitlin Meek O’Connor and Mark MacDonald, a married pair with heavyweight experience in broadcast and online content, have unveiled Ferry, a service aimed at helping companies build strategy, teams, and structures for video and social operations. A Move That’s Both Business and Personal For the couple, Scotland offers more than just a backdrop. It’s a base for a new chapter. Meek O’Connor leaves her post as head of Night Train Digital after two years, while MacDonald has…

Forty years ago, Crawford Beveridge returned from California—a place then brimming with start-up energy—to take the helm of the newly formed Scottish Enterprise. He inherited a nation struggling with a simple but critical problem: a lack of companies. “We in Scotland have been aware that as a nation we seem to have lost some of that entrepreneurial drive,” Beveridge said. His assessment triggered a landmark national inquiry into why Scotland’s business birthrate lagged. The resulting 1991 Business Birthrate Enquiry and the 1993 Business Birthrate Strategy became global talking points, studied by the OECD and copied abroad. The vision then was…

US Vice-President JD Vance has arrived in Scotland for the second leg of his UK trip, settling into a secluded Ayrshire estate under heavy police presence and airspace restrictions. Air Force Two touched down at Prestwick Airport on Wednesday evening, before Vance’s motorcade made the short drive to Hulford. The stay marks the start of a five-day visit — matching the length of President Donald Trump’s recent Scottish holiday. Prestwick Arrival Draws Attention Vance stepped off the blue-and-white jet wearing an open-neck white shirt and a navy suit. His arrival at Prestwick, a familiar gateway for US political figures, was…

EDINBURGH – August 12, 2025 — Scotland’s ambition to lead the way in circular economy innovation is being undermined by a stubborn bottleneck: a shortage of domestic facilities to reprocess plastics, metals, paper and batteries. A new government-commissioned assessment has revealed that the country exports most of its high-value recyclable materials, forfeiting millions in potential economic gains. The Waste Reprocessing Infrastructure in Scotland report, published last week under the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024, paints a striking picture: just 1.3% of the resources used in Scotland are cycled back into its own economy. That’s a fraction of the UK’s 7.5%…