The octopus fishermen protecting Portugal’s largest reef
Alamy (Credit: Alamy) On one of Portugal’s most well-trodden coastlines, communities are working to preserve marine life and ensure vital food sources – such as octopus – are available long into the future. Armação de Pêra, a former fishing village turned resort town in the Algarve on Portugal’s southern coastline, is all but deserted in […]
Fly brain sheds light on human thought process
MRC/Nature As beautiful as it is complex, the fly’s brain has more than 130,000 wires with 50 million intricate connections They can walk, hover and the males can even sing love songs to woo mates – all this with a brain that’s tinier than a pinhead. Now for the first time scientists researching the brain […]
Japan has an excess sushi problem. These food waste activists put it in numbers
Rachel Nuwer To ensure freshness for customers, Japan’s convenience stores discard food before its actual expiration (Credit: Rachel Nuwer) The country’s ubiquitous convenience stores throw out huge amounts of edible food. In Tokyo, Rachel Nuwer meets the campaigners trying to change that. Riko Morinaga, a recent high school graduate in Tokyo, normally spends her weekend […]
Iran faces hard choices between risks of escalation or looking weak
EPA Israel’s attack on Iran deepens the war in the Middle East. Avoiding, or risking, an even worse escalation is at the heart of decisions being taken by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his key advisors. They must decide on the least bad of a series of difficult choices. At one end of […]
Next phase of science centre gets green light
Michael Laird Architects / Abstract Securities The three-storey building will be the second phase of the South Cambridge Science Centre Councillors have given the green light to the next phase of a science centre. Members of South Cambridgeshire District Council approved plans for a research and development building on the outskirts of Sawston, Cambridgeshire. The […]
Fans flock to UK’s biggest video game and comics expo
Tinshui Yeung / BBC News The event was a sea of colour as fans dressed up to attend Thousands of comic and gaming fans headed to London on Saturday for one of the most colourful days in the UK’s convention calendar. Fans flocked to the ExCeL centre for the UK’s largest gaming, comic and pop […]
Alcohol price rises are a blunt instrument
BBC Alan Sillett from the Guernsey Hospitality Association said the hospitality industry had already been “seriously damaged” in recent years Raising the price of alcohol through duties is a “lazy, blunt instrument” to tackle Guernsey’s drinking culture and could hurt the hospitality sector, according to the head of a local industry group. Alan Sillett, president […]
Man admits role in night of unrest
A man has admitted his part in a night of disorder during which a police car was overturned in a suburb of Leeds. Trouble broke out in Harehillls on 18 July after four children were removed from their home and taken into emergency care, over concerns they would be taken out of the UK. Daniel […]
Hospitality sector struggling with cost pressures
BBC Eamon McCusker said cost pressures are the toughest he has faced in 22 years Pressure on small business owners shows no sign of easing despite inflation falling to its target rate in May. The Office for National Statistics has said the rate at which prices are rising – known as inflation – hit 2% […]
UK’s last coal-fired power station set to close
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire has been producing energy since 1967 The closure of the UK’s last coal-fired power station has been described by officials as a “tremendously important milestone” in energy production. Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire is due to shut early next week, with demolition of the site to follow […]