John Knox

The end of term comes quickly in Scotland. Schools, universities, sports clubs, music societies are holding their final events before the long summer holidays.

The countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have made an important commitment to environmental justice for the 680 million people who call this region home. Now comes the hard part: putting it into practice. Last October, ASEAN member states — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and […]

Scotland at midsummer is the most beautiful place on Earth. I can testify to that having just been on a hill-walking trip to Loch Quoich in the West Highlands, to Selkirk in the Borders for the Common Riding and to the sea cliffs at St Abb’s Head. Scotland has everything: mountains, moors, rolling hills, lochs, […]

How hot does it need to get before we do something about climate change? We’ve been through a week of torrid weather. Thursday was the hottest June day since 1893. In Threave in Dumfries and Galloway the temperature reached 31°C. Tarmac roads in the Borders had to be gritted with sand to prevent them melting. […]

At our core, America is a nation that understands that strong families are essential to the future of our communities.

We’ve just had our “Royal Week” in Scotland when the King and the royal household spend a special time with the people of their northern kingdom. It involved the 16th century tradition of the Rt Hon Lord Provost of Edinburgh handing over the keys to Holyrood Palace. There was also the opening of the new […]

I've just returned from a cycling holiday on Deeside and for the whole week it didn't rain! For someone like me, brought up the North East, this is astonishing.

The 23rd Commonwealth Games began its 10 day run on Thursday evening in the Glasgow Hydro with a kaleidoscopic opening ceremony. The King and Queen arrived in Dr Who’s Tardis and soon we found ourselves swimming on a big screen with the Loch Ness monster. Then a company of strangely dressed dancers took us through […]

It's one of the wonders of the world. A few days ago, I watched the great white birds circling overhead as our boat approached the Bass

It’s August, so Edinburgh is packed with six noisy festivals and twice as many people as in peace time. There’s the official International Festival with 147 performances of music, theatre and dance. This is dwarfed by the Festival Fringe with 53,000 performances of everything you can imagine, but includes a great deal of comedy […]