POLICE are appealing for information following a serious assault in Edinburgh.
Around 4.35pm on Friday, 16 January, 2026, police received a report of the serious assault of a 20-year-old man at a bus stop on Nicholson Street.
The suspect approached the victim and seriously assaulted him, before making off towards Nicholson Square.
The suspect is described as white, of stocky build, around 6ft 2ins and aged between 25 and 32. At the time he was wearing a long black Nike coat, a black hoodie with his hood up, black trousers and dark coloured shoes.
The 20-year-old man was taken to hospital for treatment.
Detective Constable Gary Lipscombe said: “This incident left a man with serious injuries, and extensive enquiries are ongoing to trace the person responsible.
“We know that the area was very busy at the time and would encourage anyone who witnessed the incident and has yet to speak to officers to come forward.
“Anyone with information, or concerns, is asked to contact officers locally or call 101, quoting incident number 2461 of 16 January, 2026.
“Alternatively, information can be passed to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”
Gas network company SGN is upgrading the gas network in Telford Road to ensure local homes and businesses continue to receive a safe and reliable gas supply.
The project involves replacing old metal mains, reaching the end of their useful lives, with new plastic pipe. This will help ensure local homes and businesses continue to receive a safe and reliable gas supply long into the future.
Following close consultation with the City of Edinburgh Council, works will start on Monday 26 January and last for approximately six weeks. The project will begin in Telford Road at its junction with Groathill Road North, operating under temporary traffic lights for approximately two weeks.
The work will then progress eastbound along Telford Road under a lane closure. before progressing east under a lane closure. Please note that delays are expected during peak travel periods.
Localised road closures in Groathill Road South and Telford Drive will be required at various stages to allow traffic to flow on Telford Road. Clearly signed diversions will be in place to assist road users.
SGN spokesperson Katie Lobban said: “We’ve worked closely with the local authorities in planning this work and we will be doing everything we can to limit disruption during our essential project.
“This section of our gas main has required a number of emergency repairs in recent years, so we’ve made the decision to fully replace the pipe to reduce any further disruption to the local community and commuters.
“We appreciate that roadworks can be frustrating and would like to thank everyone affected for your patience, understanding and support as we work to improve the energy infrastructure in Edinburgh.”
Drama@Drylaw is a friendly, informal group where we come together to move, chat, laugh and explore everyday life through simple drama activities.
The activities are based on familiar, real-life situations, so it’s great for building confidence, communication skills and vocabulary – including for people who want to practise English in a natural, supportive way. Everyone’s contributions are valued, and people bring their own experiences to the group.
Each session begins with gentle, mindful bodywork to help us relax and feel comfortable working together. There’s also time to catch up, share news and enjoy being part of a group before moving into creative activities. The activities are different every week, so if you miss a session because of appointments or family commitments, you can drop straight back in the following week.
There’s no acting, no scripts and no pressure to perform – just a chance to try something new in a safe, encouraging space. Drama@Drylaw is growing, and the new year is a great time to give it a try.
Every Tuesday 10:30am – 12:30pm.
New members are very welcome — just come along and see how it feels!
Holiday cheer has faded, credit card bills have arrived, and motivation is running low; Blue Monday on 19th January is billed to be the most depressing day of the year.
But what if instead of being something to endure, it marks the start of a powerful reset? GroceryAid – a charity that provides relief in tough times for grocery workers and their families – is urging anyone struggling with money worries and emotional strain to use Blue Monday as a chance to reach out and access the wide range of support available and kickstart a happier and healthier 2026.
Mandi Leonard, Welfare Director at GroceryAid, shares top tips for accessing vital help that could change a negative date into the start of something positive:
Find out if you’re eligible for free money
A quick search on grants-search.turn2us.org.uk will tell you if you could be eligible for a financial grant from a range of sources. Or if you’re one of the 2.6 million people working in the grocery industry, GroceryAid should be your first port of call. Last year the charity provided £4.6m in financial grants to help with everything from priority debts to supporting those on a reduced income due to caring responsibilities. Find out if your eligible to apply at groceryaid.org
Combine quick-impact help with long-term support
If you’ve got money worries and are struggling to make ends meet, see if you’re eligible for a financial grant, but don’t stop there. Underpin it with money management advice and practical support to better equip you for the future.
Check out groceryaid.org for handy budgeting tools and help managing bills or turn to StepChange and MoneyHelper for free debt advice.
Don’t wait until you are at crisis point
Many people assume support is only available in extreme circumstances but it’s available long before crisis hits. If you’re experiencing an unexpected bump in the road which is affecting your financial and emotional wellbeing, it’s time to seek help now – don’t wait for a blip to turn into an emergency.
Contact your mortgage company or energy provider to discuss payment plans when bills start to get on top of you, and look into mental health hints and tips to tackle niggles before they get bigger.
Talk to your friends and family
Let’s make suffering in silence a thing of the past. Opening up to friends and family can be the first step in making a change and by being a good listener yourself, you could be the catalyst to helping someone get back on their feet.
Most people know someone who works in the grocery industry and could potentially benefit from GroceryAid support, whether now or in the future. Be ready to spread the word about the support available.
Don’t see help as a handout
There is zero shame in asking for help and it isn’t a handout. GroceryAid, for example, provides free and confidential financial, emotional and practical support to grocery workers, from shop workers to factory operators, because they help feed the nation – it is the help they have earned.
Mandi adds: “Blue Monday doesn’t have to be something people simply get through. It can be a moment to pause, reset and take that first step towards feeling more in control.
“At GroceryAid we see time and again how reaching out early – whether for financial help, emotional support or practical advice – can make a real difference. If things feel tough right now, you’re not alone, and support is there to help you start 2026 in a stronger, more positive place.”
For more information on the free and confidential support available, visit: groceryaid.org.uk/get-help/ or call 08088 021 122.
There’s lots for theatre lovers to be excited about at Vue this year, with several productions taking over the big screen in the first quarter of 2026.
Kicking things off is the Royal Ballet and Opera’s La Traviata, arriving on screens from 14 January. Audiences can enter a world of seductive grandeur, experiencing the tender and devastating beauty of Verdi’s opera, directed by Richard Eyre.
Also heading to Vue from the Royal Ballet and Opera is Woolf Works (from 9 Feb), Giselle (from 3 March) and Siegfried (from 31 March). In the former, resident choreographer Wayne McGregor leads a luminous artistic team to evoke Woolf’s signature stream of consciousness writing style in this immense work that rejects traditional narrative structures.
Meanwhile, Giselle conjures up the earthly and otherworldly realms in a tale of love, betrayal and redemption with Peter Wright’s 1985 production of the quintessential Romantic ballet – set to Adolphe Adam’s evocative score with atmospheric designs by John Macfarlane.
The latter is brought to life under Barrie Kosky’s inspired eye, following his spectacular Das Rheingold (2023) and Die Walküre (2025). Andreas Schager, in his much-anticipated debut with the productions house, stars as Siegfried’s titular hero, with Antonio Pappano conducting, drawing out the unspoken tensions and ethereal mysticism of Wagner’s dynamic score.
Fans of Shakespeare can enjoy two of the world’s greatest playwright’s productions at Vue, with Othello heading to Vue from 4 March after being filmed at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London especially for the big screen.
Directed by Tony Award-winner Tom Morris OBE (War Horse, Dr Semmelweis, The Grinning Man) with music by PJ Harvey, this epic story of manipulation, jealousy and toxic masculinity explores the darker side of power, rage and desire.
Meanwhile, the National Theatre’s Hamlet will be arriving from 22 January. Olivier Award-winner Hiran Abeysekera (Life of Pi) takes on the titular role in this fearless, contemporary take on the famous tragedy.
Also returning from the National Theatre is Academy Award-winner Helen Mirren in The Audience (from 26 February), where she plays Queen Elizabeth II in Olivier Award–winning hit production that inspired Netflix’s The Crown.
Finally, from the Metropolitan Opera is Tristan und Isolde– arriving on screens from 24 March. The electrifying Lise Davidsen tackles one of the ultimate roles for dramatic soprano: the Irish princess Isolde in Wagner’s transcendent meditation on love and death. Heroic tenor Michael Spyres stars opposite Davidsen as the love-drunk Tristan.
Researchers in Glasgow identify new target for treatment
SCOTS scientists seeking answers to the mystery of why cancer occurs in certain parts of the body and not others may have found a new way to tackle some hard-to-treat cancers.
The research team – part of the Cancer Grand Challenges initiative founded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute, to take on some of cancer’s toughest challenges – focused on genetic faults that allow cancer to hijack a signalling system in the body which tells cells when, and when not, to grow. Cancer can then use that system, called the WNT pathway, to grow tumours in the intestine and liver.
A new paper published in Nature Genetics has revealed that a protein called nucleophosmin (NPM1), which is involved in the control of growth, was found to be in high levels in bowel cancer and some liver cancers, due to the genetic errors in the WNT pathway. By blocking this protein, the team found that it may be possible to develop new treatments for specific cancers which hijack the body’s growth system through this genetic error.
Lead researcher on the project Professor Owen Sansom, Director of the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute and the University of Glasgow, and co-investigator for team SPECIFICANCER, said:“Because NPM1 isn’t essential for normal adult tissue health, blocking it could be a safe way to treat certain cancers, like some hard-to-treat bowel and liver cancers.
“We found that if NPM1 is removed, cancer cells struggle to make proteins properly and this allows a tumour suppressor to activate, preventing cancer growth.
“Increasing numbers of people are affected by these cancers, with some treatments unfortunately limited for some patients, so finding a new way to tackle these cancers is crucial.”
Researchers at the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute in Glasgow studied genes which can cause cancer, looking specifically at the bowel and liver, to discover why those genes only cause cancers in specific tissues.
Part of the SPECIFICANCER project, which focuses on why some cancer-causing genes only cause cancers in specific tissues, this new research identified a way to target some of the genetic errors that cause hard-to-treat cancers in those organs.
Scotland has one of the highest rates of bowel cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, and liver cancer in the UK. There are around 4,200 people in the UK diagnosed with bowel cancer each year. It remains the second most common cause of cancer death in Scotland, claiming around 1,700 lives annually.
A recent study by the American Cancer Society published in The Lancet Oncology showed early-onset bowel cancer rates in adults aged 25-49 are rising in 27 of 50 countries studied and are rising faster in young women in Scotland and England than in young men.
Around 670 people die from liver cancer each year in Scotland so finding more effective ways to tackle the disease is vital.
Dr David Scott, Director of Cancer Grand Challenges, said:“Scientific breakthroughs like this demonstrate the power of Cancer Grand Challenges to bring together the world’s best minds to transform our understanding of how cancer starts and, crucially, how we treat it.
“By scrutinising the fundamental processes that drive cancer, we can tackle the disease at its beginnings, driving progress towards real-world impact for people affected by cancer.”
Proteins are essential for the body to build structures such as skin, hair or other tissue, but sometimes the body’s messaging system goes wrong, causing tumours to grow.
This can be caused by mutations in the body’s messaging system, which then pass on the wrong instructions from our DNA, causing the cells to grow uncontrollably.
SPECIFICANCER was co-funded by Cancer Research UK and the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research in 2019 to understand a central mystery in cancer biology – why some cancer-causing genes only cause cancers in specific tissues.
For example, it is known that the BRCA genes can increase the risk of breast or ovarian cancer but not heart or skin cancers.
The mechanisms have proved to be a mystery, and SPECIFICANCER is seeking patterns and vulnerabilities to find new treatments more personalised to a patient or particular area of the body.
Bowel and liver cancers were the focus of this latest research, but the team hope its findings could be applicable to other cancers.
The next step is to find medical treatments which block the production of the NPM1 protein. There are already existing treatments which can slow tumour growth so if a new drug can be discovered to target NPM1 in the same way, it could provide a safe and effective way to treat certain cancers.
Young entrepreneurs will be supported to turn their ideas into successful businesses through a new Scottish Government programme.The First Minister’s Start Up Challenge will empower young people aged 18 – 30 from disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds to start innovative businesses.
Delivered in partnership with The King’s Trust and social enterprise Dechomai, around 20 participants will be selected for a six-month accelerated entrepreneurial apprenticeship. This will provide tailored support and access to masterclasses, workshops and hands-on experience.
Participants will receive a £500 “Test Your Business” grant, with those ready to launch eligible to apply for a £5,000 start-up grant. At the end of the programme, one winner will be awarded £30,000 to dedicate a full year to developing their business.
First Minister John Swinney said: “I am unashamedly ambitious for Scotland’s young people and want to ensure my government leaves no stone unturned in supporting them to achieve their ambitions.
“That is why I am excited to be launching the First Minister’s Start Up Challenge which will help unearth and expand the creative entrepreneurial spirit that stretches across Scotland.
“This will provide vital support, including mentorship from those who have built their business, and funding to young people to set up their own business.
“It will not only be life changing for the young people taking part but will have a ripple effect across the country – inspiring entrepreneurial spirit, creating a constant flow of future founders and strengthening Scotland’s’ position as a nation of innovation and enterprise.
“Attracting investment into the country whilst reinforcing Scotland’s emerging reputation as a fast-growing entrepreneurial economy, will be crucial to achieving my key priority of growing the economy while also ensuring we can invest in our other vital priorities such as eradicating child poverty. We’ve long been an innovative and entrepreneurial country and this investment will ensure the next generation can set up the businesses of tomorrow.”
The Kings Trust Director of Delivery (Scotland) Lou Goodlad said: “”The King’s Trust is delighted to partner with the Scottish Government and Dechomai to deliver The First Minister’s Start Up Challenge.
“This programme builds on our collective experience supporting young people to start their own business, and together, it will empower young people facing barriers to self-employment. Participants will benefit from a bespoke programme and access to grant funding to help scale their businesses.
“This unique initiative will make a significant contribution to Scotland’s economy, offering young people an incredible opportunity to unlock their entrepreneurial potential. We’re excited to play a key role in the First Minister’s Start Up Challenge and to support the next generation of entrepreneurs in Scotland.”
Founder of Dechomai Bayile Adeoti: ““Working alongside The King’s Trust to deliver the First Minister’s Start-Up Challenge for the Scottish Government is an incredibly exciting opportunity for Dechomai and for the work we do across Scotland.
“At Dechomai, we believe that real and lasting impact happens when founders, educators, communities and institutions come together to build collaboratively.
“The Start-Up Challenge represents what’s possible when we invest in young people and take a genuinely place based and person-centred approach to enterprise and opportunity.
“Partnering with The King’s Trust is also a deeply personal milestone for me. As a former Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust grant recipient, this feels like a full circle moment and a powerful reminder of the importance of belief, access and collective effort. We’re excited to help shape a future where more young people across Scotland can see themselves as founders, leaders and changemakers.”
We would love to see more of you at our community council meetings.
Just so you know, community council meetings aren’t just about business; they’re a fantastic way to meet your neighbours, share experiences, and build a stronger community spirit!
Come along, grab a cuppa, and connect with the people who care about Drylaw & Telford as much as you do.
NEN PUBLISHED OUR FIRST BLOG POST ON THIS DAY IN 2011
The very first NEN blog post was published on this day in 2011. The post read:
Hello, and welcome to the brand new NEN blog.
For those of you not already familiar with the newspaper, we are a local community paper serving the North Edinburgh community. We’ve been here for over thirty years.
This blog, along with our new Facebook page and Twitter stream, represents our first foray into the world of social media. We really want to encourage more participation, more questions and ideas from the North Edinburgh community – both online and offline – and hope that these new tools will help us to do that.
We already have a good website, where you can always find the latest edition of the printed newspaper. The blog won’t be replacing that, but will instead be there to show people the latest news about the area, and also to help us cover the current funding crisis we are facing as an organisation.
Above all, we want to include your input on the blog – be it ideas for stories, comments, pictures and events. So get in touch!
The NEN’s website was sadly deleted when funding ceased but our social media presence continues on both Twitter and Facebook and the blog is still going strong with 10 – 12 posts daily.
2025 was the NEN blog’s busiest ever year with 36,000 visitors. As I write this we’ve published more than 38,000 posts – all of these remain accessible online – and we’re currently on a run of publishing on 2749 consecutive days.
When the NEN office in Crewe Road North closed much of the NEN archive material was lost, but thankfully some of our picture library was salvaged and can now be found at granton:hub (Madelvic House), where the volunteer archive team has also collated all remaining hard copies of the North Edinburgh News newspaper.
Hopefully, between the physical archive and the NEN blog, you can find all you need to know about our community’s rich history – and we’re adding to that history every day!
#BlueMonday is widely recognised as “the most depressing day of the year”. But the fact is, it’s just a myth. We all experience highs and lows in our mental health throughout the year, not just on a random Monday in January.
For more about the Blue Monday myth and some of our tips on taking care of your mental health, check out our blog: https://shorturl.at/8lDnn
Drama@Drylaw – a relaxed, welcoming social group
Every Tuesday 10:30am – 12:30pm.
Hello Drylaw & Telford.
