Emergency services are currently responding to an incident in the Gilmerton area of the capital.

A residential area in Edinburgh has been locked down this evening amidst an ‘ongoing incident’. Riot police were spotted on Hyvot Green in the Gilmerton area of the city at around 3.15pm on Wednesday, May 6.

Emergency services are understood to have been responding to reports of concern for a person and a cordon has been put up around a block of flats. The exact nature of the incident is currently unknown.

According to one local resident, around nine police vehicles were in attendance. Speaking to our sister title Edinburgh Live, one person said that an individual was allegedly “throwing and kicking items out a window”.

Pictures taken from the scene show the huge response as worried locals watch on. Officers can be seen on the top floor of a block of flats.

One worried onlooker said: “The flats at the end of Hyvot Green have all been cordoned off by police, there’s about nine police vehicles there too with officers stationed outside the flats.

“I don’t know what’s happened but I saw a woman in the back of a police van and there’s ambulance here too. It seems like there’s a lot of officers here so it’s quite worrying. I hope everyone is okay.”

Police Scotland were contacted for comment.

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The European fishing fleet has long been a powerhouse at catching tuna, with a fleet of massive vessels known as purse seiners that can hold as much as 4 million pounds (1.8 million kilograms) of fish at a time. Dozens of them roam the Indian Ocean, fishing for skipjack, yellowfin and bigeye tuna destined for cans on grocery store shelves.

So when Jess Rattle began seeing purse seine ships fishing the Indian Ocean under the flags of Mauritius, Tanzania and Oman, she wondered whether European corporations might be involved.

“We wanted to understand who really owned these vessels,” said Rattle, head of investigations at the London-based environmental charity Blue Marine Foundation. “Were they owned by the coastal states whose quota they were now using, or in fact, were they owned by the EU?”

A new report released Thursday by the Blue Marine Foundation and Kroll, a global investigations firm, and shared with The Associated Press in advance reveals the extent of the European fleet’s access to Indian Ocean tuna stocks, finding that European companies have taken a third of the tropical tuna catch at a time when yellowfin and bigeye tuna are under pressure and still rebounding from being severely overfished.

They have done so in part by registering their ships under the flags of the Seychelles, Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania and Oman to gain access to a greater catch limit, Rattle’s team found. The practice has allowed the European-owned fleet to expand to more than 50 purse seine ships and supply vessels and increase its catch of tropical tuna despite the European Union’s commitments to cutting back.

The finding comes ahead of an annual meeting of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission in the Maldives, which brings together the EU and 28 countries with a stake in the tuna fishery.

While common in the fishing industry and not illegal, reflagging a vessel to a foreign country makes it difficult for observers and regulators to gauge the impact of European companies on the fishery. Parent company ownership is often obscured via layers of shell companies and foreign registries, which Rattle and the team at Kroll tracked down over the course of months.

Though European companies have long fished under the Seychelles flag, Rattle said, their registering under the flags of Oman and Kenya is new. Europeche Tuna Group, which represents the European tuna industry, said in a statement that the industry’s relationship with coastal nations reflects its long-term investment in the region and strong local partnerships.

Spokesperson Anne-France Mattlet said the European industry benefits the economy of regional countries by paying taxes and fishing license fees, investing in local infrastructure, and unloading tuna and other fish in their ports and canneries.

Mattlet concurred with the report’s findings that Europeche has more than 50 purse seine and supply ships operating throughout the Indian Ocean, including with non-EU flags.

Maciej Berestecki, a spokesperson for the European Commission, said in a statement the reflagging of fishing vessels is a private business decision not influenced by public authorities, and that the EU does not defend or represent the interests of vessels flagged to other countries.

“The EU has done, and keeps doing, its utmost to promote and respect catch limits,” Berestecki said.

Despite Europe’s distance from the Indian Ocean, its fishing fleets have long played a dominant role there. Spanish and French tuna companies first introduced purse seine ships to the Indian Ocean in the 1980s, which allowed them to quickly increase their yearly catch. The ships get their name from their giant nets that encircle the tuna and close like a drawstring purse.

But the EU has occasionally butted heads with coastal nations that want a say over the fishing practices in the ocean at their doorstep.

Five years ago, with yellowfin tuna stocks in sharp decline, the Maldives accused the EU of not putting forth a serious proposal to lower tuna quotas at a contentious meeting of the tuna commission. In 2023, the EU objected to a proposal from Indonesia for a closure on purse seine fishing gear that passed with the support of 15 other countries.

In recent years, the tuna commission has put in place new management measures to rebuild the vulnerable yellowfin and bigeye tuna stocks, which are beginning to show signs of recovering. For instance, the EU agreed to reduce the yellowfin tuna catch for EU-flagged vessels by 21%.

Those new limits may be pushing European fishing companies to look to other countries’ quotas to maintain their catch, said Glen Holmes, senior officer with Pew Charitable Trusts.

Holmes and colleagues from Pew, Global Fishing Watch, and other environmental groups are advocating for greater ownership transparency among fishing fleets in the Indian Ocean.

Shipowners have long registered vessels under the flags of foreign countries, much to the dismay of transparency advocates, who say the practice limits oversight of those ships. Sanctioned oil tankers in the ‘ghost fleet’, for instance, frequently change their name and flags to conceal their ownership.

Certain flags have become known as ‘flags of convenience,’ offering companies low fees and lenient attitudes toward fishing or trade rules. Some countries may simply have fewer resources to enforce the laws of the sea.

A January report by the environmental group Oceana found European companies routinely register fishing vessels under the flags of foreign nations, including some countries the EU has accused of “turning a blind eye to illegal fishing activities.”

Oceana is calling on EU countries to begin collecting and publishing ownership data for their fishing fleet.

The change would help the EU better enforce its own laws, which prevent any European individual from benefiting financially from the practices of illegal fishing, said Vanya Vulperhorst, Oceana’s illegal fishing campaign director for Europe. And it would shed light on “the real EU fleet,” she said.

“What we found last year is that the real European fleet, if you add the non-EU flagged vessels, doubles,” Vulperhorst said.

___ This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. ___ Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/

Micheal Martin is set to meet with political leaders at Stormont, as well as with business leaders, and engage with Women’s Aid.

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Irish premier Micheal Martin has vowed to continue working towards reconciliation and mutual trust ahead of a visit to Belfast.

The Taoiseach is set to meet with political leaders at Stormont, as well as with business leaders, and engage with Women’s Aid.

He will also mark the signing of a €700 million (£604m) contract for a new fleet of cross border trains.

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Later, Mr Martin is to deliver the Lord David Trimble Lecture 2026 at Queen’s University Belfast.

Speaking ahead of his visit, the Taoiseach said he is pleased to be returning to Belfast.

“My visit includes multiple opportunities to hear directly from political, business and civic leaders and to discuss ongoing and evolving all-island priorities which benefit us all,” he said.

“I am also pleased to be delivering the Lord David Trimble Lecture in Queen’s University. David played a critical role in the achievement of the Good Friday Agreement.

“The principles and purpose of the Agreement remain central to what my Government does and how we foster relationships across these islands.”

He added: “I am committed to continuing to work toward reconciliation and mutual trust, as we collectively set out to do in 1998, including through the Shared Island Initiative.”

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

Vehicular and pedestrian access will be permitted where practical during the closures.

Wishaw drivers are being warned of roadworks over the coming weeks.

The A721 Wishaw Road in Waterloo will be closed from May 25 to 29 for carriageway surfacing works to be carried out.

Vehicular and pedestrian access will be permitted where practical during the closure.

Vehicles on the east side of the closure wishing to access the west side should proceed via A721 Wishaw Road, A73 Main Street, A71 Overtown Road and A721 Wishaw Road.

Vehicles on the west side of the closure wishing to access the east side should proceed vice versa.

Meanwhile, Larchfield Crescent in Coltness, at the Duns Crescent junction, will have temporary restrictions due to footway patching works.

Vehicles on east side of the closure wishing to access the west side should proceed via Larchfield Crescent, Coulter Avenue, Lyman Drive, Coltness Road, North Kilmeny Crescent and Duns Crescent. Vehicles on the west side wishing to access the east side should proceed vice versa.

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One officer had to jump out of the way when the 44-year-old man drove at police

A man who drove at police officers in a bid to escape has been jailed. Carl Scarrow, 44, was wanted by Cambridgeshire Police for driving offences when officers saw him in a black Kia at Sunrise Meadow caravan park, off Station Road, near Bluntisham, on Monday, March 2.

Scarrow reversed onto a gravel strip and into a fence. As officers approached him on foot, Scarrows drove in their direction. This caused an officer to jump out of the way. Scarrow managed to escape, but he was arrested the next day at his home in Sunrise Meadow.

Scarrow pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving without a licence and without insurance at Cambridge Crown Court on Friday, May 1. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison and disqualified from driving for five years and six months.

PC Chester Lewis, who investigated, said: “What Scarrow did was dangerous and stupid and could have left the officer with serious injuries.”

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