Performers can fight cynicism in age of Trump, says Nicola Benedetti as she announces 2025 programme

Musicians and artists should challenge disinformation and cynicism in global politics by standing up for fundamental truths, the violinist Nicola Benedetti has said.

Benedetti, the director of the Edinburgh international festival, said the arts played an essential role during periods of turmoil by showing the best of human achievement.

As energy firms race to meet challenges of storing power, critics worry about fluctuations in the depth of the loch

Brian Shaw stood at the edge of Loch Ness and pointed to a band of glistening pebbles and damp sand skirting the shore. It seemed as if the tide had gone out.

Overnight, Foyers, a small pumped-storage power station, had recharged itself, drawing up millions of litres of water into a reservoir high up on a hill behind it, ready for release through its turbines to boost the UK’s electricity supply. That led to the surface of Loch Ness, the largest body of freshwater in the UK, falling by 14cm in a matter of hours.