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One of Britain’s largest species of beetle has been found in Dorset for the first time in more than 200 years.

A Bournemouth University student discovered two great silver water beetles while surveying animal and plant life in the Blackmore Vale as part of his master’s degree.

Wren Franklin checked his discovery with the county’s recorder for beetles, who confirmed the last recorded sighting of them was in 1821 by influential entomologist JC Dale.

More frequent sightings of a rare marsh bird at nature reserves have prompted hopes they may start to breed.

Northumberland Wildlife Trust said bitterns, a member of the heron family, have overwintered regularly in recent years at several of its sites at Druridge Bay.

The charity is running a project, Biodivesity Boost, to create better habitats for the birds with a mixture of reed beds, ditches and pools to encourage them to stay for the spring breeding season.

The British band Sports Team have been robbed at gunpoint on the first day of their US tour.

The indie group, who have scored two top 10 albums in the UK, lost their passports, stage equipment and personal belongings in the incident, as a thief looted their tour van in the city of Vallejo, in the Bay area of California.

A new wetland project will transform Clapham Common, boosting biodiversity and providing an educational resource for schoolchildren in the area.

Friends of Clapham Common and Wild Clapham have secured planning permission from Lambeth council to begin work on its Wetland and Reedbeds project after reaching its funding target.

Shirley Kermer, chairman of Friends of Clapham Common said: “The creation of this wetland habitat is an important step in our ambition to improve the ecology of Clapham Common.”

Water companies are planning to build a pipeline network to move treated sewage away from conservation areas and into rivers, lakes and seas which do not have the same legal protection.

The work will be funded by customers and the water regulator, Ofwat, has provisionally said bills would rise by an average of £19 a year between 2025 and 2030.

Billions of pounds could be spent on the projects - including 10 schemes being planned by Severn Trent Water.

An unusual theft reportedly occurred in a Henrietta shopping plaza over the weekend.

Channel 4’s knotty New Zealand drama winds up this week with an incredible double bill. Plus: Reuben Owen gets his Yorkshire Christmas special in early. Here’s what to watch tonight

10pm, Channel 4Robyn Malcolm puts in the performance of the year in this emotionally knotty New Zealand drama, in which no-nonsense teacher Penny Wilding deals with the return of her husband, Phil (Peter Mullan), who, she says, she caught sexually assaulting a minor at a party five years earlier. In an incredible double-bill finale this week (the story concludes on Thursday), Penny is questioning everything she has believed until now, and has isolated herself from friends and family. Did she get it all wrong? Can there be a satisfying conclusion? Perhaps not, but at least by the end – at another party – we find out what really happened that night. Hollie Richardson

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the Klaasohm festival is a Saint Nicholas tradition celebrated every year on the night of December 5 on the North Sea island of Borkum, which has a population of more than 5,000.

The festival has come into the spotlight in Germany following a video report by public broadcaster NDR.

In the story, two male reporters attempt to film the 2023 festivities.

Using their cell phones, they easily film the daytime celebrations, when the community gathers around young, unmarried men dressed in the traditional costumes of the Klaasohms, made of masks with sheepskin and bird feathers.

Later on, the Klaasohms of different ages challenge each other to a type of wrestling match. This event is reserved for islanders, so tourists or reporters are not allowed to watch it.

The party continues into the night. The reporters secretly film a group of so-called "catchers" as they chase women, hold them while the Klaasohms hit them on the buttocks with a cow's horn. People around them, including children, cheer as one woman is being hit.

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The NDR journalists point out in their report that it is possible to deal more openly with media criticism, showing the example of the Krampus run in Austria.

According to tradition, people dressed as the devilish figure whip the procession's spectators using a birch rod.

The runs, fueled by alcohol and anarchic collective energy, have made headlines in the past years for violent outbreaks and injured participants.

Now there is tightened security around the Austrian events, with safe spaces for those who don't want to be hit, and numbers assigned to each Krampus so they can be identified if needed. The Krampuses are now encouraged to only symbolically brush festival-goers, and not actually whip them.

Archaeologists have discovered a high status Roman villa in the Chalke Valley, located in Wiltshire, England.

The site was initially identified by detectorists, who reported finding Roman artefacts to the Portable Antiquities Scheme at Salisbury Museum.

This led to excavations over a two-week period which are part of a community project managed by Teffont Archaeology and supported by Cardiff University.

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According to a recent press statement, the project uncovered a villa complex over 35 metres in length, serving as the centre of a large agricultural estate during the late Roman period.

Alongside the main structure, the archaeologists found a bathhouse, a multi-story barn, and a concrete-floored building that might have served as an outdoor pool.

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Within the main villa building, excavations also revealed high status furnishings, such as high-quality mosaics with intricate geometric designs, and painted wall plaster and columns.

According to the archaeologists, these finds highlight the wealth and influence of the villa’s inhabitant, in an area thought to be scarce of major Roman development. The archaeological team will now work on analysing the finds from the site, and next year will give a range of talks locally about the results.

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Labour is considering capping political donations by individuals and private companies amid reports Elon Musk will hand a $100m donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

The Tesla tycoon is said to be plotting the £79m donation, which would be by far the largest in British electoral history, via the British arm of his social media firm X.

According to The Sunday Times, leading businessmen and Conservative Party officials believe Musk could hand over the cash as a “f*** you Starmer payment” in his ongoing feud with the prime minister.

It would give Mr Farage’s insurgent Reform a significant financial advantage over Labour and the Conservatives and be enough to fund a near-endless barrage of attack ads against the government.

But the government is considering recommendations in an upcoming report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank that would cap individual and corporate political donations at £100,000 a year.

The Guardian reported that officials have asked for more details on the proposals, though work is at an early stage and any changes would unlikely be made until late in the parliament.

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The potential donation cap comes as Mr Musk and Mr Farage grow increasingly close, with the Reform leader describing the billionaire Trump ally as “my new friend” last week.

A large sinkhole that forced more than 30 homes to be evacuated is still growing, a council leader has said.

The void emerged on Nant Morlais in Pant, Merthyr Tydfil, on Sunday morning and council leader Brent Carter said on Monday that "more cracks are coming across the road and into walls and gardens".

He estimated the hole was "probably 30-40ft (9-12m) deep and five metres (16ft) wide".

Simon Williams, whose family owns the bungalow where the sinkhole appeared, said it could be months until residents of the cul-de-sac could return home and he felt "desperately sorry for all the residents who've had to get out of their homes just before Christmas".

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Mr Carter said two landslides caused the problem, adding: "A couple of residents heard a loud bang.

"Unfortunately, it wasn’t reported, so we couldn’t do anything immediately, but that looks like that’s what caused the collapse, when everything came down from the mountain and washed through the culvert."

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Andrew Farrant, a BGS geologist, said the sinkhole likely resulted from a collapsed culvert and recent heavy rainfall, rather than a natural geological cause and it was "not just a case of filling the hole".

He explained that repairs would involve stabilizing the void, excavating the site and reinstating the culvert to ensure the stream can flow safely.

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The tale of the tape:

• Quality Street - 600g, 66 chocs, +2
• Celebrations - 550g, 60 chocs, -5
• Roses - 550g, 51 chocs, -3
• Heroes - 550g, 59 chocs, +3

All retail at £6.

However, with Heroes there is a caveat:

With a total of 59 chocolates, this year’s tin marked a return to form with the mini versions of Twirl returning once again. For the last two years, the miniature chocolates were replaced altogether with two full-sized Twirl fingers due to disruption in its supply chain.

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Last year's Heroes tin contained 56 chocolates - meaning it's the only one of the four to have upped its number this year, but, really, that is due to the fact that we had two full-size Twirl fingers last year instead.

So they replaced 2 full-size Twirls with 5 mini ones.

The conclusion:

If we’re going purely on tin size and the amount of chocolates inside, the clear winner in terms of value-for-money here has to be Quality Street as it has the most choice, the most contents and the biggest tin.

On the opposite side of the scale, Roses had the lowest amount of chocolates inside at 51 - but it didn’t have the least choice of flavours. Celebrations had the least choice with just eight different chocolates inside - but, in a redeeming factor, it did also have the second most chocolates inside (60).

However, you are probably going to go with the one that contains your favourite chocolates. Even if it's a present for someone else.

You have fully robotic exo-skeleton hands that have a functionality similar to Iron Man from the Marvel universe, namely: to make repulsor shots, as well as to create a powerful charge of energy in the form of lasers.

With the help of your superhuman abilities thanks to your exo-hands, you have to survive in the endless fields of the apocalypse, full of crowds of zombies. Also, in the Deffort mode, you have a cold fusion reactor that does not allow the zombie virus to defeat you. In the Hallway Adventures mode, you have to clear rooms from zombies, and Deffort is a Tower Defense mode where you need to buy upgrades for your reactor and protect it from zombies who are drawn to cold fusion.

Also use passive and activated abilities: passive ones work, oddly enough, passively, and activated ones can be activated.