It wasn’t all bad

Help is at hand for parents who grow frustrated – and worried – by their children’s failure to reply to their text messages. Once downloaded, a new app, REPLYASAP, takes over the child’s screen when the parent sends a message, and sounds an alarm – even if the phone is on silent – until the recipient presses a “snooze” button. It can also be programmed to tell the parents when their message has been read, or if their offspring’s phone is simply switched off, or out of signal.

Two Syrian refugees have won top grades in their A-levels, and are now set to go to medical school. Sulaiman Wihba and Elias Badin, both 19 and from Damascus, arrived in Britain two years ago. Wihba travelled through Europe by stowing away in a refrigerated van, surrounded by frozen chips; Badin got to Greece on a small boat packed with 40 refugees. Since then, they have been reunited with their families in the UK and granted asylum for five years. Last year, the pair won scholarships at Brighton College, and they have now earned the grades to take their places at Queen Mary University of London: Wihba achieved four A*s, while Badin got an A* and three As.

Climate change has a silver lining for Scottish lepidopterists, who are finding that a growing number of butterfly species are moving north. The endangered white-letter hairstreak was recently seen in Berwickshire – its first sighting in Scotland since 1884. The comma and the Essex skipper have recently crossed the border for the first time, while others have moved north within Scotland and into the Highlands. “Climate change is a double-edged sword, but it’s an exciting time to be in the Scottish borders,” said conservationist Paul Kirkland.