SCOTLAND'S colleges have a £54m black hole in finances which has widened by £23m in two years as the public services auditor warned of "long term implications" for their financial sustainability.

NICOLA Sturgeon is poised to announce any potential lockdown changes today amid varying cases numbers across the country.

A QUANGO has been ordered to release the details of Covid deaths by individual care home after Scotland’s information watchdog criticised it over a “lack of transparency”.

Glasgow could be heading towards even tougher lockdown restrictions as cases “continue to accelerate”, according public health experts.

HAULAGE companies that spend millions of pounds on Scotland’s ferries each year have called for a complete overhaul of the system they say is stifling growth and heading for breaking point.

Welcome to our Covid-19 live blog, bringing you all the latest updates from across Scotland.

A KEY member of the Rangers administrators team that managed the club's financial implosion has dismissed criticism over a failure to get a valuation of its brand before selling the business assets for just £5.5m to Charles Green’s Sevco conso...

THE question that sprang to mind when contemplating Boris Johnson’s “jabs, jabs, jabs” to “jobs, jobs, jobs” characterisation of his Government’s Covid-19 recovery plan was: “Where’s the beef?”.

Almost half of the patients with advanced skin cancer who were treated with two immunotherapy drug were still alive six and a half years later.

A PHOTOGRAPH of Priti Patel was doing the rounds on social media yesterday, its proliferation aided by the fact that no one was surprised by the allegation against her.

Scotland’s wealthiest people saw their fortunes soar over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.

A growing number of young people are now in favour of an elected head of state rather than a monarchy, according to a new poll.

The boss of easyJet has said it is “absolutely legal” to travel to amber list countries and has criticised the “very confusing” messages from the UK government about the traffic light system that came into effect on Monday.

SHE can’t mind her reputation as cautious, Nicola Sturgeon, because if she did, she’d have unveiled a different cabinet from the one presented to us this week.

A housing 'super-sleuth' is being appointed to trace the owners of abandoned flats that could help solve Glasgow's affordable homes crisis.

MUCH has been made of Nicola Sturgeon’s choice of old friends and associates as Cabinet members.

HE IS the TikTok dictator, the hardman who makes online Westerners smirk. The accidentally hilarious Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, president of Turkmenistan, has become a bit of an internet cult.

A RARE painting which was discovered in the home of late Glasgow arts patron Dr Helen Cargill Thompson has reached almost four times as much as it was expected to at auction.

HOUSEBUILDING giant Miller Homes has provided a big vote of confidence in the prospects for the market in Scotland by acquiring a huge landbank, as interest in homes exceeds pre-pandemic levels on some measures.

THE real significance of this ruling by the Scottish Information Commissioner is not necessarily what it will disclose in terms of care home deaths.

Diversity and inclusion must be everyone’s responsibility, not just a leadership responsibility – and data, used effectively, will go a long way to changing the culture within an organisation.

ACADEMY Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey is considering entering American politics, but it is not untrodden ground as the Hollywood star would be the latest in a fairly long line to do so.

The bog standard

Several recent deaths in Inverclyde could “potentially be linked to illicit drugs”, the local health board has said.

THE number of known cases of the so-called Indian variant in Scotland have increased four-fold in a week.

MICHAEL Gove has been warned by a Tory MP that the Union could end through "benign neglect" as voters in England give up on it just as they did with the EU.

Martin Bashir used “deceitful behaviour” and was in “serious breach” of the BBC’s producer guidelines to secure his Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, an official inquiry has concluded.

East Renfrewshire has overtaken Glasgow as Scotland’s Covid hotspot, according to the latest figures.

SGS, which owns Braehead Shopping Centre in Renfrewshire, has announced a new financial deal and hailed reopening footfall that leads its group.

Network Rail has released new images of the next phase of a £120million project to re-develop Scotland's third busiest railway station.

By Mark Wilson

A LIBERAL Democrat bid to oppose the appointment of Scotland's new Constitution Secretary has been roundly rejected in Holyrood.

A FORMER Labour MEP has said the party should back "independence within the UK" for Scotland.

TACTICAL voting for the Scottish Greens on the Holyrood list cost the SNP an overall majority, and made independence less likely, a new survey has suggested.

The Celtic chief executive and his children had to flee their South Lanarkshire house when a thug set fire to cars parked in the driveway.

THOSE of us who heaved a sigh of relief following the solid rejection of independence in the 2014 referendum may have hoped for a few years of respite from the separatists.

Nicola Sturgeon’s latest and most extensive reshuffle was somewhat underwhelming

PROPERTY financiers have told of "betrayal" after revealing they made a £14.185m bid for key Rangers assets before a sale for £5.5m to Charles Green's Sevco consortium after the club went into administration.

IS an explosion of wind from an audience member at the opera appropriate? This is not idle or abstract musing. I raise the issue with admittedly tangential reference to Prime Minister’s Ques-tions.

It is home to the world’s largest indoor rainforest and has brought in more than £2 billion to the local economy since it opened two decades ago.

By Ian McConnell

Cruden Homes and bid partner Buccleuch Property have been announced as preferred developer to carry out the landmark regeneration of a major brownfield site in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh following a competitive procurement process.

Scottish Government statistics have revealed that 432 positive coronavirus tests have been recorded since Wednesday

THE biggest commercial property deal to be struck in Aberdeen since the pandemic took hold has been revealed.

THE Home Office is determined to deport the two men freed after a successful protest in Glasgow last week.

A 500-year-old tenement in Edinburgh will reopen to the public today after a £1.5m restoration – bringing to life the stories of its residents through the centuries.

A man has surprised his girlfriend with a marriage proposal etched into the sand on an idyllic Scottish beach for her to see as their plane came into land.

Scots returning from overseas trips are facing Covid test charges that are twice as expensive than if they were flying into England.

HUNDREDS of vulnerable people with conditions such as severe dementia were moved from hospitals to care homes without due consent at the start of the pandemic amid “endemic poor practice” and confusion over the legal rights of adults with inca...

IT’S surely a symptom of our brief lifespans – or perhaps the sick joke of a creator god, if you’re religiously inclined – but humanity proves itself time and again to be incapable of thinking of the future; of doing what’s in our own be...