Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the UK departure from Afghanistan was “the culmination of a mission unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes”.

Clinging to cliff faces and rocky outcrops are the gnarled and stunted high-altitude survivors of times long gone by.

ONE of Scotland’s leading architects has called Glasgow School of Art’s approach to its students as “despicable” and accused the institution of leaving them floundering at a key point in their education.

JIM McColl, one of Scotland's wealthiest men, has said he would be willing to make a return to the helm at the firm at the centre of a shipbuilding fiasco but says Scottish Government-controlled ferries operation needs to end.

GARDEN furniture prices have soared by as much as 155 per cent during the pandemic new research has revealed.

SCOTLAND's justice system is back in the dock as it emerged a system for vetting police and stopping officers avoiding investigation introduced four years ago in England and Wales has so far failed to emerge north of the border.

The devastating terror attack at Kabul airport was a reminder that other dangerous forces exist in Afghanistan. Foreign editor David Pratt runs the rule over the Taliban’s allies and enemies that will now shape the country

Professor Catherine Heymans talks to Writer at Large Neil Mackay about what came before the Big Bang, the Multiverse, alien life, time travel and her hunt for dark matter

“Here I am Lord, send me”, Joe Biden quoted the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah in his belated statement on the killing of 13 American servicemen and women in Kabul last week. A peculiarly inappropriate reference. The last thing anyone needed was th...

We’re seeing growing numbers of gulls in our towns and cities and while this is due in part to climate change, the public can help alleviate the problem.

Health Secretary Humza Yousaf is urging under-40s to get their second Covid vaccination and not “leave the job half done” amid rising cases.

THE recently concluded Olympics and on-going Paralympics have crowned countless winners, but there is one victory that has overshadowed all individual champions, and not in a good way.

Earlier this week my friend Bob arrived at our house to discuss arrangements for my funeral. We’ve known each other a long time through journalism – he’s a former national newspaper editor and now a qualified celebrant. Laura and I had talked a...

JAMES MCPAKE remained tight-lipped over speculation linking Dundee with an ambitious move to land Leigh Griffiths.

THERE was something which did not quite ring true about the press release last month announcing the departure of Richard Cockerill from the head coach role at Edinburgh by “mutual consent”.

FROM growing meat in the lab to tomatoes bioengineered to help prevent cancer and the role of what we eat in climate change, the future of food has probably never been more contentious.

IT has been a frustrating summer for Cole Forbes. A call-up for the Scotland squad was an unexpected bonus, coming just a few months after he joined Glasgow Warriors, but then came the cancellation of all three of the national team’s fixtures for C...

More than 30 firefighters attended the scene at a “terrible fire” at a Nick Nairn restaurant in Bridge of Allan.

They arrived in longboats bringing a reputation as cruel and ruthless fighters, and who left a lasting imprint on the nation they set out to conquer.

NEIL Fachie revelled in a perfect day after regaining a Paralympic title, breaking his own world record and doing it all alongside the love of his life.

OVER the last 18 years, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have won a staggering 15 years’-worth of the Grand Slam titles on offer. They have secured 20 of the games’ biggest titles each, and at this week’s US Open Djokovic could m...

A SCOTS airport chief issued a renewed call for support to allow the aviation sector to be ready to take off for 2022.

Only Murders in the Building (Disney+, from Tue)

For 70 minutes, there was a swagger to the Jam Tarts at Tannadice.

How to Stop Fascism: History, Ideology, Resistance

NEXT week I am leaving the house for work. I’m quite excited about the prospect. I’m going to Edinburgh to do an interview for The Herald Magazine. I reckon it’s only the fourth or fifth time I’ve got up off the sofa for job-related duties in...

There have been 5,858 new cases of Covid-19 reported in Scotland in the past 24 hours.

WHAT do you need to know about Lauren Lyle? Well, for a start, she's been a busy woman. After almost five years on the hit US show Outlander – garnering a global fanbase for her role as fearless Marsali – we're about to see a whole lot more of he...

An appreciation by Clare Henry

MENO-RAGE is what Caroline Phipps-Urch calls the perimenopausal anger that sometimes rises in her. It’s a word even her three sons, aged 9, 11 and 12, use. In fact, the eldest, when he found her hacking away with a saw at a garden tree branch asked...

So we’ve now got two teams left in Europe when we were hoping we’d have four. It’s not surprising. Aberdeen and St Johnstone don’t have the comparable level of budget to Rangers and Celtic that would enable them to challenge at a high level e...

JUST as the shops start to clear out their summer stock in readiness for autumn and Christmas (not cancelled yet!), so television has been saying cheerio to a few long-staying guests.

Exclusive

MOUNTAINS. They’re a nice idea, I suppose. But to be honest, I am very much in the “lovely to look at, but I don’t want to climb them” camp. I was raised at sea level, and I’ve never seen the need to go much higher to be honest. Where I liv...

“Wokeism” is impeding efforts to tackle the chronic gender gap in pupil performance because of a tendency to attack or suppress opinions that highlight the possible link with innate sex differences, according to a leading expert.

FROM engineering to fishing, housebuilding to bread-making, core businesses that supply this country and others with essential foods and goods have outlined in detail the scale of the shortages crisis, and in a manner that has not been seen before.

STEVE CLARKE and the Tartan Army have been left facing a nervy wait to find out if John McGinn will take part in Scotland's upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

WHEN it comes to naming the great football grounds of Scotland it’s just possible that Netherdale Stadium in Galashiels may not be the first that comes to mind.

THIS column is dedicated to walking and ramblers' groups from across Scotland, where they can suggest the best routes to enjoy from their areas and further afield.

Built on the site of the city's former tyre factory, Dundee's ambitious Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc (MSIP) will pool the talents of industry, academia and the public sector to lower carbon emissions on the road to net zero. By Andrew

People infected with the Delta variant of Covid-19 carry twice the risk of needing to be treated in hospital than those with the Alpha strain, a study has suggested.

Get kids to engage with the natural world and help plants, animals and insects thrive with these top tips from NatureScot.

The Scottish Greens are to reveal if members have backed plans that could put their party into government for the first time in the UK, as part of a deal with the SNP.

ONE way or another, 9/11 has never left the news schedule. What is happening now in Afghanistan has brought the subject new prominence, as has the approaching 20th anniversary of the tragedy. Can it really have been two decades since the world watche...

THERE was a certain irony this week that on the day the Scottish Government unveiled its £1 billion NHS Recovery Plan, NHS Lanarkshire announced that it was cancelling the majority of its non-urgent elective surgery for the next couple of weeks.

“I AM not a still photographer, and I won’t pretend to be at this stage in my career,” the cinematographer Roger Deakins writes in the introduction to his new book Byways. It’s a book that rather refutes his claim

By Kristy Dorsey

JOYCE FALCONER, ACTOR

By Stephen Jones

There is an urgent skills shortage in the UK STEM sector.