A month has passed since Joe Biden entered the Oval Office as US President.

AS with life, in politics timing is everything.

Sir Billy Connolly has received his second dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

Follow along with the latest from Nicola Sturgeon's lockdown update for Scotland.

THE number of Covid patients being admitted to intensive care stopped falling weeks ago and has even shown signs of increasing, in a trend that is "not fully understood".

SCOTTISH councils have warned they still have a half a billion hole in their finances relating to the pandemic for next year's budget.

The 24-hour TV news channel said to rival the BBC and Sky and launched by political broadcaster Andrew Neil has announced signings to its political reporting team.

The latest forecast has Scots bracing for widespread flooding and high winds - with temperatures expected to plummet to -2C in places.

HAVING most unsurprisingly failed to show any meaningful benefits of leaving the European Union since the lamentable 2016 vote, it seems the Conservative Brexiters want another 10 years to pull some kind of rabbit out of the hat.

Most secondary school supply teachers are struggling to find employment despite huge government cash injections, a survey has indicated.

MORE than 500 Rolls-Royce jobs in Scotland have been safeguarded from compulsory redundancy for at least five years following an agreement with Unite the union.

THE most disappointing part of Helen McArdle's recent article ("Watchdog says ‘transparency’ needed on waiting time delays", The Herald, February 17) is the last paragraph indicating external consultants have been drafted by the NHS to address th...

GIRD your loins: the generation wars are flaring up again. In recent times, we have had Gen Z and Millennials vs Baby Boomers (spawning that irritating catchphrase: "OK, Boomer"). Now a fresh round of intergenerational sparring has begun as Gen Z ...

THERE was really only one logical conclusion to be drawn from the broom barricading Dominic Raab into his living room.

ROYAL Bank of Scotland owner NatWest Group has posted an operating pre-tax loss of £351 million for 2020, as provisions for bad debts linked to the coronavirus pandemic weighed on the bottom line.

By Scott Wright

PUMPED hydro storage schemes could cut the costs of operating the UK’s energy system by around £700m a year according to a study commissioned by SSE, which is working on plans for a bumper development in the Highlands.

THE financial services heavyweight who chairs 7IM has said the wealth manager is in the market for more acquisitions in Scotland as he underlined his confidence in the prospects for firms in the country.

COVID exacerbating self-indulgence and modernisation of the NHS were the issues raised by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.

Teacher taught

WE have a hate problem. There is more aggression and abuse in the public debate than at any time I can remember in my adult life. At the same time, it has become almost routine to accuse public figures of being “haters” on the flimsiest of evi...

Users in the UK and around the world are reporting issues with Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger.

BORIS Johnson will today pledge to donate most of Britain’s surplus coronavirus jags to poorer countries as he rallies world leaders to back his plan to cut the time it takes to develop new vaccines by two-thirds to just 100 days.

By Tom Gordon

THE SNP have been accused of being “rattled” after attacking the publication of explosive evidence from Alex Salmond about Nicola Sturgeon.

DENTISTS, pharmacists and GP receptionists will be asked to self-test for Covid twice a week from the end of March under plans to make lateral flow kits widely available.

A hospital has shut one of its wards because of an outbreak of coronavirus among staff and patients - for the second time.

THE HOME Office illegally charged children a "scandalously high" amount to register as British citizens, a court has ruled.

Tom Gordon

MIKE Russell has appeared to shift ground on the timing of a new independence vote by twice failing to repeat Nicola Sturgeon's preferred timetable for Indyref2.

Brexit has hit "almost every exporter in manufacturing and engineering" in Scotland, it has been claimed.

Police posted a picture of the bare metal wheel on social media and said the vehicle has been banned from being used on the road.

By Rachel Brown

HOLYROOD has announced a last-minute consultation on addressing a fundamental issue with the Scottish Government’s controversial Hate Crime Bill.

Scotland has recorded 57 deaths from coronavirus and 685 positive tests in the past 24 hours, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

SALMON farmers have asked the Scottish Government to consider financial compensation for fish lost to seal attacks.

John Swinney is under pressure to set out a timetable detailing how he will respond to calls for sweeping reform of key education agencies.

THE CORONAVIRUS pandemic has illustrated the 'best of Britain' but radical plans are needed to help the country recover.

The stunning vista of Loch Ness in the Highlands has been picked as the UK's favourite view by railway passengers.

THE SNP has withdrawn its plans to regulate Airbnb-style short-term lets and will instead resubmit the plans alongside guidance after May’s election.

The US Justice Department has charged three North Koreans over links to a number of cyber attacks, including the WannaCry attack which hit the NHS.

The Scottish Government has been told it needs an "elimination" strategy to tackle Covid-19 in 2021.

BRITISH military personnel who were dismissed for being gay can now get their medals back (medals that were sometimes ripped from their uniforms in front of them) and it’s good news for obvious reasons, and good news for less obvious reasons too...

HEALTH officials should ask about people’s housing situation to stop them suffering from homelessness, independent experts have urged.

Professor Jason Leitch has said Scotland can strive for elimination - but warns global eradication is unlikely, although travel corridors may be reinstated in future.

THE snow has barely melted and spring not yet arrived, but something is already stirring in the political undergrowth.

AS both a social care-supported person and a member of the "Expert Panel" of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care, I warmed to the glow in which the Scottish Parliament received the report this week. Nevertheless, I became decisively cold to t...

A man has been airlifted to hospital after he went overboard from a fishing vessel.