SOME of Scotland's most rural areas are seeing a surge in annual house prices of up to 22.6% in a year as demand surges for peaceful locations post-pandemic.

WEEKS of deteriorating waiting time performances in Scotland’s A&E departments are pointing towards an even worse “winter storm” for the NHS, the Conservatives have claimed.

Higher costs for used cars, more expensive parts and longer repair times have hit profits at Direct Line, the UK’s second-largest UK motor insurer.

CONSUMER spin-off Haleon made an inauspicious debut on the London Stock Exchange in what was billed as Europe's biggest listing for more than a decade.

THE SCOTTISH Government spent more than £2.3m on Facebook advertising last year, up from £200,000 in 2015.

By Ian McConnell

INVARIABLY when I read survey results my first thought is, "Who are these people?"

By Ian McConnell

DON’T ask me why, but I was looking this week at a speech made in the House of Commons, 80 years ago by the Secretary of State for Scotland, Tom Johnston. He was reporting on the nation’s health in July 1942.

A Barratt homes employee has been awarded thousands for victimisation after she missed out on a new job because of a ‘revenge’ reference.

SHE turned her back on the hospitality scene in London to head 400 miles north and open a new business in the midst of a pandemic.

Shipping times between Scotland and China are set to be cut by almost half with the launch of a new direct service to help ease global supply chain disruptions.

By Stuart Moncur  

Farming markets

MINIMUM unit pricing did not reduce alcohol consumption among the heaviest drinking men, young men, or males living in more deprived areas of Scotland, according to new analysis.

GEARING up for the first holiday abroad in over three years, I had submerged tales of “airport chaos”. Even if the journey is to be testing, it will be worth the hassle in the end, I reckoned.

THIS is not the most auspicious moment to consider whether the UK might ever rejoin the European Union. As the unedifying, barely-democratic contest for choosing the UK’s next prime minister unfolds, Brexit has scarcely caused a ripple. With the co...

LAST week Nicola Sturgeon was reported as having offered the UK Government a "compromise". No, not that she would accept not having a referendum or continuing to agitate for secession. Her "compromise" is that HMG should agree to allowing her a Secti...

Liked Wordle? Upgrade your daily brain teaser to Quordle for a real mind-bender

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Hints and answer for today's Wordle.

Coarse corsair

Extinction Rebellion (XR) protestors smashed windows and daubed graffiti outside the publisher’s London HQ.

The Met Office has issued an amber weather warning of extreme heat in eastern, southern and central parts of Scotland

What is today's Framed? Some hints to help you guess the movie. Plus the answer for when you've given up!

The government urges you to follow local advice at all times to help halt the spread.

BORIS Johnson has suggested he will reveal all over his colleagues ousting him from power after insisting Conservative MPs will “coalesce in loyally” around his successor amid a toxic leadership battle.

THE SCOTTISH Government has asked Scots not to travel on Tuesday unless absolutely necessary.

BORIS Johnson has been blasted for missing three COBRA meetings as Britain swelters in record-breaking heat.

HIGHLAND Holidays, which owns Ben Nevis Holiday Park in Fort William, has made a second acquisition.

SCOTLAND’S first artificial wave park is expected to open next year after securing £26 million backing from the Scottish National Investment Bank.

By Ian McConnell

TRAINS running on some of Scotland's key rail routes have had a speed limit of 20mph implement as an amber warning over extreme heat came into force across parts of Scotland.

SCOTLAND'S legal profession has warned that the scrapping of the controversial not proven verdict in the nation's courts would be "dangerous" and "undoubtedly result" in miscarriages of justice.

SKY NEWS has been forced to cancel tomorrow night’s debate between the Tory leadership hopefuls after two of the candidates pulled out.

Doune The Rabbit Hole Festival

SCOTTISH commercial property has had its best first half of the year for investment volumes since 2018 as the market continued its recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new analysis.

CONSERVATIVE party leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch has accused the SNP of thriving on “generating grievances and setting people against each other.”

THE Scottish Government’s Victim Notification Scheme has been branded a failure after a loophole saw people “left in the dark about the fate of criminals who have made their lives a misery.”

THE Scottish Government has been accused of “posturing but not delivering” on help for refugees.

FINANCE ministers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have joined forces to call on Nadhim Zahawi to help more with the cost-of-living crisis.

ON the list of heatwave do’s and don’ts, launching yourself into a final sprint for the Tory leadership should be in the same column as mad dogs and Englishmen venturing out in the midday sun.

Tory leadership debates should carry a political health warning for progressive, Remain and independence-supporting Scots. The creaking exchanges have normalised right-wingery so profoundly that Tom Tugendhat, aided by his Eggsy Kingsman spectacles, ...

Bob Dylan can be relied on to come up with words that fit any occasion. Everything is Broken, for example, written in 1989, offers a fitting anthem for 2022 Britain: “Broken hands on broken ploughs; Broken treaties; Broken vows; Broken pipes; Broke...

THIS late spring and early summer has witnessed the re-awakening of an old force – once thought spent – in the battleground of British politics. For the first time in generations a confident and articulate left-wing analysis has begun to emerge i...

By Scott Wright

A 166-year-old hotel sited on one of Scotland's busiest railway lines has been brought to market.

By Ian McConnell

Scotland's newest luxury boutique hotel has reopend its doors with a first look at the major renovation project.

THE decline of the NHS is "a more realistic concern than it has been for decades" due to successive Covid waves, experts have warned.