IT was on board a supply ship which had docked in the port of Marseille that Barney Roberts learned the news that the war was over.

Colin Grassie is to stand down as chairman of the board of Scottish Rugby at August’s AGM.

DAVE Rennie believes that Leinster deserve to be awarded the PRO14 title, and is convinced that such a solution would be better for player welfare and the integrity of the competition than dragging this season on into late summer or autumn.

British Olympic Association chairman Sir Hugh Robertson has been selected to lead an independent governance review of World Rugby.

THE SRU would be “very happy” to host the Scottish Cup semi-final between Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian at BT Murrayfield, the governing body’s Chief Operating Officer revealed yesterday.

TEMPORARY walking and cycling routes are set to pop-up across Scotland in a bid to improve social distancing while Scots are now being advised to wear face coverings in “enclosed spaces”.

Global carbon emissions from energy are expected to fall by almost 8% in 2020 in the biggest drop in history as a result of the pandemic, experts said.

For many people, lockdown has meant looking for joy in the natural world around us.

IT is one of he most important seabird observatories in the world, but its very future was called into question when fire ravaged through it and left it no more than a pile of rubble.

Celtic Connections

Celtic Connections

The Celtic Connections roots and traditional music festival recorded 100,000 visits this January.

From Thursday 16 January to Sunday 2 February 2020, musicians from across the world will take part in over 300 events in venues throughout Glasgow for the UK's premier celebration of celtic music.

IT is less than two months since Shelley Kerr and her backroom staff, along with the domestic players in Scotland’s squad, flew back from Alicante to Glasgow. On the very same day – March 11 – the World Health Organisation accorded Covid-19 pandemic status.

The great North-South divide in rugby was never more in evidence than when the votes were counted for the chairmanship of World Rugby last week. Sir Bill Beaumont stayed in the job, beating Agustin Pichot by 28 votes to 23, but wow, what an outcome in terms of who actually supported the former England and British Lions captain.

WOULD you still celebrate a cup final win for your team if you knew for absolute certain the game had been rigged?

It has been the major success story of the alcohol industry in recent years. Once thought of as a drink for the older generation, now you will find that gin, be it pink, flavoured or colour changing, has become one of the most popular spirits in the country. There have been no shortage of bars leaping on the bandwagon, to offer up drinks to connoisseurs, but where are the best places to go in Scotland? We’ve narrowed it down to 10 of the best.

IT’S almost time for the last supper. Though not quite. Another 24 hours will have to pass before the concluding morsel is munched, the final nibble on the edge of no more. After that, a little part of Scotland’s living history will die.

IT’S been an up and down sort of day for Imran Akhtar. And in a much too literal sense, as far as he’s concerned. First, he had to clamber on top of the roof of the Ottoman Coffee House on Glasgow’s Berkeley Street, to make sure the temporary tarpaulin was still in place and keeping out the wind, rain, hail and snow. (It’s been one of those typical Scottish afternoons, with the weather behaving like a plump maiden aunt’s two-layered chocolate box. In other words, way too many delights

Thyme: Lebanese Street Sajeria

Organize your phone, tablet, and computer with these quick and easy tips from productivity expert Jill Duffy. Investing just a little time here at the beginning of the year could make a big difference for all of 2020.

scrolling through Amazon in the same way has turned up some great deals on iPads. Right now the latest models are available at all-new low prices.

IT’S strange the different things people took away from Theresa May’s teary goodbye in Downing Street yesterday.

LIKE Nicola Sturgeon, I blame the Tories. Not, like her, for everything everywhere, but for an off-key outing at FMQs.

THE last day of term before recess saw MSPs attempt more jokes than usual at FMQs, some of them even bordering on approaching the mildly funny. Heady days.

WELL that didn’t take long. Scotland’s latest experiment in direct democracy was all but killed off this week, barely two months after Nicola Sturgeon announced it.

The American politician John Nance Garner is better remembered for something he said rather than anything he did as Franklin Roosevelt’s vice-president.

In “Painting Nationalism Red?”, an engaging new pamphlet published by Democratic Left Scotland, the journalist Neal Ascherson pays tribute to Tom Nairn as Scotland’s “pre-eminent political intellectual”.

Shortly before the second general election of 1974, the late John P Mackintosh attempted to explain the rise of the Scottish National Party to a predominantly left-wing (and English) audience in an essay for the New Statesman.

A few days after a majority of Britons backed Brexit in June 2016, this newspaper reported that Nicola Sturgeon had been in talks with London Mayor Sadiq Khan and the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo.

The Scottish Labour Party, I think it’s fair to say, hasn’t had a good decade.

“Scotland”, declared a young Alex Salmond in May 1975, “knows from bitter experience what treatment is in store for a powerless region of a common market.”

In his new book, “The End of British Party Politics?”, the political scientist Roger Awan-Scully captures the paradox of last year’s general election in Scotland.

The sight of Scottish ministers boarding flights to far-flung destinations in order to “sell Scotland to the world” has been a familiar one for more than half a century.

Today in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister will explain her decision to authorise airstrikes against Syria alongside France and the United States.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended an “in conversation” event with the American sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild at Harvard University.

What do professional golfers do in this coronavirus-induced hiatus?

Scotland’s golf courses have been urged to close in the wake of the Government’s latest measures to combat the coronavirus.

THE Open Championship will not take place at all this year.

Scottish Golf today revealed that no date has been set for the sport in this country to restart and stressed that lockdown restrictions will remain in place for the foreseeable future.

CHRISTMAS is coming, the goose is getting fat and there's no wine as flexible with the varied foods of the season than rioja, so let’s take a seasonal look at our favourite Spaniard.

ONE of the trying things about being a drinks columnist is the number of wines I have to taste in order to write this Shakespearian text for you guys. Products have to be really special to stand out from the crowd and, thankfully, they occasionally still do.

With the Six Nations rugby in full flow (come on, Scotland – I’m forever the optimist) now is a great time to look at amazing beverages from all the nations competing.

While lockdown has seen some people turn to DIY, it doesn't all have to be on the home or garden.

Readers have been quick to voice their opinion after it was reported that Nicola Sturgeon missed six emergency coronavirus Cobra meetings.

MILLIONS of face masks to protect Scottish health and care workers against coronavirus could be stuck in limbo at Prestwick airport for a week, it has emerged.

HEALTH boards across Scotland have spent almost £17 million on sending scans to other parts of the country and across the world by private companies amid a staffing crisis.

THE SNP is so rotten it may have to be replaced by a new independence party, its former deputy leader has said.

Dumbarton police station has temporarily closed after a member of staff showed symptoms of Covid-19.

Following the University-wide commencement ceremony on May 9, Penn State Shenango will host a virtual celebration for the Class of 2020.