Travel and tourism have become casualties of coronavirus lockdown, but one travel writer has found a new way to highlight Scotland's beauty, writes Deborah Anderson

The Chaotic Scots Traveller Kay Gillespie delivers her Top 10 places She's dreaming about in Scotland

By James Campbell

THE dancehall has been a source of income for people from some of Jamaica's toughest communities for decades. Many women who rely on weekly dances for their bread and butter have been in limbo since the sector shut down in March due to COVID-19.

NEW YORK (AP) — Andre Harrell, the Uptown Records founder who shaped the sound of hip hop and R&B in the late 80s and 90s with acts such as Mary J Blige and Heavy D, and who also launched the career of mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, has died. He was 59.Diddy's REVOLT company confirmed the death Saturday but no other details were immediately available. Harrell was the vice chairman at REVOLT.

REACTION poured in following the death of rock 'n' roll pioneer Little Richard, who died yesterday at age 87.

A long-time resident of Trench Town, Donnette Dowe has seen the trials of urban life up-close and personal. Like many inner-city Jamaican communities, crime, teen pregnancy and poverty are rife.The 50-year-old mother of five children (ages 26, 24, 21, 16 and 12) is director and tour manager for Trench Town Culture Yard, a renovated tenement which was once home to Bob Marley and his family.

War is the great distraction. Right or wrong, foolish or wise, it suspends all the usual political and economic rules. Suddenly a chancellor who has spent five and a half years telling us “there is no money” can find ready billions for warfare.

If the bookies are right, Jeremy Corbyn is the political equivalent of a nice slice of wholemeal, browning fast. He’s toast. Smart money, supposedly superior to any opinion poll, says a Labour leader elected by a landslide will be gone within a year of his triumph.

IN dark times, begin by giving the Prime Minister a bit of credit. Unlike a certain predecessor, David Cameron has accepted that there needs to be an honest, public argument over the case for an escalated war in the Middle East.

War, then. Another war. Still another war begun because the last guaranteed-conclusive war produced consequences that made one more shot in the dark inevitable. Intellectual and strategic failure is on a production line.

Glasgow City Council has a keen sense, it seems, of what is or might be controversial. When the rest of us imagine that a handful of words to mark a long-distant historical event could never be more than anodyne, the council is alert to the affliction of controversy. It is a condition to be avoided at all costs.

IT isn’t often that a rousing speech on socialist internationalism is rewarded with a full transcript in the Spectator. In fact, it never happens. The Tory Party’s newsletter is funny like that.

If modern lives were measured in unprecedented weather events, we would all be 200 years old. Defences against floods that were supposed to happen every other century are being overtopped in the space of a few winters. The victims surveying ruined homes and businesses are ageing fast.

Award-winning Herald and Sunday Herald columnist Ian Bell has died at the age of 59.

Ian Bell, the award-winning Herald and Sunday Herald writer and columnist, died last week aged 59. Here are excerpts from 10 of his finest pieces of writing.

If modern lives were measured in unprecedented weather events, we would all be 200 years old. Defences against floods that were supposed to happen every other century are being overtopped in the space of a few winters. The victims surveying ruined homes and businesses are ageing fast.

THE Treasury has bombarded us all week with facts, figures and forecasts making the case for the UK to remain in the European Union. Its big report, on Monday, warned Brexit would tip the country into a year-long recession, resulting in up to 820,000 job losses within two years.

MSPS were really quite excited last week to be taking part in a largely symbolic vote with an entirely predictable outcome.

NICOLA Sturgeon was at her best during the new, extended First Minister's Questions on Thursday when she spoke about the sickening murder of Liam Fee.

THE warning is becoming louder. It was raised by the Leave team during Thursday's TV debate and, on the same day, by the Chancellor, George Osborne, and two former prime minsters, Sir John Major and Tony Blair. Brexit, they said, posed a serious threat to the Union.

"Everyone hates politicians," the MSP observed. We were chatting about the EU referendum and she was explaining why the polls were showing a rise in support for a Leave vote.

RUTH Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, will take on Boris Johnson in the BBC's final EU debate, grandly entitled The Great Debate, which will be broadcast at 8pm tonight.

It didn't take long for the list of warnings about Brexit to start coming true.

The accepted unit of measurement for long books is War and Peace. Library shelves bend and buckle under the weight of bigger doorstops, but it's Tolstoy's classic that has become the shorthand for a hefty tome.

Nicola Sturgeon has promised to exhaust all options in an effort to keep Scotland in the EU after the country voted by 62 per cent to 38 per cent against Brexit.

When Theresa May declared "Brexit means Brexit," Nicola Sturgeon's response was pithy and to the point. "Remain means Remain," she said, making an apparently all-or-nothing commitment to securing Scotland's place in the EU after the country voted decisively to stay.

DOMINIC McKay, Scottish Rugby’s chief operating officer, has warned that if Covid-19 social distancing measures mean that rugby cannot resume by the end of November, the financial impact will be considerably more than the £12m lost revenue quoted by chief executive Mark Dodson in respect to the Autumn Tests not going ahead. The organisation’s total turnover last year was £61m.

Cairngorm National Park has moved online to give armchair visitors a flavour of a Highland spring, finds Sandra Dick

By Deborah Anderson

Scotland will not adopt the Prime Minister's new coronavirus slogan which drops the 'stay at home' message, Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed.

LEARNING from the problems and delays over PPE and testing will be essential to getting the vaccine strategy right, experts say.

Grief

Wise words

SOMETIMES I appal myself. But I cannot deny that a small, reprehensible part of me will regret the lifting of the coronavirus lockdown.

What if the lockdown was lifted and nobody came? A lot of people seem quite happy with life under Covid, especially educated middle-class people on social media who are happily swapping Spotify playlists and recipes for sourdough bread.

The paths around Hoolet are hard trodden these days, as the village takes its daily gulp of fresh air. Along hedgerows, down tree-lined avenues, through the woods and by the stream, legions of boots have stomped, marking out time. With almost no rain for six weeks, the lanes are dusty and tracks that were made by tractors, horses and bikes in the February mud have solidified into treacherous ruts.

One size fits all? How wrong you are

IT could have been a warm welcome home for a conquering comedy hero when Billy Connolly appeared before an audience of Scottish school children at the BBC in Glasgow.

Source: ftw.usatoday.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
Justin Gaethje put on a show in front of zero fans Saturday night at UFC 249 in Jacksonville, Fla., winning the interim lightweight belt with a fifth-round TKO victory over the legendary Tony Ferguson after referee Herb Dean called the fight with just over a minute to go. But when it was time to get the belt from UFC boss Dana White, Gaethje wanted nothing to do with the impressive hardware as he quickly tossed it aside before talking to Joe Rogan in the Octagon. Why would he do that? Because interim belts in the UFC are pretty silly and Gaethje doesn’t want to waste his time celebrating an accomplishment that now sets him up to fight for the real lightweight belt against Khabib Nurmagomedov who still owns the belt and is one of the greatest fighters of all time. Look at how Gaethje treated his belt: Justin Gaethje tossed aside the interim lightweight title belt he won at #UFC249 "I'll wait for the real one." pic.twitter.com/GBxD1RUemj — ESPN (@espn) May 10, 2020 Seriously, he wanted nothing to do with that thing. He evenly let his coach leave Octagon with it: . @Justin_Gaethje truly wants no part of that interim belt. His head coach Trevor Wittman had to carry it out of the octagon. #UFC249 | More: https://t.co/N8mXceTwxO pic.twitter.com/MBDvMIHG1h — MMA Junkie (@MMAjunkie) May 10, 2020 Now that is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in the fight game for quite some time. Sure, we haven’t seen fighting in quite some time, eithe

Source: www.washingtontimes.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
BEIJING (AP) - Yao Ming, the former Houston Rockets star and now president of the Chinese Basketball Association, says the league has three options for resuming the season that has been on hold since Feb. 1 over the coronavirus pandemic. Yao said the league might play out the full schedule; ...

Source: www.aol.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci , the nation’s top infectious disease expert and member of the White House coronavirus task force, says he’s going into a “modified quarantine” after coming into contact with an administration staff member who contracted COVID-19, CNN reported Saturday . Read more...

Source: boxden.com - Sunday, May 10, 2020
via Remember when KD had Lebron scared to fight? @ sports

Source: www.reuters.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
Malaysia's government extended the time frame for movement and business curbs by another four weeks to June 9, amid a gradual reopening of economic activity stunted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Source: www.wellingtondailynews.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
The Freewill Baptist Church will be giving away food and other items to people in the community, starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 16, but you have to make an appointment by calling the church office at 326-5521.Non-perishable food items and brand new items, such as fashion accessories, swimwear and home decor has been donated, Charlotte Brooks, church administrative assistant said. Shelter Insurance donated $1,000 worth of food.“Every donation is by the community [...]

Source: www.reuters.com - Sunday, May 10, 2020
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out a five-tier warning system for the coronavirus in England on Sunday when he outlines the government's plans to begin slowly easing lockdown measures, British media reported.

Source: www.justjared.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
Kristen Wiig is the host of the season finale of Saturday Night Live ! The 46-year-old Wonder Woman 1984 actress hosted the Mother’s Day episode remotely from her home. During her monologue, Kristen took the opportunity to wish her mom a Happy Mother’s Day. “This is the Mother’s Day show and at SNL it’s a very special time to celebrate moms,” Kristen said. “Unfortunately, like a lot of you, I can’t be with my mom this Mother’s Day so I hope it’s okay I tell her I love her.” “You know I’ve been thinking lately, I don’t know if I truly appreciated my mom the first 45 years of my life, but this year I’m feeling especially grateful for all the things she taught me, preparing me to be a mom myself,” Kristen said before showing a plate of raw chicken breast. “Things like breastfeeding, babies love that chicken, she would always say that.” Kristen ended her monologue by thanking all the parents supporting their families during the pandemic. “So I do want to thank my mom and all the moms out there helping us get through this and have been there,” Kristen said. “We thank you so much, happy Mother’s Day. Thank you moms and thank you dads.” Find out when Wonder Woman 1984 will be out in theaters .

Source: www.justjared.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
Looking for something fun to do while in quarantine? How about take classes from some of the world’s greatest teachers?! MasterClass makes it possible for anyone to learn from the best and the company is offering lessons from 80+ world-class instructors. The popular service was just spoofed on SNL with a hilarious sketch in which the comedians spoofed Britney Spears , Phoebe Waller-Bridge , and John Mulaney . You actually can learn acting from Oscar winners like Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson , filmmaking from Martin Scorsese , singing from Christina Aguilera , tennis from Serena Williams , cooking from Gordon Ramsay , creativity and leadership from Anna Wintour , ballet technique from Misty Copeland , and business strategy from Disney’s Bob Iger . Each class includes around 20 video lessons that are 10 minutes long on average, along with an in-depth workbook. Right now, you can buy an annual membership to MasterClass that gives you access to every teacher’s lessons. For $180, you’ll get a membership, and you’ll also get to gift a membership to someone for free. This could be a perfect Mother’s Day present! Go to MasterClass.com right now to check it out and start learning. Disclosure: Some products on this site use affiliate links and we may earn commission for any purchase made through the links.

Source: www.justjared.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
Alec Baldwin is back as President Trump on Saturday Night Live ! The actor once again impersonated the president on the sketch show’s season finale on Saturday (May 9). Alec as Trump made an appearance during the cold open, which featured a virtual graduation for college students. “I’m so honored to be your vale-dictator,” Alec as Trump said. “But today’s not about me. It’s about you. Although I should spend a little time on me first, because I’ve been treated very poorly, even worse than they treated Lincoln.” “You’re actually lucky to be graduating right now there are so many exciting new jobs out there, like grocery store bouncer, cam-girl, porch pirate, amateur nurse and coal,” he continued. “Don’t forget about coal. It’s in the ground, and you just dig down and grab it.” At the end of the cold open, Alec broke character, suggesting that this is his last time playing Trump . “And taped from my home, one last time,” Alec said, “it’s Saturday night.” Alec has been playing Trump for the past four years since the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Source: www.washingtontimes.com - Sunday, May 10, 2020
OAKLAND PARK, Fla. (AP) - There is nothing like a big smooch, gentle touch or a wet nose nuzzle with a happy dog. But social distancing rules, due to the impact of COVID-19, has created a barrier between those in need of canine therapy visits and those special pups that ...