Good evening,

On an lovely summer's day in Scotland - which we hope you're all enjoying while still sticking to social-distancing guidelines - Nicola Sturgeon has admitted that the easing of restrictions could be sped up by the welcome news that the weekly death toll in the country has fallen for the third consecutive week.

This has been down to the discipline of thousands upon thousands of people over the last couple of months. You all deserve tremendous credit.

Just make sure to follow the next set of guidelines just as strictly and we can continue heading in the right direction against this pandemic.

Here are tonight's headlines:

• Nicola Sturgeon has said the latest weekly fall in COVID-19 deaths in Scotland is "encouraging" and hinted it could allow her to press ahead with easing lockdown.
• Scotland's universities will take up to five years to recover from the financial crisis looming as a result of Coronavirus, MSPs have been told. And the Scottish Government may end the "free" places provided to EU students as a way to free up extra cash, Universities minister Richard Lochhead has said.
• Nicola Sturgeon has suggested that future COVID-19 clusters will be “made public” after fresh criticism of the Scottish Government's handling of the Nike conference outbreak in Edinburgh.
• Nicola Sturgeon has asked MSPs to “make allowances” after coming under-fire from opposition politicians for the number of “holding” responses by government ministers to written questions.
• The aerospace giant, Rolls-Royce, has been accused of “shameful opportunism” after announcing plans to cut at least 9,000 jobs, sparking fears for those employed at its sites in Scotland.

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Joy Yates