| Good morning, Happy Monday! I hope your weekend went more slowly than mine did. Thank you as ever for your support for The Scotsman. If informative, fact-checked journalism is important to you, please consider subscribing with us from as little as £3 a month. Coronavirus 'megalab' to fight virus in Scotland The launch of a Covid-19 'megalab' has been hailed as an 'important step' in the battle against the virus. When fully operational, the facility is aimed at increasing daily testing capacity by 300,000, according to the UK Government. It is also expected to create around 1,800 new jobs. Find out everything we know so far about the new megalab here. Scottish Independence referendum could be staged without Westminster approval Holyrood may have the power to stage an opening referendum on independence as part of a two-vote process on Scotland leaving the UK. That's according to constitutional expert Alan Trench, who says this would force everyone to behave in a more 'open and engaged' way rather than treating the electorate as 'somebody to be ransomed or hoodwinked or bamboozled'. Read more about this two-vote approach and what it could mean here. 'Covid cruelly stole our final days with him' Titan of Scottish journalism, Bill Jamieson has died aged 75. Tributes have been paid to the former executive editor of The Scotsman, a 'newspaperman to the core' who predicted the last recession months before it happened. His Scotsman columns, which he wrote up until August this year, were much-loved and well read. See our full tribute to the 'brilliant journalist and wonderful person' here. Don't miss daily Covid briefings being streamed live Did you know we are now live-streaming the Scottish Government's daily coronavirus briefings? Listen to the briefing and read our analysis as events unfold every day on our live blog. Thank you for reading and have a great week, Ginny - ginny.sanderson@jpimedia.co.uk | 