Good evening folks,

A couple of late, breaking stories to make you aware of this evening...

A Bonnyrigg-based engineer is the sole UK finalist in a competition to design a new ventilator for coronavirus patients. Ross Hunter, chief executive of Armadilla, is one of just seven people to make it to the last stage of the contest. More than 200 people from 40-plus countries submitted entries. Should Hunter's design win, his 'Core Vent' product would be available for a fraction of the cost of current ventilators. 

You can read more here>>>

Scots have been urged to avoid anti-lockdown events being planned for across the UK and Ireland. Mass gatherings aimed at protesting the lockdown measures have been planned for locations including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness and Dundee. Fliers advertising the 'unified peaceful mass gatherings' encourage people to bring picnics and music and to 'say no to the coronavirus bill, no to the new normal, no to mandatory vaccines and no to the unlawful lockdown'.  Police Scotland and the Scottish Government have reminded the public that such events are prohibited.

You can read the full story here>>>

Here are the rest of the headlines this evening:

• The number of people dying with coronavirus in Scotland has fallen for the second week in a row, although First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she will 'err on the side of caution' with lockdown measures
• The FM said the drop in deaths 'offered further and sustained signs of hope'
• The total number of people whose deaths have been linked to Covid-19 now stands at 3,213 according t figures from the National Records of Scotland (NRS)
• People in the most-deprived areas of Scotland are more than two times more likely to die with Covid-19 than those in the least deprived areas, new data has revealed
• MSPs will consider emergency legislation aimed at allowing students to end accommodation contracts
• Local firms in Scotland are on a "knife-edge" because of the coronavirus restrictions, says the Federation of Small Businesses
• The UK economy contracted by 2 per cent in the first three months of the year, official figures show

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