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👋 Good morning! It’s Saturday 6 December 2025. I’m Neil McIntosh, editor of The Early Line, and it’s great to have you here.
📣 You’re reading the weekend edition of The Early Line. Sorry it’s a bit late today.
Unlike Monday to Friday, this is a taster. Paying subscribers get the full version, with six talking points and film, TV and sporting recommendations for the week ahead.
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Have a wonderful weekend, all!
☁️☀️ The weekend’s weather: A bit dreich all round. Most places will be overcast with some rain at points on Saturday, with Sunday being much more wet for Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness and London. Aberdeen will be the exception tomorrow: cloudy but dry, think the forecasters. (Here’s the UK forecast).
SIX THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
An unbearable World Cup draw | How Labour could win in Scotland | When should we unplug AI? | A huge F1 weekend | Remembering Gehry | An $85 million bolt hole - with an expiry date?
🍸 Did you watch last night’s World Cup draw? I hope all the muscles involved in your cringe have managed to unclench: it must surely have been one of the most agnonising TV spectacles unleashed on the world in decades, from start to Village People conclusion.
Devastatingly, the Guardian appears not to have assigned Marina Hyde to translate the whole episode for the world, but m’Mirror colleague Christopher Bucktin did a great job of describing the moment Fifa president Gianni Infantino awarded a big gold medal and the inaugral Fifa peace prize - a trophy that appers to depict giant hands from hell attempting to grab the world from below - to President Donald Trump.
The establishment of the new Fifa prize came as a big surprise, even to members of the body’s most senior officials. “Not long after President Trump missed out on the Nobel Peace Prize that he openly campaigned for, his friend Gianni Infantino got to work,” reports The New York Times (🎁gift link)
Keith Jackson: There may be reason to suspect Steve Clarke and his Scotland players could achieve something historic by qualifying for the latter stages of the tournament for the first time. But Donald Trump doesn’t need to be told that. (Daily Record)
The draw in full (BBC)
Upgrade to read the full Party Line and…
Read about one columnist’s interesting tip for Anas Sarwar on how to win in Scotland next year (despite It All)
Understand when (soon) humanity may need to decide to switch some AI off
Enjoy a brilliant cinematic preview of this weekend’s thrilling Formula 1 dénouement
Discover an extraordinary $85 million mansion that’s terrific, so long as you don’t think sea levels are rising.
PLUS: find top TV, film and sporting picks for the weekend.
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