In your briefing today:

📣 Fifa President Gianni Infantino has apologised for “errors” he made in planning to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors, but will remain in his job after receiving the backing of senior executives in an emergency meeting he called in Morocco. (BBC)

📣 An explosive-laden drone found at a German airport represents a “new threat” spreading over from the Ukraine war, a German government minister has warned.

Russia has not been officially blamed for the incident, but reports say the drone was found close to a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig/Halle airport.

Germany has opened a counterterrorism investigation after the drone was discovered by airport workers in a restricted cargo area near the southern runway. (Independent)

📣 The University of Glasgow is facing questions about what due diligence it carried out before appointing Jason Arday to a senior position in its school of education in 2021, when he was only 35, making him one of the youngest professors in the UK.

Professor Arday resigned from his position at the University of Cambridge yesterday, after authorities launched an investigation “following new information” about Arday's “academic qualifications and honorary appointments”.

Concerns about Arday’s credentials have grown in recent days, including claims that he plagiarised his PhD thesis and parts of his academic research. He has also been accused of exaggerating claims about his sporting prowess and fundraising achievements. (The Times) (BBC)

The 8-hour workday is becoming a 4-hour workday for people who know how to use AI.

Everyone else is still catching up.

This AI work playbook shows you exactly how to cut your work hours in half using AI.

Sign up for Superhuman AI and get:

Claim your AI playbook

📣 The father of a nine-year-old girl who died on a Scottish industrial estate while camping with her family has appeared in court charged with her murder. (Mail)

📣 Edinburgh remains pretty choked up after the fire on Princes Street, and businesses have been complaining of the lost trade during what should be peak season in the capital. But they will now be able to claim part of a £5m package of support. (BBC)

📣 The Daniel crime gang is offering drugs on WhatsApp with a service that appears to make ordering class-A drugs as easy as getting a pizza in. (Daily Record)

📣 Another day, still no solid news on a peace deal in the Middle East: Iran and the US both say a deal is near, but final agreement would require one party to back down… (AP)

📣 “High-tax Scotland is a cautionary tale for Andy Burnham,” says The Telegraph’s Emma Taggart in a long read today, after the news that a tax increase on high earners cost the country £22m in a single year. (Telegraph)

📣 Four young women have said they were sexually assaulted and harassed at an army training college for teenagers in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. (BBC)

📣 A former neo-Nazi activist who was jailed for racially harassing an ex-Labour MP has stepped down as a Tory candidate. (Mirror)

⚽️ Celtic manager Martin O'Neill remained in hospital overnight after undergoing a "small procedure", the club said. They offered no details about the operation on O’Neill. The 74-year-old was expected to be released in the "next day or two". (BBC)

⚽️ Hearts face the daunting challenge of Benfica in Lisbon tonight in the Europa League qualifiers, with head coach Wouter Vrancken insisting heads are not down in his squad despite three defeats in a row to start their season. (BBC)

⚽️ Rangers have their opening European game of the season against Jagiellonia Białystok, also in the Europa League qualifiers. They have Nico Raskin - returning from a strong World Cup showing with Belgium - available for selection. (BBC)

⚽️ In the Europa Conference League qualifiers, Motherwell travel to Finland to take on HJK Helsinki - their new manager Alfred Johansson thinks it’ll be a helter-skelter game. (BBC)

⚽️ Hibs are the only Scottish side at home in Europe tonight: they welcome Shkendija of North Macedonia to Easter Road in the Europa Conference League qualifiers. (BBC)

🗣️Kevin McKenna is unsparing in his assessment of Nicola Sturgeon’s legacy, as she releases a new epilogue for the paperback edition of her memoirs, Frankly.

After reading it, he says, “You’re tempted to spare a thought for John Swinney [who] has spent the last two years defending his predecessor’s honour, having dutifully carried her bags for the previous ten. Is Ms Sturgeon grateful for his heroic attempts at rewriting history on her behalf? No, she is not.”

Sturgeon is critical of the SNP’s election campaign earlier this year, saying there was a “lack of vision or big-picture thinking”. Writes McKenna: “So, what’s new? Ms Sturgeon’s entire nine-year tenure as First Minister was characterised by “a lack of vision or big-picture thinking.

“We should perhaps be grateful for her political insularity, though. Just about everything within her narrow focus turned to dust in a decade of unremitting failure”.(The Herald)

🗣️You’ll recall that, back in March, Chinese wind energy giant Ming Yang was told it wouldn’t be allowed to build its turbines in Scotland, essentially for reasons of national security. And you might have thought that was that. But no, suggests Douglas Fraser, formerly BBC Scotland’s business and economy editor, who now writes a Substack.

He says the Chinese company hasn’t given up hope. Patiently watching the ministerial churn at the top of the UK government, it hopes it could still have a chance of developing the huge plant it wants to put in Ardersier.

“Playing a long game against Britain’s short-termism and leadership churn, the Chinese are seeking ways to placate Whitehall with reassurances about handing over control of its machinery and software,” he says. (Douglas Fraser’s Ledger)

🗣️ Calum Steele, former General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, says Scottish policing is “is being reshaped in ways few outside the service understand”. His implication is few would approve of it, either, if they knew what that meant: “fewer officers, fewer cells and weaker supervision risk leaving communities with a service that looks very different from the one they expect,” he writes.

“Senior officers will continue to insist standards have never been higher,” he writes. “They may even believe it – but the measure isn't what’s said in Tulliallan. It's what happens on a Friday night when someone contemplates dialling 999. Is it worth the aggravation?” (The Herald)

🗣️ Author Jenny Lindsay is alarmed that a trial of puberty blockers - drugs used to stop the onset of puberty in children aged 11 to 16 who are “gender incongruent” - is to go ahead, despite the long-term medical impact of doing so.

There had been demands for a judicial review into the ethics of the trial which, they argue, is medical experimentation on children. But Justice Carmichael ruled last Friday they had no “realistic prospect” of winning that review.

The desire for puberty blockers “isn’t based in science,” says Lindsay. “It’s but one consequence of a wildly successful global ideology that has caused extensive social, cultural, and political harm.

Once, she writes, “a girl saying, ‘Mum, I’m really a boy,’ would’ve been met with ‘Don’t be daft.’” (The Scotsman)

Sent this by a friend?