In your briefing today:

📣 Donald Trump is looking increasingly isolated across Europe as right-wing leaders in Germany and Italy question the wisdom of ties with the US President, in the wake of Victor Orbán’s defeat in the Hungarian elections and amid his ongoing feud with the Pope. He’s also under fire at home for posting a picture depicting him as a Christ-like figure, which critics have called blasphemous.

📣 The US has, meanwhile, begun its blockade of Iranian ports. The move is intended to pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and accept a peace deal with the US. (AP) (Guardian)

📣 Scottish Labour launched its manifesto, promising a raft of measures to help with the cost of living, including tax-free childcare, a new apprenticeship programme and 125,000 new homes.

Anas Sarwar also wants to offer tax cuts, cut NHS waiting times, make it easier to get a doctor’s appointment and create a new mental health emergency service. (BBC)

But much of the press coverage today is an extended shrug: the country’s political correspondents appear unimpressed by a raft of policies already announced in recent months, while some say there are whispers from inside the party that it’s not seen as ambitious enough after a long spell out of government.

Some people use Claude to write emails. Others use it to basically run their entire business while they play Wordle.

This isn't just ChatGPT's cooler cousin. It's the AI that's quietly revolutionizing how smart people work – writing entire business plans, planning marketing campaigns, and basically becoming the intern you never have to pay.

The Hustle's new guide shows you exactly how the AI-literate are leaving everyone else behind. Subscribe for instant access.

Get our Claude playbook

📣 First baby boxes - now school bags: the SNP has promised a free school bag, full of essential items, should they win next month. (Herald)

📣 The newly appointed convener of LGBT Youth Scotland, a charity that has received millions in public funding, has quit after claims that he made up parts of his CV and used a fake title. (Times)

📣 Two prominent Glasgow restaurateurs have been jailed after admitting involvement in a large VAT fraud. (STV)

📣 The leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s Your Party in Scotland has quit and declared the party is “over”. (Holyrood)

📣 The public inquiry into the Southport killings has found that “catastrophic failures” by the parents of the killer and various public agencies meant chances to prevent the murders of three girls in 2024 were missed. (BBC) (Mail)

📣 The world has continued to react to Viktor Orbán’s defeat in Hungary’s election: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for talks, the Kremlin said it respected “the choice” Hungary had made, and French President Emmanuel Macron said he welcomed “the victory of democratic participation”. (AP)

📣 The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is to induct a raft of new members, including Phil Collins, Iron Maiden, Billy Idol, Queen Latifah, Oasis, Sade and Joy Division/New Order. (AP)

⚽️ Rangers will host a meeting of Premiership clubs to discuss how to improve the standard of refereeing in Scotland’s top flight. (Herald has the exclusive)

⚽️ Leeds took a big step towards Premier League safety by beating Manchester United 2-1 at Old Trafford, their first win there since 1981. (Report & 🎥 highlights)

⚽️ Glasgow City Council admits there are “no powers” to stop football fans gathering for title celebrations. (STV)

🗣️ As one friend put it to me: US Vice President JD Vance has had “a rough few days”. It was a theme picked up on by Andrew Roth in the Guardian last night.

At the weekend, he was dispatched to lead peace negotiations that were doomed to fail - and duly did. Meanwhile, the boss was picking a fight with the leader of his Catholic faith, which couldn’t have sat comfortably.

And, amid all that, Vance had to sit and watch as Viktor Orbán - the Hungarian Prime Minister he’d travelled around the world to support earlier in the week - was handed an historic landslide election defeat: a turn of events so dramatic and decisive, they were seen to have ramifications for populist right-wing leaders around the world.

“Mr Orban’s brand of illiberal democracy made him a hero to populist conservatives across Europe and in America’s Maga movement,” the Economist (£) notes. “Over four consecutive terms, Mr Orban transformed his country from a democracy into a form of electoral autocracy. The top courts and most of the media fell under the control of Fidesz. Independent institutions were packed with party loyalists.”

Viktor Orbán probably knew that defeat was coming, even as he stood next to Vance and listened to his prediction that he’d win. “Orbán gave a small wave of his hand as if to say, ‘I’m not so sure’,” notes Politico in its post-mortem of his defeat.

It was a defeat that had been coming down the tracks for a long time. “Ever since his challenger Péter Magyar burst onto the scene in early 2024, the Hungarian leader watched his support dwindle away,” reports Max Griera in Budapest. “Meanwhile, the opposition coalesced behind Magyar with a single aim: ousting Orbán and his ruling Fidesz party.”

Across all the major policy areas of foreign policy and the (faltering) economy, and in terms of his face-to-face and social media “game”, Orban was out-fought and out-thought. Péter Magyar won the youth vote, decisively, but Orban also lost the wider public’s trust after his government pardoned a former deputy director of a children’s home who had been convicted of covering up child abuse.

What has Hungary voted for? The Magyar government, which will take office within a month, will quickly move to get closer to the EU, not least because €10 billion in grants and loans depends on it, reports Bloomberg. It will likely end Hungary’s opposition to a €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine.

In his acceptance speech on Sunday night, Magyar said Hungary would once again be a strong ally of the EU. “The crowd broke into chants of ‘Europe!’ and ‘Russians go home!’”, reports the WSJ.

He’s also likely to want to increase the country’s defence spending, reports Politico, and root out corruption. Although his government enjoys a 75%+ “supermajority”, making constitutional change more straightforward, there will be a lot of work required to rebuild Hungarian institutions weakened by years of Orban interference.

For right-wingers around the world, who had long held up the Orban regime as a poster child, the fallout from Magyar’s win will continue for a while yet. Spare a thought for Telegraph contributor Tibor Fischer, who had assured the newspaper’s readers, only days ago, that Orban would win (although, to be fair, his copy was more hedged than the headline slapped on it by an editor). Fischer can now, at least, content himself with the knowledge his column has gone viral, belatedly.

And for JD Vance? He can also find solace in the fact that Magyar was careful to be diplomatic last week when the American delegation arrived to support his opponent. He went as far as to welcome Vance to Budapest.

It remains to be seen if that warmth will be reciprocated.

Sent this by a friend?