In your briefing today:

📣 Andrew Mountbatten Windsor was released from police custody last night after being arrested in Norfolk on his 66th birthday. The former prince spent 11 hours locked up while searches were undertaken at his Wood Farm property on the King’s estate in Norfolk and his former home, Royal Lodge, in Windsor.

Mountbatten Windsor was held on suspicion of misconduct in public office over claims he leaked sensitive documents to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein while working as a UK trade envoy. He became the first royal to be arrested in almost four centuries.

King Charles said that “the law must take its course” after expressing his “deepest concern” over the arrest of his brother, who was stripped of his royal titles last year. (Independent)

📣 US President Donald Trump has warned of “bad things” for Iran if it can’t make a deal over its nuclear ambitions. Talks between the two countries have achieved little, it has emerged, with some fearing the time is being used to prepare for war. (AP)

📣 US researchers are working on a single nasal spray vaccine which could protect against all coughs, colds and flus, as well as bacterial lung infections. The spray could even ease allergies, say researchers at Stanford University. The “universal vaccine” has been tested only on animals, so far. (BBC)

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📣 Households face another year of big council tax increases as local authorities across the country propose rises well above the latest rate of inflation. (BBC)

📣 Doctors have (again) warned the NHS’s IT systems are "not fit for purpose” and must be improved if the healthcare system is to be sustainable. (The Scotsman has the exclusive)

📣 Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton will say his party can “deprive” John Swinney of a majority as he reveals 10 target seats in his spring conference speech in Edinburgh. (Scotsman)

📣 The principal of the University of Strathclyde has rejected claims its governing body is a “secret society”. A union official had made the claim in evidence to MSPs: the University said it was “fully compliant” with legal requirements. (Herald)

📣 A climber who left his girlfriend to die near the top of Austria’s highest mountain has been convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five months in prison. (The Times - gift link)

📣 Keir Starmer’s decision to appoint Antonia Romeo as the country’s most senior civil servant has prompted dismay among former colleagues, who have complained about her “bullying behaviour” when she was a diplomat. (Guardian)

📣 Grey’s Anatomy star Eric Dane has died, aged 53, less than a year after revealing his diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known also as Lou Gehrig’s disease. (AP)

🥌 Bruce Mouat and his team guaranteed Team GB's fourth medal of the Winter Olympics after beating Switzerland 8-5 to reach the men's curling final. (BBC)

⚽️ Celtic suffered a humbling night at the hands of Stuttgart as they lost the first, home leg of their Europa League play-off 4-1, likely confirming their elimination from the tournament. Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel had a particularly torrid evening, being roundly booed by home fans after his side lost its third: his floundering attempts to stop that, and the first goal, were not appreciated by the Celtic support. (BBC) (🎥 Highlights)

🏉 Gregor Townsend has named his side for Scotland’s Six Nations clash with Wales in Cardiff tomorrow: Blair Kinghorn and Duhan van der Merwe return to the side, two of five changes to the starting line-up in the victory over England. (Scotsman)

🗣️The “powerful sociopaths who gathered around Jeffrey Epstein”, who attended his parties and wrote him crawling emails asking for favours, need to be held accountable, writes Jay Elwes in The New World. “The UK is starting out on that process,” he says; now it’s America’s turn to do the same.

“It is a difficult, rather grim time to be alive,” writes Elwes. “The economy is stagnant, the war in Ukraine grinds on, society is becoming more unequal and more politically polarised – and the weather is just bloody terrible.

“But there is one tiny glimmer of light – a diamond in the ash: at least, here in the UK, there is some accountability. It doesn’t matter whether you are a senior royal, or whether you are Peter Mandelson, in Britain, if you transgress, or even if you are suspected of legal transgression, you are still going to get hauled over the coals. Thank god.

“But – at present – there is no comparable process of accountability at work in the US.

“Epstein committed horrific crimes. He had accomplices. They need to be held accountable. As the king himself said, on learning of his brother’s arrest: ‘Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.’” (The New World £)

🗣️ Britain is entirely unprepared for a military conflict, writes Tim Shipman, with a funding shortfall approaching that could see its military cut further - even as the Prime Minister makes promises about increasing spending to 3% of GDP.

“The contrast with the Europeans is becoming embarrassing,” writes Shipman. “The army will have 148 Challenger 3 battle tanks by 2030 but currently has more operational command headquarters than it does artillery pieces, having given 19 howitzers to Ukraine and replaced them with just 14 guns.

“In contrast, Poland will soon have 980 tanks and 685 self-propelled guns. Finland can mobilise 300,000 troops. Britain’s regular and reserve army totals only 90,000.”

Meanwhile, military bosses are drawing up shopping lists for when the money eventually comes - and are demanding expensive, bespoke systems rather than more practical off-the-shelf ones. As one former defence chief tells Shipman: “If you ask a taxi driver what he’d like to drive he’ll say ‘a Ferrari’. But if you’re running a taxi company you buy a fleet of Skodas or Toyotas which are reliable and the parts are cheap. The service chiefs all want Ferraris.” (The Spectator £)

🗣️The Economist makes the case against “the Robin Hood state”, urging leaders not to demand the rich fix broken national budgets. It’s not likely to work, says the newspaper, and it’s morally wrong anyway.

“Plans to fill budgetary gaps by raising levies on the rich are flawed,” the newspaper says in a leader. “Taxes are one way governments can redistribute income from the rich to the poor. But that is not their only function: they must also raise revenue without distorting the economy.

“The system today is failing on all counts. Arguments that high earners do not pay their fair share are mostly empty. And squeezing the rich further will raise trifling sums of money, while causing real economic damage.” (The Economist £)

🗣️ Could psychedelic drugs soon be used to relieve depression? A British biotech has reported promising late-stage trial results of a synthetic form of psilocybin - the active compound in magic mushrooms. If America’s Food and Drug Administration approves the drug, which could happen early next year, it would be the first psychedelic drug to become a fully licensed medicine. (The Economist £)

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