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👋 Good morning! It’s Saturday 6 June 2026. 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. Paying subscribers get the full version, with six talking points and film, TV and sporting recommendations for the weekend.
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Have a wonderful weekend, all!
🌧️ The weekend’s weather: Overcast with showers across much of the country today and the same again tomorrow for Glasgow, I’m afraid, although Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness will see a brighter Sunday. London will be much the same: wet today, better tomorrow. (Here’s the UK forecast).
SIX THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
How hot will this World Cup get? | What happens when you let AI into every part of your life? | Dotcake frenzy | Become a brilliant office football pundit | Gold bars at CIA man’s home: an extraordinary fraud claim from the US | Cricket’s ultimate party flat on sale
🍸 How hot is the World Cup going to get? Bloomberg has run the numbers and finds that the heat stress players will face will be far from evenly distributed. It’s expected to be one of the hottest summers on record.
Their analysis says a number of nations could see their games enter the sort of heat range that would prompt FIFPRO - the global union for players - to call for postponements.
None of Scotland’s games are expected to enter that territory - conditions of hotter than 85F (29.4C) - but they will come close. Indeed, Scotland is rated 13th out of 40 countries in terms of the heat they’ll face, with the matches against Morocco in Boston, and Brazil in Miami, especially hot.
England (18th) faces a huge range of temperatures - their first game is in toasty Dallas, but the stadium is air-conditioned. Their final group game is in roasting New Jersey and has the potential to be contested in some of the highest temperatures of any group-stage match.
It’s not just the players, of course. Hundreds of thousands of fans will be attending games in those conditions - which makes FIFA’s late ban on reusable water bottles in stadiums all the more irresponsible. (Bloomberg)
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What happens when you let AI into every part of your life?
New York’s latest baked good sensation: dotcakes!
The cheat sheets that’ll make you the office’s best football pundit
The extraordinary fraud claims faced by a former CIA man
Cricket’s ultimate party flat is up for sale
PLUS: find top TV, film and sporting picks for the weekend.
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