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Monday 18 May 2026

In your briefing today:

  • Scottish rugby is mourning the death of one of its greats, Scott Hastings

  • Celtic have apologised to Hearts for the violent scenes which marred their title triumph on Saturday

  • Five things we learned at the weekend: Europe debate is back | What to do about football violence? | Who’s in Swinney’s cabinet? | The Calendar setting that can change your life | Dunoon gets ready to rock

TODAY’S WEATHER

🌦️ It’ll be a damp day across Scotland with sunshine and showers for Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness. London will see rain and thunderstorms later. (Here’s the UK forecast).

THE BIG STORIES
Scottish rugby mourns great Scott Hastings | Celtic’s ‘sorry’ to Hearts | Labour battle brings Brexit row back

📣 Scottish rugby is mourning one of its greats: Scott Hastings has died, aged 61, while receiving treatment for cancer. Hastings, alongside his older brother Gavin, was a key member of Scotland’s famous Grand Slam-winning team of 1990. He and Gavin also became the first brothers to play for the British and Irish Lions. (BBC)

  • Tributes flood in for Scott Hastings (Scotsman)

  • Graham Bean: His contribution to Scottish rugby cannot be overestimated (Scotsman)

  • Hastings died on the birthday of his late wife, Jenny, who vanished while swimming at Wardie Bay in Edinburgh in 2024. She had struggled with her mental health for two decades. (Mail)

  • Scotland’s 1990 Grand Slam (🎥YouTube)

📣 Celtic have apologised to Hearts for the violent scenes after their title triumph at Celtic Park on Saturday. Fans spilt onto the pitch after the home side scored their third goal in the 3-1 win, which secured the club’s fifth consecutive title.

Amid claims that players were assaulted by fans, Hearts left the pitch and - within minutes - the stadium, returning to Edinburgh in their kits.

Despite the clock not having run the additional eight minutes of time the referee had added, the SPFL insisted the referee had blown for full time and not abandoned the match. An abandonment could have resulted in the game - and, thus, championship - being awarded to Hearts.

It was an undignified end to an electrifying season in which Hearts had topped the table for much of the year - until the final minutes in Glasgow. (Daily Record)

  • Former Hearts chairman Lord George Foulkes says he will lodge a formal complaint with FIFA over how the game, and the title chase, has been handled. (Daily Express)

  • Two police officers were left seriously injured amid violent scenes in Glasgow after Celtic’s win (Daily Record).

  • Thugs have been warned they will be tracked down. (Sun)

📣 The Labour leadership battle is bringing Brexit back - or, at least, the debate. Wes Streeting’s strongly pro-European comments over the weekend have brought a reprimand from former cabinet colleague Lsa Nandy, who dismissed his comments as “odd”. But Streeting’s allies have hit back, saying the government’s unwillingness to discuss the issue is symptomatic of its troubles. (Guardian)

  • Streeting accused of restarting “Brexit wars” (Independent)

  • Streeting EU stance a “transparent” bid to derail his rival, Andy Burnham (Times)

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AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 The Church of Scotland has apologised for its historical role in slavery: its members had offered a theological justification before its abolition in the British Empire in the 1830s. (BBC)

📣 John Swinney’s comments about “moving on” from Sinn Fein’s historical association with terrorism continue to cause debate: Graham Downie MP, who lost a childhood friend to an IRA bomb, has been the latest to criticise Swinney’s comments. (Herald has the exclusive)

  • Families of Scottish soldiers killed during the troubles have also hit out at Swinney’s comments. (Mail)

📣 A 35-year-old man has died after being found injured on a footpath in Johnstone. Police say his death is being treated as unexplained. (STV)

AROUND THE UK & WORLD

📣 Talks between the US and Iran have stalled with fears growing that the war between the two could restart. US President Donald Trump warned on social media overnight that the “clock is ticking” on the opportunity to strike a deal. (BBC)

  • Drone strike sparks fire at UAE nuclear plant (AP)

📣 A 5.2 magnitude earthquake has hit southwest China, collapsing buildings and leaving at least two people dead. (Independent)

📣 The moment two fighter jets crashed at a US air show was captured on video: the four crew members are in stable condition in the hospital after bailing out. (BBC)

SPORT

⚽️ Amid those scenes at Parkhead, there was also a stunning sporting story: Celtic catching and passing Hearts right at the death of the season, after a long chase in which it looked like the Jambos had it in the bag, and both halves of the Old Firm were embroiled in chaos and mediocrity. “This was the tortoise catching the hare”, writes Michael Grant. (Times)

  • The SPFL insisted the game had reached full-time and wasn’t abandoned. (Sun)

  • The title win was remarkable - but can’t be used to wallpaper over the cracks at Celtic Park (Scotsman)

  • Michael Gannon: A chaotic blend of old and new produced a familiar outcome (Daily Record)

  • Derek McInnes - voted manager of the year last night by Scotland’s football writers - urged sore Hearts to use their title pain to drive them on to next season. (Sun)

IDEAS
Five things we learned at the weekend: Europe debate is back | What to do about football violence? | Who’s in Swinney’s cabinet? | The Calendar setting that can change your life | Dunoon gets ready to rock

When a punk invasion comes to Scotland later this month, there will be a little less anarchy and more picnics by the seaside.”

Ross Crae on Punk on the Peninsula - the punk rock festival that’s made its home in Dunoon

🗣️ The Labour leadership will place a debate about Europe back at the heart of British politics. Wes Streeting has shocked more than a few Labour colleagues by declaring himself firmly pro-European over the weekend: he might only be saying out loud what most senior Labour politicians would say in private, and what 87% of Labour members agree with, but it’s also something many are fearful of saying out loud.

Why? They fear seeing more of their vote drift off to Reform. The question Streeting asks, tacitly, is: how’s that going for Labour?

And while he’ll doubtless insist he’s taking a principled stand on the matter, it can’t have escaped his notice that it also applies pressure on his rival, Andy Burham, to answer the same question, right before he asks the pro-Brexit constituency of Makerfield for its vote on June 18. Given that, expect him to take a softer stance.

  • Wes Streeting: I’ll stand for Labour leadership – and Britain must rejoin EU (Independent)

  • Andy Burnham can’t outrun Brexit but it’s his race to lose (Sunday Times)

🗣️Scotland isn’t sure how to control football crowds. Behaviour around football is getting worse again after a long spell where the violence of old appeared to have been banished, along with terraces, wooden stands and Football Special trains.

But a violent pitch invasion by Celtic fans marred the end of Saturday’s league decider between their side and Hearts in Glasgow, they were on the pitch in Motherwell midweek, and there was another violent incursion by both Celtic and Rangers fans earlier in the spring. Meanwhile, even at smaller clubs - Fife clubs in particular, it seems, young fans go on the rampage before and after games.

What to do? There were calls yesterday for the Scottish government to do more - to make it explicitly illegal to enter the field of play, or “tailgate” your way into a football ground. Others talk of sporting sanctions.

🗣️ John Swinney has to pick his Cabinet in the next few days. Who gets what chair is providing some interesting conundrums, given a number of experienced hands left politics at the election, and one - Angus Robertson - lost his seat. Swinney also wants to unveil a slimmed-down cabinet.

The biggest role is that of Deputy First Minister: rising star Mairi McAllan was assumed to be favourite for the job, but could yet see the more experienced figures of Angela Constance and Shirley-Anne Somerville rivalling her for the role.

There’s also the question of what to do with able, and ambitious, former SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, who’s now an MSP. (Sunday Times)

🗣️ Changing one setting on your calendar can change your life. Sounds like a self-help article, doesn’t it? But Andrew Miller says opting to have your meetings default to 25 minutes (instead of 30) or 50 minutes (instead of one hour) is a revelatory move: you can take notes on agreed actions, gather your thoughts, head to the toilet, and arrive on time for your next meeting. And losing five (or 10) minutes makes no great difference to the meetings themselves. “The meeting culture that makes everyone unhappy wasn’t designed; it just accumulated. And it can be undone with a few clicks,” he writes. I’m off to change that setting now. (Washington Post)

🗣️Dunoon is bracing itself for… an annual punk festival. The sleepy seaside resort - famous as being the “doon the watter” destination for thousands of Glaswegian holidaymakers back in pre-package holiday times - will welcome mohawk-sporting rock enthusiasts next weekend. But, they claim, it’s not going to be nearly as chaotic as it might sound: the rockers are all well into their middle age, and as much up for a picnic by the sea as a bounce in a moshpit. (Sunday Post) (Punk on the Peninsula)

👍 That’s your Early Line for the day

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