In your briefing today:

📣 Older teenagers will be encouraged to observe an overnight social media curfew as part of government plans to further curtail young people's social media use.

The curfew would mean they couldn’t use apps including Instagram, TikTok and YouTube between midnight and 6am, and would mean the apps had to come with the curfew enforced - but with the option for teens to opt out through their settings.

The government is also calling for “addictive” features on the apps - including auto-play videos and infinite scroll - to be disabled by default in an attempt to improve teens’ mental focus, sleep and family life.

Critics, however, say the plans are “piecemeal” and a “missed opportunity”. (BBC)

📣 Police say they will make further enquiries into social media comments by an Aberdeen University employee about the death of former MP Ann Widdecombe, as a a broader debate opens up about how violent online discourse might impact on the real world.

Police Scotland had initially said there was no criminality about comments made by Heather Herbert, a web developer at the university, who said Widdecombe’s death was “good news” and expressed hope it was an “extremely painful death”, adding: “I hope she was handcuffed to the bed as she screamed in agony”.

The force now says the comments are still under investigation. (BBC)

📣 Who are you supporting tonight? England take on Argentina in the semi-finals of the World Cup: one Scottish councillor told Scots they should be “fecking ashamed” for supporting “cheating Argies” against England, referencing the 1982 Falklands conflict as a good reason to get behind England. But her comments were branded “nonsense” by one prominent member of the Tartan Army. (Daily Record)

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📣 Yes Scotland, the pro-independence campaign group, has handed over its full accounts to the police following a complaint about its finances. (BBC)

📣 A blood test which could detect early signs of Alzheimers is being rolled out across 50 GP practices in Scotland as part of a “landmark” study. (Sky News)

📣 Princes Street will remain partially closed into Edinburgh’s prime festival season after last week’s fire at the former Debenhams building. (BBC)

📣 Labour must stop “simply writing a cheque” for health and disability benefits claimants, says Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, and must provide more support to enter work. (Guardian)

📣 Iran has threatened to entirely halt Middle Eastern energy exports after the US reimposed its blockade on the country. The threat of all-out war now looms over the entire region once more. (AP)

📣 Pressure is building on Israel over its treatment of Palestinian prisoners, with evidence highlighting claims of violence, medical neglect and starvation. (WSJ)

⚽️ Spain smothered France to control their semi-final clash and eventually win 2-0, the European champions offering an “absolute masterclass” to extend their unbeaten run to a record-equalling 37 games. (Report & highlights)

⚽️ It’s England’s biggest game since - yes - 1966 tonight, as a misfiring (to date) Three Lions side close in on immortality. (BBC)

⚽️ Celtic lost 4-1 to Sporting Lisbon yesterday, in a defeat that showed the need for reinforcements. One bright spot: new signing Camilo Duran bagged a debut goal after only 10 minutes on the pitch. (Daily Record)

🗣️ Labour should embrace nationalism to find a way out of its hole in Scotland, suggests Kenny Farquharson.

He has a fascinating quote from the late Donald Dewar, that great Scottish Labour leader, who appeared to understand the importance of the national question. “Just before the first Scottish parliament election Donald Dewar found himself in conversation with a young Glasgow councillor. ‘Whoever gets to the flag first,’ said Dewar, ‘it’s their values that will dominate this new Scotland.’”

And Labour, early on, did get to the flag first, with Dewar “happy to call himself a cultural nationalist” and work in a parliament that was “as much an expression of national pride as political accountability”.

Did this instructive experience imbue Scottish Labour leaders of the last 20 years with similar wisdom and insight? It did not,” writes Farquharson. But things might be changing. (Times)

🗣️ Ann Widdecombe’s death has exposed a toxic intolerance towards Christians, writes Kevin McKenna. “Several prominent people felt that the outpouring of affection for Ann Widdecombe following her death last week needed to be qualified,” he writes. “They felt moved to tell everyone that, of course, they found her views so very disagreeable, but that no-one deserved to die this way.

“How generous of them to state publicly that it really is a bad thing for a 78-year-old woman to die a violent death alone and in her own home,” he says.

“I never met Ann Widdecombe, but it would seem that she’d truly lived her faith in the way she treated all those in her life and career with whom she engaged.” (Herald)

🗣️ It’s time to talk about heart failure, writes Rebecca McQuillian - a diagnosis that’s a particularly big problem in Scotland, with around 1% of people here impacted by it at any given time. But it’s also a condition that has a “markedly lower profile than some other serious conditions,” writes McQuillilan, which frustrates doctors.

As ever, there’s good and bad news, she writes. The good is that this isn’t the death sentence that it was: treatment developed in recent decades means patients can live full lives for many years after their diagnosis.

The bad news? People are having to wait too long for diagnostic scans, creating delays that campaigners warn could have significant consequences. (Herald)

🗣️ Dynamic pricing could become the “new normal” for everything you buy, warns Ian Johnson. In the US, some stores have installed electronic price tags on shelves to vary prices based on demand, competition, and promotions.

In some situations, dynamic pricing works well - it can encourage taxi drivers to stay up late, for instance, meaning you get a car home after a very late night. But other times - such as the World Cup in the US - dynamic (or “variable”) pricing simply means everything is more expensive.

“Regulating dynamic pricing may be necessary to prevent the system running out of control,” writes Johnson. (Scotsman)

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