In your briefing today:

🗣️ First Minister John Swinney says it “does look like” families of patients who acquired infections at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital have been lied to, and that there had been a “cultural problem” at Glasgow’s health board. (BBC)

Swinney’s admissions came as Police confirmed they are investigating the deaths of six patients at the hospital, including that of 10-year-old Milly Main. (The Mail on Sunday had the exclusive)

It was also reported that SNP minister Shona Robison, when she was health secretary, abandoned a promise to have experts check infection controls at the hospital only days before it opened. (The Sunday Post)

This all followed a week of revelations about the scandal-hit hospital. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde admitted, in its final submission to a public inquiry running since 2019, that problems with the hospital’s water system probably did cause infections in child cancer patients. (BBC, from last week)

🗣️Protests continue across the United States after the fatal shooting in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents.

Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse who was an American citizen with no criminal record, was killed on Saturday, a second violent death in that city in recent weeks amid the Trump administration’s deportation drive.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said America was at an "inflection point" and repeated calls for US President Donald Trump to remove federal immigration agents from the city. (BBC)

The killing of Pretti, who had been filming Border Patrol agents at work, was captured on video by bystanders from a number of angles. Those videos show his legally-carried gun being removed by agents, Pretti being violently forced and pinned to the ground, and then being shot multiple times by an agent standing over him.

Trump administration officials once again insisted the killings were something else, calling Pretti a “domestic terrorist” who was out to “massacre law enforcement”. (AP) (🎥CNN analysis)

There are conflicting claims this morning about a further response from the White House: some sources suggest Trump will use the Insurrection Act to clamp down, while the BBC is reporting he may withdraw ICE agents from Minneapolis.

📣 There are warnings of “civil war” within the Labour Party after Keir Starmer and his allies ruthlessly blacked Andy Burnham’s attempt to return to parliament and mount a challenge to Starmer’s leadership.

A senior group of party leaders voted overwhelmingly to prevent Burnham’s return, saying they did not want the expense and distraction of an election to replace Burnham as mayor in Greater Manchester. (Guardian)

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📣 The fatal accident inquiry into the Carmont train derailment, which killed three people in 2020, is due to begin today. Network Rail was fined £6.7 million for a series of failings after the accident, when an Aberdeen to Glasgow service came off the tracks. (BBC)

📣 Reform UK is delaying the announcement of its Scottish election candidates with party sources saying they are concerned about scrutiny - and want to see if more Conservatives will defect to their ranks. (The Daily Record has the exclusive)

📣 Edinburgh and Glasgow have a busier nightlife than London, claims unbelievable research from Uber. Maybe they mean proportionately more trips in those cities than London, adjusted for population… (Guardian)

📣 A huge winter storm has blanketed a vast chunk of the United States in snow, cutting power, closing roads and halting flights from Arkansas to New England. (AP)

📣 India will slash car tariffs to 40% in a deal with the EU. (Reuters has the exclusive)

📣 The UK will back a vast new set of offshore wind projects in the North Sea alongside Norway, Germany and the Netherlands. (BBC)

⚽️ Scotland’s title tussle took further twists yesterday, as Hearts and Celtic drew 2-2 in a thrilling encounter at Tynecastle, and Rangers ground out another win - 3-0 against Dundee at Ibrox. Hearts’ lead at the top is cut to four points, while Rangers have consolidated in second, two points ahead of Celtic.

⚽️ Thrills in England, too, as Arsenal and Manchester United locked horns in London, with the visitors running out 3-2 winners. (🎥 Highlights)

🏉 In American football, the Seahawks will face the Patriots in Super Bowl 60. (BBC)

🗣️Scottish cultural figures are calling for more support for the nation’s arts sector in the next Scottish Parliament, with more than 70 of them - including Sir Ian Rankin, Val McDermid and Chris Brookmyre - signing an open letter.

Brian Ferguson writes: “The Federation of Scottish Theatre, which represents theatre, dance and opera companies, has accused the government of ‘eroding’ the culture sector and has warned that Scotland is lagging behind other European countries when it comes to arts spending, which is well below one per cent of the government’s budget compared to a European average of around 1.5 per cent.” (The Herald on Sunday (£) had the exclusive)

🗣️Martha Lane Fox, the tech entrepreneur and UK government tech adviser, takes aim at Elon Musk and the “tech bros” of Silicon Valley. “It’s kind of gross how this broligarchy has captured the presidency,” she says.

Of Musk, she adds: “It feels to me that this is a person who has become more and more damaged - damaged by power, damaged by people around him not telling him the truth, damaged by banging around in his own social network late at night.”

Her interview with Rachel Sylvester is also noteworthy for the biographical detail: Lane Fox’s 2004 accident has left her in near-constant pain, she tells Sylvester. But “I’ve just focused on what’s possible,” she says. “I’m lucky that that’s where my brain's gone.” (The Observer)

🗣️ Next time your home renovations start getting a bit pricey, remember Tottenham House, where a refurbishment is costing owner Chris Rokos £175 million.

Similarities with your own circumstances (and any sympathy) may evaporate with the news that Rokos, a star bond trader, is good for the bill: he’s worth £2.6 billion, and took £477 million from his hedge fund last year alone. Yes, he wanted an easier commute - but only to replace what the Sunday Times, apparently unironically, calls his “helicopter schlepping to and from his current pad in Shropshire”.

Before we rush to condemn, the newspaper makes a case for Rokos’s use of his wealth. Tottenham House, which for a long time was a rot-ridden wreck famous only for urban explorers’ YouTube videos and posts, will - for decades to come - stand as testament to Rokos’s decision to employ of a vast army of craftspeople to rescue a gem, rather than splash out on a Dubai-based superyacht.

Citing benefits to those craftspeople and the wider community, the paper suggests: “This is surely what trickle-down economics looks like when it works.” (🎁 Sunday Times - gift link)

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