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👋 Good morning! It’s Saturday 20 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: Great news: we’ve got a cracking weekend lined up, with sunshine for Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness today and tomorrow. Temperatures will be reasonable throughout, with a decent breeze. London is going to be sunny too, with temperatures building into what will be a very hot week next week. (Here’s the UK forecast).
SIX THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
Scotland’s dream lives on, just | Train crash a reminder of a grim recent past | Starmer’s weekend decision | In praise of good restaurant design | Obama’s tribute to her husband | A castle transformed
🍸 Did you stay up? I did - which is why the email is late. Sorry. As for last night: I nearly turned in early. After the early disaster of conceding the fastest goal of the finals so far, Scotland gave us a first 45 minutes so turgid many of us were left struggling to keep our eyes open.
The second half was much, much better - the arrival of young Ben Gannon-Doak on the wing heralded greater threat, with fellow sub Lyndon Dykes throwing himself around up front to some effect. But we couldn’t get the all-important goal which would have sealed qualification to the next stage for the first time.
But that dream isn’t over, yet. Now it all goes down to a game against Brazil, who eased past Haiti 3-0 in our wee hours. Haiti are now the first nation eliminated from the tournament, while veteran superstar Neymar may be readying himself for his first game of this World Cup, after recovering from a calf injury. It’ll be quite the match.
Scotland v Morocco: Tom English says “flawed but relentless Scotland” showed themselves to be men of substance, eventually (Report & highlights)
But the world’s media saw “limited” Scotland outmatched (Daily Record)
Brazil vs Haiti (Report & highlights)
Upgrade to read the full Party Line, including
Keir Starmer’s weekend decision - and how his wife is likely to be advising him
A paen of praise to good restaurant design
Michelle Obama’s moving (and funny) tribute to her husband
A Scottish castle transformed
What the critics are saying about Toy Story 5, and the latest streaming TV releases
Times and channels for all the World Cup games this weekend
PLUS: find top TV, film and sporting picks for the weekend.
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