THE BIG STORIES
Starmer heads to US | Scottish schools struggle to support pupils | Ukraine’s very, very rare minerals?

📣 Sir Keir Starmer arrives in Washington today for what is being described as the meeting of his life. En route, he reiterated his call for a US security guarantee in Ukraine to deter Russia from invading again: it’s a point he’s expected to raise with Trump in his meeting, despite the US President’s pushback. (BBC)

• The Scotsman has a primer on the meeting and what the leaders will discuss.

• Indifference or hostility? Trump’s view of European allies is raising alarm after he said the EU was formed to “screw" the US, and threatened 25% tariffs. (The New York Times £)

• Yesterday’s Early Line had a roundup of advice for Sir Keir.

📣 Scottish schools are struggling to cope with a surge in pupils who need additional support for their studies. A report from Audit Scotland says there has been a 768% increase in pupils needing the help - amounting to 40% of the school population - with levels in the poorest areas far higher than the wealthiest. There is a 20% gap in attainment between those needing help, and those who do not. (The Times £) (The Scotsman) (Read the Audit Scotland report)

📣 Do Ukraine’s minerals really exist? Ukraine’s President Zelensky will be at the White House tomorrow to sign a “$500 billion” deal for them with President Trump. The deal is being branded “critical” because rare earths are vital for a range of technologies, from clean energy to weapons. But there are serious doubts they actually exist in Ukraine.

“Trump’s obsession with extracting rare earth elements from Ukraine: utter nonsense,” says Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas in an entertaining (and free to view, on LinkedIn) video column. “To put it simply, the war-torn nation of Ukraine doesn’t have any significant deposits, let alone a commercial mine, of rare-earth elements.” Nobody who knows anything about this stuff, including the US Geological Study, lists Ukraine as having significant reserves of the stuff, he says.

IDEAS
Staff question the need for University’s looming cuts

🗣️ I’m indebted to readers who got in touch yesterday after we highlighted The Scotsman’s coverage of the University of Edinburgh’s principal, Sir Peter Mathieson, saying the institution needed to find £140 million in annual cost savings, or roughly 10% of its turnover. Mathieson reiterated that a series of factors - including teaching income not keeping pace with costs, inflation, employment costs and more - were driving the need to cut costs.

My correspondents were keen to share with me, and by extension you, some documents which haven’t had the airing they deserve, given the University’s extraordinary size (a £1.4 billion+ annual revenue charitable organisation) and importance as one of the world’s great universities.

The first was a Valentine’s day blog post from the University and College Union Edinburgh. It was no love letter, but instead a closely argued analysis of the University’s annual report.

It claimed the University’s management is “manufacturing a ‘financial crisis’ to impose staff cuts” when it has resources to “weather any financial strain”, including hundreds of millions in easily accessed investments.

Staff say University income is increasing while staff costs fall as a proportion of total costs, and the institution’s biggest problem is a huge capital expenditure programme - £186m in 2024 - which could be trimmed if management wanted to save some money.

I put these claims to the University yesterday: it responded with a statement reiterating the scale of the financial gap. “We are currently forecasting to be in operational deficit in forthcoming years, and this must be reversed for us to sustain our position as a world-leading institution,” it said. “There will be five workstreams to deliver the required changes, aiming to restore the University to a secure sustainable position by financial year 2026/27.”

Moreover, capital expenditure is under the microscope, it said: “All capital expenditure - including previously approved projects” would be reviewed “with a renewed lens of affordability.”

What looks likely to follow will be a disruptive change for a university that has struggled with other changes in recent years. In another public document forwarded to The Early Line - one which gathered limited coverage at the time of its release in December 2023 - an external review of its botched People and Money HR and finance system launch reported “a division and lack of trust between many staff across Colleges, Schools and Departments and senior University management” exacerbated by the introduction of the new system.

The University welcomed the findings of that report when it was released and said it would “improve how we communicate and account for our decisions”. But it appears the looming cuts are reopening old divisions.

All of this comes at a time when competition among the world’s top universities is hotting up. Edinburgh remained within the global top 30 in the closely-watched QS Top Universities tables - a fact mentioned in its annual report. It did not mention it had slid from 15th in 2023 to 27th this year, despite its continuing, and stellar, academic reputation.

The University will face ever-closer scrutiny in the months ahead.

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 The SNP is ending its attempt to change gender recognition laws and will, instead, wait for Westminster to bring forward UK-wide reforms to the Gender Recognition Act. Labour’s plans will still require trans people to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria, ending any chance of a system of self-identification in Scotland. (The Scotsman has the exclusive)

📣 Police Scotland have issued a facial reconstruction of a woman whose skull was pulled from the North Sea by a fishing boat: they are trying to find out who she is. (Sky News)

📣 Glasgow has the highest crime rate in the country, official figures show, with Dundee and Edinburgh not far behind. (Daily Record) (Read the report)

AROUND THE UK

📣 Parents of under-fives may be exempted from the two-child benefit limit under options being considered by UK ministers. (The Guardian has the exclusive)

📣 The Government may use the newly expanded defence budget to fund the controversial Chagos Islands deal, which will cost £9 billion over the next century. (Daily Mail)

📣 The property developer who sold a luxury mansion infested with moths has been handed a £36.5 million legal bill after losing the case. (The Independent)

AROUND THE WORLD

🌎 Hamas has handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages, the final exchange planned as part of the truce in Gaza which expires this weekend. It is not clear if it will be extended. (The Times £) (BBC)

🌎 Power has been restored in Chile after a powercut left 19 million people in the dark, forcing the government to impose a curfew and state of emergency. Three people died in the blackout. (Reuters)

🌎 The UK has suspended some aid to Rwanda over its support for rebels fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and is threatening sanctions. (Guardian)

🌎 An unvaccinated child in Texas has become the first person in the US to die from measles in a decade. (AP)

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

💰 Revenues at chipmaker Nvidia jumped 78% in the last quarter on booming AI chip sales. Revenues in the three months to January were $39.3 billion: expected revenues this quarter will be around $43 billion. (FT)

💰 A deal creating 100 manufacturing jobs serving the offshore industry will be hailed today in the Scottish Parliament during a debate on investment into Scotland. (Daily Business)

SPORT

⚽️ Rangers came back from 2-0 down to win 4-2 at Kilmarnock last night, in new interim manager Barry Ferguson’s first game. The new manager made a substitution after only 30 minutes and was rewarded with a huge improvement in the second half. (The Sun) (🎥 Highlights)

⚽️ It was a busy night in the Scottish Premiership: Hibs beat Dundee United, Hearts had their own comeback to beat St Mirren 3-1, and there were wins for Motherwell and St Johnstone too. (🎥 Highlights of all the games)