In your briefing today:

📣 Donald Trump has adopted a more measured tone towards Iran after he was assured the killing of protestors had been halted, with the death toll now standing at at least 3,482 people, with more than 10,000 arrested.

The US President said he had been given assurances by “very important sources on the other side” that lethal force was no longer being used by government forces. Tensions, however, remain high. (Guardian)

📣 The SNP insists it is committed to fully dualling the A96, and is blaming a blunder in the Scottish Budget’s production for deleting a promise to dual the entire route. Finance Secretary Shona Robison had also told Parliament on Tuesday that only “key sections” of the Aberdeen to Inverness road would be upgraded.

Former SNP MSP Fergus Ewing, now sitting as an independent, called for apologies over the “collection of schoolboy howlers”. Tory MSP Douglas Ross said it was shocking nobody had realised the mistake. (Press & Journal £) (Express)

📣 Sir Keir Starmer pitches up in Scotland today, despite claims Anas Sarwar pleaded with him to stay away from Scottish Labour’s Holyrood campaign.

Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage will also be making trips north today: Badenoch will be meeting Sandie Peggie and attacking SNP taxes, while Farage is expected to unveil Lord Malcolm Offord as Reform’s leader in Scotland. (Herald £)

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📣 Scotland’s police and fire service unions are warning “tough decisions” will have to be made because they didn’t get enough money in the Scottish Budget this week. (Scotsman)

📣 Bed cleaning at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland’s largest, has “not been carried out properly since it opened,” according to the GMB union. Staff haven’t been given proper time or materials to do the job, they claim. (The Times £)

📣 We might have hoped the gangland war of last year was going to cool down… a chilling report suggests two gangsters have held a “summit” to plot fresh attacks on their enemies in Glasgow and Edinburgh. (Daily Record)

📣 Buckfast, the tonic wine, will be banned at the World Cup. (The Sun)

📣 Denmark says “fundamental disagreement” remains with the White House over Greenland, after talks at the White House. (BBC)

📣 The West Midlands police chief whose force, according to inspectors, had retrofitted “exaggerated and untrue” evidence to support a ban on Israeli football fans travelling to see their team play Aston Villa, feels he has been “unfairly treated”. The Home Secretary says she has lost confidence in his leadership. (The Times £)

📣 The Grok AI chatbot from Elon Musk’s X social network will not, now, be able to manipulate images of real people to show them in revealing clothing, at least in places where that is illegal. (AP)

📣 It might have two Michelin stars for its food… but it has only a one-star hygiene rating. Ynyshir, a restaurant in Wales, says it’s “not embarassed” by the score, which it puts down to food inspectors being spooked by its penchant for raw and aged ingredients. Chef patron Gareth Ward says: “Just because our rules don’t fit their rules, they’re questioning it”. Mmm. (Guardian)

📣 Actor John Alford, a star of Grange Hill and 1990s drama London’s Burning, has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years for sexually assaulting two young girls while they were drunk. (Sky News)

⚽️ Hearts managed to beat St Mirren 2-0 to restore their six-point lead at the top of the table, but again did it the hard way - with Baningime getting a red card after only 15 minutes, and the breakthrough not coming until Laurence Shankland’s strike on the hour. (BBC)

⚽️ Celtic struggled past Falkirk, winning 1-0, with manager Martin O’Neill calling for patience on transfers to lift his side. (Analysis & 🎥highlights - BBC)

⚽️ Rangers have landed another of their signing targets - Belgian defender Tuur Rommens, who has completed a £3.5 million move from Westerlo. He joins Tochi Chukwuani, who signed for £4 million on Sunday. (The Sun)

⚽️ To Italy, where Naples’ love affair with Scott McTominay is somehow growing stronger. Ultimouomo writes of an interview he gave after his most recent efforts, where he scored twice to earn Napoli a draw against Inter Milan, branding the Scotsman “a kind of embdiment of fate”.

The article notes (in Italian) his sudden intensity: “Since he arrived in Italy he looked like a Martian, phenomenal and a bit amused. One who drinks coffee with his hands in his pockets on the sidelines, and then scores all the important goals there are to score.”

But he was also falling in love with Italy, dressing and eating better than ever before, it says. “With McTominay we had the impression that not only a footballer was flourishing, but a man. Now, in fact, it is what the champion team of Italy puts on its shoulders in the moment of maximum difficulty.” (Ultimouomo.com)

📣 A roundup of columns and commentary that’s caught the eye (and ear)

🗣️Euan McColm writes about secrecy and the Scottish Government: “A vote for the SNP was a vote for openness and respect,” he writes. “Aye, as the saying goes, right.”

He’s critical of its decision to appeal against a ruling by Scotland’s information commissioner, David Hamilton. He ordered the government to release information about Nicola Sturgeon’s conduct in dealing with accusations of sexual improbity by her predecessor, the late Alex Salmond.

“The SNP government will now spend tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money trying to keep the truth from taxpayers. Grubby doesn’t even begin to describe it all,” he says.

But he also goes into great detail about the Salmond business, telling how - even in death - Salmond remains the independence movement’s “most divisive character”.

Salmond, too, benefitted from a cloak of secrecy around his behaviour. That can be a truth that sits alongside claims he was the victim of a set-up, he says. (Daily Mail)

🗣️ American comedian Jon Stewart has long been an arch critic of his country’s politics: this recent segment from The Daily Show sees him at his most powerful, as he calls out the hypocrisy of Republicans in their treatment of January 6 2021, when violent protestors killed law enforcement officers in Washington, and January 7 2026, when violent ICE officers killed a protestor.

The video clip can be found on X (which I’m afraid is most reliable for playback) or Instagram (where I’ve had problems with sound).

🗣️As Nigel Farage ventures north to announce Lord Malcolm Offord as the party’s Scottish leader, Martyn McLaughlin reminds us of just how much Reform is Nigel Farage’s party - and nobody else’s. The party’s 12,500 Scottish members will have no say in this coronation, or even to ask questions of the new man.

“That opportunity seems especially pertinent when faced with a frontrunner who, despite having served in different UK Government portfolios, has a low public profile, and who, according to Electoral Commission records, donated nearly £150,000 to the Conservatives and its candidates between 2007 and 2019,” writes McLaughlin. (Scotsman £)

🗣️ Robert Taylor writes about perhaps the most remarkable story in the UK you may not be aware of: a water supply crisis in the prosperous southern town of Tunbridge Wells, where residents are said to be going into the woods to relieve themselves, rather than use their own (now clogged) toilets.

“It’s the perfect metaphor for Broken Britain: infrastructure crumbling to the point of destruction; the most basic of public services running dry; “grey water” having to be delivered to local schools; long queues for bottled drinking water at a local car park; crass crisis handling by the local utility; and a stonkingly well-paid CEO in complete denial.” (🎁 Telegraph - gift link)

🗣️Even Poundland and charity shops are quitting our high streets, notes John Harris: a grim sign that shows once-thriving town centres are “dangerously close to the economic point of no return.” The beneficiary of all this will be Reform, he says: “research by the community-focused ‘think-do tank’ Power to Change shows that Reform’s popularity strikingly correlates with the state of town centres.” (Guardian)

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