THE BIG STORIES
Trump’s warning to Hamas | Scotland’s new Michelin-starred restaurants | Queen’s Park joy

📣 “All hell” will break loose, Donald Trump has warned, if Israeli hostages held in Gaza are not released by Saturday noon. In comments overnight, the US President said he would propose cancelling the Israel-Hamas ceasefire if Hamas continued its delay in releasing the hostages, after claims of “violations” of the ceasefire deal. (Guardian)

• Hamas says it will delay release of more hostages (AP)

📣 Scotland has gained two Michelin-starred restaurants in the latest edition of the guide, unveiled last night in Glasgow. Stuart Ralston’s Lyla and Rodney Wages’ Avery - both in Edinburgh - won the stars for their excellence, while five Scottish restaurants picked up Bib Gourmand awards for fine food at competitive prices. (The Scotsman)

• Michelin Guide: Review of Lyla | Review of Avery

📣 The owner of football team Queen’s Park woke yesterday thinking his club’s historic win over Rangers in the Scottish Cup “was a dream,” reports the Daily Record on its front page. In the print edition he’s pictured still celebrating, arms outstretched and a big pair of shades on: Sunday may have been a late night down Mount Florida way. “The team came back to the social club at Lesser Hampden and the support was waiting for them outside. It was just a big party atmosphere,” he said. (Daily Record)

IDEAS
Fire and brimstone vs balm and calm

🗣️Neil Mackay is unsparing in his assessment of Scottish Labour, and Anas Sarwar, in the Herald today. “Keir Starmer has taken Sarwar’s hopes of becoming First Minister,” he writes, “and drop-kicked them into the sun.” Worse, he says, it’s not just Starmer’s fault: Sarwar has himself to blame, too.

The closure of the Grangemouth refinery is “Starmer’s Thatcher moment in Scotland”, and it has come while investment has flowed into the south-east of England. And then, the salt in the wound: “As hundreds of Grangemouth workers prepared for the end, Labour decided to pledge £1 billion to redevelop Manchester United’s stadium – which Jim Ratcliffe part-owns.” And this “has all happened while Sarwar sits on the sidelines sucking his thumb.⁠⁠”

Mackay’s fiery words contrast with Chris Deerin’s soothing notes in The Spectator over the weekend, where he explained “why Scottish Labour isn’t panicking”.

Senior party figures, says Deerin, acknowledge it should be going better for them than it is. “Somehow John Swinney has managed to steady the ship,” he writes.

But Deerin sets out a case in which Scottish Labour starts to get its act together as the year goes on. Policy arrives. Good ideas get an airing. Reform could do more damage to the SNP than expected. The UK economy might start to warm up just in time. Sarwar’s famous energy will bring a lot to Labour’s fight. Who’d bet against him? “Labour sources believe 2026 will mainly be a ‘vibes election’,” writes Deerin.

But there’s a long way to go until next year’s elections. A year ago, Humza Yousaf still had months to run as First Minister. Two years ago, Nicola Sturgeon seemed unassailable in the top job. She resigned three days later.

The vibes will shift again in the next 15 months: cock-ups, scandals, successes and Nigel Farage all loom in the murk ahead.

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 A transgender doctor told NHS managers of her intent to use a female changing room and said doing so was not “bullying and harassment” despite the discomfort of a female colleague. (The Times £) (Daily Mail)

📣 Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has said Labour will keep free prescriptions and free tuition fees if he becomes First Minister. (Scotsman)

📣 The BBC has insisted The Traitors met rules qualifying it as a Scottish production amid doubts over the extent of Scottish staff used on the show. But it hasn’t supplied exact numbers in response to questions from Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee. (Scotsman)

AROUND THE UK

📣 The MP behind the controversial assisted dying bill for England and Wales has suggested relaxing approvals for cases, removing the need for High Court approval because of concerns about the court’s capacity. (BBC)

📣 A storm is brewing around the Criminal Cases Review Commission for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The justice watchdog’s chief executive, Karen Kneller, has been enjoying expensive hotels while attending courses at the elite Insead business school over the last five years. In the meantime, the organisation has been criticised for its handling of cases - and is now charged with examining new evidence in the Lucy Letby Case. The Guardian has been making all the running on the story.

📣 A couple won a refund on their £32m London mansion after they discovered it was infested with moths that destroyed their clothing and stopped them enjoying their wine. (Guardian)

AROUND THE WORLD

🌎 More earthquakes have rattled the Greek island of Santorini with locals, not unsurprisingly, thinking back in alarm to the devastating earthquake of 1956, which devastated the island. 11,000 people have fled the island in the last two weeks: scientists have not - cannot - rule out another big one coming along soon. (BBC) (Yahoo News)

🌎 A private jet owned by Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil collided with another jet at Scottsdale Airport in Arizona, killing one person and injuring the star’s girlfriend. (Mail)

🌎 A power cut that left all 23m residents of Sri Lanka without electricity on Sunday was blamed on a monkey. The country’s energy minister said a group of monkeys had jumped into the Panadura Power Station during a scuffle and one came “in contact with our grid transformer causing an imbalance in the system.” The fate of the monkey is not known. (Independent)

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

💰 An Elon Musk-led group has made an unsolicited bid of $97.4 billion for OpenAI, the nonprofit behind ChatGPT, one of the world’s most popular AI engines.

The move is the latest act in an ongoing struggle between Musk and OpenAI, the company he co-founded in 2015 as a charity with Sam Altman, who continues to serve as the company’s CEO.

Musk wants to stop Altman converting the company to a for-profit structure, and said in a statement: “It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was.”

Altman, in an internal message to staff, said: “Our structure ensures that no individual can take control of OpenAI…These are tactics to try and weaken us because we are making great progress.”

The Wall Street Journal has the exclusive (£).

💰 The US will stop enforcing an anti-corruption law banning Americans from bribing foreign government officials to win business. Donald Trump said the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act “sounds good on paper” but was “a disaster” because of the legal problems it caused. (FT)

• Also: Trump orders return to plastic straws as paper ones “don’t work” (AP)

💰The Spanish economy has taken off, as anyone who visits regularly (including your author) can attest: you can feel, and see, the economic activity as soon as you leave the airport. The BBC has an interesting look at why Spain has become “the motor of European growth” - and the answer includes a lot of public spending. But what Rachel Reeves would give for annual GDP growth of more than 3%? (BBC)

SPORT

⚽️ It should be an entertaining evening of Champions’ League football as the knockout round gets underway: the big game is the first leg of Manchester City vs Real Madrid (Today, 8pm, Amazon Prime Video).

We have to hope for goals and a little chaos: neither side comes into this in fine fettle. You’ll know all about City’s search for some sort of form, although at least they negotiated the fourth round of the FA Cup safely - eventually - at the weekend.

But Real Madrid arrive in Manchester with few fit defenders: the sum total of specialists are two fullbacks and Raúl Asencio, the 21-year-old academy graduate thrust into the limelight this season. Sid Lowe’s preview sets things up well (Guardian)

⚽️ At the time of writing, Philippe Clement is still Rangers manager: it’s widely reported today that changing that situation would cost the Ibrox club £1.2m (Sun)

⚽️ By way of contrast… Celtic reported profits of £44m in their interim results, up from £30.3m the prior year. Revenue took a small dip, but the club had £65.4m in the bank at the end of 2024. The club takes on Bayern Munich in the Champions League tomorrow night. (Sun)