THE BIG STORIES
University’s boss calls for “radical shift” | Swinney’s gender ID decision | Ukraine and US do a deal

📣 The Principal of the University of Edinburgh has repeated his calls for a “radical shift” in the way Scottish higher education students are funded.

Sir Peter Mathieson said it was a “tragedy” that Dundee University faces the prospect of closure if it does not make major cuts. And he also warned his own University will require a “radical re-wiring” of the way it operates, with fewer courses, less organisational complexity and reduced duplication. He has not ruled out compulsory redundancies as it seeks £140 million in annual savings. (BBC)

• Staff at the University of Aberdeen have been told to expect job cuts as it looks to close a £11.2 million funding gap. (STV)

• A teaching union has warned reforms to Scottish school education will hasten an exodus of teachers. (The Scotsman)

📣 First Minister John Swinney is under pressure to ditch the gender self-ID bill “for good” after the Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday found in favour of women’s rights campaigners, in a landmark ruling on the definition of sex. (The Sun)

• Green MSP Maggie Chapman, however, has called for the bill to be resurrected. (The Times £)

• And Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has said he’s open to new gender reform legislation, if the SNP government wants to present a new bill. (The Herald)

• The UK equalities watchdog will now “pursue” the NHS to update its guidance on single-sex spaces. (Holyrood)

• Author JK Rowling puffed on a cigar about her $150 million super yacht “gleefully celebrating ‘TERF VE Day’” after the verdict. (Daily Mail)

📣 Ukraine says it has signed the outline of a minerals deal with the US, which will now pave the way for a broader partnership and an investment fund for the reconstruction of the warn-torn nation. It’s not clear if the deal includes any security guarantees. (BBC)

IDEAS
From this week’s news magazines

🗣️It’s The Spectator’s Easter special, marking a festival which - the leading article says - “reminds us of the importance of truth”. “Fictions have bewitched our minds and captured our culture,” the magazine continues. “Hard truths struggle to be heard. Last week BBC presenters took the leader of the opposition to task for her failure to watch a Netflix drama, Adolescence, which purported to explore the risks to young women from misogyny. At the same time they ignored Kemi Badenoch’s questions about real male violence – the abuse of thousands of girls by rape gangs in 50 British towns and cities. It is easier to think that we can protect young women by taking a stand against online grifters, such as Andrew Tate, who no one civilised seeks to defend, than it is to confront the failures of multi-culturalism, in which so many are complicit.” (The Spectator £)

🗣️The New Statesman has a long feature on BBC Russia correspondent Steve Rosenberg, a familiar figure on our screens and speakers and the BBC’s “last man in Moscow”, who talks about his vital “holy trinity” of wife, dog and piano, and courting Vladimir Putin. “The hard thing is getting on with your life, not knowing what’s going to happen tomorrow. Not knowing whether the rules of the game are going to change. That’s disconcerting, I have to say,” he tells the magazine. “There’s nothing you can do about it. The last three years have tested my affection for Russia to the very limits. But there’s no point in being here unless I say what I think is happening in as calm and honest a way as I can.” (New Statesman £)

🗣️If investors keep on selling American assets, we could face a dollar crisis - and a “grim fate” for the world economy, the Economist says in a leader. “A currency is only as good as the government that backs it,” the magazine says. “The longer America’s political system fails to grapple with its deficits or flirts with chaotic or discriminatory rules, the more likely will be a once-in-a-generation upheaval that pushes the global financial system into the unknown.” (The Economist £)

🗣️The assisted suicide bill is “an embarrassment,’ says one Labour MP. ‘It’s more than a mess. A mess is something you can fix,” writes Dan Hitchens. It should not survive, he says. (The Spectator £)

AROUND SCOTLAND & THE UK

📣 The gangland war raging across central Scotland has returned to Edinburgh, with four homes targeted by firebombs. One home had children sleeping inside when it was set alight. (The Sun)

• It’s a “Godfather-style gang war”, “as police contend with ruthless, feuding drug lords and notorious criminal families competing for control.” (Sky News)

📣 Donald Trump is expecting to visit the UK in September. (Guardian)

📣 Former Reform MP Rupert Lowe has sued Nigel Farage for defamation, in the latest stage of a row which has split the party in recent months. (Independent)

📣 Freddie Flintoff is to front a documentary about the near-fatal accident that left him with significant facial injuries. In a trailer for the Disney+ production, he says he wants to reveal “what actually happened” in the accident, after more than two years of speculation. (Independent)

AROUND THE WORLD

🌎 Four people died, including two British tourists, when a mountain cable car fell to the ground near Naples in southern Italy. The accident happened on the Mount Faito cable car, which has been operating since 1952. A similar accident on the line in 1960 left four people dead. (BBC) (Daily Mail)

🌎 The Trump administration is seeking to dramatically increase the US immigration detention system, to support his election promise of the mass removal of immigrants. (AP)

🌎 A gunman - the 20-year-old son of a sheriff’s deputy - killed two and wounded at least six others at Florida State University. The gunman was injured by police: no motive for the shooting has been revealed. (AP)

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

💰 Google has “substantially harmed” publishers and internet users through its anticompetitive practices, a court has ruled. The judgment found that the company “wilfully engaged” in a series of acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power in web advertising. It’s a significant defeat for the search engine, which has huge power not just in how content is found online, but how money is made around it. (The Verge)

• The US tech sector is concerned Trump’s tariff regime is going to harm American AI “dominance” (FT £)

💰 That potentially troublesome BP AGM lived up to its billing, with outgoing chairman Helge Lund “given a brutal send-off by shareholders after almost 25% voted against his re-election to the board”. He was buffeted by both sides in an argument over whether the company should focus more - or less - on fossil fuels. (Daily Business) (Reuters)

SPORT

⚽️ Rangers fans may still be scratching their heads - to put it gently - after their European dream, and season, ended in Spain last night. They were, yes, outclassed by Athletic Bilbao. But the hosts were undoubtedly helped by a dubious refereeing display that saw no foul when Rangers forward Cyriel Dessers had his shirt pulled so forcefully, while running in the box towards the ball, that it ripped cleanly across his chest.

In The Scotsman, Alan Pattullo goes as far as to say Rangers were “patsies in a concerted effort to help the Basque side” achieve their own dream of winning the trophy in the final to be held on their home turf.

In the end, he notes, Dessers was the one booked - for leaving the pitch to change his flapping shirt. And Athletic were just too good. (The Scotsman) (The Sun) (🎥 Highlights)

• “Raging” Barry Ferguson says his team should have had two spot kicks. And the first foul was also a red card. (The Record)

⚽️ Manchester United had a happier time of it, on an Old Trafford night that harked back to the great European evenings of old. They were 4-2 down to Lyon, with six minutes of extra time remaining and fans streaming for the exits, when they started their barnstorming comeback to win 5-4. Cue pandemonium, with Sir Alex Ferguson beaming down from his spot in the stand. (BBC) (🎥 Highlights)