In your briefing today:

• The victims of yesterday’s chilling attack on a Manchester synagogue have been named

• Batten down the hatches: Storm Amy is on the way

• It was another undistinguished night for Scottish teams in Europe

👋 Good morning Early Liners. Thank you to the couple of hundred of you who gave your views on the redesigned email via the poll widget yesterday.

More than 90% of you gave the thumbs up, which of course begs the question of why I didn’t take action months ago…

For the dozen or so not so convinced: I hope you’ll grow to like it.

Thanks, all, for the feedback - and especially those who emailed to offer their thoughts. Best, Neil Mc

📣 They were murdered on Judaism’s holiest day: the victims of the attack on a synagogue in Manchester were named by police as Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Kravitz, 66. The UK’s chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mavis, said the attack was the “tragic result” of an “unrelenting wave of Jew hatred”. (Sky News)

Three other people are in hospital with “serious injuries” after a man, thought to be Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, a British man of Syrian descent, used his car as a weapon before stabbing people. Al-Shamie was shot dead by police. (BBC Live Coverage) (Mirror)

• The Islamic terrorist came to the UK as a child and grew up just around the corner from the site of his attack. (Mail)

• A “hero rabbi” barricaded worshippers inside the synagogue and was hailed for his quick thinking after the attack. (The Sun)

• The sense of safety for the UK’s Jewish community has declined sharply in the last two years, according to a survey. (Guardian)

• Police have asked organisers of a protest against the ban on Palestine Action to postpone it, so resources can be used to protect Jewish and Muslim communities. Organisers say the plan to go ahead. (The Guardian has the exclusive)

• Police are now on a high alert for copycat attacks

📣 Storm Amy is headed for Scotland today with amber alerts - warning of a danger to life - for the Highlands, Moray, Argyll and Bute and the Islands. Lesser yellow warnings are in place for wind and rain across most of Scotland through today and into tomorrow.

Emergency services are warning of difficult driving conditions in the north of Scotland, with power cuts and disruption to public transport likely. (BBC) (STV)

📣 Hundreds of activists, including climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, have been held by Israeli forces after a flotilla bound for Gaza was intercepted in international waters.

Israel said its navy told the boats to change course as they were "approaching an active combat zone and violating a lawful naval blockade", while the GSF described the interceptions as "illegal". (BBC)

• Four Scots were among those held by Israel. Jim Hickey, Saddaqat Khan, Margaret Pancetta and Yvonne Ridley had all travelled from Glasgow as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla. (Daily Record)

• The interceptions triggered protests, diplomatic expulsions and calls for strikes. (Guardian)

• Hundreds gathered at Scottish railway stations to protest (STV)

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 Hundreds of prisoners will be released early from Scotland’s “overcrowded” prisons, with 440 set for release in November and December. (STV)

📣 Michelle Mone has sent an extraordinary letter to Keir Starmer, insisting his government ends its “vendetta” against her over the PPE scandal. She said she was living in fear, and raised the case of TV presenter Caroline Flack, who took her own life. (The Daily Record has the exclusive)

📣 The trade union representing Scotland’s civil servants is “in turmoil” after its lawyers urged transgender members to ignore official instructions to continue to use lavatories that match their gender identity. (The Times £)

📣 Scots are being told to combat aggressive urban seagulls by drawing eyes on takeaway boxes and walking down the street waving their arms. A government minister has admitted that some proposals put forward by officials were “ludicrous”. (The Times £)

AROUND THE UK & WORLD

📣 Munich airport was forced to pause flights late last night after another drone sighting - the latest of a string across Europe in the last week. (EuroNews)

📣 US President Donald Trump has openly embraced the Project 2025 conservative blueprint, which he had distanced himself from during last year's elections. Trump said he would be consulting with Russ Vought to look at cuts which could be made during the ongoing government shutdown. (AP)

📣 Japan could be hours away from running out of Asahi after a cyber-attack stopped production of the popular lager. (Sky News)

SPORT

⚽️ It was another undistinguished evening in Europe for Scotland’s teams.

• Rangers slumped to another defeat, 2-1 away at Sturm Graz in the Europa League. “It’s mentality, not a technical or tactical problem,” said Russell Martin. That’s unlikely to pacify Rangers fans. (Highlights & report - TNT Sports)

• Celtic lost at home to Braga earlier in the evening in the same competition, falling victim to what most witnesses will agree was one of the worst VAR calls in history: a handball verdict which replays showed had no basis in reality, but cost them a goal. (See it for yourself - TNT Sports)

• In the UEFA Conference League, Aberdeen extended their winless run to eight games, losing 3-2 at home despite a brave performance against a “ruthless” Shakhtar Donetsk. (Report | Highlights)

⚽️ We should take hope from Crystal Palace: as Steve Sutcliffe points out, a year ago they were 18th in the Premier League and without a win. Last night, they claimed their first away win in Europe, beating Dynamo Kyiv 2-0. (BBC)

IDEAS
From the weekly magazines: Putin’s plan to split Europe, Badenoch’s plan to save the Tories, and “breaking Britain’s dumbest law”

🗣️Vladimir Putin is trying to divide Europe with “a cheap, deniable and calibrated effort” to unsettle the continent that is “carefully short of outright conflict,” says the Economist. As Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said this week: “We are not at war. But we are no longer at peace, either”.

What’s Putin up to? He wants to break the unity of NATO, first: he wants to sew suspicion that the military alliance’s crucial Article 5, which sees an attack on one nation an attack on all, cannot be relied on. That’s why Russian drones and jets are overflying Nato airspace: he’s testing the political, not military, reaction.

Second, he wants to make Europe’s support of Ukraine more expensive by targeting countries that support its army - more drone incursions, sabotage attacks and GPS jamming.

Third, says the Economist, is a motive that is old and runs deep: “Mr Putin hates classical liberal democracies whose wealth and resilience show up his failures and his repression.”

It’s vital Putin fails, the newspaper says. It offers ways for Europe to fight back in this lukewarm war - from better propaganda, to greater resilience and tougher sanctions. There may be a need to shoot down a warplane: “Fainthearts worry about escalation, but declining to act threatens escalation of a different kind,” it says. (Economist £)

🗣️ In The Spectator, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch explains her “plan to save the Tories” to Tim Shipman, as she battles not only the rapid rise of Reform but existential questions about her party’s purpose. The slogan of the party’s conference, which starts on Sunday, offers a clue: “Stronger economy, stronger borders” addresses “the two problems of our age,” she says, “stagnant growth and global mass migration.”

To tackle the latter, Badenoch will deliver a major speech on Sunday - she’ll deliver two at the conference this year, just as Theresa May did on Brexit in 2016 - which will set out how her Tories would exit the European Convention on Human Rights. The shadow cabinet is being briefed on her plans today.

She plans to get rid of more, especially around the economy, telling the magazine she’ll be “unpicking the Blairite settlement”, “stopping deindustrialisation, which is killing this country” and abolish the Climate Change Act of 2008 - “that has to go”. That gets rid of net zero targets. “I’m not sceptical about climate change. That’s very obviously happening,” she tells Shipman.

“But there’s been a lot of deception around the net zero agenda and I really want to expose that. […] If other countries aren’t doing it, then us being the goody-two-shoes of the world is not actually encouraging anyone to improve.” (The Spectator £)

🗣️ In The New World, Frances Kelly gets herself arrested “for breaking Britain’s dumbest law” - supporting Palestine Action, the activist group now proscribed under the UK’s Terrorism Act after its members vandalised RAF aircraft at Brize Norton.

She says she sat down on Parliament Green in early September with a sign that read “I oppose Genocide. I support Palestine Action” and was quickly carried away: her account details her processing, alongside a varied group of fellow protestors, from young men to elderly women.

“The UK government needs to review and revise its counter terrorism law,” she writes, “particularly its definition of terrorism.

“Because if we can’t speak out about genocide in which the government is an active partner, and in support of those resisting genocide, our right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly has been stripped away. When that goes, our democracy is lost.” (The New World £)

👍 That’s your Early Line for the day

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