In your briefing today:

📣 John Swinney came under pressure during the first Scottish election leaders’ debate last night, with Labour leader Anas Sarwar telling the First Minister to “take some responsibility for once” for problems with the Scottish NHS. (Scotsman)

📣 Hungary’s opposition has ousted Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power, in a result that defied the White House - loud supporters of the hardliner - and which will reshape the country’s often fractious relationship with the European Union. (Guardian)

📣 The United States military said it will blocade Iran’s ports. That appeared, suggests AP, to be a tempering of Donald Trump’s earlier threat to entirely block the Strait, which sent oil prices soaring once again. (AP)

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📣 Scottish Labour launches its election manifesto today with leader Anas Sarwar expected to urge voters to give him “five years to fix the mess” he says was created by the SNP. (Daily Record)

📣 Two people were taken to hospital after an Ember bus crashed down an embankment on the A9 north of Aviemore. The service had been running from Inverness to Edinburgh. (BBC)

📣 Detectives in Kenya have arrested four men over the death of a Scottish businessman who was found dead in the country in February 2025. (STV)

📣 The UK could adopt EU single market rules without them being voted on by parliament in an effort to align the UK with new European regulations. (BBC)

📣 A woman was raped “by several men” outside a church in Surrey, police say. (Independent)

📣 The Olivier Awards - Britain’s most prestigious theatre awards - were handed out last night: the big winner was the Paddington musical. (BBC)

⛳️ Rory McIlroy underscored his credentials as one of golf’s greatest-ever players by winning a successive Masters title at Augusta, becoming only the fourth man to achieve the feat. But it was another nerve-shredding final day before McIlroy could don the Green Jacket, beating world number one Scottie Scheffler by a stroke. (BBC)

⚽️ It was another extraordinary day in the Scottish Premiership race, with Rangers recovering from giving Falkirk a two-goal lead to win 6-3, leapfrog Celtic and move within a point of league leaders Hearts. (BBC) (🎥 Highlights from the BBC)

⚽️ On Saturday, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain got Celtic past St Mirren, while Hearts got over conceding first to Motherwell to eventually win 3-1 with two late goals.

⚽️ In England, Manchester City thumped Chelsea 3-0 after Arsenal stumbled on Saturday.

🗣️With polls predicting a big win - maybe even a majority - for the SNP, expect the issue of a second referendum on Scottish independence to become more of an issue. In an interview with the Herald on Sunday, John Swinney insisted that if his party won more than 65 seats, he’d take it as a mandate for negotiations on a second vote.

“The UK Government can't stand in the face of the democratic wish of the people of Scotland, and I won't allow it to happen,” Mr Swinney says.

The Labour government in London, however, insists it won’t be having that. “We are not going to introduce chaos into the UK by having an independence referendum. Absolutely not,” he said yesterday. “If you think Brexit was bad, imagine what Scexit would do.”

🗣️We also haven’t heard the last of the mould and water scandal at Scotland’s biggest hospital, the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. The Mail on Sunday had a striking headline on its front page: more than 3,000 faults linked to those problems have been reported at the hospital in the last two years.

“Shock documents reveal a catalogue of problems with leaking ceilings, black mould, dripping air conditioning, dirty water and collapsing roof tiles,” the title reported.

The list of issues equates, it says, to a new maintenance request being created every five hours, “and comes after First Minister John Swinney consistently insisted the Glasgow hospital is safe”.

🗣️ The Catholic Church is continuing its loud opposition to the US war with Iran, becoming, in some people’s eyes, the loudest and most articulate opposition to Donald Trump in the US.

Pope Leo XIV, who has also been an outspoken critic of the administration’s immigration crackdown, “stood at the tomb of St. Peter on Saturday evening and dismantled every religious justification the Trump administration has offered for its war on Iran — without naming a single country or president,” reports the Letters from Leo newsletter.

Yesterday, the Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Robert McElroy - a close ally of the Pope - called the war in Iran “morally illegitimate” during his homily, adding: “We entered this war not out of necessity but rather out of choice. We failed to ardently pursue the pathway of negotiation to its end before turning to war.”

And later on CBS News, McElroy - joined by two other influential American cardinals - spoke out about the war and its conduct, with Cardinal Blase Cupich also criticising social media activity from members of the government. “It is sickening to splice together movie cuts with actual bombing and targeting of people for the t-- purposes of entertainment is sickening. This is not who we are. We're better than this,” he said.

🗣️With a double blockade around the Strait of Hormuz, it looks like we’re all going to get doubly familiar with the politics of the sea in the weeks ahead.

This WSJ visualisation is a helpful guide to what normally happens, and what is happening now, to shipping attempting to transit the chokepoint.

And, as ever, beware what you read on social media about these things, even from apparently reputable sources. A former Pakistani ambassador to the US has been the latest to be confused by the complexities, after he claimed the Strait is - in effect - international waters.

As others have now noted on that post, under the relevant UN law it’s a “transit passage”, not one with “freedom of navigation”. Iran has a role under that law. And, they say, it’s a moot point anyway - because Iran hasn’t ratified the relevant UN Law.

And, we might add, it’s doubly moot, given Iran also has missiles pointed at the Strait: seafarers attempting to get a full tanker of LPG through will find waving printouts of the relevant UN charters a poor defence. And that’s why our fuel bills are going up.

🗣️It emerged that veteran TV presenter Eamonn Holmes is in hospital after a stroke, having been found “out cold” at home on Tuesday last week. He’d been due to return to his GB News programme today, having been absent for more than a month. (The Sun)

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