THE BIG STORIES
World braces for Trump’s “liberation day” | Convicted Le Pen attacks judges | University warns on cuts

📣 The world is bracing for what Donald Trump has labelled “liberation day” tomorrow, when he plans to introduce tariffs against nations exporting to the US. It remains unclear what, exactly, he is planning.

• A trade war triggered by Donald Trump could cause a $1.4 trillion hit to the global economy and dramatically drive up US prices, according to economists at Aston University. They built a "worst-case scenario” showing how a tit-for-tat exchange of tariffs would create complex shifts in global commerce. (FT £)

• Markets waver under the threat of more tariffs (AP)

• A large majority of Europeans support retaliatory tariffs against the US if Trump imposes levies (Guardian)

• Bloomberg has a tracker of every Trump tariff and its economic effect - here’s a gift link. (Bloomberg 🎁)

📣 Marine Le Pen, found guilty of embezzlement, has branded her conviction as a political act and “denial of democracy”. The far-right leader has been barred from competing for the presidency in 2027 after being caught embezzling vast sums of money - an estimated €7 million - from the European Parliament in a fake jobs scam. She had denied the charges. (BBC)

• Le Pen verdict throws National Rally into chaos but could boost far right (Guardian)

• The attacks on judges' decisions is not a sign of healthy democracy, writes Le Monde columnist Françoise Fressoz. (Le Monde, in English)

📣 The University of Dundee says its cuts may impact more people than previously expected, with up to 700 people facing losing their roles as the University attempts to balance its books. Previous, lower estimates had been full-time equivalents: interim principal and vice chancellor Prof Shane O'Neill confirmed in a letter to MSPs that the number of affected individuals would be higher. (BBC)

• New university Rector Maggie Chapman MSP said the cuts were “a shocking act of vandalism that will pile further crisis on the institution.” (Herald)

IDEAS
A trio of April Fools (and why it might not be celebrated with such gusto these days)

This April Fools day appears… subdued. Once, newspapers and broadcasters went to some lengths to fool their viewers, listeners and readers. These days, not so much. Prospect magazine is even writing about “How April Fool’s Day became hated”. I’d hoped to bring you many obvious examples but, first thing this morning, good ones were in short supply.

Part of the problem is so much of the news, these days, is simply beyond parody. In addition, news sites worry that publishing content which is intentionally not true will damage their standing with readers not versed in the tradition, or even with Google, which can rank unreliable sites more poorly, thus destroying their business.

Nevertheless, I found three certainties. I hope.

🗣️ The notorious Flora Pilo returns to The Scotsman to reveal “plans to woo Trump on a lavish private tour of the Scottish islands on the MV Glen Sannox ferry” during his visit later this year. The plans include Trump being taken on a “personalised tour of the Fairy Pools by historian and archaeologist Neil Oliver”. There will be modifications to the Glen Sannox at the request of the Secret Service, including the installation of sniper posts. (The Scotsman)

🗣️ Flora Pilo is also in the Daily Mail - she must work for a news agency, now? - to reveal that campaigners want to take a “non-binary” approach to time keeping, allowing them to choose which time they want to follow - either Greenwich Mean Time, or British Summer Time. Labelled “GMBST+”, the campaigners “want employees to be given a human right to choose which zone suits them best each morning”. (Daily Mail)

🗣️In the Telegraph, Olaf Pirlo goes rather meta on the whole thing: “Police officers have been told they must make clear to suspects that they are not playing an April Fool’s Day joke on them if they make arrests for certain crimes today”. Policing bodes are concerned, reports the paper, that “suspects will assume they are being pranked if they are questioned for offences such as upsetting people in X”. (The Telegraph)

🗣️ For the especially keen, The Mirror is running a live blog to spot the various pranks being unleashed by brands… you’ll find your fill here, I suspect. (The Mirror)

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 Ferguson Marine says it will conduct a “detailed review” of its progress on the second, long-delayed and over-budget CalMac ferry it is building. The Glen Rosa is still due to enter service on the Arran route this September. (The Scotsman)

📣 Eleven of Scotland’s 17 prisons were full only days after hundreds of prisoners were released to ease overcrowding. The Herald has the exclusive.

📣 A climber died and another was seriously injured in an accident on Ben Nevis. The man were injured late on Saturday afternoon and one was rescued then: the body of a 22-year-old man was recovered on Sunday morning. (STV)

AROUND THE UK

📣 A row over “two-tier justice” in England and Wales is likely to lead to a change in the law to allow the government to override the independent Sentencing Council. The council has been at odds with the government over plans to mandate consideration of a variety of new factors before sentencing a criminal. Those factors would include the criminal’s ethnic background, age and sex. (Sky News)

📣 Citizens Advice says single parents are being hit hardest this month by a price rises across energy, water and council tax. (BBC)

📣 A large-scale search was called off last night after an 11-year-old girl went missing in the River Thames in East London. The girl had been with friends on a slipway by the river when she entered the water. (BBC)

AROUND THE WORLD

🌎 Myanmar has announced a week of national mourning as hopes fade that more survivors will be found after a powerful earthquake. More than 2,000 people have been confirmed dead. (BBC)

🌎 The woman who accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her as a teenager says she has only days to live after a school bus ploughed into her car, leaving her with serious internal injuries. (Daily Mail)

🌎 Multiple Tesla cars have been destroyed in Rome in what is thought to be an arson attack on a dealership selling the brand. (Independent)

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

💰Wood Group is in a real mess: the Aberdeen based, London-listed oilfield services giant does not expect to publish its results on time after an independent investigation found key information had been withheld from auditors, and “unreliable” information had been passed to them. The company blamed “cultural failings” and said it expected to make “material adjustments” to its financial statements for the last three years. (This Is Money)

• Ben Martin: “There was the usual polite corporate language of ‘cultural failings’ and ‘material weaknesses’. Yet this was a stock exchange statement with eyebrow-raising detail.” (The Times £)

💰 Menzies Aviation had a good year: the Edinburgh-based group, which claims to be the world’s biggest aviation services provider, posted 20% growth in revenue to $2.6 billion, and profits of £382 million. (Herald)