The country is ready to blow away decades of dashed hopes and celebrate, with marching bands and all-night parties

Scotland is leaning into one its most treasured traditions: embracing the hope and anxiety of a football World Cup, with a healthy dose of self-deprecating style.

There are brash new tartans, an Edinburgh bar offering free Irn-Bru-infused “fiery ginger” beers for patrons with red hair, a collaboration between Scottish whisky firms and a Brazilian distiller, and all-night parties in nightclubs repurposed as fanzones.

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© Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

© Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

© Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

“As important as the boys and the pools and the light,” a memoirist writes, “the most important thing was becoming the driving.” It would inspire an obsession with moving focus into the future.

Exclusive: Research in England shows people a third less likely to reoffend under decriminalisation-style schemes

Drug diversion schemes led by police that steer people away from the criminal justice system and into treatment and education services are significantly more effective in reducing reoffending than prosecution, according to a new analysis.

Researchers examined outcomes across 13 English police forces and more than 62,000 criminal incidents over the past four years, finding that people whose cases were dealt with through decriminalisation-style diversion schemes were a third less likely to reoffend than similar individuals prosecuted for drug possession.

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© Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

© Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

© Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Two years ago Kaya invited Sunshine Coast creators to meet and swap goods for free. Now, women all around the country are doing the same every weekend.

Two years ago Kaya invited Sunshine Coast creators to meet and swap goods for free. Now, women all around the country are doing the same every weekend.

Demos come day after anti-racism rally draws crowd to west Belfast

The far-right proposal would require the government to put restrictions in place to limit the population by 2050

A national ballot on an unprecedented far-right proposal to limit Switzerland’s population to 10 million concludes this weekend, amid warnings of devastating consequences for the country’s economy if voters back the initiative.

A “yes” vote would require the Swiss government to take steps to cap the population at 10 million by 2050, enacting tough restrictions on family reunification, residency permits and asylum if the number reaches 9.5 million before that date.

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© Photograph: Martial Trezzini/EPA

© Photograph: Martial Trezzini/EPA

© Photograph: Martial Trezzini/EPA

Claims of two-tier policing and uncontrolled immigration may not be borne out by the facts, but that has not stopped them being played up for political ends

As the people of Glengormley, on the northern edge of Belfast, tidied up and prepared for more violence in the midst of what has been described as a modern-day pogrom, a court 500 miles away in Southampton, on the south coast of England, started to deal with its own outbreak of thuggery.

The trigger for this week’s riots in the Northern Irish capital had been the image of a black assailant who appeared to be stabbing and slashing his supine white victim in the face and neck while shouting in Arabic. The suspect was later revealed to be a refugee from Sudan.

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© Photograph: Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images

Data analytics company loses on 22 out of 23 counts in lawsuit disputing how Swiss government rejected firm’s services

The US technology company Palantir has lost a legal challenge to force a Swiss independent magazine to publish its responses to articles about how the Swiss government rejected its services.

The data analytics company lost on 22 out of 23 counts of the suit. In a ruling on Friday, Zurich’s commercial court dismissed the majority of counterstatement requests filed by the company and its Swiss subsidiary finding that only a single passage in one article warranted a published response from the company.

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© Photograph: Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

Journalist and healthcare campaigner was driving force behind patient safety initiative after death of 13-year-old daughter

The healthcare campaigner and journalist Merope Mills has been made a CBE in the king’s birthday honours list for services to patient safety.

Mills, a senior editor at the Guardian, was a driving force behind the introduction of an initiative in England said to have potentially saved hundreds of lives. She has spent years campaigning for the introduction of Martha’s rule under which patients, relatives and staff can seek a second opinion if they have concerns about the care being provided.

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© Photograph: Courtesy of Merope Mills

© Photograph: Courtesy of Merope Mills

© Photograph: Courtesy of Merope Mills

Stephen Watson and Rose Neill among those named in King’s Birthday Honours - list in full below

Frederic Priestley, 32, falsely advertised property he did not own for rent on Facebook, obtaining payments and deposits

A man has been jailed after defrauding more than 30 people out of more than £77,000 in a rental scam, police said.

Frederic Priestley, 34, from Southwark, London, falsely advertised a property for rent on Facebook between April and September last year.

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© Photograph: Met Police

© Photograph: Met Police

© Photograph: Met Police

Unidentified officer removed from frontline duties in the first known case of its kind in the UK

A police officer is under criminal investigation over the alleged use of artificial intelligence and has been removed from frontline duties in the first known case of its kind in the UK.

The officer, who has not been named, is being investigated over allegations of using the technology to “create evidential material in a number of cases” and perverting the course of justice.

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© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian