In today’s newsletter: Scotland’s new Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act was supposed to protect its most vulnerable communities. Instead, it’s served only to create even bigger divides

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I should be broadcasting to Australia right now, but I politely declined the request so I could write to you instead. I love my job as Scotland correspondent and, of course, lots of the topics I report on have global relevance. But it’s not every week that I’m fielding calls from international newsrooms desperate for me to explain the technicalities of the latest Holyrood parliament legislation.

So it was this week. The Scottish government’s new hate crime law is supposed to protect vulnerable communities from abuse. Instead, it has resulted in an almighty omnishambles that has dominated the headlines at home and abroad, with fierce arguments about the limits of free speech, police officers overwhelmed by thousands of potentially vexatious complaints and, most critically, the groups it was seeking to protect warning that the debate has veered too far from the reality of hate crime they experience on the streets of Scotland every day. I’ll explain what the law was designed to do and why it has proved so controversial after this morning’s headlines.

Gaza | Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said Israel will increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, including the temporary reopening of a key crossing that was destroyed in the 7 October Hamas attack. The move came after Joe Biden said future US support for Israel will depend on it taking concrete action to protect civilians and aid workers.

Garrick Club | The men-only Garrick Club has moved closer to admitting female members, after an emergency committee meeting acknowledged there was nothing in the rules to prevent them from joining. The late-night vote means women could become members within months, 193 years after the club was founded, sources said.

Politics | Leaked documents show Tory executives discussed exploiting Conservative party members’ personal data to build a mobile phone app that could track users’ locations and allow big brands to advertise to Conservative supporters. The party would then take a cut of sales.

Crime | A senior Conservative MP has reportedly admitted giving out the personal phone numbers of colleagues to a person he met on a dating app. William Wragg told the Times he gave the information after he had sent intimate pictures of himself, saying he was “scared” and “mortified”. Police are investigating after MPs were apparently targeted in a “spear-phishing” attack, in what security experts believe could be an attempt to compromise parliament.

Journalism | Hella Pick, the Guardian’s pioneering former foreign correspondent and diplomatic editor, has died at the age of 96. Her career spanned more than seven decades, covering geopolitical upheavals and tectonic shifts in global power. Her last article, on the war in Gaza, was published in January.