In your briefing today:

📣 What happened to £1.5 million of independence campaign cash? Police Scotland is to probe claims about the finances of Yes Scotland, a campaign group, after a new complaint was made by one of the people who brought about the Branchform inquiry. That led to the jailing of former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell last month.

The latest question concerns donations to the Yes campaign, set up by Alex Salmond to support a yes vote in the independence referendum. It had close ties with the SNP - but was (and is) a legally separate organisation.

Yes Scotland denies any wrongdoing. (The Sunday Mail has the exclusive)

📣 Speculation is mounting that Nigel Farage could quit as Reform UK leader - or even be forced out - after he was hit by fresh allegations of another personal financial scandal over the weekend.

The latest allegations, made in the Sunday Times, are that he failed to declare that a 32-year-old British aristocrat and convicted criminal, George Cottrell, supplied him with funding for his operation in the year before he was elected MP for Clacton.

Since the election, Cottrell - known as “posh George” in Reform circles - has given Farage use of a five-storey house he rents in a street near Buckingham Palace.

Farage, said the Sunday Times, has declared none of this, which appears to be in breach of MPs’ code of conduct. Farage denies the benefits require registration.

The Sunday Times story provides extraordinary colour around Cottrell, his life, and his connections with Farage. (Sunday Times)

📣 There’s outrage through the footballing world after US striker Folarin Balogun had his red card rescinded after a call from Donald Trump to FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

Reports today make it clear that Trump’s intent was certainly to have the suspension reversed, which is what happened through a little-used - but not unprecedented - FIFA rule. What is not proved, at least conclusively, is that FIFA acted partly or entirely in response to the call. But many think they know what they’ve seen.

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📣 Ambulances face delays outside Scottish hospitals of as long as 18 hours before being sent out again, new figures reveal. Hospitals are so full they can’t admit new patients. (Scotsman)

📣 A 17-year-old boy has died in a car crash in Fife. A man has been arrested. (STV)

📣 Author JK Rowling has hit out at John Swinney after it was revealed the First Minister personally signed off on the legal effort to keep biological men in women’s prisons. (Express)

📣 Russia has launched a wave of missiles and drones at Kyiv overnight, killing at least seven people. (AP)

📣 Budget airline EasyJet has agreed to a potential £5.2 billion takeover by US investment firm Castlelake. (BBC)

📣 Pizza Express held an internal inquiry into Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s notorious claim that he’d visited a branch in Woking on the day, in 2001, he was alleged to have slept with Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein's victims. It found no evidence he had. (BBC Newsnight has the exclusive)

⚽️ England produced their best performance of this World Cup to secure one of their greatest-ever World Cup wins, beating co-hosts Mexico 3-2 amid the passion of the Azteca in a game some are already regarding an instant classic.

Jude Bellingham was the difference-maker: he was outstanding, scoring two goals, making a vital tackle to prevent a certain Mexican goal, and looking every part the superstar. Captain Harry Kane scored the third from the penalty spot.

But, in a game delayed by an hour for bad weather, England still made it hard for themselves, with right-back Jarell Quansah sent off early in the second half for a nasty challenge: they were hanging on, by the end. (Report & highlights)

⚽️ In the day’s other game, Norway stunned Brazil to win 2-1, with Erling Haaland showing all of his deadly skill to score twice late in the second half. His first was a powerful header, the second a stunning long-range drive, with Neymar of Brazil scoring a consolation goal deep into injury time. They now meet England in the quarter-finals on Saturday night. (Report & highlights)

🏎️ Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc won the British Grand Prix after a chaotic finish under ths safety car. (Report & highlights)

🏏 Australia managed a comprehensive seven-wicket win over England in the Women’s T20 World Cup at Lord’s. (Report & highlights)

🗣️Could Nigel Farage be on his way out of UK politics? He retired from politics once before, don’t forget, after Brexit. And what comes next for Farage isn’t clear. He’s already facing an investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner for not registering a £5 million gift from crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne.

Unlike Holyrood, Westminster has yet to go into recess: the steamy summer days on the terraces have been filled with gossip that the Reform leader could decide to call it a day again.

He might have that day called for him, too. “An adverse finding from the watchdog could lead to suspension as an MP for Farage, and possibly a byelection in his Clacton constituency, which he could still fight and win,” reports the Guardian in a long read about Farage. “Labour, the Tories and Restore are all preparing for a contest, while Reform is braced for one.”

His supporters say it’s all part of an establishment attempt to bring their man down. (Guardian)

🗣️There was a lot - so much - about the wedding of pop star Taylor Swift and American football star Travis Kelce over the weekend. There is little real narrative to it: after months of speculation, they finally tied the knot at Madison Square Garden, in New York, on Friday evening.

The event, explains the BBC, was officiated by Adam Sandler, whose character in the 1996 film Happy Gilmore inspired Swift to write a lyric in her last album in which she fantasised about an idyllic future in which they have “a couple kids“ and “a driveway with a basketball hoop”.

Sandler even wrote a song for the happy couple, which he performed before the star-studded audience, reports TMZ. Paul McCartney also performed, reported People, while The Hollywood Reporter went on a victory lap for correctly predicting Taylor Swift’s Dior wedding gown. Selena Gomez won plaudits for her “pure, bombshell glam” from Vogue. And Donald Trump, who doesn’t much like Swift (it’s mutual) tried to troll her on her big day.

What you won’t find much of is anything other than snatched photographs of the stars entering the venue: very little, if anything, has emerged from the nuptials themselves. One can only speculate a pay-TV special may be on its way before long, maybe to help pay the huge bill.

🗣️The Swift/Kelce nuptials rather overshadowed, for many, the other big US event of the week: the 250th anniversary celebrations of the nation’s independence from British rule. Donald Trump hailed the “unmatched achievement and unlimited potential” of the US in a triumphalist address, reports the Guardian.

Correspondent David Smith called it “the strangest show on earth” in an accompanying sketch: “In blowing out the candles on the nation’s birthday cake, Trump committed the one sin that even his base cannot forgive, especially after 12 hours of waiting in sun, wind and rain. He was actually quite boring. Which proves that, like New Year’s Eve, big birthdays often tend to be anticlimactic.

Photographs from across that great nation marking the big day proved much more joyous, while Politico magazine asked 11 historians if Trump had changed democracy forever, and got answers that offered more hope than you might expect.

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