TODAY’S WEATHER

🌤️ You’ll have sunny spells in Glasgow, but it’ll be a little more overcast in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, although the chances of rain will be low. London will be a little brighter. (Here’s the UK forecast).

THE BIG STORIES
Glasgow’s homeless crisis | Israel warns of evacuation | SNP accounts show collapse in membership

📣 Homeless campaigners have called for the Red Cross to be called in to help as Glasgow’s homeless refugee crisis hits new heights. The cost of finding accommodation for the homeless has surged this year, with large numbers of asylum seekers swelling the numbers looking for accommodation. (Daily Record)

• Britain’s migration crisis: what the latest numbers tell us (Independent)

• A wave of protests are planned at migrant hotels across the UK, from Aberdeen to Exeter, this weekend. (The Times £)

• Refugees are flocking to Glasgow, with applications to remain there far outstripping Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. (The Sun)

• Andrew Grice: Politicians’ double standards on asylum hotels will come back to bite them (Independent)

📣 Israel’s operation to take over Gaza City could begin within days as Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says he’ll also restart negotiations with Hamas aimed at returning all the remaining hostages. (AP)

• Famine will be declared in Gaza today by global body (Mail)

• Israel's military has warned doctors and international organisations to prepare for the evacuation of Gaza City's one million residents ahead of the offensive. (BBC)

📣 The SNP’s annual accounts show the party’s membership has fallen to half its 2019 peak, and it spent £500,000 more than it brought in. Auditors offered a “qualified opinion” on the accounts for the second year in a row, as missing paperwork before July 2023 created “inherent uncertainty” about reserves. (Mail)

• The SNP may never repay Peter Murrell’s loan (The Scotsman)

IDEAS
Where are the insurgents Scottish voters seek? | Britain’s latest boom industry | Putin’s trap | Facekinis

🗣️ Britain used to be caricatured as a conservative country. But, if that was ever true, it’s not now: “This is a country where flamboyant insurgents can flourish and cautious technocrats seem out of place, as if strangers in their own land,” writes Steve Richards.

Which brings us to the Scottish elections, where parties are even more aware than their London colleagues that they “must pitch themselves as insurgents”. That’s difficult for all the major parties, however.

The SNP will struggle to attract voters without the guile of Salmond or communication skills of prime-era Sturgeon. Labour’s Anas Sarwar, meanwhile, is “burdened” by the unpopularity of his colleagues in Westminster. And there is Reform, the wild card, but it lacks a Scottish leader and quality candidates.

The answer, suggests Richards, may not deliver the change from the Status Quo that voters want, but “something more like paralysis,” he suggests. (The New Statesman £)

🗣️Britain leads the world in a new global business: “steal and export”. London is the best place in the world to see what The Economist calls “Grand Theft Global Inc” in operation, where expensive consumer goods such as phones and high-end cars are “stolen in the rich world and exported to distant markets.”

“The idea is hardly new. In the 1990s European cars and electronic goods headed east to former communist countries. ‘Visit Albania,’ ran one joke. ‘Your car is already there.’”

But it’s no joking matter: 70,000 phones were snatched in London alone last year, and 40% of phone thefts in Europe happen in the UK. Car theft is up 75% in a decade: 130,000 vehicles last year.

“Behind all this is a criminal enterprise that has all the trappings of a regular global business, including specialist service providers and seamless communications.” And it’s set on global expansion. (The Economist £)

🗣️Vladimir Putin is setting a trap, writes Owen Matthews: he wants to split the United States from its European allies. Moreover, he says, the West is indulging in a “fatal misunderstanding of the intentions of the one man in the world who has the power to make the war stop – Putin.

“One of Putin’s great skills is appearing to be measured and constructive when in fact he’s being insincere, intransigent or plain threatening,” says Matthews.

“His plan for the endgame in the war is to do everything in his power to convince Trump – his new best buddy and business partner – that he is behaving reasonably, making concessions, bending over backwards to keep dialogue open. At the same time, he will lay down a series of conditions that Zelensky will refuse to accept.” (The Spectator £)

🗣️ News of an extraordinary new trend in China: the “facekini” - sun masks made from a synthetic fabric that protect against ultraviolet rays. Some only cover the lower face, while others extend to the whole head. They popularise, says The Economist, “a look previously favoured by bank robbers.”

But the Chinese state is unimpressed, with a state newspaper lamenting the rise of “sun-protection anxiety”. One that, presumably, also does much to foil China’s famous network of face-recognising cameras. (The Economist)

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 A teenager who planned a terrorist attack at a mosque in Greenock has been sentenced to 10 years in custody. The 17-year-old was arrested in January after police caught him with an airgun and aerosol cans outside the Inverclyde Muslim Centre. The boy, who held Neo-Nazi beliefs, had planned to set fire to the building, trapping occupants inside. (BBC)

📣 A bin lorry driver who killed a boy because he wasn’t paying proper attention has been given 133 hours of unpaid work and banned from driving for a year. Ross Wallace admitted hitting 11-year-old Thomas Wang, who had been cycling to school in Cramond, Edinburgh. (BBC)

📣 NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has been accused of a “dramatic U-turn” after its previously praised, and “legally sound”, single-sex guidance was withdrawn. The health board has now joined other public bodies in waiting for the Scottish Government to produce its own guidance, in the wake of the Supreme Court judgement on the matter. (The Scotsman has the exclusive)

📣 Scottish beer brand BrewDog is “struggling to be relevant”, according to one of Britain’s biggest bar chains, which stopped stocking the company’s products two years ago. Drinkers are moving away from “trendy and expensive” craft beers towards more traditional brews. (Mail)

📣 But another Scottish drink continues to thrive: a Scottish schoolboy has landed the plum role in a new campaign for Irn Bru, which is bringing back its famous “Made in Scotland from girders” slogan. (🎥Watch the ad at the Daily Record)

AROUND THE UK & WORLD

📣 An evangelical Church of England leader has been found guilty of abusing vulnerable young women: the Independent takes a look at the “Rave culture, lycra ‘nuns’ and ‘sexual healing’” of the “cult left unchecked in the Church of England”. (Independent)

📣 Elon Musk should not be allowed to build a foothold in the UK energy market, says Lib Dem leader Ed Davey: Tesla could be a national security risk, he claims. (The Guardian has the exclusive)

📣 A big legal boost for Donald Trump: a New York appeals court has thrown out a more than $500 million penalty against the US President and his business empire. However, it preserved a fraud case against him, after an earlier finding that he had overstated his wealth. (Reuters)

📣 Baby food manufacturers are being told to cut levels of salt and sugar in their products, and stop promoting snacks for babies aged under one. There’s been a big rise in what is, essentially, baby-targeted junk: pouches, straws, puffs and wafers. (BBC)

📣 We could be facing a stormy end to August with the tail end of Hurricane Erin bringing heavy winds, rain and big waves next week. (The Guardian)

SPORT

⚽️ Aberdeen salvaged their chances of Europa League progress by fighting back from 2-0 down against the team formerly known as Steaua Bucharest, now FCSB. They could even have won it in stoppage time. (Daily Record)

⚽️ Hibs found it harder: they lost 2-1 in Edinburgh to Legia Warsaw, and now face a difficult trip to Poland next week, although their late goal from Josh Mulligan also keeps the tie alive. (Daily Record)

⚽️ The Old Firm is united in fury, suggests Alan Pattullo: “If fans aren’t streaming out of games just 20 minutes in, they are staying behind afterwards to vent their anger having spent large parts of the preceding 90 minutes demanding chairmen and chief executives get themselves somewhere that rhymes with the eponymous hero of Steven Spielberg’s new film, The Life of Chuck.” (Scotsman)

📣 Your Saturday Party Line - the Saturday version of The Early Line - includes a roundup of all the key sporting fixtures on TV - as well as the best movie and TV releases, and six interesting things to talk about over the weekend. Fancy seeing it all? Upgrade now!