TODAY’S WEATHER

☀️ It’s going to be a pleasant, warm day for Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. If you’re heading down to London do take care, and a water bottle: the next heatwave is here, and it’ll top out at 31 degrees today. (Here’s the UK forecast).

THE BIG STORIES
NHS Fife finally reveals tribunal cost | Trump to visit Scotland | Business leaders fume at airport’s state

📣 NHS Fife has finally revealed how much public money it has spent on the Sandy Peggie employment tribunal, following a long battle by journalists demanding the health board disclose the figures.

The tribunal relates to A&E nurse Sandie Peggie who was suspended after she challenged the presence of Dr Beth Upton, born a biological male, in the female changing rooms at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital. The case is due to restart next week. We now know the health board has spent £220,500, with the bill likely to rise further.

Scotland’s Information Commissioner had rebuked the health board after it offered various excuses for not revealing the costs when asked through multiple Freedom of Information requests. Facing defeat, it quietly posted the information on its website on Monday, and now faces further questions about its conduct and compliance with the law. (Herald) (Mail) (Times £)

• Andrew Learmonth: What is NHS Fife playing at? (Herald)

📣 Donald Trump is on his way to Scotland, it seems likely, with plans being laid to welcome the US President to his new golf course in Aberdeen at some point in the coming weeks. (Sky News)

• Police are planning to draft 5,000 officers to support a huge security operation (Express)

• The visit is not expected to include a meeting with King Charles, and there are concerns about “large-scale” protests. (Guardian)

📣 Scottish business leaders are finally snapping at the state of Edinburgh Airport, Scotland’s busiest. Brechin City Chairman Kevin Mackie went viral last week with a post on LinkedIn showing vast queues when he returned to Scotland. “Passengers are being funnelled through what looks and feels like a farm outbuilding,” he wrote.

Now other leaders are joining the outcry, with Francesca Osowska, chief executive of the Scottish Funding Council taking to Twitter to express outrage at the airport’s “filthy” toilets and arrivals hall. (Scotsman)

IDEAS
A look across Scotland’s columnists

NM: A romp through some of the columns that have caught the eye in recent days.

🗣️ Professor Devi Sridhar was one of the faces of the pandemic, the Professor and Chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh, a prolific contributor of advice on how to cope with lockdowns and precautions. And now she’s written a book - How Not to Die (Too Soon): The Lies We’ve Been Sold and the Policies that Can Save Us - in which she reveals she’d like to live to 100.

Alison Rowat isn’t so sure that’s wise.

The media might be dominated by the “pro-age lobby”, as she calls it, celebrating Rod Stewart’s every hip thrust at Glastonbury and running features on “60 is the new 40”. Music, drama, art exhibitions all look to serve the not-so-grey pound.

But are we ready to cope with all these long-living pensioners, “still at the front of the queue, demanding what they think is theirs, be it triple locked pensions or winter fuel allowance? […] Who will pay for all this good stuff as today’s 60-year-olds become 70, 80 and yes, 100?” (Herald)

🗣️Scotland is facing a big problem with its spending on benefits. The warnings have been sounded, we can see the political machinations down south as Westminster grapples with the same… but in Scotland, says Chris Deerin, the solution is simple: don’t talk about it.

“Both the Scottish Fiscal Commission and Audit Scotland have repeatedly produced reports stating that the trajectory of the SNP’s spending plans is unsustainable,” he writes.

“Its own civil service has said the same. But the governing party has barely wavered.[…] The scale of the rethink required is too large, too complete. Yet there is no chance this SNP administration – or, arguably, one of any stripe – is going to grasp that particular thistle.” (New Statesman)

🗣️Kenny Farquharson goes on the hunt for Scotland’s “hero voters” - that group of voters who will determine the outcome of next year’s Holyrood elections, at least for Anas Sarwar’s Scottish Labour. At least year’s General Election, the “hero group” was an unusual one for Labour - working class, yes, but distrustful of elites, pro Brexit and with concerns built around family, community and nation.

The hero group in Scotland next year will be different, suggests Farquharson: former SNP voters for whom, despite that, independence is not a defining issue, but whose switch to the SNP has led to “every devastating Scottish Labour defeat since 2007.” However, to win their trust, Sarwar will have to take a huge gamble. Will he be able? (The Times)

🗣️Calum Steele warns Police Scotland is in a state. The former General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation spots warning signs few others are seeing, from falling applications to join the force to the fact only two people applied for the top job running the force, one of Scotland’s best-paid public sector jobs. “That was the moment when it became impossible to hide the fact that what policing had privately recognised as challenges were now on their way to becoming a full-blown crisis,” he writes. (Herald)

🗣️Ian Johnson wonders what economic miracle could take place if only energy prices could be dramatically reduced. He sees a path to his nirvana, too: “The reason why our electricity bills remain so high despite the growth of renewable energy is that they are almost always set by the price of gas,” he writes. “Frustratingly, breaking this link appears to be much harder than it can seem to outsiders like me but, still, the potential is there, it is huge and there are many who can see it.”

He quotes Emma Pinchbeck, chief executive of the UK and Scottish governments’ independent advisors, the Climate Change Committee, saying that “I'm pretty confident that we're in the middle of the kind of energy transition that we last experienced at the turn of the industrial revolution.” (The Scotsman)

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 An extreme wildfire warning has been issued for vast parts of Scotland in the coming days, with the public being asked to act with “extreme caution” in the warm weather. (STV)

📣 Scottish Greens MSP Ross Greer will announce his candidacy for the co-leadership of the party later today. He is expected to call for the expansion of free bus travel, as well as additional taxes on the wealthy. (BBC)

📣 River City actor Iain Robertson has been accused of rape and a range of offences against four women. The actor - who played Stevie O'Hara in the BBC Scotland soap - faces a total of eight charges between 2018 and 2019, all of which he denies. (BBC)

AROUND THE UK

📣 A deal between the UK and France on migration is “hanging in the balance” with haggling on how much money the UK will contribute towards policing small boats in the English Channel proving a stumbling block. (Guardian) (Independent)

• Politicians in Northern Ireland have condemned a bonfire “topper” of a boat filled with effigies of refugees. (BBC)

📣 Doctors in England and Wales, calling for a 29% pay rise, have been told their planned five-day walkout will cause the cancellation of thousands of operations and appointments at the last minute. (Independent)

📣 There’s an urgent appeal to find the owners of a cat which stowed away in the engine of a minibus for a 400-mile trip from England to Scotland. (Mail)

AROUND THE WORLD

🌎 Kyiv has suffered another huge overnight Russian drone attack, with at least two people reported killed and 13 injured, and fires burning across the city. (BBC)

🌎 Donald Trump has placed 50% tariffs on imports from Brazil, citing a “witch hunt” against his friend and the country’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro. The move set the country’s currency plunging. (AP) (Bloomberg £)

🌎 Kenya’s president has ordered police to shoot protesters in the legs, in an intensification of rhetoric days after 31 people were killed in nationwide anti-government demonstrations. (Guardian)

SPORT

⚽️ Celtic have no fewer than three transfers on the go: a striker, winger and defender are all on the shopping list, with talks under way. (Record)

🏎️ Christian Horner was sacked as principal of Formula 1 team Red Bull yesterday: Giles Richards does an expert job of reviewing his impact on the sport over 20 years, and the sudden downfall of the Red Bull team he’s now leaving behind. (Guardian)

🏉 The British and Irish Lions saw off ACT Brumbies in a warm-up match yesterday, with the two Scots taking part having contrasting experiences: Blair Kinghorn hurt his knee early on, while Finn Russell put in a commanding performance. (Offside Line)

⚽️ New Rangers signing Nasser Djiga was settling into his new side well, until a freak injury disrupted his first training session. Assistant manager Matt Gill told Rangers TV: "He did great. He's actually the first signing I've ever known to split his head open in a passing drill.” (Sun)