TODAY’S WEATHER

⛈️ We have a yellow ⚠️weather warning across most of Scotland for thunderstorms from 11am to 9pm. Glasgow is expected to be wettest today, with rain all day - heavy later. Edinburgh and Aberdeen are expected to be more dry, after damp starts. London has a risk of showers throughout the day. (Here’s the UK forecast).

THE BIG STORIES
85 killed as they seek food in Gaza | Reeves says no to wealth tax | Gazza rushed to hospital

📣 At least 85 Palestinians were killed while trying to access food yesterday, according to local officials, making Sunday the deadliest day yet for aid-seekers in 21 months of war. There was also further alarm in Gaza as Israel issued new evacuation orders for central parts of the territory, where international organisations trying to distribute aid are located. (AP)

• Frustration with Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is growing in Washington. "Bibi acted like a madman. He bombs everything all the time," one White House official said. “The feeling is that every day there is something new. What the f***?” (Axios)

📣 Rachel Reeves is expected to resist calls from left-wing Labour MPs to bring in a wealth tax, after Cabinet colleagues warned the move would fail to raise any money because wealthy people would simply leave the country. (The Times £)

• A wealth tax would be a “dangerous road to go down” says investment chief (City AM)

• Most Brits support a wealth tax - so which European countries have one? (Left Foot Foward)

📣 Ex-footballer Paul Gascoigne is in hospital after collapsing at home in Dorset, it has emerged. The former Rangers and England star, now 58, was found on Friday and admitted to intensive care before being moved to an acute unit, where his condition was described as stable. (The Sun)

IDEAS
Six things we learnt this weekend: why NHS Fife needs to settle, Glasgow hospital’s astonishing bill, and the end of satire in the US.

🗣️ There’s a lot of reflection on the Sandie Peggie employment tribunal, much of it wondering aloud why NHS Fife hasn’t been able to settle the case (it’s worth remembering Peggie has brought this case against NHS Fife, unlike the disciplinary case brought against her, which concluded last week she had not committed any misconduct).

Gillian Bowditch provides a sober and crystal-clear summation of the case to date, wondering why NHS Fife didn’t seize the opportunity of a five-month adjournment, during which UK Supreme Court ruled that the term “woman” refers to biological sex, not gender identity, to “cut its losses and settle”. “Instead,” she writes, “they have bought bigger shovels and are rivalling Orpheus to see how far they can get with them.

Bowditch is especially critical of NHS Fife’s equality and human rights lead, Isla Bumba, who told the hearing she did not know her own sex, saying she could “hazard a guess that I would be female” but that “no one knows” their chromosomes. “Perhaps someone from obstetrics and gynaecology would explain the way it all works, suggests Bowditch”. (Sunday Times £)

🗣️The Peggie case is “writing the obituary of gender identity politics” in Scotland, writes Susan Dalgety, who hails the “slow death of the absurd ideology that has dominated our public discourse for the last decade, helping to bring down two First Ministers and which saw a male rapist briefly housed in a women’s prison.” Isla Bumba’s confusion may be the point “when the penny dropped for everyone - including, I imagine, John Swinney and Labour leader Anas Sarwar,” writes Dalgety.

“I will be shocked if the SNP’s 2026 manifesto contains a promise to amend gender laws, as the last one did,” she writes. “Swinney will calculate that public opinion is now firmly on the side of biology, and while the majority are content to live and let live, most people do not believe that a man who says he is a woman has changed his sex.” (The Scotsman £)

🗣️An “astonishing” 25% of every ticket sold in Scotland goes to private companies leasing the trains to ScotRail, says Neil Mackay. He reports claims that £362 million could be saved when the nationalised railway company comes to replace 69 aging trains, through the use of “green bonds” to buy the trains outright, rather than using the existing leasing system. The railway union Aslef thinks that could lead to “cheaper, more frequent, greener, cleaner and safer trains”. (Herald)

🗣️More than £78 million has been spent on Glasgow’s scandal-hit Queen Elizabeth University Hospital over the last decade, with the £842-million building plagued by superbugs, ventilation and water problems, faults with the building and a public inquiry. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called the hospital saga “the single biggest scandal in the devolution era” and called for those responsible to be prosecuted “In my view, they should be in jail,” he said. (Sunday Mail)

🗣️Much has been made of Labour’s plans to lower the legal voting age for UK General Elections to 16, including contradictory claims that the change would both help Labour stay in power, and offer a boost to Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party. On his Substack, Patrick English goes deep on the data, and finds… “there might be something in it for Reform, but there’s clearly a lot more in it for Labour”. (Plain Speaking English)

🗣️Satire in America is dead, says Jacob Weisberg, with the cancellation of the Stephen Colbert show removing from the airwaves a biting critic of President Donald Trump. The death was foretold, he writes: “Paramount, which owns CBS, betrayed its staff – along with the rest of US journalism – by agreeing to pay Trump $16m in a legal settle­ment,” he writes, despite there being “no basis for a legal claim”. It only did so because Brendan Carr, Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, was holding its $8 billion sale to Skydance hostage until a deal was reached.

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 Patrick Harvie has launched an attack on activists trying to oust him from office, calling them “out of order” and saying the Scottish Greens have a problem with “smugness”. A group of party members, nicknamed the “Glasgow faction”, is attempting to replace Harvie as the party’s candidate on the Glasgow regional list for next year’s Holyrood elections. (Scotsman)

• David Wallace Lockhart: Are the Scottish Greens descending into civil war? (BBC)

📣 Three women have been charged under the Terrorism Act after a van was driven into the fence of the Leonardo defence company’s campus in Edinburgh. (Sky News)

📣 The HebCelt music festival rocked Stornaway over the weekend, with 17,000 music fans descending on the Western Isles for a weekend of merriment. The BBC has plenty of pictures. (BBC)

AROUND THE UK & WORLD

📣 Russian strikes on Kyiv overnight have killed one person and caused fires across the Ukrainian capital. (Guardian)

📣 Japan’s Prime Minister has said he will fight on despite his ruling coalition losing its majority in the country’s upper house. (BBC)

📣 The average asking price for UK homes has dropped by its steepest monthly amount in 20 years. (Guardian)

📣 A public inquiry will “uncover the truth” about the “Battle of Orgreave” - one of the bloodiest confrontations between police and striking miners in the 1980s. (Sky News)

📣 There are some spectacular volcanic eruptions in Iceland. (🎥See the video from AP)

SPORT

⛳️ Scottie Scheffler swept to victory in the 153rd Open at Dunluce, his four-shot win not really in doubt after Saturday night. Martin Dempster draws parallels with Tiger Woods - the only other person to win the Open as world number one. And even “Mother Nature had nothing up her sleeve to help the chasing pack”. (Scotsman) (Guardian)

🏉 Lots of talking points from The British & Irish Lions’ win on Saturday: from Finn Russell’s central performance to referees being “dumbed down” by the TMO, Iain Morrison has eight. (The Offside Line)

🚴‍♀️ Young Scottish cyclist Oscar Onley is worth keeping an eye out for during this year’s Tour de France: he’s emerged from the Pyrenees stage of the iconic race in fourth position after a storming performance, which bodes well for the rest of the race. He gets a break today, and is back in the saddle for another gruelling 171km tomorrow. (Cycling News)