TODAY’S WEATHER

☁️ Expect a dry day with sunny spells for Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. London will be dry and warm too. (Here’s the UK forecast).

THE BIG STORIES
Reeves warned of £41 billion ‘black hole’ | Blackford considers Holyrood run | Hiroshima marks solemn anniversary

📣 Economists are warning Rachel Reeves must raise taxes or tear up her borrowing rules because of a £41 billion black hole caused by her government’s u-turns, higher borrowing and sluggish economic growth.

A leading economic think-tank says Reeves faces an “impossible trilemma” of trying to meet her fiscal rules while meeting spending commitments and upholding Labour’s manifesto promise, made only last year, not to raise taxes on working people. (The Independent) (The Guardian)

• The wealth tax options Reeves could take (Sky News)

• Opinion: “The most economically sound option is, as so often, also the most politically difficult choice – to raise income tax” (Independent)

• Thousands of company directors have left the UK after Labour’s tax changes, with the United Arab Emirates the most popular destination. Between last year’s October budget and last month, 3,790 directors left the UK, compared with 2,712 in the same period a year earlier. (FT £)

📣 The SNP’s former leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford, says he’s being urged to stand for the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch Scottish Parliament seat that Kate Forbes plans to vacate.

Any return to politics could reignite tensions with the current SNP Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, who also wants to be elected to Holyrood next year. (The Mail has the exclusive)

📣 The city of Hiroshima has marked the 80th anniversary of the US atomic bombing that devastated the city, with many ageing survivors expressing their frustration that global leaders continue to support nuclear weapons as a deterrent.

More than 140,000 people died in Hiroshima on August 6 1945, with a second bomb at Nagasaki - dropped three days later - killing another 70,000. Japan surrendered on August 15 1945. (AP)

• Hiroshima bombing survivor’s stark warning for us all: “Right now is the most dangerous era,” he says. (Sky News)

IDEAS
A pass mark, perhaps, but mixed results for the Scottish education system’s annual test

🗣️ Scotland’s exam results came out yesterday. The certificates still arrive through the post, as of old, but these days higher-tech services are first to tell anxious young people how they’ve done, and how their immediate future is going to shape up. Phones, not posties, delivered the big news for most yesterday.

How did it go? Across Scotland, there were more smiles than the previous year: pass rates were up, across the board. The Higher pass rate is now 75.9% - up 1% year on year, but - as the Herald (£) points out - still the third-lowest pass rate since 2009 (2019 and 2024 were worse).

There’s a lot of attainment data from the SQA on its website.

That improvement, however limited, was still far from being a given. This was the first year since Covid that pupils had no special measures in place to mitigate the disruption caused by lockdowns.

During the pandemic, the extra pressures and impediments on students were recognised: they faced fewer assessments, some subjects were pared back and they got notice of topics, to help target study. Pass rates shot up - towards 90% in 2020 - and that led to a scandal when it emerged exam authorities downgraded the results of 125,000 pupils based, not on their work, but on the past performance of their schools, purely to “maintain credibility”. Students from poor areas were, inevitably, hit hardest.

No special measures were in place this year. Some teachers had advocated a more gradual return to pre-COVID arrangements, with TES Magazine reporting 76% of teachers felt students were not as well-prepared for national qualifications as their predecessors.

In the circumstances, then, it’s hardly a surprise Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth hailed “evidence of a strong recovery in Scotland’s schools, following the pandemic, with more passes at every level compared to last year. They are a testament to the hard work of learners, teachers and parents and carers.”

But yesterday didn’t bring entirely good news. While overall attainment has improved year on year, the performance of pupils from affluent areas remains better than that of those from poorer areas. This attainment gap was thrust into the limelight in 2015, when then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon promised its eradication, calling it her “defining mission”. A decade on, that mission is nowhere near being achieved.

The Scotsman reports today that Gilruth was keen to point out the challenges of achieving Sturgeon’s promise given the pandemic and austerity that has intervened since it was made. Anti-poverty policies, absent in 2015, are now a normal part of Scottish schooling, the Education Secretary said. More pupils from poorer backgrounds are leaving school to positive destinations, she says.

But James McEnaney in the Herald (£) points out that the attainment gap has only improved this year if you look at it very narrowly, comparing only with last year. “This year’s levels remain higher than they were pre-pandemic”, he writes. Opposition parties say Strugeon’s vow lies in tatters, reports the Record.

There is now “a notable attainment gap between the Scottish Government’s rhetoric and its results,” notes Kirsteen Paterson, dryly, in Holyrood.

Exams, their results, and their fairness remain a contentious issue, and likely will for years to come. This is the last year the Scottish Qualifications Authority presides over exams: Qualifications Scotland will take over, after a bill was passed in June that also creates a new inspector of education for Scotland. All that comes in direct response to that exam marking scandal during the pandemic.

Critics says all this is just a “superficial rebrand” and wider reform is needed. Either way, those changes and the ongoing row over the attainment gap will mean the next set of results - which will come after the Holyrood elections - will be even more keenly watched. The annual test for Scotland’s education system will return.

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 Thousands of people remain without power after Storm Floris struck on Monday: the lights might not come back on for some until tomorrow. (BBC)

📣 A group of young Scottish racists joined neo-Nazis in Germany for a summer camp to practice combat drills, hear from a notorious far-right leader, and prepare for a “national revolution”. (The Record has the exclusive)

📣 The death of a young boy who fell down an open manhole at a construction site in 2020 could have been avoided, a sheriff has determined. (BBC)

AROUND THE UK

📣 Newly-discovered photographs show Prince Andrew welcomed paedophile banker Jeffrey Epstein to the Royal Box at Ascot, alongside the Queen and Queen Mother. (The Mirror has the exclusive)

• A trove of letters to Epstein from famous figures including Woody Allen and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, written for his 63rd birthday, has been released. (Guardian)

📣 The Charity Commission has criticised Prince Harry for allowing a row at his African charity to play out in public, but has cleared him of racism. The Commission criticised all those involved in the dispute at the Sentebale charity, saying they had “severely impacted the charity’s reputation and risked undermining public trust in charities more generally”. (Guardian)

• Harry’s spokesperson criticised the Commission, saying its report “falls troublingly short”. (Sky News)

• The Commission’s full statement (gov.uk)

📣 Gary Lineker has signed a huge deal with ITV to host a new gameshow that, it’s claimed, is a cross between I’m a Celeb and SAS: Who Dares Wins. (The Sun has the exclusive)

AROUND THE WORLD

🌎 Extraordinary images taken from the air over Gaza show the extent of devastation in the enclave: “a wasteland of rubble, dust and graves,” as the title calls it.

“Seen from the air, Gaza looks like the ruins of an ancient civilisation, brought to light after centuries of darkness,” it reports. “A patchwork of concrete shapes and shattered walls, neighbourhoods scattered with craters, rubble and roads that lead nowhere. The remnants of cities wiped out.” (Guardian)

• The urgent debate in Israel: whether to occupy Gaza (🎁WSJ - gift link)

• UN official warns: expanding the war in Gaza would have “catastrophic consequences” (BBC)

🌎 More than 100 people are missing after flash floods struck in northern India. (BBC)

🌎 Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witcoff is in Moscow today to meet Russian leadership, as the US continues to apply pressure on Russia to sign a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine. (Independent has live coverage)

SPORT

⚽️ Rangers romped to a 3-0 win over Viktoria Pizen in their Champions’ League qualifier at Ibrox last night, with a new hero emerging from the wing. Four-million signing Oliver Antman arrived in the city where Spider-Man is being filmed only hours before his debut, and proceeded to tie his opponents up “in a web of his own,” reports the Record.

• Rangers were “cooking with Gas” as Gassama scored twice and Cyriel Dessers netted from the spot. The win justified some big calls by manager Russell Martin, who left out captain James Tavernier and Nico Raskin. (The Sun)

⚽️ Hibs have signed Scotland international Grant Hanley on a two-year deal: he arrives on a free, after helping Birmingham City to the League One title last season. (Herald)