TODAY’S WEATHER

☔️ It’ll be another wet day in Glasgow with conditions only marginally better in Edinburgh. Aberdeen should be a little better, drying off by mid-afternoon, while London will be sunny and warm all day. (Here’s the UK forecast).

THE BIG STORIES
Kyiv in flames after Russian attack | Strikes threat to Scottish holidaymakers | Robertson mourns his friend, Jota

📣 There are fires across Kyiv this morning after a massive overnight drone attack which damaged apartment buildings, railways, schools and a medical facility, as well as cars and other buildings. Early reports suggest it was a further escalation in Russian attacks, which have worsened in recent weeks. (Guardian)

• “Nothing but terror and murder” - Kyiv Independent

• Russia targeting draft offices to derail recruitment (Reuters)

📣 Holidaymakers could have their plans disrupted as hundreds of workers at Glasgow airport prepare for strike action this summer. Around 450 staff are ready to walk out over an unresolved dispute on pay and working conditions, with support staff, engineers and managers all involved. (Daily Record)

📣 “The ones I’m thinking about most right now are his family”. Liverpool and Scotland player Andy Robertson, always an articulate man, caught the shock of many at the tragic death of his teammate, Diogo Jota, in a car crash yesterday.

Writing on Instagram, Robertson said the last time he’d seen "the bloke I loved and will miss like crazy” was “the happiest day of his life – his wedding day. I want to remember his never-ceasing smile from that magical day. How much he was bursting with love for his wife and family.

“I can’t believe we’re saying goodbye. It’s too soon, and it hurts so much.” (Instagram)

• An unspeakable tragedy (Mail)

• Tears as fans mourn Jota at Anfield (BBC)

IDEAS
China starts to build a vast digital ocean | Mourning the Royal train | What to do about Glastonbury

Neil’s note: We’ve had a lot of politics this week. Now, however, I suspect we’ve all had enough. Thus, this week’s review of the news magazines takes in the good things they contain which have nothing to do with “Starmer must” that, or “Tearful Reeves must” this. I trust you’ll approve, but do feed back by hitting reply, as ever.

🗣️China continues to make dystopian visions of the future real: alongside its extraordinary new cities in the physical realm, now a vast digital ocean is starting to form in the virtual world.

China’s internet users already churn out more data than anyone else on Earth, says the Economist: China now wants to centralise control of all that information, beginning with a digital ID - being launched next week - which will see a central ledger built to house data on every person’s digital activity.

Companies can then use that data… but they’ll only see anonymised information, potentially making the really sensitive stuff less easy for hackers to access. But it will also become a lot simpler for the state to build a panopticon for its own use.

While China has, to now, been a “fast follower” of Western innovations, it’s not hard to imagine the tables being turned before long. Could we all end up facing sweeping digital surveillance as the price for national competitiveness? (Economist £)

🗣️ First, the Royal yacht. Now, the Royal train. In the Spectator, Michael Gove manages the ultimate flex - a piece recalling his time on board - while mourning the decision to cancel it. “Defiantly unmodernised,” he writes, “its decor owes more to Seventies Ventnor than Silicon Valley. It is like the royal family – understated, comfortable, traditional, gently hierarchical and thoroughly reliable.”

The decision to cancel, he laments, “was announced by the Keeper of the Privy Purse, James Chalmers. Mr Chalmers brings to the Royal Household all the romance and lyricism you’d expect of a chartered accountant who spent 39 years at PwC, including time as something called a Global Assurance Leader. […] This is not so much letting daylight in upon magic as strangling it with a spreadsheet. It is a tragedy.” (The Spectator £)

🗣️We should stop taking Glastonbury so seriously, says Finn McRedmond, who was there last weekend. “Parsing the 210,000-strong crowd at the festival is a process of subtle distinction, such as: who is 35 and who is 38?” writes McRedmond. “Do they work at Deloitte or at a respectable grade in the civil service?

“Glastonbury in 2025 is where the professional class come to listen to Busta Rhymes […] and pretend the culture hasn’t left them behind. Even though of course it has.”

The politics and the outrage, like the site itself, is all entirely temporary: where powerless middle managers come to rage against the machine, before going home to rejoin it on Monday. (New Statesman £)

🗣️The Shipping Forecast is 100 years old, its nightly clockwise circuit of the nation interrupted only by war and pandemic. And, although it’s rendered increasingly redundant by technology (sailors get their weather online these days, like the rest of us) it is, reflects the Economist, a lyrical, uncontroversial and much-loved national treasure.

They’ll never get rid of it, will they? (Economist £)

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 The troubled state-owned Ferguson Marine shipyard remains a mess, the Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit Committee says in a report. They express concerns about governance and financial management issues, note the uncertainty around the yard’s long-term sustainability, and call for further investment to secure its future. (BBC) (Holyrood) (Read the MSPs’ report)

📣 Scotland’s economic health has been harmed by Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, according to the Fraser of Allander Institute. (Scotsman) (Fraser of Allander Institute)

📣 The King enjoyed a whisky yesterday as he visited Campbeltown, continuing his Holyrood Week. (Mail)

AROUND THE UK

📣 The government offered up a carefully choreographed public display of unity yesterday, after Rachel Reeves’ tears in parliament on Wednesday.

Rachel Reeves made an unscheduled appearance alongside Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister embracing his Chancellor before praising her for doing a “fantastic” job. “People saw I was upset,” said Reeves, “but that was yesterday. Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job”. (BBC) (The Times £)

• John Crace’s sketch: SMILE! It’s just a normal day for Labour’s happy family (Guardian)

📣 Health secretary Wes Streeting is staking the future of the English NHS on a digital overhaul, in which a beefed-up NHS mobile phone app allows the service to reduce the number of staff on the front line by giving users the ability to self-refer, book appointments and see medical records. (Guardian).

📣 MP Zarah Sultana, suspended from Labour last year, has announced she’s resigning from the party and will “co-lead the founding of a new party” with Jeremy Corbyn. But the Guardian reports the announcement’s timing and content had not been agreed, and Corbyn has yet to confirm his involvement. (Guardian) (BBC)

📣 Noel Gallagher says Oasis are “sounding huge” as they prepare for the start of their reunion tour, which kicks off at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff tonight. “This is is, there’s no going back now,” he said. (BBC)

AROUND THE WORLD

🌎 US President Donald Trump pushed his sweeping tax and spend bill through yesterday, just in time for his July 4 deadline. But doubts remain about its ability to drive economic growth, and the debt it will rack up. (Semafor)

• What’s in Trump’s big bill? (AP)

🌎 Israeli airstrikes and shootings killed 94 Palestinians in Gaza in the early hours of yesterday, including 45 people who were attempting to get humanitarian aid. One strike hit a tent camp for displaced people: at least 13 people from one family were killed, including six children under 12. (AP)

🌎 Elon Musk has called for the release of unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files, weeks after accusing Donald Trump of appearing in them. (Independent)

SPORT

🏉 Blair Kinghorn and Ben White will make their British & Irish Lions debut tomorrow morning against New South Wales Waratahs. (The Offside Line)

🏉 Gregor Townsend has picked an unfamiliar starting XV for Scotland’s tour opener against the Māori All Blacks early tomorrow morning. (Scotsman)

⚽️ Michael Grant offers an affectionate send-off to Ann Budge, who is stepping down from her role as Hearts chairwoman later this year. It will, he writes, “close a remarkable chapter in the club’s history”.

“From fellow supporters there will be eternal gratitude to her for making Hearts fan-owned,” he writes. “The 77-year-old was part benign granny, part Mrs Thatcher, and 100 per cent the right person at the right time to save Hearts from ruin. She combined a gentle, soft-spoken demeanour with firm control, conviction and a formidable strength of mind.” (The Times £)

• James Penrice, Hearts’ player of the season last year, was running out for Livingston a year ago. Now he’s poised to head to Greece in a £2 million deal. (Daily Record)

⚽️ Celtic star Nicolas Kuhn is on his way to Italian Serie A side Como in a £17 million deal - a tidy profit for the Glasgow side, but a big loss on the pitch. (Sun)