TODAY’S WEATHER

🌨️ The weather is, alas, one of the stories of the day. There are weather warnings covering much of the country, with an amber warning for wind for all points north of the Scottish Borders from 10am. Rain and high winds expected for Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen all day. London is clear of warnings but with rain and higher winds, too. (Here’s the UK forecast).

THE BIG STORIES
Storm Floris roars in: warnings to stay at home | Aid seekers killed in Gaza as minister goes to pray

📣 We’re going to see some nasty weather today: much of Scotland is being warned to plan ahead and avoid travel as Storm Floris roars in and batters the country with 85 mph winds, and rain. An amber warning - upgraded yesterday - has been applied to most of Scotland, meaning the storm “could significantly impact people, property and activity in an area.”

Ferry companies are warning of disruption, with a number of Cal Mac services cancelled for the day, or warning of disruption. ScotRail is planning to curtail services, and some events at the Edinburgh Festivals have been cancelled too. (BBC)

• Batten down the hatches! People urged to stay indoors (STV) (Mail)

• Live coverage (Daily Record)

• ScotRail service map (ScotRail) | Caledonian MacBrayne status (CalMac)

• Tonight’s Edinburgh Tattoo has been cancelled (The Scotsman)

• It’s bad news for Spider-Man filming in Glasgow, too (The Sun)

📣 Hospitals in Gaza said that 33 more aid-seekers were killed by Israeli fire on Sunday, as a far-right Israeli minister went to pray at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site on Sunday. That move triggered condemnation across the region, and sparked fears of a further escalation in tensions. (AP) (Guardian)

• Western leaders have condemned videos of emaciated Israeli hostages filmed by their captors in Gaza. (BBC)

FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED OVER THE WEEKEND
Car finance payouts due, a bad deal for Europe, Fred is shredded, ScotRail won’t roll with it, kit costs

🗣️The Supreme Court might have said no to an earlier ruling that would have led to a huge car finance mis-selling compensation scheme… but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any compensation at all. The Financial Services Authority still plans to consult on a compensation scheme that could cost lenders between £9 billion and £18 billion (rather than the previous £40 billion). They also plan to make sure the scheme is “fair and easy to participate in” - meaning you don’t have to use one of those ubiquitous claims management companies, or a lawyer, to get the money you’re due. Payouts would be expected to be less than £950 per claim, each. (The Guardian)

🗣️Speaking of bad deals… Ursula von der Leyen was careful not to hail the EU’s trade deal with the US, formally agreed at Turnberry last week, as a huge win. But the considered verdicts rolled in over the weekend, and the reviews were far from good.

Bloomberg guest essayist Simon Nixon notes “the best that can be said for the EU-US trade deal agreed on Sunday — at least from a European perspective — is that it could have been a lot worse.” And it’s easy enough to imagine the Cheshire-cat look on former Boris Johnson aide Dominic Cummings, who gloated on X: “Thanks to Brexit we’re outside this humiliating disaster for the EU and the many more to come.”

Just how bad is the deal? “When the UK agreed to a 10% tariff,” writes Nixon (a Europhile, it should be noted), “Brussels insisted it would never accept such humiliating terms. Now the EU has failed to negotiate even this.

“Goldman Sachs says the hit to the eurozone economy from the deal will be around 0.4 percentage points of GDP by the end of 2026. But more importantly, the deal marks a watershed in US-EU relations that is likely to have consequences that reverberate long after the tariffs have come into effect.” (Bloomberg - gift link)

🗣️Make it Happen is one of this year’s most anticipated Edinburgh International Festival shows. Starring Brian Cox, it dramatises the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland during the financial crisis. For Jonathan Brocklebank in the Mail, a public flogging of former boss Fred Goodwin: “Two hours and 40 minutes of metaphorical thwacks to the bare bottom of Britain’s most odious banker.” He loves it. “Did we onlookers have the stomach for it? Hell yes. Was there amusement to be had in an early retiree’s humiliation before an audience of his hometown peers? We laughed like drains. When it was over, there was a standing ovation. People left the auditorium smiling, brutal satisfaction delivered. That Goodwin fellow? He had it coming.”

The Times and the Guardian are cooler on the production, but Joyce McMillan finds the second half “memorable” for The Scotsman. (Mail) (Times £) (Guardian) (Scotsman)

🗣️ ScotRail, meanwhile, asked if Oasis wouldn’t mind curtailing their shows at Murrayfield later this week… because they didn’t want to run lots of late trains, it’s claimed. According to documents released under Freedom of Information rules, the gig’s promoters, DF Concerts and Murrayfield Stadium, threw out the request as “any changes could/would likely impact on an artists’ willingness to perform.” Or, as the Scottish Conservatives’ transport spokeswoman Sue Webber put it: “I pity the lackey who had to ask the Gallaghers if they wouldn’t mind cutting short their set because the SNP can’t run a train service.”

It’s not known just how many trains will be run, or how late they’ll go. Scottish authorities haven’t basked in glory while planning for the concerts, which have already taken in Cardiff, Manchester and London, and arrive in Edinburgh on Friday. The band’s fans were been branded “drunk”, “lairy”, “fat” and “old” in safety briefing documents put together as part of preparations for the gigs. (The Scotsman)

🗣️The breathtaking cost of replica football tops makes for a straightforward bit of silly season outrage at the start of every season, and so it is this year. In Scotland, Kilmarnock - perhaps surprisingly - top the charts with no fewer than six first-team tops available for sale. To buy them all would cost £310. Champions Celtic have the most expensive single top, at £120 for the “authentic” version, as worn by the first team players. Prices for the shirts are up across the Scottish Premier League. (The Sun)

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 There are concerns surrounding the Scottish Government’s £17.6 million purchase of the Glen Prosen sporting estate three years ago, which critics claim was made without a plan for its future use in place. (The Herald £ has the exclusive)

📣 Campaigners want Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC to step back from Operation Koper, the investigation into thousands of potentially avoidable Covid deaths, as they claim the Scottish Government - of which Bain is a minister - should face charges of corporate manslaughter. (The Express has the exclusive)

📣 There are 73 senior Scottish civil servants earning more than £100,000 a year, with the size of the service - and number of senior managers - growing sharply in recent years. (Mail)

AROUND THE UK & WORLD

📣 We are in a global “plastics crisis” which is causing disease and death from infancy to old age, and is responsible for at least $1.5 trillion in health-related damages, claims a new report. Plastic production has surged by more than 200-fold since 1950, and will triple again by 2060. (Guardian)

📣 Flares were thrown and an arrest made during a demonstration outside a hotel used to accommodate asylum seekers in Canary Wharf, London.

📣 Music channel MTV, long losing out to streamed music, has quietly cut all its UK production. UK viewers will now see only imported US shows, and music videos. It’s the end of an era, say aficionados. (The Sun)

SPORT

⚽️ Celtic left it late against St Mirren yesterday, as the Champions laboured on the opening day of the season. Still, they got their winner with minutes to go, and open up an immediate two-point lead over Rangers, who drew against Motherwell on Saturday. (The Sun)

⚽️ Russell Martin made headlines by getting stuck into his players after that disappointing first league game under his management. He offered some thinly-veiled digs at some of his biggest stars - Mark Atkinson decodes what it all means, and who it was really aimed at. (The Scotsman)

⚽️ Hearts play Aberdeen in their season-opener tonight. New Jambos investor Tony Bloom spoke at a fan event last night and was in bullish form. “I think it’s really important for Scottish football that it’s not just a one or two-club show - and it’s not going to be from now on,” he told fans. We’ll see tonight. (The Scotsman)