TODAY’S WEATHER

☁️ A cloudy day in Glasgow until later, while Edinburgh and Aberdeen enjoy a few more sunny intervals. All are expected to be dry. London will be much the same, but a little warmer. (Here’s the UK forecast).

THE BIG STORIES
Trump ups pressure on Israel | Nurse’s character attacked in tribunal | Sturgeon starts book push

📣 Donald Trump has turned up the pressure on Israel, insisting it should allow “every ounce of food” into Gaza, and acknowledging for the first time there is “real starvation” in the enclave. (Guardian)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted yesterday that “there is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza”. But his claims fly in the face of overwhelming evidence from aid agencies, reporting and images from within the enclave. (AP)

• Has Trump broken from Netanyahu over Gaza? (🎙️ Sky News podcast)

• Starmer to hold emergency cabinet meeting on Gaza (BBC)

Trump’s shift in position was set out yesterday in Turnberry, during the US President’s visit to his golf resorts in Scotland, and while meeting Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He made several interventions into UK domestic politics, urging Starmer to cut taxes and tackle illegal immigration, and also warned against Scotland having another independence referendum.

• “I want Scotland to thrive,” says Trump, raising hopes of a deal on whisky tariffs (Scotsman)

• Trump suggests referendums on independence should only happen every 50 or 75 years, saying a country “can’t go through that much”. (STV)

• Kevin McKenna: What will John Swinney say to Donald Trump? The mind boggles. (Herald £)

More reaction on Trump’s visit to Scotland in Ideas, below ⬇️

📣 The character of nurse Sandie Peggie was called into question yesterday, as a former friend accused her of calling a male doctor who identified as a women “it” and “that weirdo”, and another colleague accused her of making racist statements.

Lindsey Nicoll, who became friends with Ms Peggie in 2010, said the veteran nurse would use racial slurs and posted jokes about floods in Pakistan which killed 3,000 people in a group chat. (Scotsman)

• Another nurse, Fiona Wishart, told the tribunal she was “offended” by comments made by Peggie about a mosque being built in Kirkcaldy, with the tribunal being told Peggie had said she had “a good mind to post bacon through the letterbox”. (Herald) (BBC)

• Nicoll was accused of performing “a hatchet job” on Peggie. (Mail)

• Peggie will return to the tribunal to give evidence today, at the request of her legal team.

📣 The pre-publication hype around Nicola Sturgeon’s new book, Frankly, has kicked off, with the former First Minister agreeing to a TV special to be broadcast on Monday August 11, ahead of the book’s release the following Thursday. (Daily Record)

• Sturgeon became emotional as she got her first glimpse of her book, as she opened a box of copies. “Ever since I was a wee girl I have dreamed about writing a book. I have always wondered how it would feel to hold in your own hands a copy of a book you have written,” she said. (Scotsman) (Mail)

• See Sturgeon unbox her book (🎥 Instagram)

IDEAS
Trump in Scotland: The British press reviews the circus as the President rolls into town

🗣️ The British Press, noted John Crace, weren’t in a great mood as they waited for Donald Trump and Keir Starmer to meet in South Ayrshire yesterday. “On the table of the games room in which they had been penned,” he writes, “there were plates of sandwiches and biscuits. Just not for them. They were only for the US press corps. The Brits had to bring a packed lunch.

“Clearly,” concludes Crace, “the special relationship still has a way to go”.

He also noted how “creeped out” Victoria Starmer was by Trump’s praise. “I don’t want to get myself into trouble,” said the President, “but she’s very… she’s a great woman.”

“Her husband might be a master Trump-wrangler, an expert at sycophancy and genuflection, but she wasn’t. She knew that almost no one in the US had heard of her and that’s the way she liked it. So she just tried to suck it up. She longed to get inside, away from the cameras.” (Guardian)

🗣️In Chris Mason’s more sober assessment, Downing Street are “reconciled to the Trumpian ways of doing international affairs,” and all this amounts to “invaluable face time with Trump, even sharing a lift on Air Force One, burnishing a relationship as solid as it is improbable.

“If doing a few airborne laps of the president's new Scottish golf course are par for the course on board the presidential helicopter and en route to a private dinner with him, so be it,” says Mason.

“Downing Street regard the access moments like this offer as invaluable. They are pleased that the president's language on Gaza amounts to what they see as a toughening of his outlook and what they hope might be an alignment with the discussions the UK, France and Germany have been having in recent days. Let's see.” (BBC)

🗣️Stephen Daisley wasn’t impressed by the spectacle of Starmer and Trump, “like one of those couples on a TV matchmaker competition who are so wildly incompatible you just know they’ll end up going on the most awkward date ever.”

The sight of reporters and TV cameras drew in Trump, who immediately vented forth on immigration - “the last one Starmer wanted”. Trump waded in to tell the assembled hacks how migrants had changed Europe.

“‘Europe is a much different place than it was five years, ten years ago,’ he rambled. ‘They’ve got to get their act together. If they don’t, you’re not going to have Europe anymore as you know it. You can’t do that.’

“Truly, this was a historic summit. The first presidential visit to be recorded as a non-crime hate incident.” (Mail)

🗣️Andrew Learmonth could also see the discomfort in the moment, too, however. “The Prime Minister could perhaps have done with being a little less impassive, like when the President called Sadiq Khan a ‘nasty person’,” he wrote. “He’s a friend of mine, actually,” Sir Keir said, though he stayed quiet when the President added that the Labour Mayor of London had done a ‘terrible job’.

Learmonth writes about the experience of joining the Presidential entourage for the day, having managed to win a raffle among Scottish titles to get a spot. You’ll be relieved to hear he managed to nick a snack or two from the US journalists’ supply.

“We learned later that each US media outlet had paid around $20,000 to accompany the President on the trip. […] That was easily the most expensive millionaire’s shortbread I’ve ever pilfered.” (Herald £)

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 A third of secondary schoolboys in Scotland believe girls who wear revealing clothing are “asking for trouble” according to research from the University of Glasgow. The survey also found 24% of boys believed the term “sexual harassment” did not apply if they intended to joke around. (Times £)

📣 Jewish leaders have urged the University of Edinburgh to retain its controversial definition of antisemitism, after it said it was reviewing its stance. The University was urged to shift its view by a report it commissioned into its links with transatlantic slavery and empire. (Guardian)

📣 STV Group, the Scottish-based media company, saw its shares fall by around 25% yesterday after it warned revenues and profit for the year would be “materially below” expectations. (Scotsman)

📣 Another fatal crash on the A96 has claimed the lives of two women, and left a 15-year-old girl seriously injured. It comes after three separate accidents this month claimed two lives and left at least one person seriously injured. (BBC)

📣 Four candidates have been named in the race to become the next co-leaders of the Scottish Greens. Dominic Ashmole, Ross Greer, Gillian Mackay and Lorna Slater have all been nominated. Any combination of the four can be elected. (BBC)

AROUND THE UK & WORLD

📣 A gunman killed four people, including a police officer, during a rampage through midtown Manhattan yesterday evening, before turning the gun on himself. His motives were unclear. (🎁 New York Times - gift link)

📣 Two men were killed in a knife attack in South London, with two other men in hospital. One - who has life-threatening injuries - has been detailed in connection with the incident. (Independent) 

📣 Britain’s biggest retailers are struggling to entice customers in to their stores, as rising food prices put people off. (Guardian)

SPORT

⚽️ Rangers are favourites to sign Tottenham's 17-year-old wonderkid Mikey Moore on loan. The winger is regarded as one of the shining talents of his generation. (Sun)

⚽️ Chris Sutton thinks Celtic still need a left-back, winger and a striker… but it’s not time to panic yet. (Daily Record)

⚽️ England’s women footballers, victorious in the European Championships, were greeted by cheering crowds as they returned home. They travelled to Downing Street for a celebratory reception. (Guardian)

• Jonathan Liew: “Perfect unity” shows how Lionesses triumphed over the odds (Guardian)

• The Lionesses’ legacy will go further than you think (Independent)