TODAY’S WEATHER

☁️ It’ll be a largely dry, if somewhat overcast, day for Glasgow and Edinburgh, but rain in Aberdeen could disrupt any planned presidential rounds of golf. London will be dry too. (Here’s the UK forecast).

THE BIG STORIES
EU and US seal trade deal at Turnberry | University’s racist past exposed | Joy for England’s lionesses

📣 US President Donald Trump sealed a trade deal with Europe while holding court in his Ayrshire golf resort yesterday, setting a 15% tariff on most goods and averting a trade war - and potential global economic shock. (🎁 Bloomberg - gift link) (Guardian)

Hundreds of people, meanwhile, protested at Trump’s presence in Scotland. (CNN)

• What do you talk about with a President who’s on a golfing mini-break? Keir Starmer arrives at Trump’s Ayrshire resort today (they’ll go to Aberdeenshire later) with quite the agenda: the Guardian and Times thinks Gaza will be top, although even getting that on the list would have been tricky - the White House just doesn’t see it as a priority. (Guardian) (Times £)

• Politico’s laundry list of items for Starmer to raise doesn’t even mention the Middle East: they think he’ll prefer to talk about the remaining US tariffs on the UK, support for Ukraine and shoring up NATO. (Politico)

• Starmer is hoping the talks don’t involve a quick round of golf: he doesn’t play, and it’s “not something you can pick up in a weekend”, a source close to the PM told the Independent. (Independent)

• First Minister John Swinney will also meet Trump today, and plans to raise Gaza too. His announcement of £180,000 of taxpayer cash to support a golf tournament at Trump’s Aberdeenshire resort has drawn some ire. Liz Lloyd, former chief of staff to Nicola Sturgeon, called the announcement “clumsy”. (Scotsman)

📣 The University of Edinburgh played an “outsized” role in the creation of racist scientific theories and profited from transatlantic slavery, according to a report. Edinburgh became a “haven” for professors who developed theories of white supremacism in the 18th and 19th centuries, playing a key role in racist pseudosciences that placed Africans at the bottom of a racial hierarchy.

Sir Peter Mathieson, the university’s principal, who commissioned the investigation, said its findings were “hard to read” but that Edinburgh could not have a “selective memory” about its history and achievements. (Guardian)

• Key historic figures in Edinburgh University’s slavery and colonialism include some of its most celebrated professors and graduates. (Guardian)

📣 It was, says Jonathan Liew, “one of the most magnificent heists in the history of English sport”: England’s women were crowned queens of European football again, defending their crown despite a string of mishaps along the way.

“And in so doing,” writes Liew, “Sarina Wiegman’s side have secured what no other football team from these islands have managed to secure: a dynasty. An enduring record of excellence, a reputation for guts and grace under pressure that will sustain English football for generations to come.” (The Guardian)

Epitomising England’s grit, defender Lucy Bronze revealed after the game that she’d played the entire tournament with a fractured tibia, before injuring a knee in the final. (BBC)

• England won the trophy after coming back from a goal down, and then winning a nail-biting penalty shootout. (🎥 HIghlights & match report)

• Prince William and his daughter, Princess Charlotte, were at St Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland: the Royals led tributes for an “awesome” win (BBC)

• The champions will enjoy a royal reception and victory parade through London tomorrow. (Mail)

• Goalkeeper Hannah Hampton’s story is remarkable: born with crossed eyes, she struggled to pour a glass of water and was advised to avoid sport. Now, she’s a European champion. (Mail)

IDEAS
Five ideas from the weekend: from mortality to changing the weather, via digital nomads and Gaza

🗣️Former Scottish bishop Richard Holloway, now 91, has written what he says is his last book, which offers a peg for a fascinating conversation with Neil Mackay. He is, writes, Mackay, “furious at the thought of heaven. The mere notion of an afterlife disgusts him, confounds him, terrorises him. When Holloway dies, he wants the blank quietude of nothingness. No gods, no angels, no life everlasting.”

It is, writes Mackay, “a rather surprising position for the former head – or primus – of the Scottish Episcopal Church, one of the leading clerical positions in the land. But then everything about Holloway is contradictory.” Exploring those contradictions makes for a terrific long read. (Herald £)

🗣️ Selfish, self-interested voices are destroying Britain, claims Matthew Syed. From striking junior doctors to pensioners who don’t want to give up their triple-locked pensions, “creative evasion” is all around, he says.

“We all know we are in decline. Newspaper columnists compete to present ever more apocalyptic characterisations,” he says. “But all too often we flatter the prejudices of our readers, colluding in the pretence that the root cause of decline is other people, other demographics, perhaps even readers of other newspapers. It is toxic and, in its way, deeply unpatriotic.” (The Times £)

🗣️It’s time to recognise Palestine, says Labour MP Stella Creasy, claiming more than 220 MPs feel the same way. “Recognition – something many of us voted for in the UK parliament in 2014 – is not a silver bullet,” she writes. But “joining President Macron’s call for action is about shifting the paralysis that has befallen the international community.

“It also moves the discussion to: what next? Getting aid and food to a population on its knees must be the priority – whether by air, sea or land. So, too, must be strengthening those voices in both nations standing up to their leaderships.” (Observer)

• Dani Garavelli: What does it take for a genocide to reach a “tipping point”? (Herald £)

🗣️Large numbers of “digital nomads” have flocked from around the world to Lisbon, Portugal, to set up home in the city and benefit from the warm climes, laid-back lifestyle and generous tax breaks. But at least one - Alex Holder, writing in the Guardian - feels bad about her guilded lifestyle.

“For a time,” she writes, “there seemed no downside to this decision” to leave hectic London. “We strode the blue-tiled calçadas of Lisbon believing that in this sun-soaked city we could be anything,” she says.

“Yet, over the past two years something has been stirring inside me, but also on the trams rattling past my window. A widening wealth gap. A political shift. A quiet awareness that the wealthiest residents are often the ones contributing the least.” (Guardian)

🗣️ You may have thought the memes you see on social media about establishment attempts to alter the weather were conspiracy theories from tin hat enthusiasts. Well, at least some of them might have had a point. A huge, multi-million-dollar effort by a team of scientists to surreptitiously change the weather has been uncovered. (Politico)

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 A Scottish museums body has claimed some museums may have to close because of interim guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission over single sex toilet facilities. (Herald)

• The claim has been disputed, with Scottish Tories suggesting the body is attempting to dodge complying with the Supreme Court’s ruling on biological sex. (Sun)

📣 Easyjet passengers teamed up to tackle a man on a Glasgow-bound flight who allegedly shouted that he “had a bomb” and wanted to “send a message” to Donald Trump. (Sun)

📣 A report has suggested later-running public transport could help ease Edinburgh’s accommodation crisis during the city’s festival season. (Scotsman has the exclusive)

AROUND THE UK & WORLD

🌎 Aid packages are being parachuted into Gaza after Israel said it would halt its military operations in the enclave each day for 10 hours, and allow new land-based aid corridors into the strip. There has been mounting concern about a growing and deadly humanitarian crisis in Gaza. (Independent)

🌎 Hundreds of rescue workers have been toiling through the night after a train derailed in Germany, killing at least three people. Pictures show tangled wreckage in a heavily forested area of southwestern Germany. (DW)

🌎 Google has admitted its early warning system failed to tell millions of people about the deadly earthquake that struck Turkey, killing more than 55,000 people in 2023. (BBC)

🌎 Wildfires are raging across Greece with fires striking suburbs of Athens, as pemperatures reach as high as 44 degrees. (Times £) (Sky News)

🌎 A disgruntled bishop in a dressing gown halted a church concert in London and told singers to stop their “terrible racket”. Jonathan Parker, the bishop of Fulham, drew boos from a 300-strong audience after he appeared towards the end of the performance at St Andrew’s Church, Holborn. (Sky News)

SPORT

🚴‍♀️ Cyclist Oscar Onley equalled the best-ever finish by a Scottish rider in the Tour de France, finishing fourth in what he called “a huge moment in my career”. (BBC)

• Onley is Britain’s most exciting stage-racing prospect in decades (🎁Telegraph - gift link)

• “At the end of the day, however, whilst he did not lose, he also did not win” (Cycling News)

⚽️ A group of Scottish football supporters’ groups has demanded better supporter engagement and management, rather than prohibition, of pyrotechnics at grounds. The Scottish Supporters Collective, comprising members of 16 active supporters’ groups, delivered the demands to Hampden yesterday. (Herald)

⚽️ Rangers have had a £5 million offer accepted for Finnish international Oliver Antman. (Record)