TODAY’S WEATHER

☀️ Scotland’s heatwave continues, with a still, hot day in Glasgow where temperatures will reach 27 degrees. Edinburgh and Aberdeen might be a little cooler and have a little more air. London will be top 31 degrees. (Here’s the UK forecast).

THE BIG STORIES
Starmer and Macron strike small boat deal | PM to meet Trump in Scotland | Remembering Glen Michael

📣 People coming to the UK in small boats will be returned to France after what Keir Starmer called a “groundbreaking agreement” with France to reduce the number of people crossing the Channel illegally. Starmer and Emmanuel Macron announced the deal at the end of the French president’s three-day state visit. (Guardian)

• Chris Mason saw “two men under the cosh, behind in the opinion polls and fighting for what they see as the essence of their political creed,” pleading for patience in tackling a complex problem, in the face of populists on both sides of the channel promising quick fixes. (BBC)

• Even as the deal was being signed, more migrants were making their way across the channel in a dinghy, and several complications were placing the whole deal “in peril”. (Mail)

• Mary Dejevsky: A new chapter may have begun for the ‘entente cordiale’ but it won’t do anything to solve the migrant crisis (Independent)

📣 Keir Starmer has accepted an invitation to meet Donald Trump during his expected visit to Scotland later this month. Details have yet to be finalised. (Reuters)

📣 Scots of a certain age have been sharing memories of Glen Michael, the children’s TV star of the 70s, 80s and 90s, who has died aged 99. Michael was most famous for his Cartoon Cavelcade, a staple on Scottish Television for 25 years, but his career was remarkable, starting on stage during the Second World War and, later, including Facebook videos where he spoke up for Age Concern’s anti-loneliness campaigns. (Herald) (Sun) (Age Concern)

• Ben Borland: He was the nicest man in showbiz (Express)

IDEAS
Robert Jenrick’s rebirth | Should we scrap asylum? | Hereditary peers purged | Rise of the hitman on call

🗣️ The New Statesman profiles Robert Jenrick, the man many people think will lead the Conservatives into the next general election. Jenrick, a minister under Boris Johnson and a failed leadership candidate last year, has undergone a metamorphosis - from clerk-like anonymity to unlikely social media star. These days he’s tackling fare dodgers in person and on camera on London Underground, and talking frankly about politically dangerous issues in spiky short videos on TikTok. “Jenrick should not be considered synonymous with the burgeoning online right,” writes Harry Lambert, “but they are finding in him someone to believe in, whether or not he believes in them”.

What, exactly, Jenrick does believe in is something left just out of focus in Lambert’s piece, perhaps deliberately, perhaps because he’s genuinely not clear - or Jenrick himself is hesitant. “It is a mistake to look on him in bewilderment as a formerly ‘full-fat subscriber to David Cameron’ who has since betrayed that cause by straying towards Faragism. The truth is that the party itself is moving: Cameron would not be as liberal today as he was in 2005. ‘A tougher world needs a tougher Tory message,’ as one former cabinet minister put it to me. ‘Circumstances have changed.’”

But what shines through is Jenrick’s newfound confidence and competence, which sits well against the performance of his current boss. (New Statesman £)

🗣️The Economist says it’s time to scrap the asylum system and build something better. “Designed for post-war Europe,” it says in a leader, the system “cannot cope with a world of proliferating conflict, cheap travel and huge wage disparities.

“Voters are right to think the system has been gamed,” it continues. “Most asylum claims in the European Union are now rejected outright. Fear of border chaos has fuelled the rise of populism, from Brexit to Donald Trump, and poisoned the debate about legal migration. (The Economist £)

🗣️Regular readers will know a little of what’s going on in Spain… The Spectator goes deeper on the country’s socialist prime minister Felipe Gonzalez, and paints a grim picture of “the man who’s destroying Spain”.

He is, the magazine says, consolidating his own power ruthlessly, corrupting institutions, rewriting the rules. “Rather than confronting this threat with urgency, the opposition seems to believe if they just wait long enough, power will simply fall into their laps,” writes Rafael BardajI.

“But they underestimate him. Sanchez isn’t Captain Ahab – he’s Moby Dick. He will destroy anyone who tries to bring him down.” (The Spectator £)

🗣️ The Spectator leads with a piece by (Lord) Charles Moore, on the purge of hereditary peers from the House of Lords. What is being lost, he asks? “A group of people who are disinterested, in the proper sense of that word,” he writes. “All have done the state some service, yet now they are to be collectively attainted.” (The Spectator £)

🗣️Grim news from South Africa: having inconvenient people bumped off is becoming a disturbingly common way to solve a problem. “What began as a way to settle drug disputes or turf wars between gangs has become a service industry with a varied customer base. Targets range from teachers to civil servants and politicians.” (The Economist £)

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 Green Party MSP Ross Greer has promised to “take on the super rich” as he launched his campaign for the party’s co-leadership. He also proposed free bus travel for everyone in Scotland. (Scotsman)

📣 Matt Forde reckons Joanna Cherry is “the best leader the SNP never had”, “someone who is in tune with public opinion” on what he described as a “whole range of social issues”. He was speaking ahead of a run of Edinburgh Fringe shows, including one where he’ll be interviewing the former MP. (The Herald has the exclusive)

📣 Seven Scottish football clubs have now been given permission to sell alcohol to supporters at games as part of a trial scheme. Ayr United were first to get the nod: they’ll be joined by Stirling Albion, Partick Thistle, and four other clubs, as-yet unnamed. (STV)

📣 Staff at Glasgow Airport will go on strike on 24 July, they have announced, after rejecting a 4% pay offer. (Herald)

AROUND THE UK

📣 Three teenagers and a young woman have been arrested as part of an investigation into cyberattacks targeting Marks & Spencer, Co-op, and Harrods. The National Crime Agency (NCA) said four people were arrested on suspicion of blackmail, money laundering, offences linked to the Computer Misuse Act and participating in the activities of an organised crime group. (Independent)

📣 The new leader of the British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, says the 29% pay claim of English and Welsh resident doctors is non-negotiable, reasonable, and easily affordable for the NHS. (Guardian)

• Lord Robert Winston, the IVF pioneer, has resigned from the BMA over the planned strikes. (BBC)

📣 Doctors are being urged to stop issuing sick notes to sign people off work, and instead prescribe trips to the gym or job coaches. (Times £)

📣 Gregg Wallace, the TV presenter, was sacked by the BBC because managers didn’t believe he was capable of changing his inappropriate behaviour. Wallace has admitted using inappropriate language and apologised, but claimed earlier this week to have been cleared of “the most serious and sensational accusations made against me”. (Guardian)

📣 Students are happiest at small and remote universities, research has found. St Andrews comes third in the national survey of student satisfaction, according to the Times’ analysis of the data. (Times £) (Office for Students)

AROUND THE WORLD

🌎 At least 15 people, including 10 children, were killed by an Israeli strike yesterday morning as they queued outside a medical point in central Gaza, according to an organisation working there. The deaths have come amid intensifying Israeli attacks that have killed 82 people. (Guardian)

🌎 Donald Trump has threatened 35% tariffs on Canada, throwing a spanner in the works of intensifying trade talks between the US and its northern neighbour which face a deadline only days away. (BBC)

🌎 Six agents have been suspended by the U.S. Secret Service for failures connected to last year's attempted assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. (ABC News)

SPORT

🎾 Wimbledon hosts a mouth-watering men’s semi-final today between world number one Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic, although both men are nursing injuries from earlier in the week. Sinner has said he’ll be “100% fit”. (BBC)

• Djokovic spoke for everyone over a certain age when he told press after his quarter-final win: “Obviously, my body is not the same today as it was before […] We'll see.” (Marca)

⚽️ It looks like Jack Butland’s goalie gloves are on a shaky peg at Ibrox: Rangers are said to be looking for a new first-choice goalkeeper. (Sun)

🏉 Fergus Burke is ready for his Scotland debut as Gregor Townsend prepares for Saturday’s game against Fiji. (The Offside Line)