Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Isla and Eilidh Noble praised by emergency services after coming to aid of struggling pair
Two teenage sisters who used a lilo to rescue a man and his young son when they got into difficulty off the north-east coast of Scotland “deserve medals”, according to the emergency services.
Isla and Eilidh Noble were on the beach at the Waters of Philorth, near Fraserburgh, on Monday afternoon when they heard shouting. At first they thought the man was playing with his child, who was on his shoulders as he swam in deep water, but quickly realised he was out of his depth and in trouble.
Police say boy died on Saturday night, a week after coming into contact with power lines
A boy injured when he came into contact with overhead power lines on a railway track a week ago has died.
The 12-year-old was being treated for severe electric shock after the incident in Glasgow last Sunday. He died in hospital on Saturday night, British Transport Police (BTP) said.
Gambian woman, 46, has no access to possessions after being evicted without notice
An asylum seeker with an active case has been locked out of her Home Office accommodation in west London by a government contractor who told her: “When you’re asked to leave this country you have to leave.”
The woman, 46, who fled her country in west Africa after refusing to perform FGM on young girls, has an active asylum claim. She said her life will be at risk if she is forced to return to Gambia where FGM is prevalent because she defied her community by opposing the practice.
Labour leader opposes UK breakup but says not parliament’s place to bar independence vote
Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed he believes Westminster should not block a second referendum on Scottish independence, but said he opposed the breakup of the UK.
Artists ask to be paid in euros and dollars as pound continues to fall amid no-deal risk
Increasing numbers of artists are asking to be paid in dollars and euros instead of sterling because of Brexit uncertainty, the director of the Edinburgh international festival has said.
The three-week arts festival opened on Friday and includes 293 performances by 2,600 artists from 40 countries. Speaking during its opening weekend, Fergus Linehan, who has been its director since 2015, said many performers had refused to be paid in sterling.
PM set out to prove his pledge to the ‘awesome foursome’ but not everything went to plan
Boris Johnson pledged his commitment to the “awesome foursome” of the UK when he was elected Conservative leader, and has since embarked on a whistlestop tour taking in the north of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. But how successful were the trips? Visits that involved keeping the prime minister away from booing protesters and, in some cases, journalists? Have they allayed fears that Johnson’s hardline Brexit strategy and the continuation of the union could be mutually exclusive?
Scotland’s first minister criticises Boris Johnson’s ‘hardline position’ on Brexit
Boris Johnson has been accused by Nicola Sturgeon of intentionally pushing the UK towards a no-deal Brexit, despite his “bluff and bluster” about wanting an agreement with EU leaders.
After meeting Johnson face-to-face in Edinburgh, the Scottish first minister said she believed he was pursuing a “dangerous” hardline strategy with EU leaders, with the likely outcome of no-deal Brexit.
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon says that she will press Boris Johnson on the damage that a no deal Brexit will do to the Scottish economy, when she meets the prime minister later this afternoon.
Speaking ahead of the first face-to-face meeting between the first minister and the new prime minister, Sturgeon said:
The people of Scotland did not vote for this Tory government, they didn’t vote for this new prime minister, they didn’t vote for Brexit and they certainly didn’t vote for a catastrophic no-deal Brexit which Boris Johnson is now planning for.
Boris Johnson has formed a hard-line Tory government with one aim – to take Scotland and the UK out of the EU without a deal.
I’m just back from the Number 10 lobby briefing. Mostly it was a routine affair, that did not shed a lot of new light on what the administration is up to, but the prime minister’s spokeswoman did have at least one mini story for the hacks.
Met Office issues yellow warning for Scotland before sunshine breaks through later in week
Britain will experience a brief heatwave this week, but not before a storm brings torrential rain and strong gales to some areas.
The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for western parts of Scotland on Sunday and Monday, with thunderstorms, heavy rain and a risk of flooding. Rain and strong winds were also forecast to hit parts of Northern Ireland, north-west England and Wales on Sunday.
City document of 1505 may be first record of a still for making aquavite to drink rather than use in gunpowder
Aberdeen could have been the site of the first whisky still, according to researchers who have uncovered a reference from 1505 mentioning apparatus in the city for making aquavite or “water of life”, as it was known in Middle Scots.
The discovery – locating the still 85 miles north of mediaeval abbey ruins where some believe the spirit was first produced – was made during a digitisation project involving the city’s municipal registers.
Twenty seven per cent rise to 1,187 deaths puts country on par with US in terms of per capita fatalities
Scotland’s drug-related death toll has increased by 27% over the past year to reach a record high of 1,187, putting the country on a par in terms of the fatality rate per capita with the United States, where synthetic opioids like fentanyl have devastated drug-using populations.
The death rate is now more than three times that of England and Wales, and has more than doubled since 2008, when there were 574 deaths.
Victorian women who were prevented from qualifying as doctors are finally recognised
Seven women who were among the first females to be admitted to a British university have been awarded posthumous degrees 150 years after they started their studies.
The group, known collectively as the Edinburgh Seven, enrolled to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869. But they faced substantial resistance from their male peers and were ultimately prevented from graduating and qualifying as doctors.
Agency wants to remove golf course area from Forevan Links site of special scientific interest
The spectacular sand dunes at Donald Trump’s golf course in Aberdeenshire are expected to be stripped of their special conservation status.
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), a government conservation agency, has recommended that the dunes lose their designation as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) because they have been “partially destroyed” by the course.
Here is more on Nicola Sturgeon from my colleague Severin Carrell.
@NicolaSturgeon says @BorisJohnson asked her recently (paraphrasing) “So Nicola: full fiscal autonomy. Does that buy you guys off?” “I’m going to make that the starting point of our negotiations should he become prime minister” @reformscotland#devo20
Nicola Sturgeon has said that Boris Johnson’s “almost certain” election as the next Conservative leader has proven how sharply Scotland is now diverging from the rest of the UK, increasing the case for independence.
In a speech to mark 20 years since devolution, the first minister said Johnson’s apparent relish for a no-deal Brexit, and his “gratuitously offensive” opinions about women and minorities are in stark contrast to Scotland’s open, diverse and tolerant politics.
It is surely deeply concerning that the Conservative party is even contemplating putting into the office of prime minister someone whose tenure as foreign secretary was risible, lacking in any seriousness of purpose or basic competence and who, over the years, has gratuitously offended so many, from gay people, to Africans, Muslim women and many others.
But while that, for now, is a matter for the Tories it does further illustrate the different political trajectories of Scotland and other parts of the UK. And it raises the more fundamental question of whether the UK and therefore devolution, in its current form is capable of accommodating those differences.
Lib Peck insists tactics are succeeding despite Londoners ‘feeling powerless’ over crime
The head of London’s newly formed violence reduction unit has said Londoners feel powerless about levels of street crime but insisted that increased use of stop and search powers had been successful.
Lib Peck, the former leader of Lambeth council who was appointed to the role in January, made the comments while on a two-day fact-finding trip to Glasgow, visiting some of the Scottish unit’s key projects and meeting senior officials.
Readers respond to Larry Elliott’s stance on the republican cause in Britain and debate the possibility of radical change
I was a little surprised by Larry Elliott’s suggestion that the republican movement has rarely been weaker (How the House of Windsor saw off British republicanism, 13 June). In his analysis he ignores opinion polling, which shows no growth in support for the monarchy, and he ignores the perilous and imminent succession of King Charles.
A YouGov poll commissioned by Republic at the time of Prince Harry’s wedding last year showed widespread indifference to the royals. As expected, a clear majority (60%) said they liked the Queen, but only a third said they liked her “a great deal”. Meanwhile, only 37% wanted Charles to succeed the Queen; 46% said they would prefer “someone else”.
Missing walrus tusk warrior was purchased in Edinburgh and stored in a drawer
A small walrus tusk warrior figure bought for £5 in 1964 – which, for years, was stored in a household drawer – is a missing piece from one of the true wonders of the medieval world, it has been revealed.
The Lewis chessmen were found in 1831 in the Outer Hebrides and became beloved museum collections in London and Edinburgh. They have also become well known in popular culture from Noggin the Nog to Harry Potter.
First female Omani novelist to be translated into English shares £50,000 prize with translator Marilyn Booth – the first time an Arabic book has won
Jokha Alharthi, the first female Omani novelist to be translated into English, has won the Man Booker International prize for her novel Celestial Bodies.
Alharthi, the £50,000 award’s first winner to write in Arabic, shares the prize equally with her translator, American academic Marilyn Booth. Celestial Bodies is set in the Omani village of al-Awafi and follows the stories of three sisters: Mayya, who marries into a rich family after a heartbreak; Asma, who marries for duty; and Khawla, waiting for a man who has emigrated to Canada.