Investigating Gaza aid site deaths and cost of Afghan resettlement plan
Date: 09:38 BST
Title: Welcome
Content: Matt MurphyBBC Verify senior journalist
Good morning from BBC Verify Live.
It's a busy morning here. Our fact-checkers, data journalists and verification specialists are working on these stories today:
All that to come, and later our fact-check team will be gearing up for Prime Minister's Questions, where Sir Keir Starmer will be grilled by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch in the final clash before summer recess.
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Palestine protest shuts down city centre road
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'Get your act together': Bullish Donald Trump touches down in Scotland to inaugurate his new golf course and immediately warns Europe it 'won't exist' unless it cracks down on immigration
President Donald Trump said Europe 'better get your act together' on immigration, US President Donald Trump said as he landed in Scotland. Mr Trump landed in the country earlier today for a four-day visit to both of his golf clubs in Aberdeen and Ayrshire. Jetting in at around 8.30pm, the president was greeted by Scottish Secretary Ian Murray before speaking to reporters. Asked about illegal immigration - which successive UK governments have sought to curb - Mr Trump said: 'On immigration, you better get your act together. You're not going to have Europe anymore, you've got to get your act together. 'As you know, last month we had nobody entering our country - nobody, (we) shut it down.' He added: 'You've got to stop this horrible invasion that's happening to Europe' add that immigration was 'killing Europe'. Some European leaders, he continued, 'have not let it happen' and are 'not getting the proper credit they should', though the president did not say who he was talking about. The president also praised Sir Keir Starmer ahead of a meeting between the two at one of his courses in the coming days, describing him as a 'good man'. 'I like your Prime Minister, he's slightly more liberal than I am - as you probably heard - but he's a good man. He got a trade deal done,' he said. 'You know, they've been working on this deal for 12 years, he got it done - that's a good deal, it's a good deal for the UK.' Mr Trump also suggested he would be meeting Sir Keir 'tomorrow evening', although it is understood the pair will not meet until Monday. As well as the Prime Minister, Scottish First Minister John Swinney will meet with the president, as will European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who confirmed on X she will come to Scotland on Sunday in a bid to hash out a trade deal between the US and Europe. Mr Trump told journalists there was a 'good 50/50 chance' of a deal being struck, adding that it would be the 'biggest deal of them all'. The president and Sir Keir are expected to discuss potential changes to the UK-US trade deal which came into force last month. Mr Swinney has pledged to 'essentially speak out for Scotland'. Speaking as he boarded Air Force One in the US, Mr Trump said he would be having dinner with the Prime Minister at Turnberry, before 'going to the oil capital of Europe, which is Aberdeen'. He said: 'We're going to have a good time. I think the Prime Minister and I get along very well.' Mr Trump added: 'We're going to be talking about the trade deal that we made and maybe even approve it.' He also told journalists he was 'looking forward' to meeting with the 'Scottish leader' Mr Swinney, describing him as a 'good man'. A huge security operation codenamed Operation Roll 2, involving police from across the UK and expected to cost £3million, is underway – with protests planned in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and at both golf courses. A 10ft-high metal barrier 'ring of steel' has been installed at Turnberry to protect the President. Mr Trump's family have spoken of their excitement over his visit with Eric Trump, the executive vice-president of his father's Trump Organization, saying the President had waited 'years' to come back to the country of his late mother's birth. Eric Trump told the Scottish Daily Mail: 'We have just completed the greatest course on Earth and waited years for this day to come. I've never been more proud to have my father arrive in Scotland to see his original dream come to fruition.' Kirsty Haigh, of the Scotland Against Trump group, told Sky News: 'He should not be welcomed by us.' Along with protests, Trump' visit has been overshadowed already by the Jeffrey Epstein case, with daily revelations and new legal developments. He chided reporters for pestering about the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whose case has roiled his administration. 'You're making a very big thing over something that's not a big thing,' he said. Asked about Ghislaine Maxwell's meeting with a top Justice Department official, Trump responded: 'I don't know anything about he conversation. I haven't really been following it.' He isn't ruling out a presidential pardon. 'This is no time to be talking about pardons,' he said. He pushed back when asked about infrastructure issues that the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews has raised about Turnberry being able to handle a massive tournament. 'The best course anywhere in the world, is Turnberry. The players all want to be a Turnberry. Everybody wants to be a Turnberry,' Trump said. He said the course infrastructure 'is good,' and said the Royal and Ancient 'spent a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, or probably into the millions of dollars, and they've laid all the wire for television and for electricity under the holes of Turnberry. 'So when the Open gets there, they have it all done. They paid for that,' Trump said. Trump's windmill grudge is familiar to many Americans. He raised the issue while calling Aberdeen the 'oil capital of Europe.' 'You fly over and you see these windmills all over the place, ruining your beautiful fields and valleys and killing your birds, and if they're stuck in the ocean, ruining your oceans,' Trump fumed. 'Stop the windmills.' Trump, 79, has made golf an important part of his life and his business empire – visiting courses more than 60 times in his second term. He is doing so again six months into his second term, with planned visits to both of his Scottish courses. Back in D.C., the president spoke reverentially about his Turnberry course as he left the White House – but still got hit with questions about whether he would pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, who met with top DOJ officials this week amid new scrutiny of the convicted sex offender who died in his jail cell. He issued a new iteration of his denial of a sensational report in the Wall Street Journal that he drew a picture of a woman for Epstein as part of a special birthday volume. 'Somebody could have written a letter and used my name,' Trump posited. He said he has the 'power' to pardon Maxwell, who is serving jail time after being convicted of assisting Epstein in his sex trafficking network. Here in Scotland, Trump is set to inaugurate a new course in Aberdeenshire, on a trip where squeezing his hosts to bring the British Open to his Turnberry Course is also on tap. The new MacLeod course in Menie is named for his late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who was born in Scotland and emigrated to the U.S. Trump is already predicting victory on that front. 'I think they will do that,' he said of bringing the Open to his Turnberry course. 'Turnberry is rated the number one course in the world. I think they'll do that.' But he pushed back when asked if he was going to convince anyone of his stance on the trip. 'No, it's not about that,' Trump said. 'It's the best resort in the world, I think, Turnberry, and it's one of the greatest courses in the world.' A potential championship isn't the only dealmaking on the horizon. Trump and British PM Keir Starmer, who inked a trade deal at the G7 in Canada shortly before Starmer dropped it on camera, still must negotiate substantial details. That puts prices for cars, auto parts, chicken, beef, and digital clicks in play, after a U.S.-UK trade deal in May set only broad parameters but left many details to be worked out. Trump set off confusion before he even left the White House when he told reporters that 'We're meeting with the prime minister tonight' and that 'We're going to be talking about the trade deal that we made and maybe even improve it.' There was no expectation that Trump would even see Starmer until later in his visit. There was, however, a new addition to his schedule. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she would meet with Trump Sunday to 'discuss transatlantic trade relations, and how we can keep them strong' – setting up another high stakes negotiation. Trump has been flouting his ability to bring other nations to heel by publicly releasing trade letters announcing what tariffs they will face. The White House said the number had reached 25 before he left Washington. Trump blasted out yet another threat Friday when he said there was a 'fifty-fifty' chance of a deal with the European Union, while saying the powerful trade block must 'buy down' the threatened 30 percent tariff. But the lure of his upcoming State Visit and meeting with King Charles is preventing Trump from playing full hardball, one insider tells the Daily Mail. Trump's language as he left town was very much in keeping with that stance. Trump called it 'more fine-tuning.' 'And also we do a little celebrating together, because, you know, we got along very well. UK has been trying to make a deal with us for like 12 years, and haven't been able to do it. We got it done.' He called Starmer a 'good prime minister' and a 'good guy' who was 'doing a very good job. 'So we're going to see. We're going to meet at Turnberry and we're going to meet at Aberdeen. So two beautiful places.' But he said there was 'not a lot' of wiggle room on steel and aluminum tariffs he has imposed using Section 232 authority. The absence of detailed information on the weekend schedule released by the White House makes clear that there is plenty of golf in Trump's future. He has no public events Saturday or Sunday, when he will be at Turnberry. His Starmer meeting comes Monday, after which the pair are expected to tour Trump's new course. Trump is also expected to meeting First Minister John Swinney, who is scoring the face time despite publicly backing Trump's rival Kamala Harris in the election. Also greeting Trump: protests. During his 2018 visit to Scotland during his first term, Trump was trailed by a Trump baby balloon. This time, the Stop Trump Coalition is among groups planning to make a public statement, with protests expected at both of Trump's courses. Trump's former national security advisor John Bolton is among those positing that Trump's trip is more than a weekend getaway. He noted that Trump hadn't been there in seven years, and said maybe it would 'kick up a little free advertising after he comes and goes.'
The Independent
7 minutes ago
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves says Donald Trump 's upcoming visit to Scotland is 'in the public interest.' 'It's in Britain 's national interest to have strong relations with the US administration,' Reeves told press during a visit to a Rolls-Royce factory in Glasgow on Friday (25 Jul). 'And as a result of both that long-term special relationship, [it] has meant that we were the first country in the world to secure a trade deal,' she added. Trump will land in Scotland on Friday at the start of a four-day visit which will include meetings with First Minister John Swinney and Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
