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Pennant Watch. Hats off to the Latvian Football Federation, because goodness me, that is some premium tasselling. Attach a couple of those to the shoulders of a velvet robe and you’ve got yourself one high-end smoking jacket.

Here, meanwhile, the photographer has done their best to jazz up England’s usual quickly-knocked-out, will-this-do effort by coming at it from a dynamic angle. Eagle-eyed pennant aficionados will have spotted that the FA have tinkered with the order of the information under the shield: at Euro 2025, the tournament title was above that of the fixture, while the date was above the name of the stadium, with no reference at all to the day. As with refereeing, VAR and so on, some consistency is all we’re asking for.

Investigating officer says he went against procedure to test Julia Wandelt, accused of campaign of harassment against McCann family

An alleged stalker’s claim to be Madeleine McCann was ruled out after a DNA test proved conclusively she was not the missing girl, police have revealed in court.

Julia Wandelt, 24, is accused of a campaign of harassment against the family of Madeleine, who went missing from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

• Potter had seven years in charge of club side Östersund

• ‘I love Swedish football. It would be a great opportunity’

Graham Potter has said he would be interested in taking over as Sweden’s new manager because he “loves” the country that gave him his first opportunity in coaching.

Former Blackburn manager Jon Dahl Tomasson was sacked on Tuesday after a disastrous start to their World Cup qualifying campaign, with a 1-0 defeat at home to Kosovo leaving Sweden bottom of their group. It is less than a month since Potter left West Ham after winning six of his 23 Premier League games, with the former Chelsea manager having lasted just 31 games at Stamford Bridge.

UN has condemned US strikes on small boats it believes to be trafficking drugs as extrajudicial executions

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump said the US has struck another small boat that he accuses of carrying drugs in waters off Venezuela, killing six people.

“The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike. No U.S. Forces were harmed,” Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social social media platform.

Labour is misreading the economics – leaving it unable to deal with the G7’s worst inflation and flat living standard

Bloomberg’s headline said it all: “UK Faces Worst G-7 Inflation and Flat Living Standards, IMF Says”. The International Monetary Fund warns that inflation will be higher in the UK than in any other major advanced economy – including in the US, where Donald Trump’s tariffs are driving up costs for American consumers. This while GDP growth per head crawls at 0.4%, the weakest of any major economy. Real wages have stagnated for 11 months. Meanwhile, official figures show that unemployment has climbed to 4.8%, the highest since spring 2021. Forget talk of Britain’s “upgraded growth”; the economy, under Labour, is running hot only for those collecting profits.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) projects that by 2029 average disposable incomes will be £570 lower than today, a fall of 1.3% – the sharpest drop in living standards since records began in 1961. This isn’t a simple case of prices getting ahead of demand. What Britain faces is profit inflation: prices are rising while wages stand still. As Lord Keynes noted, this is a transfer from labour to capital – an increase in mark-ups, not in productivity.

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The bleak future faced by one small town offers a cautionary tale about the threat from global heating

The bleak prospect facing the market town of Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire, due to rising flood risks, is first and foremost a problem for locals. After seven floods in four years, and with plans for new flood defences around the town abandoned after costs rose to £30m, the town council announced this month that three buildings it owns, including a theatre and historic pump rooms, no longer have insurance. Independent retailers are in a similar situation, and some are packing up as a result. The number of empty properties is growing.

Tenbury is at higher risk than most places from floods, due to its low-lying position between the River Teme and Kyre Brook. But the threat it faces is not unique, and will become more common in future. Last year UK insurers paid out a record £585m for weather-related damage to homes and possessions, after unusually severe storms led to floods in several counties, with buildings left under water in towns including Henley, Wellingborough and Tewkesbury.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Attorneys for Debbie Brockman, released with no charges, deny agent’s claim she ‘threw objects’ at border patrol car

Attorneys representing a producer for Chicago’s WGN television station who was temporarily detained by federal agents last week in Chicago, say the incident “should be alarming and horrifying to every person in this country”.

Debbie Brockman, a US citizen and a WGN employee, was arrested on Friday by federal agents during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) operation in Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood. Videos from the scene show Brockman being forced to the ground by two agents before she is handcuffed and put in a van.

PM tells Commons that ceasefire between Israel and Hamas only first tentative step to peace in the Middle East

Keir Starmer has always known that Monday’s visit to Egypt was going to be the Donald Trump Show. After all, almost every day is the Donald Trump Show and there was no way the US president was going to share the limelight on this of all days. The day when the living Israeli hostages were freed, 1,900 Palestinian detainees were freed and the first aid trucks entered Gaza.

This was The Donald’s peace deal. A narcissist is going to narcissise. Everyone else reduced to supporting actors. At best. Keir was relegated to a non-speaking walk on part as an extra. Pushed away after a couple of seconds. Probably preferable to being arm-wrestled like Emmanuel Macron. Though not much.

Tensions still high as Israel accuses Hamas of breaching agreement by withholding bodies of 24 hostages

• Gaza ceasefire – live updates

The fragile ceasefire in Gaza faced its first test on Tuesday when Israel said the flow of aid into the devastated Palestinian territory would be cut by half and the crucial Rafah border crossing with Egypt would not open as planned, accusing Hamas of breaching the US-brokered agreement by withholding the bodies of Israeli hostages.

On Monday, Israelis celebrated the return of the last 20 living hostages in Gaza and Palestinians rejoiced at Israel’s release of nearly 2,000 prisoners and detainees as part of the ceasefire’s first phase.

Artist behind posters for Harry Potter, The Thing and Back to the Future had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease

Designer Drew Struzan, known for some of the most iconic movie posters of all time, has died aged 78.

His work included posters for films such as Back to the Future, The Empire Strikes Back, The Goonies, The Shawshank Redemption, The Thing and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Announcement comes after country’s parliament impeaches president after weeks of anti-government protests

An elite military unit said it had taken power in Madagascar on Tuesday, after the country’s parliament impeached president Andry Rajoelina after weeks of anti-government protests.

Rajoelina, who said on Monday in a Facebook Live video that he had gone into hiding after attempts to kill him, had refused demands to step down, but the demonstrators won the backing of the influential Capsat unit at the weekend.

Singer known for tracks such as Brown Sugar and Untitled (How Does It Feel) died at home from pancreatic cancer

• D’Angelo – a life in pictures

D’Angelo, the Grammy-winning R&B singer who helped pioneer the sound of neo-soul, has died. He was 51.

The singer, born Michael Eugene Archer, died on Tuesday morning at his home in New York after privately suffering from pancreatic cancer, his family confirmed to Variety.

Campaigners ‘deeply concerned’ about response to prompts about suicide, self-harm and eating disorders

The latest version of ChatGPT has produced more harmful answers to some prompts than an earlier iteration of the AI chatbot, in particular when asked about suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, digital campaigners have said.

Launched in August, GPT-5 was billed by the San Francisco start-up as advancing the “frontier of AI safety”. But when researchers fed the same 120 prompts into the latest model and its predecessor, GPT-4o, the newer version gave harmful responses 63 times compared with 52 for the old model.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Jamie Dimon expects further weak links in ‘shadow banking’ sector to be revealed after collapse of two US firms

The boss of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon, has warned over further losses linked to the private credit sector, saying more “cockroaches” could emerge after the collapse of the sub-prime auto lender Tricolor and the car parts supplier First Brands.

The bank said on Tuesday that although it had no exposure to First Brands, which sells car parts across the US, it had taken a $170m (£128m) hit from Tricolor, which collapsed amid fraud allegations last month.

How do you invent a convincing fictional band for your play, film or novel? And what happens if they actually top the charts? The creators of Scott Pilgrim, the Commitments, Stereophonic and more reveal all

They have sold out venues on both sides of the Atlantic. Their first-ever gig was opening for a former member of Arcade Fire. Their 2024 album has been acclaimed as sounding like a lost classic of 1970s rock. Their two top tracks, Bright and Masquerade, have notched up 700,000 streams on Spotify. In fact, by the numbers, they’re having one of the most buzzy rock debuts of recent years. Yet they don’t really exist. They don’t even have a name.

The band is in fact the unnamed five-piece featured in Stereophonic, a hugely successful, Tony-winning drama, currently playing in London’s West End. Written by David Adjmi, with music by former Arcade Fire member Will Butler, Stereophonic earned five stars from the Guardian, which praised its “moments of creative transcendence, including a late-night epiphany so electrifying that the sound waves will excite your internal organs”.

Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist had been ordered to pay because of false claims about Sandy Hook massacre

The US supreme court has refused an appeal from Alex Jones and left in place his $1.4bn defamation penalty that was awarded to the families of victims from the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting.

The Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist had sought to overturn the judgment, which he was ordered to pay after he made false claims about the massacre.

One in four endurance runners displays ‘worryingly high’ levels of anxiety and depression, according to a study led by a man who has himself run more than 400 marathons. Isn’t exercise supposed to make you feel good?

Name: Marathons.

Age: The first modern Olympic marathon was run in 1896, inspired by the 490BC tale of Pheidippides and his 240km run to ask the Spartans for help battling the Persians.

State is the latest in the US conducting mid-decade gerrymandering to favor one party before the midterms

• US politics live – latest updates

Republican leaders in North Carolina said they will redraw their state’s congressional maps to add another Republican seat, becoming the latest in a growing list of states conducting mid-decade gerrymandering to favor one party before the 2026 midterms.

Legislative leaders in the southern state said they would use an October legislative session to “block the efforts of blue state Democrats to take control of Congress from Republicans” after Donald Trump had called on state legislatures to undertake redistricting to defend their congressional majority.

Curtis Sliwa is unlikely to run the overwhelmingly Democratic city. But his willingness to defy Trump and billionaires could leave a big impact

With less than a month to go, the race to be New York City’s mayor is continuing to fascinate and bemuse: and in an election that could have political ramifications across the country, it’s a beret-wearing, cat-loving vigilante who seems like he could have the final say.

Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the crime-fighting group the Guardian Angels and the Republican candidate to run the largest US city, has little chance of winning the election in November. But his presence may be the thing that helps confirm Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist, as New York’s next mayor.

Self-styled world’s greatest peacemaker calls Meloni ‘beautiful’ and Erdoğan a ‘friend’, but takes jab at Iraqi and Canadian leaders

The chief interest at Monday’s largely pointless Gaza summit in Sharm el-Sheikh lay in whether Donald Trump insulted or feted his fellow global leaders as they approached the self-styled world’s greatest peacemaker to shake hands and pose for a thumbs-up photograph.

As the host of the party, the US president had arrived – unapologetically – more than two hours late, musing to the Israeli parliament before boarding his flight from Tel Aviv that he feared his wealthy guests would already have left, leaving him with only two poor countries remaining.

Laura Friedman, who spent 20 years in Hollywood before winning her House seat, says film industry needs help but president’s vague policy idea is baffling

Laura Friedman’s love affair with film started young, staying up late to watch old Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney flicks. “It definitely gave me big dreams and I moved to Hollywood to follow those dreams,” she recalls.

Now that dream is out of reach for many. Los Angeles is losing its allure as film producers increasingly turn to cheaper locations in other countries. But after 20 years working in the movie industry, Friedman is now uniquely placed to save it after she swapped Hollywood for the halls of Congress in Washington DC.

In the activist’s new memoir, she remembers how trying weed at university brought on terrifying flashbacks

• ‘To the men who ran the world, I was just a photo op.’ Read an interview with Malala Yousafzai

“Explain how the time inconsistency of optimal monetary policy can lead to a stabilisation bias. How would the introduction of a price path target help to address it?”

After reading the question three times, I still couldn’t make sense of it. I groaned, went back to the textbook, tried to read, made a cup of tea, and tried again. Nothing improved my focus. Then my phone lit up with a message from my friend Anisa: a picture of my name spelled out in Scrabble letters.

• Former bowler hits back after Warner predicts 4-0 win

• Cook backs Pope to retain No 3 spot ahead of Bethell

The pre-Ashes barbs continue to fly, with Stuart Broad saying that ­England will face “probably the worst ­Australian team since 2010” on tour this winter.

The former England bowler’s claim was in response to David Warner – an Ashes foe of Broad’s – predicting a 4-0 victory for the hosts. “If the captain [Pat Cummins] doesn’t play, they might win one game,” Warner said.