Typically full of brio and swagger, the White House is scrambling because Trump is behaving so out of character

It took Trump chronicler Maggie Haberman to cut to the chase: if Trump didn’t sign the birthday card or other documents released by Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, the reporter asked in a quiet yet insistent tone, what’s the working theory as to why he’s in there?

“The president has one of the most famous signatures in the world,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, replied on Tuesday. “The president did not write that letter. He did not sign those documents.”

• Manager praises players’ intensity against Serbia

• ‘It’s a perfect result and perfect moment’

Thomas Tuchel praised “teamwork in its purest form” after England kickstarted the head coach’s reign by taking control of their World Cup qualifying group with a dominant 5-0 thrashing of Serbia.

Goals from Harry Kane, Noni Madueke, Ezri Konsa, Marc Guéhi and Marcus Rashford stunned the crowd at the Rajko Mitic Stadium and lifted England seven points clear at the top of Group K. Tuchel, whose side have won their first five qualifiers, was delighted with the best performance of his tenure and hailed his players for how they combined to humiliate the hosts in Belgrade.

“I think it was teamwork in its purest form,” the German said. “We helped each other out, we had the right intensity in the right moments. We put the work in to not allow one shot on target for a strong home team. If you want to do this you need to support each other, you need to play disciplined and keep the intensity up. This is what we did and the players did excellent, so full credit to the team.

“There’s never a perfect performance, but it was a very, very good performance,” Tuchel added. “I’m just glad for the players that they could show to the fans and to you guys what they’re capable of.”

Morgan Rogers emphatically took his chance to impress, while it was a night to forget for a chastened Serbia in Belgrade

Djordje Petrovic (GK) Not to blame for Serbia’s ineptitude, although he was unconvincing on the third goal. 3

A lower court earlier ruled president exceeded his authority when enacting tariffs under law meant for emergencies

The US supreme court agreed on Tuesday to decide the legality of Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs, setting up a major test of one of the Republican president’s boldest assertions of executive power that has been central to his economic and trade agenda.

The justices took up the justice department’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling that Trump overstepped his authority in imposing most of his tariffs under a federal law meant for emergencies. The court swiftly acted after the administration last week asked it to review the case, which involves trillions of dollars in customs duties over the next decade.

Elizabeth Tsurkov, who entered Iraq to do research for Princeton, had gone missing in Iraq in early 2023

Israeli-Russian academic and Princeton student Elizabeth Tsurkov has been released after being kidnapped by Kata’ib Hezbollah and spending more than two years in captivity, Donald Trump said in a post on social media.

“I am pleased to report that Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton Student, whose sister is an American Citizen, was just released by Kata’ib Hezbollah (MILITANT Hezbollah), and is now safely in the American Embassy in Iraq after being tortured for many months. I will always fight for JUSTICE, and never give up. HAMAS, RELEASE THE HOSTAGES, NOW!” the US president wrote in a TruthSocial post on Tuesday.

• NFL says ejection counts as one-game suspension

• Incident came six seconds into new season

Jalen Carter was fined $57,222 by the NFL but avoided another suspension after spitting on Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott seconds into the league’s season opener Thursday night.

The Pro Bowl defensive tackle was ejected from Philadelphia’s 24-20 victory over Dallas before playing a snap. He is expected to be on the field when the Eagles face the Kansas City Chiefs in a Super Bowl rematch on Sunday. The Eagles could impose their own discipline such as benching Carter for the first series of the Chiefs game.

The NFL is calling Carter’s discipline a one-game suspension with time served because he didn’t play against the Cowboys. It’s a distinction that sets a precedent that spitting on an opponent will result in a one-game suspension.

• Updates from this 7.45pm BST kick-off in Group K

• Stojkovic’s struggles continue | Sign up to Football Daily

Same formation for us – and it looks like the same formation for our opponents. It looks like a classic 5-4-1 defensively. I was hoping for a little more risk but they left Mitrovic and Jovic out and they have more defensively minded players. Okay; we will try to find solutions.

[On Elliot Anderson] He impressed me a lot; he played with a very natural rhythm and self-confidence. He understood very quickly what we wanted, so why not keep him in the team?

Most of you will remember Serbia’s coach, Dragan Stojkovic, as a player. For those who don’t, here’s a sensual little treat from Italia 90.

White House press secretary denies that president wrote Epstein a card that included the outline of a woman’s body for the sex trafficker’s 50th birthday

• Photo of novelty check suggests Epstein ‘sold’ Trump a woman

• Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday book – in pictures

My colleague, Oliver Holmes, has been going through the Jeffrey Epstein 50th birthday album that House Democrats on the oversight committee released on Monday, after they subpoenaed Epstein’s estate.

As Oliver notes, much of the book seems to be a collection of flattering and celebratory letters – often highly sexualised – from people who knew Epstein. They include photos of him embracing women in bikinis whose faces were redacted, and others showing scenes featuring wild animals having sex.

Bill Clinton, who had left the US presidency a couple years before the publication of the book, is listed in the “friends” section.

Peter Mandelson, the current UK ambassador to the United States, called Epstein his “best pal”. There are also photographs in the book which show Mandelson in shorts gazing from a balcony and in a white dressing gown laughing with Epstein.

One of the most striking images in the collection is a drawing of Epstein handing young girls balloons and a lollipop in 1983, alongside another drawing of him 20 years later, receiving a massage from topless women in 2003.

Three more supreme court justices to cast their votes in coming days, with verdict expected by Thursday

• ‘He’s always on the attack’: the Brazilian judge prosecuting Bolsonaro inspires both love and hate

Jair Bolsonaro led a criminal organisation that sought to plunge Brazil back into dictatorship with a murderous power grab involving special forces assassins and a vast disinformation campaign, the supreme court judge presiding over the former president’s trial has claimed as he voted for Bolsonaro’s conviction.

Alexandre de Moraes was the first supreme court justice of five to announce his decision on Tuesday, as the trial of Bolsonaro and seven alleged co-conspirators – including four senior members of the military and the former head of Brazil’s answer to MI6 – entered its final stretch.

Toronto film festival: the Oscar winner is adrift in Alice Winocour’s uninvolving film about three thinly written women involved in a Paris fashion week show

The otherworldly beauty and consuming, tattoo-strewn look of Angelina Jolie hasn’t always allowed for a great deal of versatility as an actor, a difficult face to seamlessly slot into most stories. The star hasn’t seemed to be all that interested in acting for a while anyway (since 2012, she has physically appeared on screen just seven times) and has preferred to spend time behind the camera and focusing on both her family and her philanthropic pursuits. Her films as a director have been of both genuinely noble intention and minimal cinematic value (her last effort, Without Blood, premiered at last year’s Toronto film festival but still doesn’t have US distribution) and as she enters her 50s, it seems like she’s rediscovered her passion for acting again.

The catastrophic box office for her ill-advised entry into the Marvel universe – Chloé Zhao’s fantastically boring Eternals – has at least freed her from the hell of superhero sequels, and while last year’s Maria Callas biopic didn’t secure her the Oscar nomination it was clearly designed to, it gently pushed the star further out of the shadows, and she’s since been lining up projects with more speed than we’re used to seeing. It’s a shame she’s not picking better though – her latest effort, Couture, premiering here in Toronto and failing to work on any of the levels it is limply trying to, is a film about high fashion that’s as thin and disposable as something bought on the high street.

• Game on Sunday to be played at Johan Cruyff Stadium

• Club’s last match at old Camp Nou was in May 2023

Barcelona have announced that their opening home game of the season against Valencia will not be played at the Camp Nou – five days before it was due to take place.

The club had been given permission to play their first three fixtures away from home in order to complete the first phase of construction work at their stadium, and that was followed by the international break. But they were still unable to fulfil the requirements needed to get the permits in time, leaving a public deadline unmet for the third time having originally set an opening date of November 2024.

Hamas says six were killed but its leadership survived the attack, which the US says ‘does not advance Israel or America’s goals’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Israel has launched a strike on Hamas officials meeting in Qatar’s capital, Doha, reportedly including the group’s chief ceasefire negotiator, in an attack the White House said “does not advance Israel or America’s goals”.

Hamas said six people had been killed, including the son of its exiled Gaza chief, Khalil al-Hayya. It said its top leadership, including the negotiations team, had survived.

Judge says sufficient evidence of intent wasn’t given against those who signed files claiming Trump won 2020 election

A judge in Michigan dismissed the felony charges against a slate of electors who falsely signed on to documents claiming Donald Trump won the 2020 election in the latest blow to efforts to hold the president and his allies accountable for attempting to overturn the results of the White House race he lost to Joe Biden.

Sixteen people were initially charged with eight felonies each related to forgery and conspiracy by the Democratic attorney general, Dana Nessel, in 2023, though one of them had his charges dropped after he agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. The fake electors in Michigan will not go to trial.

Raids by rival hives aren’t rare after a dry, hot summer, but Christine McDonald was surprised to find her store besieged

A Canadian beekeeper has described fending off thousands of “robber bees” as they raided her shop in a brazen attempt to steal honey.

Christine McDonald, who owns Rushing River Apiaries in the British Columbia city of Terrace, said she entered her shop to find it overrun by the swarm.

A shift to prevention will only succeed if ministers take a bold approach to regulation and lift people out of poverty

Dramatic increases in life expectancy are one of the defining achievements of the modern era. From 56 years for men and 60 for women in the UK a century ago, this vital measure of the quantity of life rose to 79 and 83 respectively in 2022. The trend towards increased longevity is global, although not all countries have seen gains on the same scale, and the pandemic sent it into temporary reverse.

We probably don’t talk about this enough. It is remarkable that most of us can expect to live for so long and that deaths from diseases such as tuberculosis, and of women in childbirth, have been so drastically reduced.

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.

Terminal 4’s check-in area evacuated for three hours on Monday while police located CS spray

Police have arrested a man on suspicion of bringing teargas into Heathrow airport, which caused Terminal 4’s check-in area to briefly shut down.

The check-in area at the UK’s main international airport was evacuated for around three hours on Monday evening as emergency services probed a “potential hazardous materials incident”.

The French president has seen four prime ministers come and go in three years. The rancorous stasis of his second term is a gift to Marine Le Pen

In the lead-up to the vote that ejected him from office this week after a mere nine months, the centre-right French prime minister, François Bayrou, appeared stoically reconciled to his fate. “There are worse disasters in life than the fall of a government,” Mr Bayrou observed on national radio, implicitly acknowledging his failure to win backing for a swingeing austerity strategy. On Monday, MPs duly used a debate called by the prime minister himself to oust him.

And so another one bites the dust. The entrance to Matignon, France’s baroque prime ministerial residence, has become a revolving door during Emmanuel Macron’s benighted second term. Lacking a majority in a divided and deadlocked parliament, the president has gone through four premiers in a little over three years. Following the departure of the latest, he announced his intention to appoint a fifth within days, rather than countenance a new election with Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National ahead in the polls.

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.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield say it is ‘not the Ben & Jerry’s’ they founded after being ‘silenced’ by Unilever over matters of social justice

The co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s have called for the ice-cream brand to be made independent and excluded from current owner Unilever’s plans to list its ice-cream business on the stock market.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield say The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC), a new division of Unilever that is set to be separately listed in November and includes the brand founded by the pair in 1978 alongside Magnum, Cornetto and Wall’s, “must free Ben & Jerry’s” in an open letter to prospective investors and the group’s board.

• Colombian outsprints Landa; Vingegaard retains lead

• Stage shortened by 8km after protesters blocked road

Pro-Palestinian protesters continue to disrupt the Vuelta a España, with stage 16 ending on Tuesday 8km before the scheduled finish at ­Castro de ­Herville because of protests close to the line. The Colombian rider Egan Bernal won the stage, with Jonas Vingegaard retaining the overall race lead.

“We have a big protest at three kilometres before the line. We will decide the stage winner and take times at eight kilometres before the line,” the race directors announced on Radio Vuelta.

Alison McGovern and Paula Barker latest to join contest, as well as Emily Thornberry, Lucy Powell and Bell Ribeiro-Addy

• Who is in the running for deputy leader?

Bridget Phillipson has thrown her hat in the ring for the Labour deputy leadership contest, becoming the early favourite to win as she is most likely to meet the threshold of MP nominations.

While Labour party members, many of whom are to the left of Keir Starmer’s leadership, could be suspicious of the education secretary’s role as a serving cabinet minister, she is likely to be seen by MPs as No 10’s de facto candidate and so will secure much of the “payroll” vote.

• Keeta Vaccaro in process of divorcing wide receiver

• Player’s lawyer vigorously denies allegations

The estranged wife of Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill alleges in court filings that she has been the victim of multiple acts of domestic violence, TMZ reported.

The two are in the process of divorcing, and in paperwork Keeta Vaccaro filed on Monday in connection to the case, she said she was the target of eight instances of abuse since they married in late 2023. The original divorce petition was dated 8 April 2025.

Whatever happened between the pair, questions about their relationship are not going away. This enigma is ageing like raw milk

You have to keep this hush-hush, OK? I have top-secret information to share. You know Donald Trump has been reluctant to release the Epstein files? Well, it’s not because there’s anything nefarious going on. Trump may be an adjudicated sexual predator accused of sexual misconduct by at least 27 women (all of which he denies), who publicly boasted in 2002 about how his “terrific” pal Jeffrey Epstein liked women “on the younger side”, but you shouldn’t read too much into all that. Nor should you overanalyse a Wall Street Journal report claiming White House officials told Trump in May that his name appeared multiple times in the files. Or that House Democrats have now released a sexually suggestive letter and drawing sent to Epstein in 2003 for his birthday that appears to show Trump’s signature, the same note the president has denied writing. Nor should you worry yourself with the photo that has been released showing Epstein holding a novelty check signed by Trump with the suggestion that Epstein “sold” him a woman for $22,500.

No, the real reason Trump is being weird about Epstein is … drum roll, please … because the president may or may not have been covertly operating as an FBI informant and investigating the disgraced financier.

Reform leader under pressure over £895,000 constituency property bought by partner

Labour has asked Nigel Farage to confirm whether he has any financial interest in his constituency home, after it emerged that his partner bought the house – saving him a £44,000 tax bill.

The Reform UK leader has come under scrutiny over the property in Clacton, Essex, after saying four times earlier this year that he had bought a house there.

• Navy top carries the slogan ‘USA Ryder Cup 2025’

• Social media erupted after item went on sale online

The United States team has made an early Ryder Cup faux pas after an official T-shirt appeared on sale, featuring a silhouette which bears an uncanny resemblance to Europe’s Rory McIlroy. What on earth was wrong with Scottie Scheffler? McIlroy is the leading name on the European roster to face the US at Bethpage on the final weekend of September.

Social media erupted after the item appeared on the US element of the official Ryder Cup shop. Costing $65 (£48), the navy Ralph Lauren T-shirt carries the slogan “USA Ryder Cup 2025”. The golfer performing a follow through as the backdrop is almost certainly McIlroy albeit the Northern Irishman shrugged off the bizarre matter at Wentworth on Tuesday.