Most allotment holders say the heat has meant more work for smaller crops, although some have found a silver lining

After a summer of repeated heatwaves and exceptionally dry weather in the UK, rain has brought some relief this week, but drought remains widespread and experts warn it will take weeks of sustained rainfall for water supplies to recover.

For people growing their own fruit and vegetables, it has been a challenging and sometimes surprising season. The Guardian spoke to growers across England about how they are adapting to a hotter, drier climate.

This punishingly hot and dry summer will probably be followed by another wet winter. But it’s nothing compared with what Britain will endure in years to come

This summer could be the hottest, driest and deadliest in English history. Successive heatwaves have so far claimed almost 3,000 lives. Nearly three-quarters of England and all of Wales is in drought, while key reservoirs are parched. Across this brown and stickily unpleasant land, from Grimsby down to St Ives, hosepipe bans are in force, while music festivals are staged not on green fields but in giant dust bowls.

Just how bad is it? I asked a leading climate scientist.

Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist

Every year, hundreds of standups from across the world descend on the venerable festival. Here are some of their finest one-liners

10 of the funniest jokes from the 2025 fringe

Olaf Falafel: I remember thinking, as I taped a piranha to my boomerang, this could come back to bite me.

Richard Stott: To the person who stole my bank card and spent all my money on ancestry.com – you know who you are.

Expected return to UK of Duke and Duchess of Sussex marks the latest twist in the long-running saga surrounding the couple since they left for the US in 2020

• Prince Harry and Meghan ‘moving back to Britain this month’

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, will reportedly return to Britain after six years of living in the US, a move that triggered a long period of strained relations with King Charles III, the Prince and Princess of Wales and others in the royal family.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their two children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, are expected to relocate to the UK this month.

A look at six of the best and worst of the new season’s strips gives us Pro Evo chic, throwbacks done right, and how – and how not – to use stripes

The Premier League season kicks off on Friday and league debutants such as Christos Tzolis and Victor Muñoz, along with masses of fans, will be pulling on their teams’ shiny new strips. There were some lovely efforts at the World Cup (not least by the co-hosts the USA), and others more tedious than a 0-0 draw. It’s a mixed bag once again.

Manchester City have gone with an ombre design, which feels – apposite for a gradient fading of colour – exhausted as a look in 2026. In the most surprising but successful collaboration since Olivia Rodrigo and Robert Smith,Sunderland have teamed up with Elvis Presley, or his estate, anyway, for a pink away shirt that nods to the supporters’ longstanding unofficial anthem Can’t Help Falling in Love.

A young activist thought her father’s disapproval of her leftwing views was purely political. Then one evening, a kiss goodbye sent her on a remarkable journey that continues today

• Last chance to buy the summer issue of The Long Read magazine, now with 15% off. Click here to order

As a child, Analía Azic used to pretend she was secretly a princess, the heiress to a magical distant kingdom. In real life, she was the daughter of a greengrocer named Juan Antonio Azic and a demure housewife named Esther Abrego. The family lived in the province of Buenos Aires, which, as anyone from the area will tell you with a dash of pride, is not the city of Buenos Aires but its rougher neighbour. Analía was not royalty, but she had an iron will and audacity out of proportion to her small stature.

Analía cared little for grades at the Ladies Institute of the Sacred Heart, where she rolled with the dominantes, girls who hiked their school skirts up so high they served as little more than belts, and dreamed of the weekend when they could finally trade in their school uniforms for designer jeans and tight tank tops and sashay into Electric Circus, the one local club that allowed in minors. There, Analía would climb atop the speakers and dance, then leap back down to toy with the boys from the Argentine air force’s technical trade school.

Former chief of staff tells of fears her conversations were being recorded and leaked to media by colleagues

Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff has lifted the lid on how “unbearable” it was working in No 10, revealing she feared her conversations were being recorded by colleagues seeking to leak her remarks to the media.

Sue Gray, who was the most powerful adviser in Downing Street before her resignation in 2024, was highly critical of the working environment under Starmer, saying she was “disappointed” that he did not act on her concerns about staff briefing journalists against her.

Duke and Duchess of Sussex intend to relocate from US, with children to start British school in September

• Harry and Meghan: the key moments, conflicts and controversies since their US move

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are planning to return to live in Britain, six years after leaving for the US, it is understood.

The couple and their two children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, are expected to relocate later in August to a non-royal residence.

Education secretary says the government is looking at changing the resits policy in England

• Compulsory GCSE resits in England harm teenagers’ mental wellbeing, study finds

Earlier this month, students in Scotland achieved record number of vocational and technical qualifications in their Nationals, Highers, Advanced Highers and Skills for Work Awards.

Pass rates for Scottish exams have increased as students across the country received their results. Figures show that the poverty-related attainment gap has narrowed compared with last year.

Congratulations to everyone getting their GCSE results today, you should be proud of the work that got you here.

Whatever your results, remember there isn’t just one route to success.

Joanna Boydell steps down after widespread criticism over company’s handling of guest safety issues

The boss of Travelodge has resigned after widespread criticism of her handling of security failings at the hotel chain, including a shocking case where a domestic abuser was given a key to a woman’s room before assaulting her.

In a brief company statement on Thursday, Travelodge said Joanna Boydell had stepped down and temporarily replaced by its finance chief, Ray Reidy. The company has launched a formal search for a permanent substitute.