“The nation’s harvest is in trouble – again,” said The Independent, and it’s not just farmers who should be concerned.

How bad is it?
Jeremy Clarkson, who runs the Diddly Squat farm in Oxfordshire, warned months ago that this year’s harvest was on track to be “catastrophic”, said The Telegraph. He wasn’t far off. The 2025 harvest was the second worst on record, after 2020, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with 2024 in third place.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board predicted yields this year of 7.6 tonnes per hectare for wheat, 6.7 tonnes for winter barley, 5.8 tonnes for spring barley, 5.2 tonnes for oats and 3.7 tonnes for oilseed rape. But according to government data, actual yields were significantly lower at, respectively, 7.0 tonnes, 6.5 tonnes, 5.0 tonnes, 4.6 tonnes and 3.5 tonnes.

Why is this happening?
Months of “scorching heat followed by sudden deluges” have left Britain’s farmers “watching once-reliable crops wither, shrivel or rot in the ground”, said The Independent. The “pattern of the year” has been that “crops have come early, caused by the unusually dry and sunny weather beginning in March and April” – the “hottest spring in a century”.

An “increasingly unpredictable climate and extreme weather” are “making it much harder to produce food”, the National Farmers’ Union’s Jamie Burrows told the Press Association. While last year’s harvest was marked by heavy rain and flooding, the main problem this year was drought: two extremes that show “growing crops in the UK is increasingly challenging”.

What are the knock-on effects?
As well as “hitting farmers hard”, global warming is “impacting UK supermarket shelves and the food we put on our tables” as consumer prices soar, Greenpeace UK climate campaigner Philip Evans told The Independent.

Shocking! Women use exclamation marks three times more often than men, according to new research. 

This gender divide marks the latest “battleground” in the world of punctuation,  said Melanie McDonagh in London’s The Standard. Exclamation marks have been found to convey warmth and enthusiasm, but also a perceived lack of power or an inability to think analytically. And as a woman, “that’s a particular gender stereotype you don’t want to play into”.

‘Grammatical whoopee cushion’
Exclamation marks are “suggestive of a bright smile” and a “non-confrontational stance”, which can “suggest that the user is desperate to seem nice”, said McDonagh. 

“Like many women,” said Carol Midgley in The Times, “I live in terror of seeming slightly brusque.” This may explain the “contagion of exclamation marks everywhere”, even in sympathy notes – which is akin to “offering your condolences while wearing clown shoes”. Overusing exclamation marks is “irritating and moronic”, tantamount to admitting you need the punctuation to “signpost your jocularity with a grammatical whoopee cushion”.

‘Men harbouring urges’
The “big news” from the new study, due to be published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, is that “you can probably relax” whatever your gender, said Pilita Clark in the Financial Times. The research found that people who use exclamation marks are not “deemed less competent” by colleagues, but are seen as more likeable. That’s reassuring not only for women but for “men harbouring urges to be more exclamative”.

With much of our communication now taking place online, without the aid of facial cues or gestures, “punctuation’s job description has gotten more demanding”, said Time magazine. And the exclamation mark is not the only type of punctuation with baggage. Other research suggests that omitting full stops “is a way people communicate that they’re feeling relaxed – which means suddenly dropping one into a conversation can express anger or irritation”.

A woman steers a boat along a flooded street in Vietnam’s port city of Hoi An. Heavy rains have lashed the country’s central coastal provinces this week, triggering flash floods that have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

Nhac Nguyen / AFP / Getty Images

An arboretum is a prime place to enjoy the beauty of the changing seasons, as leaves turn beautiful shades of russet, orange and gold. Here are some of the best across the UK to visit this autumn.

Winkworth Arboretum, Surrey
This 120-acre National Trust woodland near Godalming is home to more than 1,000 shrubs and trees. In autumn, the clear waters of the “mirror-like” lake reflect the “fiery colours” of the maples, oaks and sweetgums, and make for a fantastic photo opportunity.

Dyffryn Gardens, Vale of Glamorgan
Keep an eye out for the “fungi popping up in the shady, damp spots between the trees” in these sprawling gardens in St Nicholas, near Cardiff, said The Independent. You’ll also find Japanese acer trees in “reddish and gold hues”, while the decaying leaves of katsura trees infuse the air with scent.

Kilmun Arboretum, Argyll and Bute
Some 260 tree species from around the world were planted in these Scottish woodlands in 1930 as an “experiment”, said BBC Countryfile. Almost a century later, 150 remain, including “Chilean southern beech, silver firs, coastal redwoods, Oregon maples and mighty giant sequoias”, creating an “exotic Eden on the shores of Holy Loch”.

Thorp Perrow Arboretum, Yorkshire
Thorp Perrow has “some of the largest and rarest trees and shrubs in England”, said The Independent. The 100-acre arboretum near Bedale also houses five National Plant collections, along with other family-friendly attractions including “bird of prey displays, a mammal centre, seasonal trails, guided tours and workshops”.

We’ve underestimated the power of humour in political revolutions
James Kanagasooriam in The Times
“Political humour” is “a deadly serious matter”, writes polling expert James Kanagasooriam. Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, “the two great populist figures of our age”, have cultivated humour that is “instrumental, not incidental, to their success”. Across the pond, Donald Trump’s one-liners offer “perpetual content to distract”. Such “patter matters as much to voting choice as policy”: in a “sea of negativity”, voters are drawn to leaders who appear to “drink deeply from the well of cheerfulness”.

Trump is often angry but rarely hurt – yet Canada has managed to pull it off
Emma Brockes in The Guardian
“Almost everything” makes Donald Trump angry, writes Emma Brockes, but now we’ve learned what “really sends him round the bend”. The US president has “called off” trade talks with Canada over an Ontario-funded ad featuring a clip of Ronald Reagan “denouncing tariffs”. Reagan has come to stand for “the soul of the Republican party”, and the implied comparison “clearly struck some very particular nerve” for Trump, triggering a “piercing” and “painful collapse in his self-delusion”.

Hurricane Melissa: Do we need new ‘category 6’ for most extreme storms?
Thomas Moore on Sky News 
With sustained wind speeds of 185mph, Hurricane Melissa is “the second strongest Atlantic storm on record”, writes Thomas Moore. But “rising sea temperatures” are “driving” winds “faster and faster”, and “future hurricanes could be even more intense”. The “five-level Saffir-Simpson” category scale “doesn’t cut it anymore”:  a “new top tier” is needed for hurricanes with winds faster than 192mph. If global warming continues, there will be hurricanes “which could reach that bar for category 6”.