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Dwindling donations and stiff competition from secondhand sellers online prompt review but ‘no plans for closures yet’

Oxfam is reviewing the operations of its three warehouses in Batley, Bicester and Milton Keynes and says it “cannot give guarantees” on the future of its high street shops in a “difficult economic climate”.

The charity said it had no plans to close warehouses or shops but insiders fear that Batley, which houses Oxfam’s main textile recycling centre, will shut as part of a cost-cutting drive because the West Yorkshire site’s lease is up for renewal.

Five hundred people turn up to adopt plants from conservatory that will reopen in 2030 after renovation project

Above the waxy monstera leaves and bright pink hibiscus flowers in the Barbican conservatory hangs a giant net to catch the panes of glass that are at risk of falling from the ceiling on the unwitting plant lovers below.

This precarious situation has caused the estate to shutter its greenhouse on the third and fourth floors for three years so a full refurbishment can take place. But the hiatus has a silver lining for many of those who visited on Wednesday to give the plants from the conservatory a new home.

Sun-drying tomatoes until they’re leathery on the outside and soft within is something of an art, but it’s more than worth it for this moreish pasta dish

One set of guidelines I received in Sicily for sun-drying tomatoes was two to seven days, depending on temperature, humidity, wind and the size of the fruit. I might as well have been given a surfboard and told “go”, because that advice felt far too broad and general to be helpful to a complete beginner. So I asked someone else.

For them, with an ideal temperatures of 35C and low humidity, trays of egg-sized tomato halves arranged on wire racks on wooden boards, sprinkled with salt and left in full sun during the day, and taken in at night, generally took three days to reach the desirable point: dry enough to store, but still with a flexibility and sweet chew. From broad to specific, this advice also felt overwhelming: What if the temperature changes or turns humid? What are the signs of humidity? What if my tomatoes are bigger than eggs? What happens if it rains? In the end, though, between these two extremes of advice and temperatures swinging between being in the pleasant 20Cs and burning 40Cs, too much humidity, rain (bring them inside) and not being particularly organised, I have managed to – relatively successfully – dry batches of tomatoes of all shapes and sizes.

Five hundred people turn up to adopt plants from conservatory that will reopen in 2030 after renovation project

Above the waxy monstera leaves and bright pink hibiscus flowers in the Barbican conservatory hangs a giant net to catch the panes of glass that are at risk of falling from the ceiling on the unwitting plant lovers below.

This precarious situation has caused the estate to shutter its greenhouse on the third and fourth floors for three years so a full refurbishment can take place. But the hiatus has a silver lining for many of those who visited on Wednesday to give the plants from the conservatory a new home.

Dwindling donations and stiff competition from secondhand sellers online prompt review but ‘no plans for closures yet’

Oxfam is reviewing the operations of its three warehouses in Batley, Bicester and Milton Keynes and says it “cannot give guarantees” on the future of its high street shops in a “difficult economic climate”.

The charity said it had no plans to close warehouses or shops but insiders fear that Batley, which houses Oxfam’s main textile recycling centre, will shut as part of a cost-cutting drive because the West Yorkshire site’s lease is up for renewal.

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.

Many species under threat use the African-Eurasian flyway, one of the planet’s largest mass-migration systems

It may still feel like summer, but in the world of birds, autumn migration is already well under way. Cuckoos and swifts have already left us, and while swallows and many species of warbler will not depart our shores until September, many species of Arctic-breeding waders have begun to stop off at our coastal marshes to refuel for their long journey south.

This year, however, there could be fewer than usual. A review by the British Trust for Ornithology, working with other international conservation organisations, has found that more than half of these global travellers are suffering major declines in numbers – a worrying downward trend. Many of those under threat use the African-Eurasian flyway, one of the largest mass-migration systems on the planet.

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

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare?

Tim Martin may have spent the better part of a decade trying to convince people that leaving the EU was the only way to secure cheap pub grub, but credit where credit is due: JD Wetherspoon is banning people from blasting out TikToks, videos and music on speakerphone in its pubs. The pub chain has not, however, banned you from asking Thursday quiz questions out loud and then showing off that you know your feral hogs from your escaped macaques. So get to it. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 261

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.

US president pivots towards ‘crushing’ economic operation against Iran and its trading partners as military strikes fail to bring Tehran to the table

Donald Trump has announced a new campaign to isolate Iran’s economy, threatening “tremendous economic consequences” on any country that helps or does business with Tehran, a move that could set up a fresh confrontation with China if implemented.

“Today, I am announcing the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Any country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face tremendous economic consequences.”

US president pivots towards ‘crushing’ economic operation against Iran and its trading partners as military strikes fail to bring Tehran to the table

Donald Trump has announced a new campaign to isolate Iran’s economy, threatening “tremendous economic consequences” on any country that helps or does business with Tehran, a move that could set up a fresh confrontation with China if implemented.

“Today, I am announcing the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Any country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face tremendous economic consequences.”

Ben Carroll releases terms of reference for inquiry that will include examining allegations of CFMEU corruption on state government building sites

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“Nothing is off limits” to Victoria’s royal commission into the construction sector, Ben Carroll has said, as he released the inquiry’s terms of reference and confirmed former premiers and ministers could be called to face public hearings.

The Victorian premier on Thursday unveiled details of the inquiry – while acknowledging there had been “grift”, “thuggery” and “violence” on taxpayer-funded building sites – after the governor signed the letters patent formally establishing the commission earlier in the morning.

Newton Flotman, Norfolk: It looks like a toilet brush yet predates the dinosaurs. I can’t help but give it a stroke by the roadside, even if I get strange looks

The rural road is flanked with a bank of green fuzz. It’s jungly and verdant – lush in a landscape that has turned brown and yellow from drought. I run my hand over the green bristles erupting from a bamboo-like stem.

Equisetum arvense, or field horsetail, looks fluffy, but it is wiry and rough. One could serve effectively as a toilet brush. The bristles are rich in abrasive silicon, which gives the texture of sandpaper. This explains another of equisetum’s common names, scouring rush, from when it was used to clean wood and polish metal. If you are careful, a hollow jointed stem can be separated at its junction and then rejoined like children’s tubular pipes for building, slotting back in a satisfying way.

Crown prosecutor tells Victorian court that all seven of Patterson’s grounds for appeal should fail while arguing for tougher sentence

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Triple murderer Erin Patterson should have been given no possibility of ever being released from prison, or a non-parole period so lengthy that she was likely to die behind bars, Victoria’s highest court has heard.

Patterson, 51, is appealing against her convictions in the court of appeal, with the director of public prosecutions is also appealing against the sentence handed down to her, arguing it is “manifestly inadequate”.

Я построил автономную систему с ИИ-продактом и командой агентов-исполнителей, которая круглосуточно в несколько потоков закрывает задачи продуктового бэклога. Делюсь опытом, как я пришёл к такой схеме, что из этого получилось и при чём тут "Весёлая ферма".

The Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm creator says Dershowitz, who also defended Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein, ‘only has himself to blame’ for being ostracised

Larry David has opened up about the collapse of his friendship with Alan Dershowitz, saying that Dershowitz “made a deal with the devil” when he became Donald Trump’s lawyer.

Dershowitz, a former Harvard University law professor, has been a member of legal teams for Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, OJ Simpson and Harvey Weinstein at various points in his career, and served on Trump’s defense team during the president’s first impeachment trial in 2020.

Merck и Moderna объявили об успехе третьей фазы испытаний интисмерана аутогена — персонализированной мРНК-вакцины от рака, известной ранее как mRNA-4157. В исследовании INTerpath-001 участвовали 1137 пациентов с полностью удаленной меланомой стадий IIB–IV: одна группа получала стандартную терапию, пембролизумаб (он же "Китруда"), другая — то же самое плюс вакцину. При заранее запланированном промежуточном анализе комбинация обошла стандарт и по первичной конечной точке (время до возврата болезни), и по ключевой вторичной (время до появления отдаленных метастазов). Это первый в истории положительный результат третьей фазы для мРНК-вакцины против рака — направления, от которого прорыва ждали больше десяти лет, но которое ни разу не доходило до победы в решающем испытании.

For most of modern history, technology sought to imitate humans. Humans increasingly seek to imitate technology

Two faces that appeared on my Instagram feed in recent months gave me pause. One belonged to John Travolta at Cannes. The other to Carla Bruni on a date night with her husband, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Both looked recognisably themselves, yet, they both also looked oddly unfamiliar. Their looks have provoked speculation about cosmetic enhancement, though never acknowledged by them. Bruni has previously denied having had work done.

In any case the feeling lasted only a second: a flicker of unease, as though I were looking at people who had become approximations of themselves.

Joseph de Weck is an associate fellow with the German Council on Foreign Relations and writes for Guardian Europe from Zürich and Paris

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.

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

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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.

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.

Clary’s back with Fully Dilated, a burlesque star called Entendre Entendre is doing lewd singalongs and there’s an A-Z of very dirty words. Our writer investigates Edinburgh’s smut outbreak – and ends up getting his own fantasies turned into erotica

On a street in Edinburgh, a woman I’ve only just met is quizzing me on my sexual fantasies. “Do you want softcore or hardcore? What positions do you prefer?” asks Cameryn Moore, a former phone sex operator turned playwright from the US, along with other, less printable, questions.

Her business plan is simple: for £20, punters can tell Moore what turns them on. She will then bash out a piece of bespoke erotic fiction for them on her typewriter. “I listen to their content then spit it out on paper – no punctuation, very stream of consciousness,” she says. “I also offer to read it out loud to them – and they walk away grinning from ear to ear because nobody’s ever asked them what they like when it comes to sex. So that’s what I do every day at the fringe: sit down for four or five hours a day and crank out dirty shit.” She calls the service Sidewalk Smut.

Prof Gustaf Hugelius warns wildfires could accelerate release of methane and carbon as vast regions approach irreversible thresholds

Heatwaves and wildfires are not just scorching forests, they are adding to the tipping point risks in the world’s vast permafrost regions, which contain three times more carbon than all the living vegetation on Earth.

This is a major concern for Gustaf Hugelius, a professor at the Bolin Centre of Climate Research at Stockholm University, Sweden, and a leading authority on the risks from thawing tundra and peatlands. In this Q&A, he explains why the world should pay attention.

Missile and drone attack one of heaviest since war began, with children’s hospital and residential areas hit

A heavy Russian missile and drone bombardment has killed at least 16 people in and around Kyiv in one of the most intense aerial attacks on Ukraine’s capital since the start of the war.

Vitali Klitschko, the city’s mayor, said homes, a school and a children’s medical centre were among the buildings damaged overnight in an attack that began at about midnight and was continuing into the early afternoon.

Initial report from ‘thick and dense terrain’ where Hooper was located was she had been found alive but within 10 minutes a ‘more accurate account’ was relayed to police

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The body of missing 18-year-old bushwalker Lily Hooper has been found in a remote New South Wales national park more than a week after she set out on her hike.

Police have apologised “unreservedly” for wrongly suggesting Hooper had been alive when she was found by SES search volunteers off the walking trail in the state’s southern highlands on Thursday morning.

Independent senator urges prime minister to reconsider, arguing $5,000 cap for allied health services did not go far enough

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Jacqui Lambie has slammed Labor over its controversial $5,000 cap for allied health services for veterans, and accused it of a “callous disregard for veterans’ health and wellbeing”.

The independent Tasmanian senator told the Senate in a fiery speech on Wednesday of her own medical battles, and said the department of veterans affairs had shown “no duty of care”.