This time of year can feel like a fresh start for some, as the air clears of humidity and harsh hot temperatures. For gardeners, though, it can often feel like slowly letting go. Our gardens lose their flourish for a couple of seasons, leaving behind brown leaves and memories of a bold, bright summer.

However, it’s this ending of the season that can help us to look ahead. Planting in beddings and borders before heading into a quieter hibernation period is a reminder of hope. Whatever we have ahead of us in the next six months, we know there will be life flowering and flourishing at the other side of it.

Gardens teach us, if nothing else, that hope springs eternal.

For those first spring flourishes, now is the time to sow hardy annuals such as cerinthes, cornflowers, marigolds and chrysanthemums. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) advises: “It should be noted that although these plants usually withstand frosty conditions without protection, some hardy annuals may need covering with biodegradable horticultural fleece
or a cloche when a heavy frost is forecast. Check the seed packets for full details.”

Gardeners’ World adds: “Plant spring bulbs in autumn, including crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths, bluebells and snake’s-head fritillaries in pots and borders.”

For your pots and borders, now is the time to plant wallflowers, pansies and forget-me-nots.

Don’t forget to also lift, divide and replant congested clumps of perennials once they have finished flowering, too.

Now that autumn leaves are starting to fall, cover any ponds with netting to protect them from leaves falling in and rotting alongside any usual pond maintenance.

As we are expected to have a particularly windy autumn and winter period, ensure that tree ties and plant supports are in place and secure to avoid any harm during storms.

Finally, clean and disinfect bird feeders to protect birds from disease. If you have any remaining sunflower seeds, these may now be placed in your usual seed mixes for birds.

For those who have indoor plants, this is now the time to start winding down your watering schedule. The RHS advises: “In winter, houseplants can be left for a week or two without water as long as the room temperature is cool, but does not fall below the minimum tolerated.”

We have all done it. Watched a TikTok video about a health condition and thought to ourselves that, actually, we might have that too. In fact, during an average evening scroll through social media, I could probably diagnose myself with 3-5 conditions that I had never previously heard of before.

This is because, according to Josef Newton, founder of the health anxiety app Condri, our repeated exposure to rapid-form health content makes us reinterpret or even experience symptoms we hadn’t noticed before. This is called ‘symptom borrowing’.

‘Symptom borrowing’ is a term used to describe an instance where frequent exposure to somebody else’s symptoms leads you to progressively notice, reinterpret or expect similar sensations and behaviours in yourself.

“This does not mean that a person is consciously copying, pretending or imagining an illness”, says Newton.

“The sensations may feel entirely real. Instead, attention, expectation and anxiety can amplify everyday physical feelings or behaviours that previously went unnoticed.”

Additionally, because of the intelligent nature of algorithms, it only takes a small number of interactions with a topic for it to fill your feed. This can make a relatively common diagnosis feel both familiar and personally relevant.

Newton urges: “The concern here is that few content creators are medical professionals and serve anecdotal evidence only”.

Research by the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry analysed 100 TikTok videos that centred around the topic of ADHD, finding that 52% were classified as misleading. 21% were categorised as useful, whilst the misleading videos were mostly uploaded by creators who are not healthcare professionals.

“Social media often provides valuable education, language and validation, but short-form videos don’t replicate clinical assessments”, says Newton.

“Of course, TikTok can be the reason a user recognises a genuine problem and seeks support, which is a positive. It becomes problematic when recognition evolves into monitoring. Once you have learnt a list of symptoms, your brain may begin to search for them.”

One of the clearest and simplest warning signs is that you cannot remember being concerned about a symptom until you watched a video describing it.

You may watch a video, and after acknowledging a particular condition, consciously or subconsciously scan your body, memory or behaviour to obtain supporting evidence. For instance, a person who watches content about chronic shoulder pain may suddenly grow conscious of every change in their arms and shoulders. Someone watching videos about a short attention span may begin recording every occasion where they become distracted.

Such eventualities often align with selective attention. In other words, when the brain decides that a sensation or behaviour is important, it becomes easier to detect.

“A great example of this is if somebody asks you to notice how your tongue feels in your mouth; it suddenly becomes difficult to ignore”, Newton explains.

“The sensation was always there, but attention has made it prominent. Health videos can replicate a similar effect.”

Great, now I’m aware of my tongue all over again.

However, he urges: “This does not prove that a symptom is insignificant, but timing matters. Ask yourself whether it existed consistently before you encountered the content, whether other people had noticed it and whether it caused meaningful difficulty in your everyday life.”

A clear signal that you’re symptom borrowing is if your health concern regularly evolves or changes according to whatever symptoms are dominating your For You Page.

One week, tiredness and poor concentration may signal ADHD, whereas the next indicate burnout, long COVID, or low iron. Essentially, rather than beginning with a stable pattern of difficulties and seeking an explanation, the diagnosis arrives first, and your experiences are moulded around it.

Watching a video once may prompt useful reflection. Repeatedly checking yourself afterwards may serve as symptom borrowing.

This might involve monitoring your pulse, examining your skin, testing your memory, comparing your behaviour with online checklists or repeatedly asking friends whether they have noticed a particular trait. The NHS lists frequent body checking, seeking reassurance, and obsessively looking at health information among the behaviours associated with health anxiety.

“If you find yourself always checking your symptoms, make an effort to ask yourself what the checking is achieving and what is your objective,” Newton advises.

“If checking your symptoms or watching another video calms you for only a few minutes before you need to do it again, it is probably maintaining the fear rather than answering it.”

To hold the viewers’ attention, short-form health videos are designed for viewers to quickly recognise themselves. As a result, general and ultimately common experiences such as procrastinating, feeling awkward at parties or becoming tired after socialising may be positioned as symptoms of a certain condition.

Someone caught in a symptom-borrowing cycle may accumulate several possible diagnoses, even when those labels are based on disconnected traits rather than one clear clinical history. They may even begin rewriting ordinary memories through the lens of the content they have consumed.

“It’s important to recognise relatability Vs diagnostic accuracy”, says Newton.

“Content reels rarely provide context and instead focus solely on the result. Rather than asking how many online symptoms you can match, consider three things: how long they have been present, whether they appear in several areas of your life and whether they create significant impairment.”

Reliable health information should help you understand your options and decide whether to seek appropriate support. Symptom borrowing tends to do the opposite.

You may finish one video feeling reassured, only for the next to introduce a new symptom, exception or worst-case scenario. You save dozens of posts, read the comments for confirmation and continue scrolling because certainty always appears to be one more video away.

Newton advises: “Pay attention to how you feel after consuming the content. If you are more frightened, confused or compelled to keep searching, the videos are no longer functioning as useful health education.

“Set a clear boundary: write down the concern, step away from symptom content and consult an appropriate professional or reputable medical source. One qualified conversation is likely to be more useful than another hour of conflicting videos.”

Symptom borrowing should never be used to dismiss a new, persistent or worsening health problem. Short-form content can sometimes help people recognise symptoms they had previously overlooked, particularly where a condition has historically been misunderstood.

However, social media should be treated as a prompt to seek reliable information, not as a diagnostic tool.

Ministers have hit back at Argentina after the country’s president Javier Milei renewed his country’s supposed claim over the Falkland Islands.

In an overnight national address, Milei alleged “winds of change favourable” to Argentina were “blowing around the world” after Donald Trump hinted he could reconsider the US’s position on the British overseas territory.

Argentina has long claimed sovereignty over the archipelago which it calls “Las Malvinas”, even though the Falkland population overwhelmingly voted to remain British in a 2013 referendum.

Milei also threatened to issue sanctions on oil companies near the south Atlantic islands, claiming they were working “under the British occupation”.

Production at the Sea Lion oilfield in the region, which is owned by an Israeli and a British firm, is due to begin in 2028.

But UK defence secretary Wes Streeting said on X: “Milei’s statement overnight tells us more about domestic politics in Argentina than it does about the Falkland Islands.

“The Falklands are British because Falkland Islanders choose to be British. Our commitment to the Falklands is absolute and unshakeable.”

Foreign secretary Ed Miliband said this week that the UK’s position was “unwavering”.

He added that the islands are “British and will remain so because that is the overwhelming position of the islanders.”

“Their right of self-determination is paramount, grounded in international law and we will resolutely uphold it,” Miliband said.

In a referendum in 2013, 99.8% of Falkland Islanders voted to remain British.

Labour MP and chair of the Foreign Affairs select committee, Emily Thornberry, also wrote on X: “President Trump would be well advised to put more thought and effort into a negotiated resolution of his war with Iran and less into trying to pick fights with one of America’s oldest and most loyal allies. #Falklands.”

The rising tensions come after the US president suggested America would not support the UK in a future conflict over the Falklands.

He told GB News that Britain was “not there to help me” with the Iran conflict, referring to Keir Starmer’s refusal to send a warship to help America re-open the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump said earlier this week that he was “reviewing” America’s position on the Falklands, too.

Overnight, Milei said: “I want to be quite clear with everybody. The Falklands are Argentinian. Historically and legally.

“There can be no argument. They are part of the Argentine territory.

“The islanders on their usurped territory do not have a legitimate right to self-determination and any argument on any such self-determination is invalid.”

Milei said Trump and the US was “assessing their historical position in regard to the Falklands”.

“That is not empty words as they understand that Argentina is a reliable partner and a valuable ally for decades to come,” he said

“Our role and relevance as a country in the world has changed dramatically.

“The Falklands are our future – we need to recover these islands which are nationally relevant. There is no other path forward.

“It is the best way of paying tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for this cause. It is our obligation as a nation to honour their memory.”

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

Nigel Farage has insisted Reform UK has done “nothing wrong” after a sting operation raised questions over the party’s foreign donations.

Speaking just as Reform’s annual conference begins in Birmingham, the party leader tried to shrug off an explosive undercover report from Channel 4 News which has already caused two of his aides to step down.

Investigative journalists from Verbatim have accused the party of allegedly taking funding from a US company to commission three supposedly independent polls at £32,500 earlier this year.

Reform’s head of policy James Orr and Farage’s close aide Dan Jukes organised the donation. They were unaware the donors were actually undercover reporters from the investigative group Verbatim.

The journalists, posing as an American father and his British son “William Lockwood”, also suggested donating £500,000 to Reform UK.

British electoral law says political donations can only be made by someone eligible to vote in the UK or a UK-registered company.

Jukes allegedly proposed a way for them to work around the law by sending the US funds via the British son.

Farage spoke out for the first time about the investigation on Friday morning, telling LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: “The party has broken no laws. The party has not taken any dodgy money or anything like that whatsoever.”

He accused the reporters of “entrapment” after getting “a couple of our contractors to say things that perhaps should not have been said”.

The Clacton MP admitted: “I’m not happy about it.”

He also defended the polls themselves, saying: “There’s no question of illegality over the polling whatsoever.

“Whilst the poll benefited Reform, it wasn’t commissioned by Reform. It had nothing to do with Reform.”

He also claimed “the polling is not even an issue”, adding: “The party has not done anything wrong, but entrapped conversations don’t look good, and that’s why we’ve taken the action we have.”

On his top allies stepping down, Farage added: “The issue is when they talked about putting money in that might have come originally from America… But on the face of it, they said things that shouldn’t have been said.”

Reform UK has launched an internal investigation over the incident.

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

Miriam Margolyes is facing criticism over comments she made to Andi Peters during her latest appearance on This Morning.

On Thursday morning, the Bafta was interviewed by Andi and co-host Christine Lampard live on the ITV daytime show about her new book Miriam’s Full English, in which she reflects on modern-day British culture.

During the conversation, Miriam began imitating Christine’s Northern Irish lilt, before turning to Andi and asking: “What accent would be normal for you? What are you?”

“What am I?” Andi responded, to which Miriam said: “Well, you’re a mix, aren’t you? You’ve got a Black daddy and a white mummy?”

“No, no, both my parents are Black,” he then clarified, with Miriam going on to comment more on his skin colour.

Making light of the situation, Andi questioned whether the show’s make-up team had made him a “lighter shade than normal”, before the Harry Potter star remarked: “I think you’re what I would call ‘high yella’. That’s what they call it in America when someone isn’t deeply Black.”

“High yellow” – described by Merriam Webster as a “dated” and “often offensive” term – was historically used to refer to Black people who had a lighter complexion.

When Andi commented that he “didn’t even know there were shades”, Miriam told him: “There are shades. And this is what we have to incorporate…”

Andi then interrupted to say that the producers in his earpiece were “getting nervous now”, but Miriam then said: “Don’t be nervous. We [in Britain] welcome everybody. And that’s what I want to write about in my book!”

This uncomfortable exchange didn’t sit well with many viewers, some of whom claimed that the exchange was removed from the conversation when the broadcast was made available to watch on ITV’s catch-up services.

HuffPost UK has contacted representatives for Miriam Margolyes, Andi Peters and This Morning for comment.

Over the years, Miriam has become known for candid and unfiltered approach in interviews.

However, this has led to controversy on some occasions, including back in 2024, when she, again, asked an interviewer “what are you?” while speaking live on an Australian panel show.

This Morning airs every weekday from 10am on ITV1 and ITVX.

Practical Magic 2 hasn’t even hit cinemas yet, but Sandra Bullock already has an idea for a third instalment.

The cult classic film’s star alluded to the possibility of a Practical Magic 3 in a new interview with Vanity Fair.

“We’ll do a number three if this takes off,” Sandra said, claiming a third movie would “pass the torch to the girls”, referencing her on-screen daughters Joey King and Maisie Williams, who play Kylie and Antonia Owens in the upcoming sequel.

Practical Magic 2, the follow-up to the 1998 autumnal favourite, brings back Sandra and Nicole Kidman as the magical Owens sisters, with Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest also returning as the guiding aunts who raised them.

However, this time around, Nicole and Sandra step into the role of advisers, with an official synopsis for the film teasing: “A multi-generational family of witches, cursed to be loveless for centuries, attempts to break the spell by confronting dark secrets and sacrificing for each other.”

Practical Magic 2 centres on Kylie and Antonia after they inherit the family’s magical legacy, unaware of the curse that comes with someone falling in love with them.

Sandra told People earlier this week that honouring generations of women inspired her and Nicole to return to the Owens’ family story.

“We forget that our mothers and grandmothers were young women with dreams and hopes and desires as well. And we never looked at them as human beings like that,” the Oscar winner explained.

“They were just Mom and Grandma. So in this, we get to look behind the curtain and go, ‘I didn’t know you felt that way, I didn’t know you were longing’.”

Sandra’s comments about any upcoming film focusing on the next generation come days after the original film’s Kylie Owens, Evan Rachel Wood, spoke out about being replaced by Joey King without being notified.

“I really appreciated Joey King reaching out to me, because no one who worked on the original film did,” Evan said in an Instagram story earlier this week. “She’s a sweetheart.”

Director Susanne Bier told Variety at the premiere earlier this week that replacing Evan with Joey wasn’t “a personal thing”.

“It was that the kids in the story are right out of college, and so it wasn’t really a question, you know? We had to recast,” she explained.

Practical Magic 2 releases in cinemas on 11 September

I don’t know about you but I’ve noticed a lot of spiders indoors of late – from the bulbous ones making Halloween-esque webs in my garage, to the smaller ones gracing each and every window frame, to the spindly lass who decided to have a billion babies in a suitcase under my bed (not a fun find).

Autumn is typically deemed peak spider season in the UK – that is, the time when spiders head indoors to find a mate and we see a lot more of them. But are there more this year? And did spider season happen upon us earlier than usual?

Professor Adam Hart, an ecologist, conservation scientist and entomologist at the University of Gloucestershire, told HuffPost UK: “There does seem to be a perception that ‘spider season’ has started slightly earlier this year, and anecdotally I’ve noticed house spiders appearing a little earlier myself.

“I’ve seen several over the last couple of weeks, whereas I’d normally expect them to become particularly noticeable around the beginning to middle of September.”

That said, he doesn’t think it’s “dramatically early” for them to be making an appearance in people’s homes.

“The spiders haven’t suddenly appeared or necessarily come into the house because autumn has arrived,” he added.

“Many house spiders live in and around our homes throughout the year. What changes in late summer and autumn is that adult males become much more mobile as they wander around looking for females, which is why we suddenly see these large spiders running across floors or becoming trapped in baths.”

We’ve also had a pretty hot summer which means windows will have been left open on repeat, giving spiders a free pass to head inside. Another reason why you might be seeing a lot more of them than usual.

Prof Hart noted preventing spiders is “much easier than trying to repel spiders once they’re inside”.

That said, he’s pretty sceptical of some of the more traditional spider deterrents (think conkers and peppermint oil) as there “isn’t convincing evidence that putting these around the home provides reliable protection against spiders”.

So, how can you prevent them from coming inside then? “If people really don’t want spiders entering the house, the most useful measures are physical ones: insect screens on open windows and doors, sealing obvious gaps around windows, doors and pipes, and using draught excluders where appropriate,” he said.

But it’s also worth remembering that spiders are beneficial predators. “They feed on flies and many of the other small invertebrates that share our homes, so if a spider is living unobtrusively somewhere, leaving it alone is often the easiest option,” he added.

Not everyone is enthralled by the prospect of sharing their home with spiders, so if you do spot one, the best way to get it outside again is with a glass and a piece of card.

“Put a glass or other container gently over the spider, slide a piece of reasonably stiff card underneath and carry it somewhere suitable,” said Prof Hart.

“There are also some useful spider-removal products you can buy and their long handles often make them easier to use if you really aren’t keen on spiders.”

If you spot a big old house spider in your home, he suggests popping it in a shed, garage or other sheltered location “because these spiders are strongly associated with buildings and sheltered environments”.

And if you find one in your bath, it’s not necessarily because it’s climbed up your plughole Incy Wincy-style. “Spiders generally fall into baths and then can’t climb the smooth sides. You can remove it with a glass and card, or simply provide something such as a towel over the side that it can climb up,” added the expert.

If your home is particularly appealing to spiders, you might spot the odd egg sac knocking around too. “Firstly, don’t panic. An egg sac doesn’t necessarily mean you’re about to have hundreds of large spiders running around the house,” continued Prof Hart.

“Different species have very different reproductive cycles and the spiderlings that emerge are tiny and disperse.”

If the sac is somewhere unobtrusive, he suggests there’s no need to do anything with it. But if you genuinely don’t want it inside, he recommends “carefully moving it, ideally with the female if she is obviously guarding it, to a sheltered location such as a shed, garage or outbuilding, rather than destroying it”.