24 Hours News Cafe

PSG v Barcelona - Europe's most exciting match-up?

2026-10-20T02:01:39.240-07:00

Paris St-Germain and Barcelona, the current top two in this season's Champions League, meet on Tuesday.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/NoL9kIv

‘A beautiful dismantling of cynicism’: why Galaxy Quest is my feelgood movie

2026-10-19T02:23:34.552-07:00

The latest in our series of writers detailing their most easily rewatched comfort films is an appreciation of a smart, funny and tender ode to fan culture

“By Grabthar’s hammer, by the sons of Worvan … you shall be avenged.”

If you have seen Galaxy Quest, those words may bring you close to tears. They mark the moment when Alan Rickman’s character – a Shakespearean luvvie turned sci-fi sidekick – realises that the ludicrous catchphrase he has reluctantly uttered thousands of times does matter after all.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/p6JSYbX

More peas, please! 17 delicious ways to devour Britain’s most brilliant vegetable

2026-10-18T02:23:33.412-07:00

They’re healthy, versatile, sustainable and available. Yet pea consumption in the UK is at a 50-year low. Here are the curries, dips, pasta dishes and even cakes that could turn all that around

It’s not good news for the pea farmers: pea consumption in the UK has fallen to a 50-year low. According to data from Defra, the average Briton ate just 37g of peas per week in 2025, down from 144g per week in 1975.

Though a classic British staple, peas are not for everybody. Apparently only 22% of gen Z associate peas with Britain at all (which is patently ridiculous: 90% of the peas we consume in the UK are grown here, while we produce about 160,000 tonnes for freezing alone each year).

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/ZBmhX53

New Zealand avoid World Cup shock against Fiji

2026-10-18T02:01:25.841-07:00

New Zealand women are given a World Cup "wake-up call" after they are forced to come from behind to beat debutants Fiji in their opening game.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/qKlp0Lj

Honeybees are barging aside wild pollinators in hunt for pollen and nectar, study finds

2026-10-17T02:23:23.504-07:00

As a surge in beekeepers has lead to increased numbers of honeybees, researchers record them pushing bumblebees and other rival species away from flowers

Honeybees are outcompeting wild pollinators for resources by aggressively bumping into them and chasing them away from flowers, research has shown.

The study, by researchers from Anglia Ruskin University, found that areas where there were higher concentrations of honeybees had fewer wild pollinators, such as bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/UpbmTFh

Eight-try Australia send Scotland to eighth straight defeat

2026-10-17T02:01:50.266-07:00

Scotland suffer a chastening eight-try defeat by Australia in their WXV Global Series match in Sydney.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/8WOoVB3

John Green: ‘I devoured the Sweet Valley High books in the 1980s’

2026-10-16T02:23:18.924-07:00

The American author on being inspired by Kurt Vonnegut, coming late to Jane Austen, and the brilliance of Robert Penn Warren

My earliest reading memory
I remember learning to read with dull stories about Jane going up a hill, but my earliest thrilling reading memories are of series like The Baby-Sitters Club and Sweet Valley High. In the highly gendered reading days of the 1980s, I knew those books were for girls, but I devoured them.

My favourite book growing up
Besides the girls of The Baby-Sitters Club, I loved books about survival and perseverance, especially Gary Paulsen’s The Island, in which a boy discovers a secluded island and ventures there to learn about the natural world.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/IBfSR9p

Kartal upsets Svitolina to reach Wuhan semi-finals

2026-10-16T02:01:22.914-07:00

Sonay Kartal's winning streak following a long injury lay-off continues as she seals a hard-fought victory over fifth seed Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals of the Wuhan Open.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/sg9J2H0

Warning to women after shortages of some HRT products in Northern Ireland

2026-10-15T02:01:34.418-07:00

Two brands of HRT patches, including Estradot transdermal and FemSeven Conti patches, have been affected, the Department of Health has said.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/Wwo40x8

Sali Hughes on beauty: worried about hair loss? Here’s a treatment that actually works

2026-10-14T02:23:18.702-07:00

Many products claim to stop age-related thinning, but this one really works

I’m 51, perimenopausal, and somewhere between the newly distended stomach and the urge to pick fights with fellow passengers on public transport (why have people stopped wearing headphones?), came hair thinning. Brilliant.

It’s not as though I could claim an abundance in the first place. However, hair-loss products were at least something I could explore professionally, so I tested and tested, figuring there must be a column in there somewhere. There wasn’t.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/WAXTtqM

Why the lonely in China are hiring 'temporary children'

2026-10-14T02:01:31.270-07:00

A new industry being dubbed the “loneliness economy” has emerged in China, with people hiring themselves out as companions to help the elderly.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/gEAdqmJ

Houseplant hacks: is it eco-friendly or risky to reuse nursery pots?

2026-10-13T02:23:31.913-07:00

You want to garden sustainably but don’t want to transfer pests to new plants. Here’s how to decide whether to refill or recycle

The problem
Most plant people end up with a never-ending supply of plastic nursery pots, stuffed in cupboards or bags. Throwing them away feels wasteful, but reusing can transfer pests, fungus spores or disease to new plants.

The hack
Reuse them, but clean thoroughly first. Nursery pots are brilliant for houseplants because the drainage holes stop root rot. Water thoroughly and let the excess run out, then slip the pot into something decorative.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/yYclRhf

How much did Man City's rule breaking cost your team?

2026-10-13T02:01:27.745-07:00

The potential impact of Manchester City's rule breaking runs deep, including missed Champions League qualification, relegation and Premier League prize money.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/dIj50YD

DP World Tour to refuse LIV players in 2027 season

2026-10-12T02:01:21.466-07:00

The DP World Tour will not allow LIV Golf players to compete at its events in the 2027 season.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/WbvYMFU

‘We look like soft, made-up blokes, but we’re really tough’: Duran Duran on 80s excess, tabloid scrutiny and their Halloween glow-up

2026-10-11T02:23:39.746-07:00

They spent their heyday on yachts, then rolled up their sleeves in the wilderness years. Ahead of a Halloween show at the O2, pop’s great survivors explain their staying power

In 2022, Duran Duran were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It felt like a big deal, a sweet moment of acknowledgment for the band’s five-decades-long career, the 100m records sold, the string of bulletproof hits: Save a Prayer, Rio, Hungry Like the Wolf, Girls on Film. They were inducted by actor Robert Downey Jr; Drew Barrymore, Naomi Campbell and Gwen Stefani were on hand to pay heartfelt tribute and, as keyboard player Nick Rhodes points out, “It’s a big national live TV broadcast in America that goes out to millions of people,” so the band booked some warm-up shows. “And it so happened that there was a date that came up in Las Vegas on 31 October,” says Rhodes. “And I looked at everyone and said: ‘Well, we can’t do a normal show. Las Vegas on Halloween – surely that’s the opportunity for a little bit of fun?’”

They worked up a set of suitably themed material, including covers of Billie Eilish’s Bury a Friend and Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer. There were, of course, costumes involved, because, as Rhodes drily notes, “When have Duran Duran ever not dressed up?”

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/QwU9dt1

Fixated on AI, the world has forgotten what is staring it in the face: nuclear annihilation | Simon Tisdall

2026-10-11T02:23:33.111-07:00

This is no scoffing matter. The accelerating proliferation of advanced nuclear weapons is bringing ‘end times’ closer by the day

Humankind has fearfully and sometimes joyfully anticipated the end of the world ever since it began. The Bible’s Book of Revelation speaks of “end times”, a period of tribulation, war, famine, plague, floods and environmental catastrophe that may seem a less absurd prospect today than perhaps it once did. Islam, too, posits a fateful day of judgment or day of reckoning. Christian evangelicals believe that, in the final rapture, a chosen few – the righteous or the “elect” – will be saved while sinners burn. It’s a minority view. Matthew’s gospel predicts most people will defy, ignore or ridicule warnings of imminent Armageddon. Peter, another of Jesus’s disciples, agreed: “In the last days, scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.” Yet such worldly scepticism does not mean a universal cataclysm is less likely. It may make it more probable.

Donald Trump’s blanket denials of the dangers ostensibly posed by artificial intelligence, whose uncontrolled development is seen by some as the latest harbinger of apocalypse, could be interpreted as fulfilling Peter’s prophecy. This US president, the nearest thing the world has to a one-man doomsday machine, is a great one for scoffing and evil desires. In Robert Harris’s 2019 novel, The Second Sleep, a worried scientist lists half a dozen ways the world might end. They include devastating climate change, pandemic disease, a giant asteroid collision with Earth, or some other overwhelming calamity. Few heed the fictional scientist’s fears. In the event, what destroys him and almost everybody else is a disturbingly plausible cyber crash – a global digital and internet meltdown.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/YNr9GSt

Kipchoge, 41, breaks course record at Melbourne Marathon

2026-10-11T02:01:40.075-07:00

Double Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge says "his body is still peaking" after winning the Melbourne Marathon in a course record time at the age of 41.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/QmabE1g

Who invented emojis and what do bug eggs look like? The kids’ quiz

2026-10-10T02:23:22.983-07:00

Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes

Submit a question

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/A6Dn1wU

Delight for Scotland's Cuthbert after long summer of recovery

2026-10-10T02:01:20.954-07:00

Erin Cuthbert expresses joy and relief at making her first appearance of the season in Scotland's impressive 2-0 win over Czech Republic.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/mMjwHyx

Australia lose two early wickets on return to South Africa - scorecard

2026-10-09T02:01:27.352-07:00

Latest scorecard from the first Test between South Africa and Australia in Durban.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/WZopdXB

Oil prices rise sharply on Middle East tensions and US hurricane threat

2026-10-08T02:23:29.491-07:00

Global bond market sell-off continues and stocks fall amid another wave of potential strikes against Iran

Business live – latest updates

Oil prices have risen sharply amid fears about escalating tensions in the Middle East and a squeeze on production from the threat of a hurricane off the US coast.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose by 3.8% to $104 a barrel on Thursday, triggering a wave of selling in the global bond and stock markets.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/KJ2GD7F

Engine size limits and working with Iraola - the Liverpool academy approach

2026-10-08T02:01:21.856-07:00

Liverpool academy director Alex Inglethorpe talks to BBC Sport about the value and future of Liverpool's academy.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/hzVdbc2

Why you could represent GB in one of newest Olympic sports

2026-10-07T02:01:28.809-07:00

The Los Angeles Olympics are just two years away but you could get there with a new sport as Great Britain's flag football team is on the lookout for new talent.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/6EAGdoU

Captain apologises for gloating over military service exemption

2026-10-06T02:01:51.874-07:00

Lee Gi-hyuk apologises for gloating about avoiding South Korea's mandatory military service by captaining his country to the football gold medal at the Asian Games.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/UfaePK3

Connor out, Lewis in as England name World Cup squad

2026-10-05T02:01:54.255-07:00

Leeds Rhinos half-back Jake Connor is left out of England's Rugby League World Cup squad, with Hull KR's Mikey Lewis beating him to a place.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/dfjOkan