Running on empty: why are so many marathon runners so miserable?

One in four endurance runners displays ‘worryingly high’ levels of anxiety and depression, according to a study led by a man who has himself run more than 400 marathons. Isn’t exercise supposed to make you feel good?

Name: Marathons.

Age: The first modern Olympic marathon was run in 1896, inspired by the 490BC tale of Pheidippides and his 240km run to ask the Spartans for help battling the Persians.

Published: October 14, 2025, 4:03 pm

Is it true that … cutting out carbs helps you lose weight?

Weight loss is about consuming fewer calories than you burn, and reducing your intake of refined carbohydrates can play a part in that

This is a bit of a grey area, says Bethan Crouse, a performance nutritionist at Loughborough University. She wouldn’t advise the athletes she works with to completely cut out carbohydrates – foods such as bread, grains, potatoes and sweets. “However,” she says, “reducing carbohydrate intake can be beneficial for weight loss, if we can moderate total energy intake.”

Weight loss comes down to energy balance: consuming fewer calories than we burn. There are many ways to achieve this: exercising more, eating less, or choosing foods that are lower in calories. Cutting back on some carbohydrates can be one way to create this deficit, she says. Not because carbs are uniquely “fattening”, but because other macronutrients such as fibre, protein and fat tend to be more filling. “If we spend more of our calorie budget on these foods, we feel fuller for longer,” Crouse says.

Published: October 13, 2025, 7:00 am

My wife and I don’t have sex and she refuses to talk about it. Should I just give up?

I long for physical intimacy and feel ashamed and unattractive when she rebuffs me – but she gets angry when I try to discuss it

My wife and I have been together for more than 10 years and married for four. We have small children. I love her deeply, but our marriage is essentially empty of sex and physical intimacy, and she refuses to talk about it beyond acknowledging there is a problem. I am a woman who values physical intimacy and I am deeply attracted to her. I want to feel more desired and alive. But lovemaking is extremely rare, always initiated by me and follows the same pattern. She does not focus on giving me pleasure. The rest of the time I am rebuffed, leaving me feeling ashamed and unattractive. Even the mildest of playful or suggestive messages I send are met with silence. So I bother less and less.

Naturally, I want to know what is going on for her. We are already having couples therapy, but this is not a subject we have tackled successfully. Outside these sessions, my attempts to discuss it are either avoided or met with anger. Do I simply give up, after so many years of trying and failing to make things better? I cannot forget my needs and desires just because they are not reciprocated.

Published: October 14, 2025, 7:00 am

MG wants us to pay £500-plus to remedy rogue electric car

After charging, there was a power system malfunction but MG closed the case and insisted a safety check was at our own expense

Our MG5 electric car became dangerously out of control, but MG won’t do anything about it.

The car suffered a power system malfunction after we had used a charger at a motorway service station.

Published: October 14, 2025, 6:00 am

‘Once a fortnight would save people hundreds’: how to make your bike last longer, according to experts

From avoiding overtightened bolts to giving it a good clean, here are the easy and affordable habits mechanics swear by

• The best bike locks in the UK for all budgets

Cycling is a cheap, accessible and green way to get around, and in most cities and built-up areas it can often be faster than any alternative. But owning and maintaining a bike isn’t free. Buying one is a significant investment – even if you spread the cost using initiatives such as the cycle to work scheme. New parts and maintenance fees don’t come cheap, either, especially if you run your daily commuter into the ground without regular TLC. “If you don’t want to maintain your bike, [eventually] it’s gonna cost you,” says Lee Carter, head mechanic at Bespoke Cycling.

But you don’t need an A-level in Allen keys to make your bike last longer and keep it in working order. In fact, it’s possible to reduce trips to your local bike shop with a few simple tricks. Here, mechanics and experts share their advice and insight around cleaning, essential maintenance and when it’s best to call in the specialists.

Published: October 14, 2025, 9:00 am

What does the end of free support for Windows 10 mean for its users?

Computers running software will still work but steadily become more vulnerable to viruses and malware

From Tuesday Microsoft will no longer offer free support as standard for Windows 10, an operating system that is used by millions of computer and laptop owners around the world.

Figures for September suggest four in 10 of those using Microsoft Windows worldwide were still using Windows 10, despite the introduction of its successor, Windows 11, in 2021.

Published: October 14, 2025, 4:00 am

The gospel according to Peter Thiel: why the tech svengali is obsessed with the antichrist

The influential billionaire investor has been giving secret lectures warning about Armageddon. Here’s why it matters

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. For the past week, my brain has been marinating in billionaire Peter Thiel’s byzantine musings about the antichrist and Armageddon. At this point, I’m pickled.

Why, you might ask, does it matter what a billionaire thinks about the antichrist? Good question!

Over the past month, Thiel has hosted four lectures on the downtown waterfront of San Francisco philosophizing about who the antichrist could be and warning that Armageddon is coming. Thiel, who describes himself as a “small-o Orthodox Christian”, believes the harbinger of the end of the world could already be in our midst and that things such as international agencies, environmentalism and guardrails on technology could quicken its rise. It is a remarkable discursion that reveals the preoccupations of one of the most influential people in Silicon Valley and the US.

Thiel was on the forefront of conservative politics long before the rest of Silicon Valley took a rightward turn with Donald Trump’s second term as president. He’s had close ties to Trump for nearly a decade, is credited with catapulting JD Vance into the office of vice-president, and is bankrolling Republicans’ 2026 midterm campaigns. Making his early fortune as a co-founder of PayPal, he has personally contributed to Facebook as its first outside investor, as well as to SpaceX, OpenAI and more through his investment firm, Founders Fund. Palantir, which he co-founded, has won government contracts worth billions to create software for the Pentagon, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and the NHS in the UK. Now, with more attention and political pull than ever, the billionaire is looking to spread his message about the antichrist, though he is better known for his savvy politics and investments than his contributions to theology.

In these meandering talks, Thiel is clearly aiming for the kind of syncretic thinking he so relished in the books and lectures of the philosopher and professor René Girard, whom he knew at Stanford University and whose work he has long admired. Unfortunately, more often than not, Thiel ends up with something that reads like Dan Brown.

Overall, the picture of Thiel that emerges in these lectures is someone desperately trying to disidentify from their own power. “You realize,” he tells his audience when interpreting a particular Japanese manga, “in my interpretation … who runs the world is something like the antichrist.” Here’s a man who, together with a couple of fellow Silicon Valley freaks, helped return a sundowning caudillo to a presidency he is obviously unsuited for, and who uses the awesome might of the US government to remake society and the world. A man who funds the companies that harness your data and determine who gets doxxed, deported, drone struck. Who funds far-right movements that seek to remake the very face of liberal democracy.

China steps up control of rare-earth exports citing ‘national security’ concerns

Trump threatens 100% China tariffs as Beijing restricts rare-earth exports

Bank of England warns of growing risk that AI bubble could burst

Do OpenAI’s multibillion-dollar deals mean exuberance has got out of hand?

Gen Z faces ‘job-pocalypse’ as global firms prioritise AI over new hires, report says

The Guardian view on an AI bubble: capitalism still hasn’t evolved to protect itself

The AI valuation bubble is now getting silly | Nils Pratley

Published: October 14, 2025, 1:24 pm

Instagram to bring in version of PG-13 system to protect children, says Meta

Company says rules similar to US ‘parental guidance’ film rating will be applied to teenagers’ accounts

Instagram is to adopt a version of the PG-13 cinema rating system to give parents stronger controls over their teenagers’ use of the social media platform.

Instagram, which is run by Meta, will start applying rules similar to the US “parental guidance” movie rating – first introduced 41 years ago – to all material on Instagram’s teen accounts. It means users aged under 18 will automatically be placed into the 13+ setting. They will be able to opt out only with their parents’ permission.

Published: October 14, 2025, 10:00 am

Equity threatens mass direct action over use of actors’ images in AI content

Union says growing numbers of its members have made complaints about infringements of copyright in AI material

The performing arts union Equity has threatened mass direct action over tech and entertainment companies’ use of its members’ likenesses, images and voices in AI content without permission.

The warning came as the union said growing numbers of its members had made complaints about infringements of their copyright and misuse of their personal data in AI material.

Published: October 13, 2025, 3:21 pm

Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 review: the most comfortable noise cancelling headphones

Premium commuter cans upgraded with longer battery life, USB-C audio and improved sound, but still cost a lot

Bose has updated its top-of-the-line noise-cancelling headphones with longer battery, USB-C audio and premium materials, making the commuter favourites even better.

The second-generation QuietComfort Ultra headphones still have an expensive price tag, from £450 (€450/$450/A$700), which is more than most competitors, including Sony’s WH-1000XM6.

Published: October 14, 2025, 6:00 am

Cyber-attacks rise by 50% in past year, UK security agency says

Officials say increased dependence on technology leaves society more vulnerable to threats such as ransomware

“Highly significant” cyber-attacks rose by 50% in the past year and the UK’s security services are now dealing with a new nationally significant attack more than every other day, figures from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) have revealed.

In what officials described as “a call to arms”, national security officials and ministers are urging all organisations, from the smallest businesses to the largest employers, to draw up contingency plans for the eventuality that “your IT infrastructure [is] crippled tomorrow and all your screens [go] blank”.

Published: October 13, 2025, 11:01 pm

AI could make it harder to establish blame for medical failings, experts say

Report raises concerns about liability issues and lack of testing as development of AI health tools booms

The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare could create a legally complex blame game when it comes to establishing liability for medical failings, experts have warned.

The development of AI for clinical use has boomed, with researchers creating a host of tools, from algorithms to help interpret scans to systems that can aid with diagnoses. AI is also being developed to help manage hospitals, from optimising bed capacity to tackling supply chains.

Published: October 13, 2025, 3:00 pm

The nine best electric blankets and heated throws, tried and tested to keep you toasty for less

If you’re aiming to heat the human, not the home – or just love snuggling under something cosy on your sofa – these are our best buys

• The best heated clothes airers to save time and money when drying your laundry

Aside from hugging a fluffy hot-water bottle, sipping the Christmas whisky and ramping up the thermostat, an electric blanket or heated throw is the best way to ward off the winter chill. More than half of a typical household’s fuel bills goes on heating and hot water, so finding alternative ways to keep warm – and heating the person, rather than the whole home – is always a good idea.

Many of the best electric blankets and heated throws cost about 2p to 3p an hour to run, so it’s hard to ignore their potential energy- and money-saving benefits.

Best electric blanket overall:
Fogarty Wonderfully Warm

Best budget electric blanket:
Slumberdown Sleepy Nights

Published: October 14, 2025, 2:00 pm

MG wants us to pay £500-plus to remedy rogue electric car

After charging, there was a power system malfunction but MG closed the case and insisted a safety check was at our own expense

Our MG5 electric car became dangerously out of control, but MG won’t do anything about it.

The car suffered a power system malfunction after we had used a charger at a motorway service station.

Published: October 14, 2025, 6:00 am

‘Your basis to live is checked at each and every step’: India’s ID system divides opinion

Keir Starmer is considering Aadhaar as model for UK, but detractors warn of ‘digital coercion’ and security breaches

It is often difficult for people in India to remember life before Aadhaar. The digital biometric ID, allegedly available for every Indian citizen, was only introduced 15 years ago but its presence in daily life is ubiquitous.

Indians now need an Aadhaar number to buy a house, get a job, open a bank account, pay their tax, receive benefits, buy a car, get a sim card, book priority train tickets and admit children into school. Babies can be given Aadhaar numbers almost immediately after they are born. While it is not mandatory, not having Aadhaar de facto means the state does not recognise you exist, digital rights activists say.

Published: October 14, 2025, 5:00 am

‘Americans are democracy’s equivalent of second-generation wealth’: a Chinese journalist on the US under Trump

Once a stalwart of Hong Kong’s journalism scene, Wang Jian has found a new audience on YouTube, dissecting global politics and US-China relations since the pandemic. To his fans, he’s part newscaster, part professor, part friend

On a Friday night in late May, Wang Jian was getting ready to broadcast. It was pouring outside, and he was sitting in the garage apartment behind his house, just outside Boston, eating dinner. “I am very sensitive to what Trump does,” Wang was telling me, in Mandarin, waving a fork. “When Trump holds a cabinet meeting, he sits there and the people next to him start to flatter him. And I think, isn’t this the same as Mao Zedong? Trump sells the same thing: a little bit of populism, plus a little bit of small-town shrewdness, plus a little bit of ‘I have money.’”

Wang was sitting next to a rack of clothing – the shirts and jackets the 58-year-old newsman wears professionally – and sipping a seemingly bottomless cup of green tea that would eventually give way to coffee. By 11pm, he would walk across the room and snap on a set of ring lights, ready to carry on an unbroken string of chatter for a YouTube news programme that he calls “Wang Jian’s Daily Observations”. It was a slow news night but he would end up talking until nearly 1am. This was his second broadcast of the day. Different time zones, he explained to me, different audiences.

Published: October 14, 2025, 4:00 am

Space Harrier at 40: how Sega’s surreal classic brought total immersion to arcades in the 80s

As they flew above Yu Suzuki’s innovative, psychedelic 3D landscapes combating space dragons and alien rock monsters, the moving arcade cabinet would fling players around and physically involve them in the action

During our family’s holidays in the 1980s, most of which were spent at classic English seaside resorts, I spent all my time and pocket money trawling the arcades. From Shanklin to Blackpool, I played them all, attracted by those vast bulb-lit frontages, the enticing names (Fantasy Land! Treasure Island!), and of course by the bleeping, flashing video machines within. And while I spent many hours on the staple classics – Pac-Man, Galaxian, Kung Fu Master – there was one particular game I always looked out for. A weird, thrilling design classic. A total experience, operating somewhere between a traditional arcade game, a flight sim and a rollercoaster. At the time, it seemed impossibly futuristic. Now, it is 40 years old.

Released by Sega in 1985, Space Harrier is a 3D space shooter in which you control a jetpack super soldier named Harrier, who flies into the screen blasting surreal alien enemies above a psychedelic landscape. When designer Yu Suzuki was first tasked with overseeing its development, the game had been conceived as an authentic military flight shooter, but the graphical limitations of the day made that impossible – there was too much complex animation. So Suzuki, inspired by the flying sequences in the fantasy movie The NeverEnding Story, envisaged something different and more surreal, with a flying character rather than a fighter plane and aliens resembling stone giants and dragons. It was colourful and crazy, like a Roger Dean painting brought to life by the Memphis Group.

Published: October 14, 2025, 9:00 am

Battlefield 6 review – operatic, ear-shattering all-encompassing warfare

Electronic Arts; PC, PS5, Xbox
In contrast to the blast-em-ups this franchise drops players into a vast and vividly realised military offensive and the latest instalment is a brilliant return to form

Barely a minute into your first round of the large-scale multiplayer mode, Conquest, you will know you are back in Battlefield at its absolute best. Fighter jets scorch over head, tanks rumble by, the side of a building is obliterated by a rocket-propelled grenade. While Call of Duty has always focused its online matches on close skirmishes, Battlefield 6 makes you feel part of a vast military offensive, bewildering and ear-shattering, with even the quiet moments punctuated by the pop-pop of distance rifle fire, the shouts of orders and the cries for medics.

It’s well known that EA’s long-running first-person shooter series has hit trouble over the last couple of years, with futuristic instalment Battlefield 2042 widely considered a disappointment. So this time round, the development team (a collective of studios including original creator DICE) has gone back to the excellent Battlefield 4 for inspiration, where the emphasis was on authentic-feeling modern military warfare on large maps with lots of players. As ever, Battlefield 6 gives you the choice of four classes – Assault, Support, Engineer and Recon – each with its own weapons and gadgets, all of which can be upgraded and customised as you level up your soldier and gain experience. It’s a hybrid system taking elements of older Battlefields as well as newer Call of Duty titles, where the Gunsmith system revolutionised weapon personalisation for first-person online shooters.

Published: October 13, 2025, 9:00 am

‘Nature’s Labubu’: why are gen Z ‘unboxing’ conkers?

The traditional playground favourite is staging a comeback – without the threat of violence

Name: Conkers.

Age: Introduced to the UK 409 years ago.

Published: October 13, 2025, 11:36 am

SpaceX Starship travels halfway across world in successful test flight – video

Biggest and most powerful rocket ever built successfully made it halfway around the world while releasing mock satellites during its 11th test flight on Monday. The previous test flight in August — a success after a string of explosive failures — followed a similar path with similar goals

Published: October 14, 2025, 12:48 pm

Traitor or faithful: how to spot a liar – podcast

The Traitors has returned to UK screens with its biggest viewing figures ever as 19 celebrities compete to be crowned the winner. The game depends on being able to accurately spot a liar, but are any deception detection methods actually backed up by science?

Madeleine Finlay speaks to Timothy Luke, a senior lecturer in the department of applied psychology at the University of Gothenburg, to find out whether sweating, nervous ticks and reduced eye contact really can alert us to deception, and if not, what can?

Clips: BBC

Published: October 14, 2025, 4:00 am

Lab-grown human embryo model produces blood cells

Breakthrough raises new possibilities for regenerative medicine, which uses patient’s own cells to repair damaged tissues

Scientists have grown embryo-like structures in the laboratory that produced human blood cells, raising new possibilities for regenerative medicine.

The ability to generate blood stem cells in the laboratory may one day make it possible to treat patients in need of bone marrow transplants using their own cells.

Published: October 13, 2025, 3:00 pm

‘The universe has opened up for us’: meet the astro-ambassadors who welcome stargazers to the Himalayas

A tourism initiative in India’s first dark sky reserve has brought new hope to a community as employment means they can stay close to their roots and culture

The snow-flecked peaks surrounding the village of Hanle are bathed in golden light as the sun sets. In the valley, 28-year-old Tsering Dolkar secures a telescope to its tripod and focuses the lens beneath a clear sky.

Zipped into warm jackets the visitors gather around Dolkar, gazing upwards as the sky darkens into a breathtaking tapestry of stars. She points toward a bright star in the western sky and announces: “That is Venus.” Someone says excitedly: “There’s the Milky Way!”

Published: October 13, 2025, 7:00 am

‘Lab to fab’: are promises of a graphene revolution finally coming true?

Two decades after the material was first produced, some UK firms have reaped its potential but others are struggling

After graphene was first produced at the University of Manchester in 2004, it was hailed as a wonder material, stronger than steel but lighter than paper. But two decades on, not every UK graphene company has made the most of that potential. Some show promise but others are struggling.

Extracted from graphite, commonly used in pencils, graphene is a latticed sheet of carbon one atom thick, and is highly effective at conducting heat and electricity. China is the world’s biggest producer, using it to try to get ahead in the global race to produce microchips and in sectors such as construction.

Published: October 13, 2025, 5:00 am

AI could make it harder to establish blame for medical failings, experts say

Report raises concerns about liability issues and lack of testing as development of AI health tools booms

The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare could create a legally complex blame game when it comes to establishing liability for medical failings, experts have warned.

The development of AI for clinical use has boomed, with researchers creating a host of tools, from algorithms to help interpret scans to systems that can aid with diagnoses. AI is also being developed to help manage hospitals, from optimising bed capacity to tackling supply chains.

Published: October 13, 2025, 3:00 pm

Did you solve it? The London cab that rode into history

The answers to today’s questions

Earlier today I set these three puzzles, loosely based around 1729, the “taxicab number”. To read about the link between London cabs and 1729 please read the original post.

1. Square pair

Published: October 13, 2025, 3:57 pm

Can you solve it? The London cab that rode into history

Do you have the knowledge?

UPDATE: Answers are now up.

Around 1919, the British mathematician G. H. Hardy hopped on a London cab on his way to visit his Indian colleague Srinivasa Ramanujan.

The cab’s licence number, 1729, seemed dull to Hardy but his pal fervently disagreed. “It is a very interesting number,” said Ramanujan. “It is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.”

Published: October 13, 2025, 6:10 am