Sometimes, learning more about your favourite foods makes you feel good.

For instance, I was pretty happy to discover that a pumpkin spice mix is really easy to make at home, and that the secret to Biscoff’s distinctive taste is more than likely just… sugar.

Other times, though (like when I learned that cola is flavoured with a kola nut), the news changes my perspective forever.

Such is the case with paprika, which I always thought was some variety of dried… chilli? With tomato powder, maybe?

Nope ― it’s usually a sweet, moist veg we all eat on the reg.

A lot of the time, paprika is made from plain, spag-bol-staple bell peppers, a fact that’s left people like Redditor u/albertpaca11 surprised.

Writing to r/cookingforbeginners, they said: “I just found out Paprika is just Bell Pepper… my mind is blown. Why is it spicy?”

Granted, it’s a particular species of bell pepper (Capsicum annuum) ― but the ruby-red variety wouldn’t be out of place on your crudité plate.

Though more traditional paprika can be made from Aleppo, Hungarian, and a range of other peppers, herb and spice company McCormick’s Science Institute (MSI) says the mass-made stuff “is typically made from ‘bell’ or ‘sweet’ type peppers, milder varieties that contain a recessive gene that eliminates (or greatly reduces) capsaicin, the compound responsible for heat.”

BBC Good Food writes that the spice’s “main purpose is to add flavour and colour, more than heat”.

BuzzFeed’s cooking vertical Tasty shared a YouTube Short on how to make the spice at home, revealing that whacking a bell pepper in the oven or air fryer for hours and then whizzing its dried remains in a blender creates perfect paprika.

MSI has also shared that paprika can have a sugar content of up to 6%, though “the spice can range in flavour from mild and sweet to very hot”.

That’s because while lots of paprika is made from bell peppers, it can be made from other, hotter sweet red peppers too.

While it’s easy to see how eye-watering raw chilli can become the piquant spice we love, it can be harder to connect the dots between cooling, fruity bell pepper and smoky paprika.

But the preparation has a bigger effect than you’d think, MSI says.

“Some Spanish paprikas are dried by smoking and thus have a smoky flavour,” they write, while certain Hungarian peppers are specially-selected for extra heat.

In general, though, the MSI says paprika is a mild spice that mostly adds colour to dishes.

This article has been updated to added to clarify specific varieties of non-bell pepper traditional paprika can also be made from.

Global experts have called for PCOS to be renamed to PMOS. As someone who suffers from the condition, it will be interesting to see how the new name change impacts diagnosis – particularly as it’s thought up to 70% of affected individuals remain undiagnosed.

Women’s health is chronically underfunded, under-researched and most importantly, misunderstood.

I can count on both hands the number of times I have gone to a doctor to discuss a female-health-related issue and have been told to change my contraceptive pill.

The first signs of trouble for me were during my final year at university when my period stopped of its own accord for a whole year. I was going through some crappy, personal stuff at the time so I’d initially thought it was stress-induced.

I went to the doctor, who also thought it was down to stress, and said I should change my pill. It wasn’t until two or three other worrying symptoms began to appear – despite being on the pill – that I thought I should really get checked out again.

The diagnosis process took over two years and I had many different tests to work out what was happening. It was a long time to sit in my discomfort and imagine all of the worst-case scenarios. It had a profound impact on my state of mind and still does to this day.

The condition causes my hormones to fluctuate from month to month. I never know when my period is, and my weight fluctuates quite drastically (it can also make it hard for me to lose weight if I want to). It covers so many areas of my life and, over the years, has had a massive impact on my mental health.

I struggle with anxiety and anxiety-related depression, and I am convinced my PMOS struggles have been at least part of the cause of that.

It’s made me feel like less of a woman at times, and that’s been very hard for my brain to grapple with. What do you mean I don’t get a period regularly? What do you mean I grow excessive hair? What does this all mean for my future health?

My mood has been shaped so much by this – and it’s been a difficult road filled with so many unknowns.

In the medical journal The Lancet, a team of experts have called for a change to the condition’s name, arguing the existing acronym is “inaccurate” and may even lead to missed diagnoses.

In simple terms, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) should be renamed to polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), they said.

This is important because it allows the name to cover more areas, not just assuming that every PMOS sufferer has ovarian cysts (which they don’t – I should know, I’m one of them).

Under the new name, PMOS is characterised by changes in hormones, with impacts on weight, metabolic health, mental health, skin, and the reproductive system. The name reflects the multi-system issue it is. Beforehand, the condition could be misdiagnosed because the term didn’t cover enough areas.

Dr Victoria Sephton, chief medical officer at Care Fertility, also notes the renaming will help “validate the experiences of patients who have historically felt dismissed or misunderstood”.

In theory, experts believe the name change should improve care and diagnosis. If so, this will be an incredibly positive change and should mean PMOS is taken far more seriously – and those women who remain undiagnosed get the answers they so desperately need.

For too long, women’s health has been pushed to the side. To see a condition that’s shaped my adult years be properly recognised through something as simple as a name change is cathartic – and I hope it will mean many more women can get the help they need to navigate what is a complex, multi-system issue, and get the support they need.

Eurovision’s director has said the event’s organisers are keeping a close eye on this year’s voting, after questions were raised about the 2025 Israeli delegation.

At last year’s Eurovision final, Israeli performer Yuval Raphael finished in second place overall, having come first among televoters.

Once the competition was over, several competing broadcasters voiced concerns about whether the voting system that was then in place, allowing viewers to vote for the same country as many as 20 times, “encouraged manipulation”.

Many competing countries also took issue with the fact that Israel’s government had paid for cross-platform advertising, encouraging international viewers to vote for its representative during last year’s final.

Ahead of this year’s event, major changes were made to the voting system, reducing the number of permitted votes from 20 to just 10, as well as introducing “enhanced technical safeguards” that would “detect and block coordinated or fraudulent voting activity”.

“Stronger limits on promotion” were also implemented to “curb disproportionate third-party influence, including government-backed campaigns”.

Over the weekend, it was revealed that Israel’s broadcaster had already been issued with a formal warning over a promotional video urging viewers to vote 10 times for the 2026 Israeli representative, Noam Bettan.

During a new interview with BBC News, Eurovision’s director Martin Green conceded that “some of the promotion by some of the broadcasters was a little disproportionate” last year, claiming that those who flout the newly-implemented rules would be subject to “further scrutiny”.

He also insisted we’re a “long way from” Israel’s representative being disqualified over any further breaches and that his team was overseeing this year’s voting “very, very carefully”.

“If there is a problem, we start a conversation and we try and resolve it amicably, without reaching for sanctions,” Green added.

“We hope, in a way, that you teach the world that you can solve [conflict] by being collegiate right now.”

Last week, a Eurovision spokesperson said: “On Friday 8 May it was brought to our attention that videos with an on-screen instruction to ‘vote 10 times for Israel’ had been published and released by the artist representing [Israel’s national broadcaster Kan].

“Within 20 minutes we had contacted the Kan delegation to ask them to immediately stop any distribution of the videos and remove them from any platforms where they had been published. They immediately acted to do this.”

A spokesperson for Kan subsequently told The Times Of Israel that they were “following all of the rules of the competition”.

“The voting instructions of the Eurovision Song Contest that cover promotion are predominantly directed at discouraging large scale funded third-party campaigns, and we are satisfied that this video did not form part of such a campaign,” Eurovision’s spokesperson continued.

“However, employing a direct call to action to vote 10 times for one artist or song is also not in line with our rules nor the spirit of the competition. The scale of our vote means that such activity cannot affect the overall result and 50% of all votes this year are supplied through professional juries.”

On Tuesday evening, Israel’s representative made it through the semi-final stage of the contest, and is due to perform again at the Eurovision final on Saturday night.

Two Doors Down is set to return for an eighth full-length season, three years on from the death of its co-creator Simon Carlyle.

Centring around a group of neighbours in the suburbs of Glasgow, Two Doors Down began airing in 2016, and was created by writing duo Simon Carlyle and Gregor Sharp.

Following Simon’s death in 2023, the show was rested, before returning to our screens for a Christmas special last year.

On Wednesday evening, the BBC announced that the sitcom will be back for a new run of episodes, which will reunite the entire cast.

In a statement, Gregor Sharp said: “It was a lot of fun putting the band back together for the Christmas episode last year, so I’m really excited to be coming back with some new tunes, which we hope will turn out just as special.

“The cast are the most talented group of performers you could wish for, and I can’t wait to get started.”

Fans can look forward to appearances from all of Two Doors Down’s main cast in the new episodes, including Arabella Weir, Doon Mackichan, Elaine C Smith, Jonathan Watson and Alex Norton.

A synopsis for the new season teases: “Series eight picks up exactly where the 2025 Christmas special left us. Beth and Eric are still clinging to the hope of a quiet life, but their best efforts are no match for the relentless chaos supplied by neighbours Colin, Cathy and Christine.

“Meanwhile, Michelle is preparing for the new arrival, while Gordon throws himself into further education. Alan and Ian return too, doing their level best to support their partners – with mixed results.”

Before that, though, the cast will also be performing a string of live shows at Glasgow’s Hydro Arena over the course of September and October.

The first seven seasons of Two Doors Down are now streaming on BBC iPlayer.

Even the biggest football-sceptics among us now have a reason to get excited about the upcoming World Cup.

The global tournament is due to take place across the United States, Canada and Mexico this summer, and will culminate in a final featuring a Super Bowl-esque Halftime Show, the first in Fifa’s history.

And just wait until you check out the line-up.

K-pop sensations BTS, chart-topping superstar Shakira and the Queen of Pop herself, Madonna, were all unveiled as co-headliners of the World Cup Halftime Show on Thursday morning.

The show is curated by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, and was announced in a social media post featuring characters from both The Muppets and Sesame Street (the first time the two former Jim Henson Company characters have shared the screen in decades, since the latter was bought by Disney in the early 2000s).

Watch the extremely cute video for yourself below:

In the lead-up to the announcement, Shakira teased last week that she had a new song to coincide with the World Cup, following the huge success of 2010’s Waka Waka (This Time For Africa).

The new track, Dai Dai, will serve as the official anthem of the World Cup, and will seemingly feature the singer Burna Boy.

Shakira previously co-headlined the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2020, where she shared the stage with Jennifer Lopez.

Fellow headliner Madonna is also a former Super Bowl performer, setting a new record for viewing figures with her halftime set in 2012 (though this record has since been bested by several other Super Bowl headliners).

The 2026 World Cup final is due to take place on Sunday 19 July.

Kemi Badenoch has just won over the support of none other than the controversial American rapper Nicki Minaj for her performance in the House of Commons.

The Conservative leader has been widely praised by Keir Starmer’s critics for demolishing the prime minister over ongoing speculation he could be ousted from office on Wednesday.

Speaking shortly after the King’s Speech – where the monarch lays out the government’s legislative plans for the upcoming parliamentary session – the leader of the opposition also took aim at health secretary Wes Streeting’s ambitions for office.

One particular clip of her attacks exceeded 1.8 million views.

In the viral video, Badenoch said: “Scrapping NHS England, something the prime minister announced 14 months ago – but I suppose the health secretary has been a it distracted lately hasn’t he?”

Looking straight at Streeting on the front bench, she said: “He’s chuntering now, why don’t you just do your job? Do your job!”

Badenoch added: “There’s no point him giving me dirty looks, we all know what he has been up to. We all know.”

Evidently that video made it across the pond as Minaj shared it on X, commenting: “The UK is truly one of a kind. They will portray her [Badenoch] in film & TV one day…just like they did with Margaret Thatcher.”

The rapper has drifted into right-wing politics over the last year and even met up with Donald Trump at the White House in February, describing herself as the US president’s “no.1 fan”.

Badenoch has also attracted the support of another divisive American rapper, Azealia Banks, since becoming Conservative leader.

In April, Banks wrote on social media: “Kemi Badenoch is fucking iconic. World leaders will respect her Professionalism alot more than goofball Nigel.

“Plus she’s not a Punk. Shes not running her mouthy and talking shit because she will really go to war with Putin and win.”

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