The Daily: July 25

We scour the news so you don't have to.

Olympics kick off with women’s football
With just two days before the official opening ceremony in London, the Olympics kicks off with women’s football in Wales today. Team Great Britain will take on New Zealand at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, marking an exciting start to the 18-day sporting event. Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillian is ‘immensely proud that the world's greatest sporting event starts in Wales', with more than 30 welsh athletes being confirmed as Team Great Britain members. The match will begin at 6:00 BST (15:00 GMT).
 
Sherman Hemsley dies, age 74
Actor Sherman Hemsley, who starred in the hit 1970s US sitcom The Jeffersons, has died at the age of 74. Hemsley was famous for playing a Harlem businessman named George Jefferson in the famous US sitcom ‘All in the Family’, before becoming the star of a spin off series named The Jeffersons. The Jeffersons ran for 11 seasons, from 1975 to 1985, become hugely popular in the US for making fun of America's racial and class-based society.
 
Cider production at the Queens Sandringham estate doubles
The Queen is to double the production of cider made with apples from her Sandringham estate, due to last years batch being sold out very quickly. A spokesman for the queen claimed that more than 2,000 bottles have been produced this year so far, and are still considering making many more. The cider was initially produced as a trial batch with only 350 bottles produced, but it proved so popular that it sold out within weeks, and production was increased to 1,000 bottles last year. The cider sells at £3.99 per bottle and can only be bought from the royal estate, which is privately owned by the Queen herself.
 
Men’s friendships with women driven by sexual attraction
 New research has found that men’s relationships with female friends may be driven by an underlying sexual attraction, in contrast to women’s friendships with men that are more likely to be platonic. Men, whether single or taken, are more likely to be attracted to their female friends, rather than women finding their male friends attractive. Participants of the study, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, also said that confidence boosts and advice was the most rewarding benefit gained from friendships with the opposite sex.
 
Worlds biggest living thing is a ‘monster mushroom’
The largest living organism ever to be found has been discovered in Oregon, America. The ‘Armillaria ostoyae’, more popularly known as the honey mushroom, has been growing for an estimated 2,400 years, killing trees and other forest growth in its path. It covers over 2,200 acres of the Malheur Forest in Oregon, stretching for over 3.5 miles, covering an area equivalent to around 1,665 football fields. Catherine Parks, a scientist at the Pacific Northwest Research Station in La Grande, Oregon, identified the fungus, and researchers are currently learning to try to control the large organism before it destroys any more of the trees and plants surrounding it.