This summer's World Cup takes place in sunny Brazil which, once British Summer Time starts, puts us four hours ahead, meaning many matches will go on late into the night. Those who enjoy a bevvie with the football will be pleased to hear then that the government is set to relax pub closing times for England's games, letting UK footie fans enjoy the matches and a pint into the early hours down their locals. [BBC] Read More >>

The UK's first motorway service station pub is now ready for business, with budget burger and booze trough Wetherspoons opening its Hope and Champion pub at junction two of the M40. A welcoming break in a familiar atmosphere, or a deadly temptation to make long trips whizz past quicker by getting hammered? Read More >>

We all know boozing while pregnant is bad and potentially damaging for the unborn baby. Problem is, some mothers aren't aware they're pregnant in the first months and get hammered anyway, so could putting pregnancy test kits in pubs help protect babies in their early stages of life? Read More >>

This pretty little drinking hole is now open for business in London, as part of the celebrations surrounding the 150th anniversary of the city's Underground rail network. Read More >>

A team from the Bielfeld University in Germany built the odd bartending robot pictured above, as part of a test to work out how bar staff respond to visual clues that people milling about at the bar are looking to make a purchase. Read More >>

Bitcoin seems like a great idea, if you want to slip through the cracks of the web and into the Dark Net so you can buy drugs, guns and probably black market killer whales or alien technology from sites like Silk Road. But if you just fancied a wee cheeky pint with your friends, you were shit out of luck. UNTIL NOW. Read More >>

Four pubs in Hackney, Cambridge, Norwich and Peterborough have started accepting Bitcoins as payment for pints, meaning no one's ever going to be able to see the shameful truth of how much that last round cost you. The ultimate in deniability. Read More >>

Brewer and pub chain Greene King is dumping around 200 classic painted pub signs that depict names such as the Crab & Winkle and Dog & Partridge, in favour of replacing them with generic green and gold banners highlighting its preferred term of "Pub and Flame Grill" instead. Men who favour cloudy ciders are not happy. Read More >>

It seems the government has given the go-ahead for a motorway-services pub, issuing a license to serve alcohol from 8am till 1am on the M40 at junction two. Genius or an absolute disaster waiting to happen? Read More >>

Binge drinking enabler Punch Taverns has signed a deal with omnipresent Wi-Fi provider The Cloud, which will see free Wi-Fi access launched in some 3,000 pubs across the UK. Read More >>

Yesterday we heard that the humble Hobbit pub in Southampton was being threatened by the legal hounds of Mordor over the use of the Hobbit name and imagery from the fantasy saga. Now it seems Saul Zaentz Company has come to it senses after much media pressure, meaning that the southern boozer is saved. Read More >>

Southampton's The Hobbit pub, which offers an Aragon cocktail, features a very nice Lord of the Rings-inspired mural in its beer garden and has "one loyalty card to bind them all" is in trouble with Hollywood. Over its name, as you might've guessed. Read More >>

O2's just announced it's teamed up with a whole host of pubs to give drinkers free Wi-Fi. It's signed a three-year deal with Harvester, Toby, Carvery, O'Neill's, All Bar One and others to shove its free O2 Wi-Fi into 1,600 pubs and restaurants across the UK, so you can be antisocial while you muse over your beverage of choice. Read More >>