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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsBitcoin has risen by almost 1.5% this morning, amid growing geopolitical tensions.The world's largest cryptocurrency has climbed to $92,495, adding to gains over the weekend. Continue reading......

Watchdog will also monitor online ban for high fat and sugar products as part of wider effort to tackle childhood obesityA ban on junk food advertising on TV before 9pm and a total ban online has come into force as the government attempts to tackle the childhood obesity crisis.Under the rules, which will be enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) 13 categories of products can no longer be advertised on TV before the watershed or at any time online. The banned products are high in fat, sugar and salt. Continue reading......

Businesses being hit by rising cost of interest rates, energy costs and wages, says Resolution FoundationThe UK is poised for a rise in unemployment in 2026 fuelled by the collapse of “zombie” companies that have struggled to adapt to a rise in business costs, according to a report.At the start of what could be a pivotal year for the economy, the Resolution Foundation said businesses were grappling with a “triple whammy” of multiyear increases in interest rates, energy prices and the minimum wage that could “finish off” some underperforming companies. Continue reading......

Protest over climate crisis and AI has cut power to tens of thousands of homes which may take days to fully restoreGerman leftwing militants protesting over the climate crisis and AI have claimed responsibility for an arson attack that cut power to tens of thousands of households in Berlin.The fire that broke out on a bridge across the Teltow canal in the south-west of the capital early on Saturday could deprive up to 35,000 homes and 1,900 businesses of electricity – and in many cases heat – until 8 January, the grid company Stromnetz Berlin said. Continue reading......

Reduction follows Bank of England's base cut in December, with further cuts expected this yearHSBC has become the first major lender to cut mortgage rates this year, a move that could spark a price war over the coming months.The banking group, which is one of the UK's largest mortgage lenders, has cut rates across a range of residential and landlord buy-to-let mortgage products. The new rates come into effect on Monday. Continue reading......

AI safety expert David Dalrymple said rapid advances could outpace efforts to control powerful systemsThe world “may not have time” to prepare for the safety risks posed by cutting-edge AI systems, according to a leading figure at the UK government's scientific research agency.David Dalrymple, a programme director and AI safety expert at the Aria agency, told the Guardian people should be concerned about the growing capability of the technology. Continue reading......

London predicted to be the first UK city to go diesel-free, largely because of the ultra-low emission zoneBattery electric cars are poised to overtake diesels on Great Britain's roads by 2030, according to analysis that suggests London will be the first UK city to go diesel-free.The number of diesel cars on Great Britain's roads in June had fallen to 9.9m in June last year, 21% below its peak of 12.4m vehicles, according to analysis by New AutoMotive, a thinktank focused on the transition to electric cars. Electric car sales are still growing rapidly, albeit more slowly than manufacturers had expected. Continue reading......

Prime minister gives clearest sign yet that government is seeking to further deepen Britain's links with BrusselsCloser ties with the EU single market are preferable to a customs union, Keir Starmer has said, in his clearest sign yet that the government is seeking to further deepen links with Brussels.The prime minister said the UK should consider “even closer alignment” with the single market. “If it's in our national interest … then we should consider that, we should go that far,” he told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg. Continue reading......

Revenues may be rising rapidly, but not by nearly enough to cover the wild levels of investment under wayThe US dictionary Merriam-Webster's word of the year for 2025 was “slop”, which it defines as “digital content of low quality that is produced, usually in quantity, by means of artificial intelligence”. The choice underlined the fact that while AI is being widely embraced, not least by corporate bosses keen to cut payroll costs, its downsides are also becoming obvious. In 2026, a reckoning with reality for AI represents a growing economic risk.Ed Zitron, the foul-mouthed figurehead of AI scepticism, argues pretty convincingly that, as things stand, the “unit economics” of the entire industry – the cost of servicing the requests of a single customer against the price companies are able to charge them – just don't add up. In typically colourful language, he calls them “dogshit”. Continue reading......

Analysts and investors voice caution about tech valuations and Trump's influence on the US central bankInvestors expect global stock markets to keep rising in 2026, despite fears that the AI bubble could burst, and anxiety about chaos engulfing the US central bank.Wall Street strategists broadly expect the S&P 500 share index of US-listed companies to continue to rise over the next 12 months, but said it could be a volatile year if geopolitical tensions increase and inflation fails to fall. Continue reading......

Other firms are taking advantage of Tesla's sales slump, while technological advances mean that glitches are being left in the rear-view mirrorIn another era, before Elon Musk bought Twitter, changed its name to X to mark the spot of its descent into barbarism, honed Grok, a generator of far-right propaganda, swung behind Donald Trump and made what appeared to be a Nazi salute, I already knew he was a wrong 'un. The year was 2019, and I was test-driving a Tesla; while I was ambling off the forecourt, the PR told me jauntily that the windscreen was made of a material that would protect the driver from biohazards. I hit the brakes. “You what? What kind of biohazard? Like, a war?” She misconstrued me, thinking I intended to go and find some toxic waste site to see if it worked, and said: “I'm not sure it's operational in the press fleet.”That wasn't my question: rather, what kind of a world was Tesla preparing for? One so unstable that an average (though affluent) private citizen would do well t...

Fraudsters use phishing to steal card details, which fund a spending spree using Apple Pay or Google PayYou get a call from your bank and the informed voice asks to you to confirm the personal details they have on file, which you do. You are then asked whether you bought something at an electrical retailer recently for £120 and spent £235 in Birmingham, but neither transaction rings true.The caller tells you they have blocked the payments but they must now secure your account, and say they will send you a notification to approve, or a code to pass on to them. You feel under pressure to protect your money, so you do what is asked. Continue reading......

Nemiroff says products still reaching UK chains such as Sainsbury's and Tesco despite production difficultiesBusinesses in Ukraine are “not sitting and waiting for the war to end” and are working to expand despite bombs hitting shipments out of the country, according to a leading vodka exporter to the UK.Yuriy Sorochynskyi, the chief executive of Ukraine's largest spirits export brand, Nemiroff vodka, has said its products have continued to flow to big chains including Tesco and Sainsbury's as it copes with the harsh realities of almost four years of war. Continue reading......

Trump is no longer bending the rules – he is demolishing them, with consequences far beyond CaracasUS strikes on Venezuela – live updatesHardly anyone expected 2026 to be a year of peace, and it was barely two days old when the worst fears were confirmed.The overnight strikes on Venezuela, the abduction of its leader, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, and Donald Trump's declaration that the US would “run” the country and sell its oil, have driven another truck through international law and global norms. But that is not even the most concerning thing about it. Continue reading......

US president says oil majors primed to invest in rebuilding infrastructure following Maduro ousterUS oil giants have so far remained silent on Donald Trump's claim that they are primed to spend “billions and billions of dollars” rebuilding the Venezuelan oil industry following the ouster of Nicolás Maduro​.Chevron, the only US oil company still operating in Venezuela, committed only to following “relevant laws and regulations” after the US president suggested American energy multinationals would be central to his plans for the country. Continue reading......

US president made comments after US military special forces captured Venezuelan president and wifeDonald Trump has said the US will be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela's oil industry after launching a military attack that swept the country's authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, from power.The president gave a phone interview to the conservative Fox News channel hours after a dramatic pre-dawn assault on Caracas and the surrounding region ended in the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Continue reading......

Suspected offences include homicide by negligence, causing bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligenceThe two managers of a bar where a blaze on New Year's Day killed at least 40 people have been placed under criminal investigation, Swiss prosecutors have said.French couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti owned and managed the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, which was crammed with young new year's revellers when a blaze began at about 1.30am local time (12.30am GMT) on Thursday, killing about 40 people and injuring more than 100. Continue reading......

Damage to cables means tens of thousands will be without electricity until Thursday amid freezing temperaturesTens of thousands of homes in Berlin will be without electricity until Thursday as authorities struggle to repair power cables seriously damaged in a suspected arson attack, officials have said.Some households may also be without heating as the outage has affected local systems at a time when the German capital is blanketed in snow and temperatures are hovering around freezing. Continue reading......

The novelty of eating at a diner owned by the richest person in the world seems to have worn off in just a few monthsLess than six months since it opened, Elon Musk's Tesla Diner has the feel of a ghost town. Gone is the Optimus robot serving popcorn, gone are the carnivore-diet-inspired “Epic Bacon” strips, gone are the hours-long, hundred-person lines wrapped around the block. Even the restaurant's all-star chef, Eric Greenspan, is gone. The Hollywood burger-and-fries shop seems like a shell of the bustling eatery it was when it opened in late July.On a balmy Friday afternoon in December, the parking lot for Tesla car charging was, at best, half full. Inside what the company describes as a “retro-futuristic” diner, a handful of people trickled in, ordering burgers and hotdogs or asking for merch. The upstairs deck, AKA “Skypad”, was vacant except for a pair of employees stringing holiday lights. More staff was busy at work, buffing fingerprints off the chrome walls and taking out the trash...

Across the US, federal public media cuts have galvanized many communities to donate to their local radio stationsAs soon as the US government voted to cut funding to more than 1,500 public media outlets last July, Luke Dennis, general manager at WYSO, a public radio station in Yellow Springs, Ohio, kicked into action an emergency funding drive.“The thing that really bothered me was not so much that the federal funding went away, because I felt like that was inevitable under the current administration, but to give us zero runway to prepare for it,” says Dennis. Continue reading......