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After biggest loss for producers since 2020 the slide could continue, with global output expected to remain highOil markets have recorded their steepest annual fall since the Covid pandemic and could be on track to plummet further as oil producers continue to pump more crude than needed by the global economy.Oil prices slumped by almost 20% in 2025, marking the biggest annual loss since 2020 and the first time that the oil market has recorded three consecutive years of annual losses. Continue reading......

Polling indicates strong public backing for a much less permissive approach to promotion, including sponsorshipMinisters will come under mounting pressure to introduce curbs on gambling advertising this year, as MPs and campaigners latch on to polling that indicates widespread public support for tougher restrictions.Policies affecting gambling have been the subject of fierce debate over recent few years, leading to stricter regulation of the £12.5bn-a-year sector and higher taxes announced in November's budget, despite intensive lobbying by the industry. Continue reading......

No, your communications don't make me feel valued as an individual. A 'Dear' or 'Sir' wouldn't hurt once in a whileHow do you feel when big corporations address you directly? (In other words, when they use the second-person pronoun “you” in their communications.) Do you feel like you're valued? That you're being treated as an individual? Or does it make you want to grab their CEO by the scruff of the neck and tell them to shut up?It's impossible nowadays to buy food, walk down the street or even open your emails without businesses trying to chat you up. A carton of Alpro oat milk shouts “Hey you!” from the dairy aisle. A restaurant you visited once sends a circular with “We miss you!” in the subject line. You get a bill from Octopus Energy with 41 uses of this cursed pronoun, but it never once addresses you with “Dear”.Max Fletcher is a London-based writer Continue reading......

The 'border adjustment mechanism' aims to create a level playing field while also encouraging decarbonisationThe biggest shake-up of green trade rules for decades comes into force today, as companies selling steel, cement and other high-carbon goods into the EU will have to prove they comply with low-carbon regulations or face fines.But a lack of clarity on how the rules will be applied, and the failure of the UK government to strike a deal with Brussels over the issue, could lead to confusion in the early stages, experts warned. Continue reading......

Energy price cap goes up on 1 January and Bank of England will make three interest rate decisions by end of AprilAt the start of 2026, it seems the financial picture is finely balanced. Inflation has come down from its latest peak, mortgage rates have started falling and changes announced in the budget should take some money off energy bills from April.But the price of housing, groceries and energy remain far higher than pre-pandemic, and there are some changes coming that will make aspects of life more expensive. Continue reading......

The continent's problems are not caused by immigration or cultural politics but by economic and technological declineDonald Trump's new national security strategy offers a misguided assessment of Europe, long regarded as the US's most reliable ally. Unrestrained immigration and other policies derided by administration officials as “woke”, it warns, could lead to “civilisational erasure” within a few decades.That argument rests on a fundamental misreading of Europe's current predicament. While the EU does face an existential threat, it has little to do with immigration or cultural politics. In fact, the share of foreign-born residents in the US is slightly higher than in Europe. Continue reading......

Just eight billionaires accounted for a quarter of the gains, led by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison and Larry PageThe richest 500 individuals in the world added a record $2.2tn to their wealth in 2025, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with just eight billionaires accounting for a quarter of the gains.The gains increased their collective net worth to $11.9tn, bolstered by billionaire Donald Trump's 2024 election victory and booming markets in cryptocurrencies, equities and metals. Continue reading......

Legal action has brought important decisions, from the scrapping of fossil fuel plants to revised climate plansThis year marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris agreement. It is also a decade since another key moment in climate justice, when a state was ordered for the first time to cut its carbon emissions faster to protect its citizens from climate change. The Urgenda case, which was upheld by the Netherlands' supreme court in 2019, was one of the first rumblings of a wave of climate litigation around the world that campaigners say has resulted in a new legal architecture for climate protection.Over the past 12 months, there have been many more important rulings and tangible changes on climate driven by legal action. Continue reading......

Food Standards Agency issues product alert for still and sparkling 750ml bottles of Waitrose No 1 Deeside mineral waterWaitrose customers are being urged to return and not drink large bottles of Deeside mineral water over fears they could contain shards of glass.The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has issued a consumer alert over the still and sparkling 750ml bottles of Waitrose No 1 Deeside mineral water because of the possibility of glass fragments, making them unsafe to drink. Continue reading......

Tesla endured tough year in part thanks to some consumers' distaste for Elon Musk's embrace of rightwing politicsTesla has taken the unusual step of publishing sales forecasts that suggest 2025 deliveries will be lower than expected and future years' sales will be well below targets set by its chief executive, Elon Musk.The US electric vehicle maker published figures from analysts suggesting it will announce 423,000 deliveries during the fourth quarter of 2025, in a new “consensus” section on its investor website. That would represent a 16% decline from the final quarter of 2024. Continue reading......

The Body Coach app, launched during Covid lockdowns, will advertise on ITV's channels and video platform ITVX as part of finalised dealThe broadcaster ITV has agreed to invest up to £3m into the health and fitness app The Body Coach, created by Joe Wicks, who shot to fame by getting the nation exercising from the living room during the pandemic.It is the latest deal made through the group's media for equity investment fund ITV AdVentures Invest. As part of the agreement, The Body Coach will advertise on ITV's channels and its video platform ITVX. Continue reading......

Shares in precious metal producers and defence firms surge in strong year for global equity marketsHow the FTSE 100 'dinosaur' roared back to life Business live – latest updatesBritain's stock market has increased in value by a fifth over 2025 – its biggest annual gain since 2009 in a strong year for shares around the world.The FTSE 100 index of blue-chip stocks closed up 21.5% on New Year's Eve compared with the start of January. The wider all-share market was 19.75% higher. Continue reading......

US president's assertions climate change is 'a hoax' and London has police no-go areas left unchallenged, say criticsBritain's media regulator Ofcom is under pressure to investigate a GB News interview with Donald Trump after complaints that it contained misleading and inaccurate claims that the network failed to challenge.The rightwing channel claimed a “world exclusive sit-down interview” with the US president in November, in which Trump asserted that human-induced climate change was “a hoax” and that London had no-go areas for police and that the capital had “sharia law”. Continue reading......

I've spent six years writing about environmental justice. The uncomfortable truth is that we're not all in it together – but people power is reshaping the fightIt's been another year of climate chaos and inadequate political action. And it's hard not to feel despondent and powerless.I joined the Guardian full time in 2019, as the paper's first environmental justice correspondent, and have reported from across the US and the region over the past six years. It's been painful to see so many families – and entire communities – devastated by fires, floods, extreme heat, sea level rise and food shortages. But what's given me hope during these six years of reporting as both an environmental and climate justice reporter are the people fighting to save our planet from catastrophe – in their communities, on the streets and in courtrooms across the world. Continue reading......

Draft bill to be submitted for legal checks as France aims to follow Australia's world-first ban on platforms including Facebook, Snapchat and YouTubeFrance intends to follow Australia and ban social media platforms for children from the start of the 2026 academic year.A draft bill preventing under-15s from using social media will be submitted for legal checks and is expected to be debated in parliament early in the new year. Continue reading......

Rail services between Sheffield and Doncaster affected on New Year's Eve after incident at ConisbroughTrain passengers in South Yorkshire are facing disruption on New Year's Eve after the theft of signalling cables, Network Rail has said.The rail body said services between Sheffield and Doncaster would be affected all day after the theft in Conisbrough. Continue reading......

We'd like to hear from people who are training AI to replace their current rolesAnalysis by the International Monetary Fund says Artificial intelligence will affect about 40% of jobs around the world.We'd like to find out more about the impact of AI on jobs now. With this in mind, we want to hear from people who have been training AI to replace their current roles. What has the experience been like? How do you feel about your future at your company? Do you have concerns? Continue reading......

Border guards find boat with its anchor down after telecoms link between Helsinki and Tallinn targeted A ship suspected of damaging an underwater cable running between Helsinki and Tallinn has been seized by police.Finnish officials say the vessel is suspected of being “responsible for the damage to the cable” owned by the telecoms group Elisa and located in Estonia's exclusive economic zone. Continue reading......

Predicted 8% cut would bring upper limit energy suppliers can charge to lowest level since September 2024Great Britain's household energy price cap is set to fall by 8% in April to its lowest in 18 months, a leading forecaster has said.The cap is expected to fall by the equivalent of cutting £138 off a typical annual dual-fuel bill, after the autumn budget shifted some charges to general taxation, according to Cornwall Insight, a consultancy that tracks the energy market. Continue reading......

Uptick of more than 20% in 2025 was fuelled by share buybacks and helpful breezes in key constituent parts such as defence and miningBusiness live – latest updatesIt was a bumper year for stock markets globally and the surprise, perhaps, is that the FTSE 100 index more than kept up. The London market has sometimes been derided as lacking dynamism – the hedge fund manager Paul Marshall called it the “Jurassic Park” of exchanges a few years ago – but its main index enjoyed its best 12 months since 2009. The Footsie didn't quite make it to the round number of 10,000 but still improved by 21.5%, slightly outperforming the S&P 500 index in the US.How did that happen amid weakening UK growth, pre-budget chaos and general gloom? The short answer is that a stock market index reflects only its constituent parts. It is not a symbol of national economic virility. That is especially true of the internationally flavoured Footsie, whose members make about three-quarters of their combined revenues oversea...