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Consumers advised to review paying for services such as Netflix, Apple TV and Amazon Prime if they are unusedBritons are spending up to £1,200 a year on subscription services but could save as much as £400 by killing off “zombie” memberships, according to research.Millions of households have unused or duplicate subscriptions – whether for a neglected exercise app or an unwatched Netflix account – with recurring charges quietly draining spare cash from bank accounts. Continue reading......

Platform has restricted image creation on the Grok AI tool to paying subscribers, but victims and experts say this does not go far enoughElon Musk's X has been ordered by the UK government to tackle a wave of indecent AI images or face a de facto ban, as an expert said the platform was no longer a “safe space” for women.The media watchdog, Ofcom, confirmed it would accelerate an investigation into X as a backlash grew against the site, which has hosted a deluge of images depicting partially stripped women and children. Continue reading......

Country is 'uninvestable' today, president told, but CEOs signal they are ready to spend with supportDonald Trump promised oil giants “total safety, total security” in Venezuela in an effort to persuade them to invest $100bn in the country's infrastructure after US forces toppled Nicolás Maduro from power.At a roundtable press conference at the White House on Friday afternoon with more than a dozen oil executives, including leaders from Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhilips, the US president doubled down on claims that Maduro's arrest presents American oil companies with an unprecedented opportunity for extraction. Continue reading......

The US president is weaponising tech, but his tariffs and Brexit provide a surprising opportunity to gain back digital control of our livesIt's been 25 years since I started working for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an American nonprofit dedicated to preserving and promoting human rights on the internet. I've found myself in dozens of countries working with activists, politicians and civil servants to untangle the complex technical questions raised by the internet, and every one of our discussions ended in the same place. “OK,” they'd say, “you've definitely laid out the best way to regulate tech, but we can't do it.”Why not? Because – inevitably – the US trade rep had beaten me to every one of those countries and made it eye-wateringly clear that if they regulated tech in a way that favoured their own people, industries and national interests, the US would bury them in tariffs.Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of dozens of books, m...

Some experts have voiced fears a tech meltdown could hit our savings and pensions – here's how to protect yourselfThe new year has started as 2025 ended – with share prices booming amid warnings from some that the growth is being driven by overvalued technology stocks. Fears of an “AI bubble” have been voiced by people from the governor of the Bank of England to the head of Google's parent company, Alphabet.Even if you have not actively invested in technology shares, the chances are you have some exposure to companies operating in the sphere. Even if you do not, a collapse could take down other companies' values. Continue reading......

Utility admits parent company paid CEO Ruth Jefferson and CFO Andy Pymer but denies bonus paymentsThe bosses of Wessex Water received £50,000 in previously undisclosed extra pay from a parent company, in the same year that the utility was banned from paying bonuses, the Guardian can reveal.Chief executive Ruth Jefferson and chief financial officer Andy Pymer were paid £24,000 and £27,000 respectively in the year to June 2025, according to a spokesperson for Wessex Water's owner, the Malaysian YTL group. Continue reading......

Many of the old challenges remain but there are a number of reasons why this time a deal of some kind could be possibleMining firms Rio Tinto and Glencore restart $260bn merger talksHere we go again. A combination of Rio Tinto and Glencore has been talked about for years and the duo held aborted negotiations at the end of 2024. With the global mining industry in deal-making mode – frenzies come along every 15 years or so – the idea of RioGlen or GlenTinto was due another whirl. On Friday, the two FTSE 100 companies said they were in “preliminary discussions” about a “possible combination of some or all of their businesses”. A full-blown tie-up would be worth about $260bn (£120bn), including debt.Many of the old challenges to a deal haven't gone away. Glencore's roots lie in trading commodities; Rio is a traditional pure miner, so the fit is culturally imperfect. Does Rio, which got out of coal as long ago as 2018 under investor pressure, really want to go back in by adding Glencore's signi...

White House is meanwhile facing questions about an apparent embargo breach over Trump's social media postHiring held firm in the US last month, official data showed, amid uncertainty over the strength and direction of the world's largest economy.Employers added 50,000 jobs to the US labor force last month, capping the weakest year of growth since the pandemic, according to data released from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. Continue reading......

Agreement after 25 years of negotiations prompts farmers to block roads in Paris, Brussels and WarsawEurope live – latest updatesEuropean Union member states have backed the biggest ever free trade agreement with a group of Latin American countries, ending 25 years of negotiations but stoking further tensions with farmers and environmentalists around the bloc.The contentious Mercosur deal with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, prompted immediate protests in Poland, France, Greece and Belgium, with farmers blocking key roads in Paris, Brussels and Warsaw. Continue reading......

Bosses at body that trained chef Jamie Oliver were awarded million-pound bonuses after sale to private firmBusiness live – latest updatesThe Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into City & Guilds' sale of its qualification awards business to a private company last year.The announcement has been made after the Guardian revealed last month how City & Guilds bosses were handed million-pound bonuses after the charity privatised its business arm. Continue reading......

The Olina, seized in the Caribbean, was falsely flying the flag of Timor Leste, according to a public shipping databaseUS politics live – latest updatesThe US is in the process of seizing the Olina tanker in the Caribbean near Trinidad in the fifth such interdiction of ships in recent weeks as part of Washington's efforts to control Venezuelan oil exports, two US officials said on Friday.The Olina, according to public shipping database Equasis, was falsely flying the flag of the tiny south-east Asian nation of Timor Leste. The vessel had previously sailed from Venezuela and had returned to the region, said an industry source with direct knowledge of the matter. Continue reading......

Robot vacuums that can climb stairs and device for BlackBerry lovers also on display at annual Las Vegas tech showThis year will be filled with robots that can fold your laundry, pick up objects and climb stairs, fridges that you can command to open by voice, laptops with screens that can follow you around the room on motorised hinges and the reimagining of the BlackBerry phone.Those are the predictions from the annual CES tech show in Las Vegas that took place this week. The sprawling event aims to showcase cutting-edge technology developed by startups and big brands. Continue reading......

City firms welcome clarity as government signals it will not reopen Brussels-era rules, despite closer cooperation elsewhereBusiness live – latest updatesUK politics live – latest updatesKeir Starmer will exclude financial services from negotiations on closer alignment with the EU, prompting a sigh of relief from Brexit-weary City lobbyists.A government spokesperson said officials would continue to explore cooperation “where it is in our economy's interest”, but it is understood there will be no push for City firms to return to the Brussels rulebook. Continue reading......

Analysis estimates Trump administration 'wasted' billions to compensate over 154,000 federal employees on leaveThe Trump administration “wasted” $10bn on paid leave, or paying workers to stay home, as part of the “department of government efficiency's” assault on the federal workforce, a new analysis by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) estimates.In a letter sent to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Peer estimates that more than 154,000 employees were put on paid leave in 2025, making up nearly 7% of the federal civilian workforce. That costs taxpayers approximately $10bn in compensation for workers who were staying home and not working. Continue reading......

Social media site's profits plunge as image creation on AI tool Grok is turned off after outcry over sexualised usageUK revenues at Elon Musk's X fell by almost 60% in a year as advertisers pulled spend over concerns about the social media platform's content.News of the plummeting financial performance comes as X switched off the image creation function on its AI tool Grok for the vast majority of users after a widespread outcry about its use to create sexually explicit and violent imagery. Continue reading......

The ad campaign ended in late 2025, the Swedish streaming giant confirmed, having previously said, despite protests, that it did not violate advertising policiesSpotify is no long running advertisements for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the streaming service has confirmed, after the Trump administration campaign ended in late 2025.“There are currently no ICE ads running on Spotify,” the Swedish company said in a statement. “The advertisements mentioned were part of a US government recruitment campaign that ran across all major media and platforms.” Continue reading......

Four out of five councils controlled by party have proposed 5% council tax rises, the maximum permitted by lawNigel Farage's Reform UK has been accused of “betraying” election promises to cut council tax after several councils it controls said they planned to increase rates close to the maximum allowed.They include Kent county council – the party's flagship local authority and one viewed by it as the “shop window” for what a Reform-led government would look like – which has proposed an increase of 3.99%. Continue reading......

Exclusive: SIK leader Jess Berthelsen rejects Trump claim that the US needs Greenland for 'national security'Greenland “will not be annexed”, the longtime leader of its largest labor union has declared, refuting Donald Trump's claims that the Arctic territory's current status poses a national security threat to the US.In an interview with the Guardian, Jess Berthelsen, chair of SIK, Greenland's national trade union confederation, said people in the territory do not recognize the US president's allegations that Russian and Chinese ships are scattered throughout its waters. “We can't see it, we can't recognize it and we can't understand it,” he said. Continue reading......

If this reform succeeds it will be a blueprint for African self-reliance. But the state has failed to deliver the most basic services for decades. No wonder Nigerians are suspiciousLet's not mince words. Nigeria's new tax regime, which landed on our heads this January, is the most ambitious attempt to reshape the state since, well, since the last time someone had a “bright idea” in Abuja. They're calling it a “generational reset”.From where I sit, and from where millions of Nigerians actually sit – in traffic, in market stalls, in offices – wondering how to make ends meet, it feels more like a grand, high-stakes gamble. Continue reading......

Deal would create world's largest mining company and come almost a year after previous discussions failedBusiness live – latest updatesRio Tinto and Glencore have restarted talks over a merger that would create the world's largest mining company.The talks come almost a year after previous discussions between the two mining companies collapsed. If a deal is agreed, it would create a global mining business with an enterprise value of more than $260bn (£193bn). Continue reading......