UK shoppers expected to spend £3.7bn on Boxing Day

Shoppers are expected to spend £3.7bn, this Boxing Day, up only 1.3% on 2023, with high streets less busy as shoppers snap up beauty and technology bargains online.The ability to click for bargains from the sofa means post-Christmas discounts actually begin before most families have touched a sprout or a slice of turkey as it is now possible to begin spending in the sales from midnight on Christmas Eve.More than 11 million people were expected to buy online on Christmas Day, up 3

Body discovered in wheel well of United Airlines plane in Hawaii

Police are investigating the discovery of a dead body in the wheel well of a United Airlines plane after it landed in Hawaii, the airline and the Maui police department said in statements on Wednesday.The body was found in the wheel well of one of the main landing gears on flight 202, which arrived at Kahului airport from Chicago on Tuesday, United said in an emailed statement.The airline said the wheel well of the Boeing 787-10 was only accessible from the outside of the aircraft, and that it was unclear how or when the person accessed it.In an emailed statement, the Maui police department said it was “actively investigating” the discovery of the body.The flight left Chicago’s O’Hare airport on the morning of Christmas Eve and the body was discovered after the plane touched down at Hawaii’s Kahului airport

The rise and rise of Maye Musk: China’s love affair with Elon Musk’s mother

Maye Musk is a busy woman. As well as being the mother of the world’s richest man, she has been jetting between various glamorous events – many of them in China. In December alone, she attended a gala dinner in Hangzhou, walked the red carpet for a cosmetics company in Wuhan and signed copies of the Chinese edition of her book, A Woman Makes a Plan, which she described as “a bestseller” in China.In fact, the only Musk-related book on the Chinese bestseller lists in October was a biography of her son Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson. Elon Musk is popular in China, and is thought to have the potential to wield pro-Beijing influence in the otherwise hawkish incoming administration of Donald Trump

How 2024 made Elon Musk the world’s most powerful unelected man

Hello, and welcome to Techscape. I’ve been pondering screen-time and isolation after I suffered through a recent bout of Covid. Even a few days of seclusion coupled with lengthy, uninterrupted spates of staring at screens were enough to return me to the state of mind in which I spent most of 2020. I hope all of you reading have a wonderful winter and new year, filled with the opposite of that experience: family, friends, and cheery, in-person parties.Today in Techscape: We look back at the biggest tech story of 2024, Elon Musk, and at the Amazon workers strike in the US

Sam Konstas makes debut to remember as Australia edge India on day one

It has been a tour of polygraphic variation for India’s Test team. Down and out to begin in Perth, becoming ascendant by the end. Back to the bottom in Adelaide, dragging themselves out of trouble in Brisbane to finish the draw there on a high. But starting the fourth Test in Melbourne, right in the series at 1-1, was the first time the Indians have looked completely at a loss.It’s not that nobody has ever batted aggressively in Tests

Australia v India: fourth men’s cricket Test, day one – as it happened

Konstas’s joyous, impudent 65-ball 60, a debut innings like no other, gave Australia a grip on the game that they may not relinquish. India loosened it slightly during the last session, when they reduced Australia from 237 for 2 to 299 for 6, but overall it was Australia’s day. And it was undeniably Sam Konstas’s day.86th over: Australia 311-6 (Smith 68, Cummins 6) A swinging yorker from Bumrah is played well by Cummins, who clips it into the leg side for a couple. Those are the last runs of a terrific day’s play, one that will be forever associated with the audacious brilliance of Sam Konstas