Was 2025 the year that business retreated from net zero?

Almost a year since Donald Trump returned to the White House with a rallying cry to the fossil fuel industry to “drill baby, drill”, a backlash against net zero appears to be gathering momentum.More companies have retreated from, or watered down, their pledges to cut carbon emissions, instead prioritising shareholder returns over climate action.In the UK, the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has helped fracture the political consensus that had helped make Britain the first big economy to enshrine a commitment to cutting carbon emissions into law, in 2019. Earlier this year, the Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch, officially ditched net zero by 2050 as a Tory policy. Labour was even forced to defend its net zero policy after an attack by its former leader, Tony Blair

Why is Truth Social owner Trump Media merging with a fusion energy firm?

Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, announced a merger on Wednesday with a company developing fusion energy technology.TAE Technologies, an energy company founded in 1998, will join with Trump Media via a $6bn merger that it promises will propel it to build “the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant” next year.The move signals that the president and his family continue to look for profit-seeking ventures outside of Truth Social, which remains tiny compared with rival platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).Here is what we know about the deal so far.The media company, which has dabbled in financial services, is engineering a huge pivot and diving headfirst into nuclear energy

FTSE 100 closes near record high as Santa Rally builds, despite weak retail sales – as it happened

British retailers have suffered a slump in sales in the run-up to Christmas, and are gloomier about their prospects for the start of 2026, a new survey shows.In another sign that the UK economy is struggling, the Confederation of British Industry has reported that retail sales volumes fell at an accelerated rate in the year to December.This pulled the CBI’s gauge of how retail sales compared with a year earlier worsened to -44 in December from -32 in November.The new year is expected to start on a gloomy note for the retail sector. Retailers anticipate that annual sales will fall sharply next month, with expectations at their weakest since March 2021

Independent businesses: have your online sales been affected by the rise of AI?

We’d like to find out more about how your business has been affected by changes to online searches amid the rise of AI.Independent businesses have traditionally relied on online advertising for increased visibility and sales, even if they are based on the high street. However, with the introduction of AI mode and AI Overview summaries on Google, and the proliferation of LLMs such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini, people are altering their search habits, which may affect the online visibility of small businesses.With this in mind, we want to find out if there have been any changes to organic traffic to your business site or online sales in recent months. Are customers still able to discover your company online? Have you found new opportunities or have there been significant challenges? How is your business innovating to get seen online? Are you changing strategy?We’d also like to hear from customers – have you found it harder to track down independent retailers, or find relevant products online?You can tell us by using the form below or by messaging us

Former Yodel owner probably forged mother’s signature in takeover bid, judge rules

The former owner of Yodel probably forged his mother’s signature in an attempt to seize back control of the parcel delivery company, according to an “extraordinary” ruling issued on Friday by a high court judge.Jacob Corlett, a 31-year-old logistics entrepreneur, launched a takeover of Yodel in January 2024, buying the financially distressed company for £1 as part of a plan to merge it with his own parcels company, Shift.Within six months, Yodel was unable to pay its debts to HM Revenue and Customs and commercial partners, forcing Corlett to sell the business – also for £1 – to another company called Judge Logistics Ltd (JLL) in June 2024.Earlier this year, the Polish parcel locker company InPost bought JLL in a £106m deal.After a suit brought against him by Yodel, including for breach of fiduciary duty during his time as a director, Corlett launched an unsuccessful counterclaim intended to regain control of Yodel

WH Smith tries to recover bonuses from ex-bosses as watchdog investigates accounting error

WH Smith will try to take back as much as £7m in bonuses from former executives after revealing the UK’s financial watchdog has launched a formal investigation into a devastating accounting error linked to its US business.Almost £600m was wiped off the books to paperclips retailer’s stock market value overnight in August after it identified errors with accounting for supplier income and provision for lost stock going back to 2023 in its North American arm.Last month its chief executive, Carl Cowling, stepped down in the wake of the scandal. The company is searching for a permanent replacement.On Friday the company said it would be “applying malus and clawback to recover overpaid bonuses” from Cowling, and its former finance director Robert Moorhead, after the restatement of profits in its 2023 and 2024 financial year