‘Sunshine Saturday’: UK firms expect 5% January rise in holiday bookings

UK travel companies are bracing for one of their busiest periods for bookings as winter-wearied consumers plan sunny breaks, with package holiday bookings forecast to be up 5% this January.The Civil Aviation Authority, the regulator that administers the Atol travel financial protection scheme, has forecast that 200,000 more holidaymakers will book trips this month compared with the 4.3 million who did so in the same period last year.January is well known as a boom time for holiday planning as households crave something to look forward to after Christmas, with demand peaking at the weekends, particularly the first one – known in the industry as Sunshine Saturday for its bumper number of bookings.However, booking patterns are forecast to shift this year towards quieter destinations, such as Malta’s sister island, Gozo, and long-haul locations, according to TravelSupermarket

China’s BYD overtakes Tesla as world’s biggest electric car seller

China’s BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s largest electric carmaker in 2025, after the US company run by Elon Musk reported a slump in deliveries at the end of the year.BYD sold 2.26m battery electric cars during the year, easily outstripping the 1.63m deliveries reported on Friday by Tesla for the same period.The switch is a symbolic moment in the rise of China’s car companies, which have used the transition to electric cars to try to dominate the global automotive industry

Reddit overtakes TikTok in UK thanks to search algorithms and gen Z

Reddit, the online discussion platform, has overtaken TikTok as Britain’s fourth most visited social media service, as search algorithms and gen Z have dramatically transformed its prominence.The platform has undergone huge growth over the last two years, with an 88% increase in the proportion of UK internet users it reaches. Three in five Brits online now encounter the site, up from a third in 2023, according to Ofcom.Its popularity is rising fastest with younger internet users. It is now the sixth most visited organisation of any kind by UK users aged between 18 and 24, up from 10th a year earlier

Elon Musk’s Grok AI generates images of ‘minors in minimal clothing’

Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok posted on Friday that lapses in safeguards had led it to generate “images depicting minors in minimal clothing” on social media platform X. The chatbot, a product of Musk’s company xAI, has been generating a wave of sexualized images throughout the week in response to user prompts.Screenshots shared by users on X showed Grok’s public media tab filled with such images. xAI said it was working to improve its systems to prevent future incidents.“There are isolated cases where users prompted for and received AI images depicting minors in minimal clothing,” Grok said in a post on X in response to a user

Jake Paul drops out of WBA cruiserweight rankings after loss to Anthony Joshua

Jake Paul has fallen out of the World Boxing Association’s cruiserweight rankings after his sixth-round knockout loss to Anthony Joshua last month.The YouTuber was stopped by the former two-time heavyweight champion in a scheduled eight-round bout in Miami, where Joshua scored four knockdowns before the referee halted the contest in the sixth round. Paul suffered a broken jaw in two places and required surgery after the fight.Paul (12-2, 7 KOs) had entered the WBA’s cruiserweight rankings at No 14 in July after defeating Julio César Chávez Jr by unanimous decision in Anaheim, California. He was listed at No 15 entering the bout against Joshua, despite the fight taking place at heavyweight and carrying no ranking implications in that division

Will Carlos Alcaraz prosper after split with coach as new tennis season looms?

In the endless flood of Instagram photo dumps and gushy captions from social media users around the world saluting another year gone by, Carlos Alcaraz’s efforts were particularly interesting. The candid photos from his camera roll included dozens of friends and family, various barbecues and his many haircuts throughout the year, but there was no room for one notable individual: Juan Carlos Ferrero.The abrupt dissolution of their partnership is one of the most shocking recent coaching splits and the reaction has been dramatic. Journalists swarmed outside Alcaraz’s tennis club in El Palmar a day after the news in their futile attempts to speak with the world No 1, then Ferrero decided to give a number of interviews to offer his own side of the story.Reports from Spain detailing reasons for split continue to circulate