China’s trade surplus hits $1tn for first time despite Trump’s tariffs – business live

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.China’s annual trade surplus has exceeded $1tn for the first time, as the manufacturing powerhouse shrugged off the impact of Donald Trump’s trade war.New trade data today shows that Chinese factories swelled their sales to non-US markets this year, making up from a sharp drop in shipments to the US.In November, China’s exports grew 5.9% year-on-year, customs data shows

‘Zombie’ electricity projects in Britain face axe to ease quicker grid connections

Britain’s energy system operator is pulling the plug on hundreds of electricity generation projects to clear a huge backlog that is stopping “shovel-ready” schemes from connecting to the power grid.Developers will be told on Monday whether their plans will be dismissed by the National Energy System Operator (Neso) – or whether they will be prioritised to connect by either the end of the decade or 2035.More than half of the energy projects in the queue will be removed to make way for about £40bn-worth of schemes considered the most likely to help meet the government’s goal to build a virtually zero-carbon power system by 2030.The milestone marks the end of a two-year process to clear the gridlock of laggard “zombie” projects awaiting connection that meant many workable proposals were facing a 15-year wait to plug into Britain’s transmission lines.Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said: “We inherited a broken system where zombie projects were allowed to hold up grid connections for viable projects that will bring investment, jobs and economic growth

Scores of UK parliamentarians join call to regulate most powerful AI systems

More than 100 UK parliamentarians are calling on the government to introduce binding regulations on the most powerful AI systems as concern grows that ministers are moving too slowly to create safeguards in the face of lobbying from the technology industry.A former AI minister and defence secretary are part of a cross-party group of Westminster MPs, peers and elected members of the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish legislatures demanding stricter controls on frontier systems, citing fears superintelligent AI “would compromise national and global security”.The push for tougher regulation is being coordinated by a nonprofit organisation called Control AI whose backers include the co-founder of Skype, Jaan Tallinn. It is calling on Keir Starmer to show independence from Donald Trump’s White House, which opposes the regulation of AI. One of the “godfathers” of the technology, Yoshua Bengio, recently said it was less regulated than a sandwich

A robot walks into a bar: can a Melbourne researcher get AI to do comedy?

Robots can make humans laugh – mostly when they fall over – but a new research project is looking at whether robots using AI could ever be genuinely funny.If you ask ChatGPT for a funny joke, it will serve you up something that belongs in a Christmas cracker: “Why don’t skeletons fight each other? Because they don’t have the guts.”The University of Melbourne’s Dr Robert Walton, a dean’s research fellow in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, is taking a different approach to working out whether robots can do comedy.Thanks to an Australian Research Council grant of about $500,000, he will train a swarm of robots in standup. And, at least in the beginning, they won’t use words

Standing up for Alex Carey, undoubtedly the finest wicketkeeper in world cricket right now | Brendan Foster

Just after lunch on the fourth day of the Centenary Test at the MCG in 1977, the classroom speaker at my Perth primary school crackled into life with the muffled voices of the ABC radio.Our teacher demanded we stop what we were doing because history was about to be made. Perhaps Queen Elizabeth, who was in Australia on her Silver Jubilee tour of the Commonwealth, was about to address her colonial subjects with a momentous announcement?A thunderous bluster from the tiny speaker filled the room as the teacher proudly declared that Rod Marsh had just become the first Australian wicketkeeper to score a Test century against England.The pugnacious Western Australian, who had the reckless bravery of a bare-knuckle fighter at a travelling agricultural show, revolutionised world cricket because he was the first player to be selected for Australia for his batting ability rather than his glovework. It’s a template that most cricketing nations have been copying ever since, with varying degrees of success

Packers edge Bears and Bills topple Bengals in thriller: NFL week 14 as it happened

(2-11) Las Vegas Raiders 17-24 Denver Broncos (11-2)(3-10) Arizona Cardinals 17-45 Los Angeles Rams (10-3)(9-3-1) Green Bay Packers 28-21 Chicago Bears (9-4)Big shift in the NFC with these results. LA take over at the top of the conference with an absolute rout of Arizona while Green Bay jump to the top of the NFC North above Chicago as the Bears just fall short. Goodnight!Green Bay Packers 28-21 Chicago BearsNot like this, not like this! Chicago go for it all on 4th down as Williams rolls out on the boot leg to the left but he under throws the pass straight into the arms of Keisean Nixon. Game over.Packers 28-21 Bears 0:27, 4th quarterOn 3rd down in the red zone Monangai gets the hand off but is short! Huge play by the Green Bay defense to stop him