Gold soars past $5,100 an ounce, silver hits new record on tariff and US shutdown fears – as it happened

Wall Street stocks have risen, at the start of a week of big tech earnings and a closely watched US Federal Reserve policy decision (no change in interest rates is expected).The Dow Jones rose by more than 200 points, or 0.45%, the S&P 500 gained 27 points, up 0.4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed more than 50 points, or 0.2%

UK’s biggest private hospital provider Spire in talks on sale to private equity

The UK’s biggest private hospital provider, Spire Healthcare, is in talks about a sale to private equity that could lead to it being delisted from the London Stock Exchange.The company, which owns the Claremont hospital in Sheffield and St Anthony’s hospital in south London, said on Monday that Bridgepoint Advisers and Triton Investments Advisers were “amongst the parties” with which it was in talks.Its shares jumped 18%, making Spire the top riser on the FTSE 250 on Monday and valuing the company at nearly £850m.Spire said talks were at an early stage, adding: “There can be no certainty that any offer will be made.”It first announced a strategic review of its operations in September, saying it was in discussions with several parties to explore options including a potential sale of the business

EU launches inquiry into X over sexually explicit images made by Grok AI

The European Commission has launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s X over the production of sexually explicit images and the spreading of possible child sexual abuse material by the platform’s AI chatbot, Grok.The formal inquiry, launched on Monday, also extends an investigation into X’s recommender systems, algorithms that help users discover new content.Grok has sparked international outrage by allowing users to digitally strip women and children and put them into provocative poses. Grok AI generated about 3m sexualised images in less than two weeks, including 23,000 that appeared to depict children, according to researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate.The commission said its investigation would “assess whether the company properly assessed and mitigated risks” stemming from Grok’s functionalities in the EU, including risks on the sharing of illegal content such as manipulated sexually explicit images and “content that may amount to” child sexual abuse material

Georgia leads push to ban datatcenters used to power America’s AI boom

Lawmakers in several states are exploring passing laws that would put statewide bans in place on building new datacenters as the issue of the power-hungry facilities has moved to the center of economic and environmental concerns in the US.In Georgia a state lawmaker has introduced a bill proposing what could become the first statewide moratorium on new datacenters in America. The bill is one of at least three statewide moratoriums on datacenters introduced in state legislatures in the last week as Maryland and Oklahoma lawmakers are also considering similar measures.But it is Georgia that is quickly becoming ground zero in the fight against untrammelled growth of datacenters – which are notorious for using huge amounts of energy and water – as they power the emerging industry of artificial intelligence.The Georgia bill seeks to halt all such projects until March of next year “to allow state, county and municipal-level officials time to set necessary policies for regulating datacenters … which permanently alter the landscape of our state”, said bill sponsor state Democratic legislator Ruwa Romman

Ruud makes timely exit from Australian Open as Shelton storms into last eight

Casper Ruud suffered a frustrating 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 defeat to Ben ­Shelton in the fourth round of the Australian Open on Monday night, but the silver lining of the three-time grand slam finalist’s loss is that he will finally be able to return home.Ruud, the 12th seed, has had one eye on events back home during his time in Melbourne owing to the fact that his wife, Maria, is heavily pregnant with their first child and is due to give birth this weekend. Ruud had repeatedly stated that he would withdraw and immediately begin the long journey home to Norway if she went into labour during the tournament.Ruud said last week: “She’s due later in the tournament, so we’ll see. It’s not until the final weekend of the tournament, the due date

Always in reserve: Dawson’s moment beckons at T20 World Cup after decade ‘on call’ for England

Liam Dawson watched as England won two World Cups and reached the final in another but his global tournament debut will surely come against Nepal on 8 FebruaryLiam Dawson has been around for England’s finest white-ball moments in the last decade. He was an uncapped inclusion in the 2016 World T20 touring party, when Eoin Morgan’s fresh-faced team were denied right at the end by Carlos Brathwaite’s remember-the-name sixes. He was there as a squad member on that golden day at Lord’s in 2019, too, and a travelling reserve when England won the T20 World Cup in Australia three years later.But, remarkably, the 35-year-old is still waiting for his debut at a global tournament. It’s been an international career spent on call, limited to 33 appearances across formats, his left-arm spin and handy batting there to use in case of emergency