Tesco boosts profit outlook after ‘strong’ Christmas; UK house prices drop in December – business live

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.The Christmas leftovers are over, and any ill-fitting clothes or inappropriate gifts could have been returned, but we’re still learning which retailers won, or lost, over the festive season.This morning, retail heavyweights Tesco and Marks & Spencer are about to release trading results covering the Christmas period, along with baking chain Greggs.These results may show whether cautious consumers cut back over Christmas, or pushed the boat out, and whether the budget in late November had any impact on spending.Data earlier this week showed that spending on promotions and deals reached its highest level since before the pandemic in December, which will have squeezed profit margins…

Trump says he plans crackdown on defense firms over executive pay and stock buybacks

Donald Trump has claimed he plans to crack down on executive compensation and shareholder payouts at military defense contractors, as his administration looks to dramatically ramp up spending on the armed forces.In a series of posts on social media, the US president said he wants to increase the military budget to $1.5tn – and complained that defense giants had been failing to swiftly deliver “vital” equipment to the US and its allies across the world.The firms are paying “exorbitant” salaries to their top executives and vast dividends to shareholders while equipment is “NOT BEING MADE FAST ENOUGH”, Trump said.He said he would “not permit” dividends and stock buybacks by defense companies, or allow them to pay executives more than $5m, until they started to accelerate deliveries and build new and modern production plants

AI chatbot Grok used to create child sexual abuse imagery, watchdog says

Online criminals are claiming to have used Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot to create sexual imagery of children, as a child safety watchdog warned the AI tool risked bringing such material into the mainstream.The UK-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said users of a dark web forum boasted of using Grok Imagine to create sexualised and topless imagery of girls aged between 11 and 13. IWF analysts said the images would be considered child sexual abuse material (CSAM) under UK law.“We can confirm our analysts have discovered criminal imagery of children aged between 11 and 13 which appears to have been created using the tool,” said Ngaire Alexander, the head of the IWF’s hotline, which investigates reports of CSAM from members of the public.X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, has been deluged with images of women and children whose clothes have been digitally removed by the Grok tool, sparking public outcry and condemnation from politicians

Commons women and equalities committee to stop using X amid AI-altered images row

The Commons women and equalities committee has decided to stop using X after the social media site’s AI tool began generating thousands of digitally altered images of women and children with their clothes removed.The move by the cross-party committee places renewed pressure on ministers to take decisive action after the site was flooded with images including sexualised and unclothed pictures of children generated by its AI tool, Grok.Sarah Owen, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, said that given preventing violence against women and girls was among its key policy areas, “it has become increasingly clear that X is not an appropriate platform to be using for our communications”.Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, has called the imagery “appalling and unacceptable in decent society” and urged Ofcom, the UK’s media regulator, to take whatever action is needed.Speaking on Wednesday, Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said that “all options remain on the table” for Ofcom, which has the power to impose huge fines or to restrict access to a site

Australia beat England by five wickets on day five of the fifth Ashes Test – as it happened

Time to call stumps. On behalf of the Guardian’s over-by-over team, thanks for your company today and throughout this 2025-26 Ashes series. Over and OUT!Geoff Lemon pays tribute to player of the series Mitchell Starc.It was right that Mitchell Starc should clean up the last two English wickets of this Ashes. Right, too, that Travis Head should mop up a few more runs, but for all of the enjoyment that Head brings with his Jayasuriya-lite batting and his Boon-lite persona, the difference in the series has been the other left-hander

Talismanic Mitchell Starc adds final flourish to his imperious Ashes series | Geoff Lemon

It was right that Mitchell Starc should clean up the last two English wickets of this Ashes. Right, too, that Travis Head should mop up a few more runs, but for all of the enjoyment that Head brings with his Jayasuriya-lite batting and his Boon-lite persona, the difference in the series has been the other left-hander. The fifth morning of the Sydney Test took Starc to 31 wickets at 19, and crossing 30 is the stuff of great Ashes series. Sixteen other Australians have done it, a list mostly comprised of players who only need be identified by surnames.In the manner of schoolteachers meeting you as an adult, some people are stuck with a memory of Starc as he was at the beginning: a lanky possessor of promise with the risk of being wayward, expensive or injured