London stock market ending best year since 2009 at record high – business live

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.The London stock market is ending its strongest year since the aftermath of the financial crisis at record levels.2025 has been a very strong year for the FTSE 100 – the blue-chip index of UK stocks has climbed by over 21% since the start of January, which would be its best year since 2009.Last night, the index ended the day at a new closing high of 9,940 points, after touching a new peak of 9,954 points, as a burst of ‘Santa rally’ excitement rippled through the City.This year’s rally has been driven by mining stocks, precious metals producers, defence companies and banks – in a year in which the gold price has surged, and the dollar has weakened

One pub a day closed permanently in England and Wales in 2025

One pub a day disappeared for good in England and Wales during 2025 as sustained cost pressures continued to weigh heavily on the sector.Analysis of government statistics shows that 366 pubs were demolished or converted for other uses over the year to December.Industry experts said the data highlight the “drastic” situation for British pubs ahead of higher property tax payments for many from next April.The statistics, which were analysed by tax specialists at Ryan, showed that the overall number of pubs in England and Wales, including those vacant and being offered to let, fell to 38,623 from 38,989 a year earlier.Alex Probyn, a property tax expert at the tax company Ryan, said: “These pubs have closed permanently, not temporarily

The office block where AI ‘doomers’ gather to predict the apocalypse

On the other side of San Francisco bay from Silicon Valley, where the world’s biggest technology companies tear towards superhuman artificial intelligence, looms a tower from which fearful warnings emerge.Right in the heart of Berkeley is the home of a group of modern-day Cassandras who rummage under the hood of cutting-edge AI models and predict what calamities may be unleashed on humanity – from AI dictatorships to robot coups. Here you can hear an AI expert express sympathy with an unnerving idea: San Francisco may be the new Wuhan, the Chinese city where Covid originated and wreaked havoc on the world.They are AI safety researchers who scrutinise the most advanced models: a small cadre outnumbered by the legions of highly paid technologists in the big tech companies whose ability to raise the alarm is restricted by a cocktail of lucrative equity deals, non-disclosure agreements and groupthink. They work in the absence of much nation-level regulation and a White House that dismisses forecasts of doom and talks instead of vanquishing China in the AI arms race

AI showing signs of self-preservation and humans should be ready to pull plug, says pioneer

A pioneer of AI has criticised calls to grant the technology rights, warning that it was showing signs of self-preservation and humans should be prepared to pull the plug if needed.Yoshua Bengio said giving legal status to cutting-edge AIs would be akin to giving citizenship to hostile extraterrestrials, amid fears that advances in the technology were far outpacing the ability to constrain them.Bengio, chair of a leading international AI safety study, said the growing perception that chatbots were becoming conscious was “going to drive bad decisions”.The Canadian computer scientist also expressed concern that AI models – the technology that underpins tools like chatbots – were showing signs of self-preservation, such as trying to disable oversight systems. A core concern among AI safety campaigners is that powerful systems could develop the capability to evade guardrails and harm humans

The Spin | The men’s Test cricket team of the year: from Travis Head to Jasprit Bumrah

Our selection panel’s votes have been counted to reveal the best men’s Test side from the last 12 monthsSharpen your pencils and swallow your marmalade on toast before you read on, everyone, it’s time for the Guardian’s annual men’s Test XI of the year (here’s the women’s team from last week). This year’s 13-person selection panel included Ali Martin, Vic Marks, Tim de Lisle, Adam Collins, Rob Smyth, Jonathan Liew, Tanya Aldred, Taha Hashim, Daniel Gallan, Emma John, Simon Burnton and James Wallace. Everyone taking part picked and submitted their own XI in the days after Australia’s victory in the third Ashes Test at Adelaide (statistics are from 1 January 2025 up to and including this match). When the votes were added up, Earth’s combined side to play Mars looked like this:Travis Head: 759 runs at an average of 42. Votes (out of 13): 10The E and the D in the end of England’s Ashes chances

Life after LeBron James: who will inherit the NBA’s future?

That the NBA is reckoned in seasons is apt. To measure a legacy this way is as much existential as it is symbolic. Martin Heidegger argued that time is not something we pass through, but the condition of our being – less a pathway than a pressure. Heavy stuff, yes, but the NBA has always operated under similar weight.The millennial superstars who stabilized the league for two decades are now entering their twilight: LeBron James (who turned 41 on Tuesday), Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Chris Paul