FTSE 100 and global stock markets at record highs as new year rally continues – business live

Global stock markets are continuing their new year rally, as indices around the world hit fresh record highs.Investors are shrugging off geopolitical worries following Donald Trump’s capture of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and pushing up equities.The pan-Europe Stoxx 600 hit a new record high this morning, after posting its steepest gain since 2021 last year. Yesterday it hit 600 points for the first time.The UK’s FTSE 100 is continuing to rally, after its best year since 2009, rising further above the 10,000 point mark this morning to as high as 10,066 points

Kent water failure was foreseen and could have been stopped, regulator says

A failure at a water treatment centre that left tens of thousands of Kent households without water was foreseen weeks before it happened and could have been stopped, the regulator has said.Twenty-four thousand homes in the Tunbridge Wells area were without drinking water for two weeks from 30 November last year due to a failure at the Pembury water treatment centre.At first there was no water coming from taps, and then the town was put under a boil water notice. South East Water told residents the water from their taps was unsuitable for drinking, giving to pets, brushing teeth, washing children or bathing in with an open wound.Marcus Rink, the chief inspector at the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), said the problem began on 9 November when there was a “noticeable deterioration” at the plant

‘I felt violated’: Elon Musk’s AI chatbot crosses a line

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. Happy new year! I hope your 2026 is off to a great start. Today in tech, we are examining the output of Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, and the US’s ban on foreign drones.Late last week, Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot unleashed a flood of images of women, nude and in very little clothing, both real and imagined, in response to users’ public requests on X, formerly Twitter. Mixed in with the generated images of adults were ones of young girls – children – likewise wearing “minimal clothing”, according to Grok itself

Nvidia CEO reveals new ‘reasoning’ AI tech for self-driving cars

The billionaire boss of the chipmaker Nvidia, Jensen Huang, has unveiled new AI technology that he says will help self-driving cars think like humans to navigate more complex situations.The world’s most valuable company is to roll out the new technology, Alpamayo, which is designed to help self-driving cars handle tricky situations such as sudden roadworks or unusual driver behaviour on the road, rather than just reacting to previous patterns.Nvidia claims Alpamayo will bring chain-of-thought reasoning to self-driving vehicles, combining what the car sees with language-like reasoning.In a speech at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Nvidia founder and chief executive said: “The ChatGPT moment for physical AI is here, when machines begin to understand, reason and act in the real world. Robotaxis are among the first to benefit

Britain’s fragile frontrunners Draper and Raducanu try again to break injury cycles | Tumaini Carayol

From the moment news of Great Britain’s planned team for the United Cup was announced in October, jokes began to fly. On paper, it was a dream. Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu, the top tennis players in the country and figureheads of a new generation, finally united on the same side of the court.However, recent history has shown that things are never straightforward with Britain’s two greatest hopes. Both players have had to navigate injuries and physical problems in their young careers, so to some fans and onlookers the real question was which player would withdraw first

‘I wish I’d faced these poor modern teams’: world’s oldest living Test cricketer on decline in standards

Twenty five kilometres north of the SCG, the world’s oldest living Test cricketer is sitting in his La-Z-Boy armchair and watching the Test. Neil Harvey was once the youngest of Bradman’s Invincibles; now he’s 97, his old cricketing buddies gone. His body is a little worn around the edges, but mentally he’s astute.Harvey was Australia’s sweetheart, the second youngest of six brothers, a dashing left-hander, who stalked the covers and a hunted at slip. During a 15-year Test career, he cut and shimmied to more than 6,000 runs at an average of 48, making his mark with 153 in his second Test