Why is Truth Social owner Trump Media merging with a fusion energy firm?

Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, announced a merger on Wednesday with a company developing fusion energy technology.TAE Technologies, an energy company founded in 1998, will join with Trump Media via a $6bn merger that it promises will propel it to build “the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant” next year.The move signals that the president and his family continue to look for profit-seeking ventures outside of Truth Social, which remains tiny compared with rival platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).Here is what we know about the deal so far.The media company, which has dabbled in financial services, is engineering a huge pivot and diving headfirst into nuclear energy

FTSE 100 closes near record high as Santa Rally builds, despite weak retail sales – as it happened

British retailers have suffered a slump in sales in the run-up to Christmas, and are gloomier about their prospects for the start of 2026, a new survey shows.In another sign that the UK economy is struggling, the Confederation of British Industry has reported that retail sales volumes fell at an accelerated rate in the year to December.This pulled the CBI’s gauge of how retail sales compared with a year earlier worsened to -44 in December from -32 in November.The new year is expected to start on a gloomy note for the retail sector. Retailers anticipate that annual sales will fall sharply next month, with expectations at their weakest since March 2021

Elon Musk’s massive 2018 Tesla pay package restored by Delaware court

Elon Musk’s controversial $56bn pay package from Tesla was reinstated by the Delaware supreme court on Friday, two years after a lower court struck down the vast compensation deal as “unfathomable”.The reinstated pay package could be worth as much as $139bn today, according to the New York Times. The decision comes less than two months after Tesla shareholders approved a new plan that could be worth $1tn to Musk, already the world’s richest person, in a decade’s time. Musk’s fortune currently stands at an estimated $600bn.Rescinding the pay deal would be “inequitable”, and would leave Musk “uncompensated for his time and efforts over a period of six years”, the Delaware supreme court justices wrote, echoing arguments from Tesla board members earlier this year

‘A black hole’: families and police say tech giants delay investigations in child abuse and drug cases

Max Osterman was 18 when he connected with a drug dealer on Snapchat who used the handle skyhigh.303. Max would message him whenever he wanted to buy Percocet, and they would meet. After about a year, and just days after their last exchange, Max collapsed. The pills he ordered had been laced with fentanyl

Australia v England: Ashes third Test, day four – live

72nd over: Australia 304-4 (Head 165, Carey 61) But there goes the pressure valve, as Head flays two four off Carse with wolfish abandon. Thirteen from the over, and the lead creeps towards 400.71st over: Australia 291-4 (Head 154, Carey 60) Just a couple off Stokes’s over, who is once again leading by example. It must be exhausting.70th over: Australia 289-4 (Head 153, Carey 59) Head hadn’t looked quite so on it this morning, but now upper cuts with a swagger off Carse to bring a to bring up his 150 off 205 balls

‘They like a good night out’: German darts fans find a (mostly) friendly rivalry at Alexandra Palace

They walk among us, sit among us, sing among us. They speak perfect English, hunt in packs, down industrial quantities of Amstel just like everyone else. And yet to the trained eye, to the seasoned Ally Pally veteran, there is just something different to them. A comportment and a vibe. Perhaps the fact they speak perfect English