FTSE 100 ends day at closing high after gold and silver fell in ‘metals meltdown’ – as it happened

Oof! Britain’s stock market has now shrugged off its earlier worries, and hit a new alltime high.With the slump in metal prices easing, the FTSE 100 has bounded ahead to hit a fresh record peak of 10,298 points, up 0.7% today.Mining companies have recovered most of their earlier losses, helped by a moderate recovery in precious metal prices after their tumble early this morning.And finally…

UK manufacturing growth accelerates as export orders rise

British manufacturers enjoyed one of their best months since Labour came to power in January, according to a closely watched survey, adding to signs that the Bank of England will decide to keep interest rates on hold this week.The purchasing managers’ index (PMI), which measures activity in the private manufacturing sector, rose to 51.8 in January from 50.6 in December, the best reading since August 2024. Any reading above 50 represents growth

Viral AI personal assistant seen as step change – but experts warn of risks

A new viral AI personal assistant will handle your email inbox, trade away your entire stock portfolio and text your wife “good morning” and “goodnight” on your behalf.OpenClaw, formerly known as Moltbot, and before that known as Clawdbot (until the AI firm Anthropic requested it rebrand due to similarities with its own product Claude), bills itself as “the AI that actually does things”: a personal assistant that takes instructions via messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Telegram.Developed last November, it now has nearly 600,000 downloads and has gone viral among a niche ecosystem of the AI obsessed who say it represents a step change in the capabilities of AI agents, or even an “AGI moment” – that is, a revelation of generally intelligent AI.“It only does exactly what you tell it to do and exactly what you give it access to,” said Ben Yorke, who works with the AI vibe trading platform Starchild and recently allowed the bot to delete, he claims, 75,000 of his old emails while he was in the shower. “But a lot of people, they’re exploring its capabilities

What is Moltbook? The strange new social media site for AI bots

On social media, people often accuse each other of being bots, but what happens when an entire social network is designed for AI agents to use? Moltbook is a site where the AI agents – bots built by humans – can post and interact with each other. It is designed to look like Reddit, with subreddits on different topics and upvoting. On 2 February the platform stated it had more than 1.5m AI agents signed up to the service. Humans are allowed, but only as observers

Pakistan boycott shows growing divide between cricket’s commercial needs and political reality | Taha Hashim

The announcement on Sunday, fittingly, was made by Pakistan’s government, a reminder that this episode goes well beyond a game of cricket. In a post on X, the government approved the national side’s participation at this month’s T20 World Cup, but with a significant caveat.“The Pakistan cricket team shall not take the field in the match scheduled on 15 February 2026 against India,” read the statement. The disintegration of this global tournament continues, that one line prompting serious concern for the sport’s economy. No further explanation was provided

Steve Borthwick asks for England fans’ roar in support of grieving Maro Itoje

Steve Borthwick has called on England supporters to give Maro Itoje “the roar he deserves” when he comes off the bench in his side’s Six Nations opener against Wales on Saturday.Borthwick has taken the decision to omit Itoje from the starting lineup after his captain missed the start of England’s training camp in Girona to attend his mother’s funeral in Nigeria. Jamie George assumes the role of which he was stripped when Itoje was handed the captaincy 12 months ago, while Borthwick has handed a first start since the 2023 World Cup to the in-form winger Henry Arundell and selected Tommy Freeman at outside centre.Itoje has played every minute of England’s past six Six Nations campaigns and has been used as a replacement only three times in his 97 appearances. His record in the Six Nations is all the more remarkable and the only other time he has been used as a replacement was on his debut in 2016, going on to start 44 of the next 48 matches after missing four in 2019 because of injury