Nissan shares tumble by most since August amid Honda deal worries

Shares in the Japanese carmaker Nissan have had their biggest fall since August’s stock market sell-off, as investors turned their attention to the company’s planned tie-up with domestic rivals Honda and Mitsubishi.Nissan’s shares fell by as much as 15% on Friday before regaining some losses to close down 7.8%, in a sign of investor volatility.The fall came less than two weeks after its shares soared by 20% on 17 December, after the first reports that Nissan was to begin talks on a potential merger with Honda.Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi are considering joining forces to better contend with falling sales and competition from Chinese brands

‘It’s not just a dancefloor’: the precipitous decline of UK nightclubs

When the patrons of Watford’s Pryzm nightclub celebrated New Year’s Eve on 31 December 2023, they were marking the end of an era, or rather, the end of seven eras. Like every beloved local club, the venue had been known by multiple names over the years: Top Rank, Bailey’s, Paradise Lost, Kudos, Destiny and Oceana.Now, it will be reincarnated no more, after failing to reach a deal with its landlord.One TikTok user posted a video of herself sketching an intricate iPad picture in tribute to the venue, where she had met her boyfriend. She signed it with an “RIP” and a broken heart emoji

Older music has been getting a second life on TikTok, data shows

This was the year that gen Z had their “Brat summer”, or so we were led to believe.Inspired by the hit album by pop sensation Charli xcx, the trend was seen to embody all the messiness of modern youth: trashy, chaotic and bright green.But on the teenager’s social media platform of choice, TikTok, a more sepia music trend has been taking root.Despite having an endless amount of music to pair with their short, scrollable videos, TikTok users have been raiding the back catalogues of artists from yesteryear including Bronski Beat and Sade to soundtrack their posts.This year set a new high for use of old tracks on British TikTok posts, with tunes more than five years old accounting for 19 out of its 50 top tracks this year

The rise and rise of Maye Musk: China’s love affair with Elon Musk’s mother

Maye Musk is a busy woman. As well as being the mother of the world’s richest man, she has been jetting between various glamorous events – many of them in China. In December alone, she attended a gala dinner in Hangzhou, walked the red carpet for a cosmetics company in Wuhan and signed copies of the Chinese edition of her book, A Woman Makes a Plan, which she described as “a bestseller” in China.In fact, the only Musk-related book on the Chinese bestseller lists in October was a biography of her son Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson. Elon Musk is popular in China, and is thought to have the potential to wield pro-Beijing influence in the otherwise hawkish incoming administration of Donald Trump

GB again set standards at Paris Paralympics – now to fill in the gaps

Athletes such as William Ellard and Bly Twomey starred this summer but much needs doing to boost disabled sport between GamesThere was a lot riding on the Paris Paralympics, but they delivered. A Games that had the challenge not only of exciting the people of Paris but of reviving the movement behind disability sport served up world-class entertainment to full stadiums and made the French capital more accessible on top. Paris was a triumph, if not quite a perfect one, but the question already being asked is: what next?For ParalympicsGB the answers are relatively clear. After another second place in the medal table, ahead of the US and the host nation and behind only China, funding has been locked in for the next four-year cycle for Los Angeles 2028. A £330m package across Olympic and Paralympic programmes enriched every one of the latter’s 18 world-class programmes with a funding increase

Sport in 2024: the moments that made us smile

Guardian writers recall their memorable occasions over the past year, from fraternity in the F1 paddock to an indiscreet moment in the dartsYou hear all sorts of whispers at the Olympics; my favourite this year was about the 61-year-old grandmother Ni Xialian, who had an outside shot in the women’s table tennis. She won world titles for China in the early 1980s, then fell in love with another player, Tommy Danielsson, and moved to Luxembourg to run a hotel. She still plays and at this year’s Games she won her first match but lost to the world champion in the second. Afterwards, she spent a happy hour offering life advice to the assembled press. “I was worried if I was good enough, but if you never play, you’ll never know,” she said, “and as I always say: ‘I’m always younger today than I will be tomorrow