UK retail sales drop unexpectedly as shoppers await Black Friday and budget

Sales at UK retailers slumped unexpectedly last month as shoppers waited for Black Friday deals, and uncertainty over the upcoming budget dampened consumer confidence.Retail sales fell 1.1% month on month in October, the first fall since May, according to official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Economists had been expecting sales growth to be flat on the previous month.Supermarkets, clothing stores and online mail order companies suffered sales declines, which some retailers said was due to consumers delaying purchases in the run-up to the annual Black Friday sales, according to the ONS

UK borrowing exceeds forecasts in October as retail sales fall; energy price cap to rise in January – business live

Newsflash (yes, another one): The UK government borrowed more than forecast last month to balance the books, highlighting the fiscal challenge facing Rachel Reeves in next month’s budget.The Office for National Statistics has reported that the UK borrowed £17.4bn in October, to cover the shortfall between tax income and spending.City economists had expected borrowing to drop to £15bn, down from the £20bn borrowed in September.Significantly, this is £3bn more than the £14

Elon Musk’s Grok AI tells users he is fitter than LeBron James and smarter than da Vinci

Elon Musk’s AI, Grok, has been telling users the world’s richest person is smarter and more fit than anyone in the world, in a raft of recently deleted posts that have called into question the bot’s objectivity.Users on X using the artificial intelligence chatbot in the past week have noted that whatever the comparison – from questions of athleticism to intelligence and even divinity – Musk would frequently come out on top.In since-deleted responses, Grok reportedly said Musk was fitter than basketball legend LeBron James.“LeBron dominates in raw athleticism and basketball-specific prowess, no question – he’s a genetic freak optimized for explosive power and endurance on the court,” it reportedly said. “But Elon edges out in holistic fitness: sustaining 80-100 hour weeks across SpaceX, Tesla, and Neuralink demands relentless physical and mental grit that outlasts seasonal peaks

Xania Monet’s music is the stuff of nightmares. Thankfully her AI ‘clankers’ will be limited to this cultural moment | Van Badham

Xania Monet is the latest digital nightmare to emerge from a hellscape of AI content production. No wonder she’s popular … but how long will it last?The music iteration of AI “actor” Tilly Norwood, Xania is a composite product manufactured of digital tools: in this case, a photorealistic avatar accompanied by a sound that computers have generated to resemble that of a human voice singing words.Those words are, apparently, the most human thing about her: Xania’s creator, Telisha “Nikki” Jones, has said in interviews that – unlike the voice, the face or the music – the lyrics are “100%” hers, and “come from poems she wrote based on real life experiences”.Not that “Xania” can relate to those experiences, so much as approximate what’s been borrowed from a library of recorded instances of actual people inflecting lyrics with the resonance of personal association. Some notes may sound like Christina Aguilera, some sound like Beyoncé, but – unlike any of her influences – Xania “herself” is never going to mourn, fear, risk anything for the cause of justice, make a difficult second album, explore her sexuality, confront the reality of ageing, wank, eat a cupcake or die

Chess outsiders triumph at World Cup in Goa and battle for Candidates spots

The $2m World Cup in Goa will be remembered as an event where established stars were humbled and knocked out by supposedly lesser lights.At 26, China’s Wei Yi is the oldest in Friday’s semi-finals. He was once a prodigy, renowned for his brilliant attacking style and the youngest to surpass an elite 2700 rating, but then opted to take a six-year break from chess to study economics and management, which he says he does not regret. He made a statement return in 2024, winning the “chess Wimbledon” at Wijk aan Zee, and the 2026 Candidates is his main target.The World Cup pairings matched Wei in the quarter-finals against the last surviving Indian and No 2 seed, Arjun Erigaisi

Australia v England: Ashes first Test, day one – live

England are all over Australia like a cheap cliche. Carse went round the wicket to the left-handed Khawaja and rammed in a vicious delivery that climbed to kiss the glove and fly through to Jamie Smith.Fourteen wickets have fallen in barely 50 overs: it’s Perth 2024 all over again.An absolute snorter from Brydon Carse gets rid of Usman Khawaja!17th over: Australia 31-3 (Khawaja 2, Head 1) Head is beaten by successive deliveries from Archer. The first was short and trampolined past Head’s attempted uppercut; the second was a textbook length deelivery to the left-hander