BP names Meg O’Neill as new CEO after incumbent ousted

BP’s board has appointed its first female chief executive in a move to revive the oil company’s fortunes, after ousting Murray Auchincloss less than two years into his role.In an unexpected leadership shake-up, Auchincloss will step down as chief executive with immediate effect, but remain in an advisory role until the end of next year.Auchincloss will be succeeded by Meg O’Neill, a former ExxonMobil executive and the head of the Australian oil company Woodside Energy. Carol Howle, BP’s head of trading, will run the firm until O’Neill takes up the top job in April.The incoming oil boss will be BP’s first female chief executive in its 116-year history, and the first woman to head any of the world’s top five oil companies

Bank of England expected to announce pre-Christmas interest rate cut today – business live

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.The wise men and women at the Bank of England could bring gifts for borrowers today, in an attempt to stave off a UK economic downturn.The BoE is widely, and confidently, expected to cut UK interest rates at noon, from 4% to 3.75%. That would take borrowing costs down to their lowest level since January 2023

From Nvidia to OpenAI, Silicon Valley woos Westminster as ex-politicians take tech firm roles

When the billionaire chief executive of AI chipmaker Nvidia threw a party in central London for Donald Trump’s state visit in September, the power imbalance between Silicon Valley and British politicians was vividly exposed.Jensen Huang hastened to the stage after meetings at Chequers and rallied his hundreds of guests to cheer on the power of AI. In front of a huge Nvidia logo, he urged the venture capitalists before him to herald “a new industrial revolution”, announced billions of pounds in AI investments and, like Willy Wonka handing out golden tickets, singled out some lucky recipients in the room.“If you want to get rich, this is where you want to be,” he declared.But his biggest party trick was a surprise guest waiting in the wings

Hackers access Pornhub’s premium users’ viewing habits and search history

Hackers have accessed the search history and viewing habits of premium users of Pornhub, one of the world’s most popular pornography websites.A gang has reportedly accessed more than 200m data records, including premium members’ email addresses, search and viewing activities and locations. Pornhub is a heavily used site and says it has more than 100m daily visits globally.The hack was reportedly carried out by a western-based group called ShinyHunters, according to the website BleepingComputer, which first reported the incident. The site reported that the data included premium members’ email addresses, search and viewing activity and location

England trail Australia by 158 runs: Ashes third Test, day two – as it happened

Thanks for following along as England’s fading Ashes hopes survive another day – just – at Adelaide Oval. We’ll have all the analysis shortly, and be back with the over-by-over tomorrow, but for now … here is Ali Martin’s report on day two.Nathan Lyon has returned to the side in style in Adelaide, as he picked up two wickets with his first over to help turn the game back in Australia’s favour early in England’s innings. The off-spinner dismissed Ollie Pope (3) and Ben Duckett (29) in the same over to move past Glenn McGrath and into second-place on the list of Australia Test wicket-takers, while the cartel of quicks did their thing even with Mitchell Starc less threatening than he has been in these Ashes.Pat Cummins was another to send a reminder of his importance to the side after spending time on the sidelines as the captain claimed wickets at crucial times and finished the day with 3 for 54

England’s Ashes hopes melt away as Australian bowlers share spoils in the sun

At the end of a brain-boiling second day in South Australia two things could be said with a fair degree of certainty: England were staring at the termination of their already faint Ashes hopes and players on both sides had lost faith in the Snicko technology.The match situation first, which at stumps pointed firmly towards Australia and the 3-0 lead that was ultimately loading. England had subsided to 213 for eight from 68 overs in reply to Australia’s 371 all out, trailing by 158 runs and hugely grateful to Jofra Archer, 30 not out, holding firm alongside Ben Stokes during the final hour.Stokes had been reprising his efforts from the final day in Brisbane, shrugging off an early blow to the head from Mitchell Starc and grinding his way to 45 not out from 151 balls of utter toil. But Pat Cummins was the captain glowing with authority out in the middle, walking off with figures of three for 54 on a truly stellar comeback