ITV agrees to invest £3m in fitness app created by Joe Wicks

The broadcaster ITV has agreed to invest up to £3m into the health and fitness app The Body Coach, created by Joe Wicks, who shot to fame by getting people exercising in their living rooms during the Covid pandemic.It is the latest deal made through the group’s media for equity investment fund ITV AdVentures Invest. As part of the agreement, The Body Coach will advertise on ITV’s channels and its video platform ITVX.Wicks launched the app in late 2020, capitalising on the prominence gained during the Covid-19 lockdowns when he streamed daily workout videos online. It offers personalised workout plans, alongside a range of healthy recipes and access to a online group to keep users motivated

London stock exchange beats Wall Street with best FTSE 100 year since 2009

Britain’s stock market has increased in value by a fifth over 2025 – its biggest annual gain since 2009 – in a strong year for shares around the world.The FTSE 100 index of blue-chip stocks closed up 21.5% on New Year’s Eve compared with the start of January, beating Wall Street returns. The wider all-share market was 19.75% higher

Elon Musk’s 2025 recap: how the world’s richest person became its most chaotic

How the tech CEO and ‘Dogefather’ made a mess of the year – from an apparent Nazi salute during his White House tenure to Tesla sales slumps and Starship explosionsThe year of 2025 was dizzying for Elon Musk. The tech titan began the year holding court with Donald Trump in Washington DC. As the months ticked by, one public appearance after another baffled the US and the world. Musk appeared to give a Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration, staunchly championed a 19-year-old staffer nicknamed “Big Balls,” denied reports of being a drug addict while advising the president, and showed up at a White House press conference with a black eye – all in the first half of the year alone.“Elon’s attitude is you have to get it done fast

The office block where AI ‘doomers’ gather to predict the apocalypse

On the other side of San Francisco bay from Silicon Valley, where the world’s biggest technology companies tear towards superhuman artificial intelligence, looms a tower from which fearful warnings emerge.Right in the heart of Berkeley is the home of a group of modern-day Cassandras who rummage under the hood of cutting-edge AI models and predict what calamities may be unleashed on humanity – from AI dictatorships to robot coups. Here you can hear an AI expert express sympathy with an unnerving idea: San Francisco may be the new Wuhan, the Chinese city where Covid originated and wreaked havoc on the world.They are AI safety researchers who scrutinise the most advanced models: a small cadre outnumbered by the legions of highly paid technologists in the big tech companies whose ability to raise the alarm is restricted by a cocktail of lucrative equity deals, non-disclosure agreements and groupthink. They work in the absence of much nation-level regulation and a White House that dismisses forecasts of doom and talks instead of vanquishing China in the AI arms race

Damien Martyn, former Australian Test cricketer, in induced coma with meningitis

The former Australian Test cricketer Damien Martyn has been admitted to hospital and placed in an induced coma after being diagnosed with meningitis.The sporting community is rallying around the 54-year-old, who “is in for the fight of his life”, according to the former AFL player Brad Hardie, who revealed Martyn’s condition on 6PR on Tuesday.Martyn remains in a serious condition after falling ill on Boxing Day and being taken to hospital in Queensland where he was diagnosed with meningitis, according to sources close to the family. Meningitis is inflammation of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord.Former teammate Darren Lehmann urged Martyn to “keep strong” via X, as the cricket world began to react to the news

From Matildas magic to Winter Olympic wonders: Australia’s sporting highlights for 2026

Football captures the imagination, Formula One and tennis hopes rise – our writers pick the Australian sport moments to watch this yearWhether you want sun or snow, football or tennis, home-soil heroes or intrepid contenders – there is something for every Australian on the 2026 sporting calendar. Guardian Australia’s sport team have selected the events they are most looking forward to in 2026, at home and abroad.Lando Norris may be the new Formula One world champion, but he will face a new source of adversity when he arrives in Melbourne in March: parochial Australians.Many in Australia have seen red this year at the seemingly selective application of the papaya rules. There’s also a growing suspicion that McLaren might want to see a wealthy, marketable Briton succeed at the expense of the Melbourne-born upstart Oscar Piastri