Car dealership tycoon ousted from his Kent company in ‘coup’, high court hears

A multimillionaire used-car salesman was ousted from his £300m company as part of an orchestrated “coup” involving business rivals and private equity investors, the high court has heard.Peter Waddell, 59, claims he was forced out as the chief executive of the Kent-based dealership Big Motoring World by “conspirators” who designed a “plan” to ensure that an investigation into allegations of gross misconduct “reached the conclusion that one or more [sackable events] had occurred”.Waddell, who remains the majority shareholder in the business, is alleged to have made a series of racist and sexist remarks, including referring to a Hindu colleague as “Hyundai”, the court was told.The tycoon, whose backstory involves a childhood spent in care and then a spell of homelessness before finding success in business, either denies making the remarks or says they were taken out of context.He had created a company with 525 employees, revenues of £371m and profits of £6

UK bank bosses plan to set up Visa and Mastercard alternative amid Trump fears

UK bank bosses will hold their first meeting to establish a national alternative to Visa and Mastercard, amid growing fears over Donald Trump’s ability to turn off US-owned payment systems.The meeting, chaired by Barclays’ UK chief executive, Vim Maru, will take place this Thursday and bring together a group of City funders that will front the costs of a new payments company to keep the UK economy running if problems were to occur.The City-funded, but government-backed, initiative has been under discussion for years. However, Trump’s recent threats against Nato allies over Greenland have amplified concerns that an over-reliance on US companies could put UK payments – and the wider economy – at risk.About 95% of UK card transactions are made using payment systems owned by Mastercard and Visa, according to a 2025 report by the UK’s Payment Systems Regulator

TikTok creator ByteDance vows to curb AI video tool after Disney threat

ByteDance, the Chinese technology company behind TikTok, has said it will restrain its AI video-making tool, after threats of legal action from Disney and a backlash from other media businesses, according to reports.The AI video generator Seedance 2.0, released last week, has spooked Hollywood as users create realistic clips of movie stars and superheroes with just a short text prompt.Several big Hollywood studios have accused the tool of copyright infringement.On Friday, Walt Disney reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance which accused it of supplying Seedance with a “pirated library” of the studio’s characters, including those from Marvel and Star Wars, according to the US news outlet Axios

Google puts users at risk by downplaying health disclaimers under AI Overviews

Google is putting people at risk of harm by downplaying safety warnings that its AI-generated medical advice may be wrong.When answering queries about sensitive topics such as health, the company says its AI Overviews, which appear above search results, prompt users to seek professional help, rather than relying solely on its summaries. “AI Overviews will inform people when it’s important to seek out expert advice or to verify the information presented,” Google has said.But the Guardian found the company does not include any such disclaimers when users are first presented with medical advice.Google only issues a warning if users choose to request additional health information and click on a button called “Show more”

Winter Olympics 2026: women’s big air final under way after weather delay, USA reach women’s ice hockey final – live

Here’s an unlikely cultural combo in the figure skating: an Armenian pair doing an Indian-themed routine using the music from Slumdog Millionaire. She’s wearing a miniaturised skating version of a sari, he has a slimmed down shortened kurta. Karina Akopova lands a stunning throw triple lutz! She nearly hit the ceiling there, and still pins it on one skate. A couple of stumbles on the jumps though will bring down the score, and she looks frustrated as she comes off, though her partner Nikita Rakhmanin has a big smile. Their dance section was original, I’m not sure that the whole routine flowed together though

Winter Olympics: USA reach women’s ice hockey final with rout of Sweden

A United States women’s hockey team already being hailed as one of the best ever assembled is right where they expected to be: playing for Olympic gold. The Americans brushed aside Sweden 5-0 in the first of Monday’s semi-finals, setting the stage for a potential seventh gold-medal showdown with Canada.Twenty years ago, almost to the day, the USA women absorbed one of the great Olympic shocks when Sweden stunned them in a shootout just down the A4 autostrada in Torino, ending a streak of 25 straight losses to the Americans during which they’d been outscored 187-29. There would be no such ambush this time, even if Sweden coach Ulf Lundberg had suggested the US team were “just human beings” and might not have been overly keen on facing his team in the semi-finals.The US dominated possession from the opening faceoff and struck first after six minutes when defender Cayla Barnes whipped a snap shot from the edge of the right circle into the top-right corner, marking the sixth straight game in which the Americans have scored in the opening period