UK housebuilding in deepest slump since 2020 lockdowns; stock market rally falters amid geopolitical tensions – business live

Newsflash: Britain’s construction sector continued to shrink in December, as housing, commercial and civil engineering activity suffered sharp falls again.Data provider S&P Global has reported that activity across the UK construction sector, and new orders, both fell again last month.Housebuilding and commercial construction work both decreased at the fastest rate since May 2020, when the Covid-19 lockdown forced building sites to close, S&P Global’s survey of purchasing managers at UK construction firms shows.That highlights the government’s struggle to hit its housebuilding targets.Civil engineering was the weakest-performing category of construction activity in December; it also shrank, but not by as much as in November

FCA fines two former Carillion directors for misleading investors before collapse

The UK’s financial regulator has fined two former executives at the government contractor Carillion for misleading investors before the construction company’s collapse eight years ago.Richard Adam and Zafar Khan knew about serious problems in the business but failed to alert investors, the board or the audit committee, the Financial Conduct Authority found.Adam and Khan have been fined £232,800 and £138,900 respectively, after both former directors dropped their appeal against the FCA findings.The fines come eight years after the demise of the major government contractor, which was one of the biggest construction and facilities management companies in the country.Carillion entered liquidation with £7bn of debts in January 2018, resulting in 3,000 job losses and causing chaos across 450 projects and public-sector schemes, including schools, roads, prisons and the expansion of Liverpool Football Club’s stadium

Grok’s deepfake images which ‘digitally undress’ women investigated by Australia’s online safety watchdog

Australia’s online safety watchdog is investigating sexualised deepfake images posted on X by its AI chatbot, Grok.Elon Musk’s X has faced a global backlash since Grok began generating sexualised images of women and girls without their consent in response to requests for it to undress them.Ashley St Clair, the estranged mother of one of Musk’s children, said she had no response to her complaints about being digitally undressed.“I felt horrified, I felt violated, especially seeing my toddler’s backpack in the back of it,” she said this week.The fake images included one of a 12-year-old girl in a bikini

Elon Musk’s xAI announces it has raised $20bn amid backlash over Grok deepfakes

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company has raised $20bn in its latest funding round, the startup announced Tuesday, even as its marquee chatbot Grok faces backlash over generating sexualized, nonconsensual images of women and underage girls.xAI’s Series E funding round featured big-name investors, including Nvidia, Fidelity Management and Resource Company, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, and Valor Equity Partners – the private investment firm of Musk’s longtime friend and former Doge member Antonio Gracias. The funding round exceeded its initial $15bn target, according to xAI’s press release. The company touted Grok’s image-generation abilities in the announcement of its latest funding round.xAI lacks the prominence of its rival OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and has continually drawn criticism for generating misinformation, antisemitic content and now potentially illegal sexual material

Injured Stokes to spend final day of Ashes tour watching from SCG pavilion

Ben Stokes is set to spend the final day of this Ashes tour watching on from the old pavilion at the SCG and hoping for a miracle in his absence after seeing yet another Test series cut short by injury.The all-rounder had worked hard to get through all five Tests in Australia only to fall at the final hurdle, limping off 10 balls into his opening spell on the fourth morning and appearing in distress. An England spokesperson later confirmed it was an issue with his right abductor (groin).Stokes did bat later in the day, emerging at No 8 but falling for one after struggling to move at the crease. The upshot is that when England come to defend a target on the final day – their lead was 119 overnight, eight wickets down – they will do so without their seam-bowling captain

The Spin | Revealed after 100 years: how a corrupt official robbed Percy Fender of the England captaincy

After a mere 100 years the Spin, always first with the news, is finally able to reveal the details of one of the more extraordinary secrets in the history of English cricket. The story comes from the private family archives of the former Surrey captain Percy Fender, which are being compiled into a fascinating new documentary film. It has always been a mystery that Fender, who was described by Wisden as “the shrewdest county captain of his generation” was never picked to lead England. After all these years, it now appears he was blackmailed out of the job by a corrupt cricket official.In a private audio recording made shortly before his death in 1985, Fender explains that in May 1924 he was approached “by a gentleman who was very well known in the cricket world” who, during the course of a conversation over two half-bottles of champagne in Fender’s flat at the Adelphi, offered him the England captaincy for the 1924-25 Ashes tour