Starmer vows to review franchise legislation in response to Vodafone case

The prime minister has promised to review laws governing franchising agreements, in response to the case of a former Vodafone store manager whose family alleges took his own life following pressure from the FTSE 100 telecoms group.Keir Starmer said in the Commons on Wednesday that he would “look closely” at the outcome of a high-profile legal claim against Vodafone.The comments follow a Guardian investigation in December, which revealed claims that Adrian Howe, a former Vodafone employee who had agreed to become a franchisee in 2018, drowned after becoming convinced his deal with the multinational company would prove financially disastrous.Rachael Beddow-Davison and Dan Attwal also told the Guardian about how commission cuts by Vodafone in 2020 caused their franchising companies to run up huge debts, which they each said contributed to them attempting to kill themselves.Beddow-Davison and Attwal are two of a group of 62 former Vodafone franchisees who brought a high court claim in 2024, alleging the telecoms company “unjustly enriched” itself and which MPs have compared to the Post Office Horizon IT scandal

UK housebuilding in deepest slump since 2020 lockdowns; Warner Bros rejects ‘inferior’ $108bn Paramount hostile bid – as it happened

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

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

Australia hold on to win fifth Ashes Test and leave England rueing missed chances

There were a couple of wobbles along the way but at 2.30pm on the final day in Sydney, Australia had knocked off a target of 160 runs to win the fifth Test by five wickets and claim this Ashes series by a 4-1 scoreline.Like their tour as a whole, there was a nagging sense of what might have been for England with a few more runs on the board, or better catching and tighter bowling earlier in the contest. But there could be few quibbles from the injured Ben Stokes as he watched the final rites from first slip.This has been a chastening tour for Stokes and his men, the Ashes lost in a record-equalling 11 days and just that two-day shootout victory in Melbourne to show for it

Simon Yates announces surprise retirement with ‘deep pride and sense of peace’

Simon Yates, one of Britain’s most storied riders and the winner of last year’s Giro d’Italia, has stunned cycling by announcing his retirement at 33.The Visma-Lease a Bike rider said on Wednesday that he is quitting with “deep pride and a sense of peace” after a 13-year career that delivered wins in two Grand Tours, 11 elite stages and 36 professional races.Yates posted on social media: “I have made the decision to retire from professional cycling. This may come as a surprise to many, but it is not a decision I have made lightly. I have been thinking about it for a long time, and it now feels like the right moment to step away from the sport