The number of vehicles built in the UK fell by 15% in 2025 as the industry dealt with the toughest year in a generation for manufacturing, according to a report.
Issues affecting production included a cyber incident which halted production at JLR, new tariffs on trade across the Atlantic, and ongoing restructuring as plants shift to a decarbonised future, said the SMMT.
Over the year, car production for the UK market and exports both fell by around 8%.
Production of battery electric, plug-in hybrid and hybrid cars increased by 8.3% to just under 300,000, a record 41.7% share of output.
The figures are expected to increase this year with the planned launch of seven new EV models, the SMMT said.
Total car production is predicted to return to growth this year, with output set to rise by more than 10%, according to the report.
The SMMT’s data showed Europe received 56% of vehicles exported, followed by the US (15%), and China (6.3%).
Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: “2025 was the toughest year in a generation for UK vehicle manufacturing.
“Structural changes, new trade barriers, and a cyber attack that stopped production at one of the UK’s most important manufacturers combined to constrain output, but the outlook for 2026 is one of recovery.
“The launch of a raft of new, increasingly electric models and an improving economic outlook in key markets augur well.
“The key to long-term growth, however, is the creation of the right competitive conditions for investment, reduced energy costs, the avoidance of new trade barriers, and a healthy, sustainable domestic market.
“Government has set out how it will back the sector with its industrial and trade strategies, and 2026 must be a year of delivery.”
Raheem Sterling is a free agent after the forward reached an agreement with Chelsea to end his contact, the club confirmed on Wednesday.
The 31-year-old last played for the Blues in May 2024, and spent last season on loan at Arsenal after being deemed surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge.
Sterling had left 18 months left on the contract he signed when joining the Chelsea from Manchester City in 2022 for £47.5million ($64m) — but he will now depart by mutual agreement.
The England winger was the first major men’s signing of the Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital era, after they acquired ownership of the club from Roman Abramovich in May 2022.
Sterling made a total of 81 appearances for Chelsea, scoring 19 goals, but the club shifted towards a policy of signing young players on long contracts and after being frozen out under Enzo Maresca, he spent last season on loan at Arsenal where he failed to kickstart his career.
He has not played a competitive match in eight months — Arsenal’s final match of the 2024-25 season — and had been training away from the first-team squad at Cobham.
Following talks this week, there was no prospect of a change in his circumstances under new head coach Liam Rosenior.
Sources have told ESPN that several clubs had enquired about a loan move but Sterling had stated a preference for a permanent deal to give him the stability to revive his career.
Sources added that Sterling was also reluctant to take his children out of their current schooling for a temporary move to a new club.
Chelsea were keen to offload Sterling’s £325,000-a-week salary from their wage bill and the club had attempted in previous windows to find him a suitable exit. All parties decided a split was now the best way forward.
As a free agent, Sterling is able to negotiate directly with clubs and sources have told ESPN that while his preference is to remain in London, he will consider offers from home and abroad.
West Ham had initially expressed an interest on loan earlier this month while Fulham and Crystal Palace have previously tracked Sterling.
He is a potentially attractive proposition as a free agent with 82 international caps and 13 major trophies to his name in addition to being awarded an MBE in 2021 and standing as a prominent voice in anti-discrimination campaigns.
Chelsea said in a statement: “Raheem Sterling has today departed Chelsea Football Club by mutual agreement, bringing to an end three-and-a-half seasons as our player, having signed in the summer of 2022 when he was transferred from Manchester City.
“We thank Raheem for the contribution he made while a Chelsea player and wish him well for the next stage in his career.”
A Home Depot logo is displayed at one of their stores in San Diego, Nov. 8, 2025.
Kevin Carter | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Home Depot on Wednesday laid off 800 workers and said corporate employees will have to return to the office five days per week.
In a message to employees, CEO Ted Decker said the changes are intended to increase the company’s “speed and agility.”
“To extend our industry-leading position, we must position the company to move faster and stay even more closely connected to our customers and frontline associates,” he wrote in the memo.
A corporate spokesperson confirmed that the company is cutting 800 roles. About 150 of the employees were based at Home Depot’s headquarters in Atlanta and the rest were in remote jobs, with most in the technology organization of the company and some on other corporate teams, she said.
In the employee memo, Decker said the five-day in-office policy will begin the week of April 6. He said the changes are “essential to simplify our business and focus our energy on the priorities ahead.”
“In-person engagement enables more meaningful support for store and field associates, drives results and reinforces our people-centric culture and inverted pyramid,” he said.
Home Depot’s sales have been weaker than expected, as the retail giant waits for housing turnover and significant home improvement spending to pick up again after a boom in demand during the Covid pandemic. Company leaders have attributed slower demand to higher mortgage rates, economic uncertainty and consumers’ hesitance to spring for pricier projects.
The retailer missed Wall Street’s earnings expectations for the third straight quarter when it posted results in November. It said that it expects full-year fiscal 2025 sales to rise about 3% and comparable sales, which take out the impact of one-time factors like store openings and calendar differences, to be slightly positive.
Shares of Home Depot have fallen about 10% over the past year, trailing the S&P 500’s 15% gains over the same period. So far this year, Home Depot’s stock is up about 9%, however, ahead of the S&P 500’s nearly 2% gains.
Home Depot will report its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 24.
A Google logo is seen at a company research facility in Mountain View, California, US, May 13, 2025. — Reuters
Google unveiled an artificial intelligence tool Wednesday that its scientists said would help unravel the mysteries of the human genome — and could one day lead to new treatments for diseases.
The deep learning model AlphaGenome was hailed by outside researchers as a “breakthrough” that would let scientists study and even simulate the roots of difficult-to-treat genetic diseases.
While the first complete map of the human genome in 2003 “gave us the book of life, reading it remained a challenge”, Pushmeet Kohli, vice president of research at Google DeepMind, told journalists.
“We have the text,” he said, which is a sequence of three billion nucleotide pairs represented by the letters A, T, C and G that make up DNA.
However “understanding the grammar of this genome — what is encoded in our DNA and how it governs life — is the next critical frontier for research,” said Kohli, co-author of a new study in the journal Nature.
Only around 2% of our DNA contains instructions for making proteins, which are the molecules that build and run the body.
The other 98% was long dismissed as “junk DNA” as scientists struggled to understand what it was for.
However this “non-coding DNA” is now believed to act like a conductor, directing how genetic information works in each of our cells.
These sequences also contain many variants that have been associated with diseases. It is these sequences that AlphaGenome is aiming to understand.
A million letters
The project is just one part of Google’s AI-powered scientific work, which also includes AlphaFold, the winner of 2024’s chemistry Nobel.
AlphaGenome’s model was trained on data from public projects that measured non-coding DNA across hundreds of different cell and tissue types in humans and mice.
A DNA double helix is seen in an undated artist’s illustration released by the National Human Genome Research Institute to Reuters on May 15, 2012. — Reuters
The tool is able to analyse long DNA sequences then predict how each nucleotide pair will influence different biological processes within the cell.
This includes whether genes start and stop and how much RNA — molecules which transmit genetic instructions inside cells — is produced.
Other models already exist that have a similar aim. However they have to compromise, either by analysing far shorter DNA sequences or decreasing how detailed their predictions are, known as resolution.
DeepMind scientist and lead study author Ziga Avsec said that long sequences — up to a million DNA letters long — were “required to understand the full regulatory environment of a single gene”.
And the high resolution of the model allows scientists to study the impact of genetic variants by comparing the differences between mutated and non-mutated sequences.
“AlphaGenome can accelerate our understanding of the genome by helping to map where the functional elements are and what their roles are on a molecular level,” study co-author Natasha Latysheva said.
The model has already been tested by 3,000 scientists across 160 countries and is open for anyone to use for non-commercial reasons, Google said.
“We hope researchers will extend it with more data,” Kohli added.
‘Breakthrough’
Ben Lehner, a researcher at Cambridge University who was not involved in developing AlphaGenome but did test it, said the model “does indeed perform very well”.
“Identifying the precise differences in our genomes that make us more or less likely to develop thousands of diseases is a key step towards developing better therapeutics,” he explained.
However AlphaGenome “is far from perfect and there is still a lot of work to do”, he added.
“AI models are only as good as the data used to train them” and the existing data is not very suitable, he said.
Robert Goldstone, head of genomics at the UK’s Francis Crick Institute, cautioned that AlphaGenome was “not a magic bullet for all biological questions”.
This was partly because “gene expression is influenced by complex environmental factors that the model cannot see”, he said.
However the tool still represented a “breakthrough” that would allow scientists to “study and simulate the genetic roots of complex disease”, Goldstone added.
Gisele Bündchen drops sweet birthday note for her, Joaquin Valente’s son
Giselle Bundchen is celebrating her baby boy’s first trip round the sun.
The supermodel took to her Instagram account on Wednesday, January 28 to mark her baby boy first birthday.
In the celebratory post, the proud mom shared a series of snaps of her family of five along with the birthday boy, whom she welcomed with husband Joaquin Valente back in 2025.
In the first snap of the carousel, the toddler can be seen riding a toy pony with a “happy birthday” balloon in the background.
The doting mom gushed over her son’s special day, writing, “I can’t believe it’s already been over a year since you came to bless our lives.
“Thank you, God, for so much,” she expressed her gratitude.
She also posted a few glimpses of her baby boy from his early months after birth.
It is pertinent to mention that Bundchen is also mom to son Benjamin and daughter Vivian, whom she welcomed with ex husband Tom Brady.
This came after Bundchen shared a few throwback pictures with her kids while ringing in the New Year.
“As the new year unfolds, my heart is full of gratitude for the moments spent recharging with my family. May this year bring you love, health, peace, and new adventures,” she wrote in the post uploaded earlier in January. “May you find the courage to honor your heart’s calling and to know and love yourself more deeply.”
“Wishing you endless blessings and a beautiful journey ahead. Here’s to making 2026 a truly joyful and meaningful year. Sending so much love,” she added at the time.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives in Beijing, China, January 28, 2026. — Reuters
BEIJING: Britain and China are set to sign a co-operation agreement on Thursday targeting supply chains used by migrant smugglers, Downing Street said, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer visits Beijing.
Starmer arrived on Wednesday for the first visit by a British prime minister to China since 2018, seeking to promote what he called a “pragmatic” partnership with the Asian giant after years of fraught relations.
The issue of irregular migrants is highly sensitive for the Labour leader, who has promised to crack down on people smugglers and stem a wave of arrivals that has fuelled rising support for the far right.
Last year, nearly 42,000 migrants landed on England’s southern coast after making the perilous Channel crossing from northern France – the second-highest annual number.
“More than half of small boat engines used by people smugglers crossing the English Channel are manufactured in China,” a statement from Downing Street said, as Starmer is set to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The two leaders are due to meet for lunch in Beijing on Thursday, when Starmer will also sit down with Premier Li Qiang.
The agreement to be signed calls for intelligence sharing and “direct engagement with Chinese manufacturers” of boat parts to ensure they are not “being exploited by organised crime”, the statement said.
The deal also seeks to boost co-operation on combatting the trafficking of “highly potent and dangerous synthetic opioids such as nitazenes, known to be produced in China and exported to the UK”, it added.
On Wednesday, Starmer told a delegation of around 60 business leaders and cultural representatives accompanying him that “it is in our national interest to engage with China.”
He urged them to seize the “opportunities” offered by China and said the visit was “making history”.
“You’re part of the change that we’re bringing about,” Starmer said.
The trip has been lauded by Downing Street as a chance to boost trade and investment ties while raising thorny issues such as national security and human rights.
Starmer follows a string of Western leaders courting Beijing in recent weeks, pivoting from a mercurial United States.
Britain has faced a rift with its closest ally following President Donald Trump’s bid to seize Greenland and his brief threat of tariffs against the UK and other NATO allies.
With its sandy beach, popular market and growing arts scene, more and more people have been visiting Margate during an impressive revival for the Victorian seaside town – but its latest tourist has taken it to new fame.
Posting on her Instagram profile to her 20 million followers, Madonna shared pictures from her visit to an arts festival in the town last weekend, the second time she has reportedly visited in three months.
Pictured with Turner Prize winner Dame Tracey Emin, she praised her friend’s “quite remarkable” residency programme for artists in the community, before providing a glowing review of the town, which has a population of just over 60,000 and is around 80 miles from London.
“The whole town seems to be inhabited and energised by creativity,” she wrote. “Writers and performance artists, photographers, and painters. This is my idea of heaven. Whenever I go there, I feel like I’ve entered a dream.”
Described as England’s coolest seaside town, Margate has seen an influx of creatives in recent years, attracted by its thriving arts scene, boutique shops and trendy pubs and cafes. Its biggest attraction is the Dreamland amusement park, which features many traditional rides, including a helter-skelter and a Ferris wheel.
Madonna, who has homes in New York and London, wrote: “I have known Tracey [Emin] for over 25 years and I’ve always been a fan of her extremely personal and provocative work. But what she has created in this community by the sea is quite remarkable.
Madonna also said her favourite Italian restaurant was in the town (Getty Images)
“She has an artist residency program where she invites young artists from all around the world to come and paint and live for several months, artists who otherwise would have no place to paint and develop their talent and be a part of the many exhibitions that happen around Margate.
“I’ve been there a few times now and I’m always struck by the commitment and passion of all of these artists. Hungry, possessed, and extremely grateful to have this opportunity. They all have very touching stories to share and honestly it’s so refreshing to witness them working in such a dedicated way.”
She added that the town also has her favourite Italian restaurant, believed to be Bottega Caruso. When The Independent approached the family-run restaurant, rated 4.7 stars on Google, a staff member said they were unable to comment. The restaurant’s menu features main dishes priced from £19.95.
In her Instagram post, the 67-year-old, behind worldwide hits such as “Like a Prayer”, “Vogue” and “Material Girl”, wrote: “On top of all of that [visiting arts in Margate], I get to eat at my favorite Italian restaurant which I’m not giving anyone the name of because then everyone’s going to go there and it only has one table!!
“Good to share something in the news that is not about hatred and killing but celebrates human connection and the ability that Art has to elevate people. To bring people together.”
Madonna kept busy in 2025 with a remix album, Veronica Electronica, as well as the release of Bedtime Stories – The Untold Chapter, which gave fans a companion collection of remixes and outtakes from her 1994 album Bedtime Stories, Confessions on a Dance Floor.
More recently, Madonna shared her appreciation for Harry Styles earlier this week after he reportedly cited her as an influence for his new song “Aperture”. She wrote on her Instagram Story: “love your new song Harry!!!!” and then showed a picture of the singer’s upcoming album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally with the words “On Repeat………. ”
King Charles quietly signals hope of a Harry reunion
King Charles went through his Scotland trip without a reunion with Prince Harry, but the distance did little to erase him from the King’s mind.
While the public narrative continues to suggest a frosty distance, the King quietly signalled something more wistful by including him in his latest documentary.
In Finding Harmony, viewers are briefly taken back to a quieter chapter of royal life, with archival footage showing Charles and young Duke sharing a peaceful fishing moment from his childhood.
It’s a blink and you’ll miss it scene, but one that gently cuts through years of strained headlines.
Prince William also features twice, first as a child stretched out beside his father in the grass, and later as a young adult visiting cattle at Home Farm.
Family threads continue with short appearances from Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis in footage from the coronation, while the late Queen Elizabeth is also seen alongside a younger Charles.
The film is inspired by Charles’ 2010 book Harmony A New Way of Looking at Our World.
The documentary revisits those ideas through sweeping visuals and reflections on how modern life has drifted away from balance, touching on everything from farming to architecture.
A Southern California man who funneled money to ISIS fighters and stockpiled a homemade bomb pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges Tuesday, according to the Justice Department.
Mark Lorenzo Villanueva, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He has remained in federal custody since his arrest in August 2025.
According to his plea agreement, Villanueva began communicating in February 2025 on social media with an individual who claimed to be an ISIS fighter living in Syria and provided instructions on how to send money overseas.
Federal prosecutors say Villanueva sent more than $1,600 over several months with the understanding the funds would be used to purchase weapons, ammunition and other supplies to support ISIS operations. He also discussed carrying out operations for ISIS inside the United States.
Mark Lorenzo Villanueva is shown in a booking photo. Federal prosecutors said Villanueva, of Long Beach, pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.(@USAttyEssayli)
“Mr. Villanueva is alleged to have financially supported and pledged his allegiance to a terror group that targets the United States and our interests around the world,” Acting FBI Los Angeles Assistant Director Patrick Grandy said in a previous statement, crediting the Joint Terrorism Task Force with preventing further support for ISIS.
Court records show Villanueva communicated with two individuals who self-identified as ISIS fighters, repeatedly expressing his desire to fight for the terrorist group himself.
“It’s an honor to fight and die for our faith. It’s the best way to go to heaven,” Villanueva allegedly wrote. “Someday soon, I’ll be joining.”
Mark Lorenzo Villanueva admitted attempting to provide material support to ISIS.(FBI Los Angeles)
Villanueva also told one of the ISIS contacts that he possessed a bomb and knives. When FBI agents searched his Long Beach home in August 2025, they recovered a homemade explosive packed with ball bearings, nails, screws and other metal fragments from his bedroom.
Prosecutors said Villanueva knew the device qualified as a firearm and destructive device under federal law and that it was not registered. At the time, he was legally prohibited from possessing firearms due to a prior felony stalking conviction in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2017.
Western Union records show Villanueva sent 12 payments totaling $1,615 to overseas intermediaries over a five-month period.
The FBI arrested Mark Lorenzo Villanueva for attempting to provide material support to ISIS.(FBI Los Angeles)
Villanueva faces up to 20 years in federal prison for attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and up to 15 years for the firearm charge. U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang scheduled his sentencing for June 17.
“Supporting a terrorist group, whether at home or abroad, is a serious risk to our national security,” Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said. “We will aggressively hunt down and prosecute anyone who provides support or comfort to our enemies.”
Fox News’ Matt Finn and Landon Mion contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
Stepheny Price is a Writer at Fox News with a focus on West Coast and Midwest news, missing persons, national and international crime stories, homicide cases, and border security.
