In a statement, the Department for Transport said that although it would not be rolling out any new smart motorways, they remained among our safest roads in terms of deaths and serious injuries, and were just as safe, or safer, than the roads they replaced.

Stellantis on Friday announced it will take a $26.5 billion charge as the automaker cuts back on electric vehicle (EV) production, joining other manufacturers in taking a financial hit after misjudging consumer demand for EVs.

Stellantis – the parent company of brands including Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram – became the latest automaker to take a charge. The $26.5 billion charge is larger than those taken by Ford and General Motors in the wake of the end of federal EV subsidies.

The automaker had set ambitious EV goals under its former CEO, Carlos Tavares, who aimed for EVs to make up 100% of European sales and 50% of U.S. sales by 2030. Tavares was forced out in 2024 after U.S. sales plunged, where Stellantis is exposed because of its reliance on sales of high-margin Jeep and Ram pickups.

GM TAKES $7B HIT AFTER SHIFTING EV STRATEGY DUE TO SLOWING DEMAND

A model year 2026 Fiat 500e all-electric vehicle. (Stellantis)

Across the auto industry, fully electric vehicles represented 19.5% of European sales last year and just 7.7% of new U.S. car sales.

CEO Antonio Filosa, who took the helm at Stellantis last summer, said on a call with reporters that the company’s past assumptions about demand for EVs were “over optimistic” and outlined, “What we are announcing today is an important strategic reset of our business model… to put our customer preferences back at the center of what we do, globally and in each region.”

FORD CUTS ELECTRIC F-150 LIGHTNING PRODUCTION, TAKES $19.5B CHARGE IN STRATEGIC SHIFT

Stellantis’ charges, which were booked in the company’s results for the second half of 2025, also reflected quality issues that Filosa blamed on cost cuts that occurred under Tavares, which he said caused the automaker to hire 2,000 engineers globally.

The charges also included reductions to the company’s EV supply chain, revised assumptions for warranty provisions due to poor product quality, as well as previously announced job cuts in Europe.

NEW VEHICLE SALES TO DECLINE MODERATELY IN 2026 AS AFFORDABILITY ISSUES WEIGH, FORECAST SAYS

Stellantis is a multinational automaker with brands ranging from Fiat and Maserati to Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge. (Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty Images)

Ross Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said the writedown showed that Stellantis “got it wrong on how quickly the world would transition from combustion engines to electric power.”

Mould added that the success enjoyed by Chinese EV-makers like BYD “begs the question as to whether Stellantis’ frustration over its EV sales is linked to market issues or that drivers simply don’t like its vehicles.”

Stellantis shares sank on the news, with the company’s New York-traded stock down more than 22% during Friday’s trading session.

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The multinational automaker – which includes American, French and Italian auto brands – saw its Milan-traded shares sink by over 23%.

Stellantis is forecasting a mid-single-digit increase in net revenue for 2026, along with a low-single-digit adjusted operating income margin. It projects positive industrial free cash flows in 2027. The company also won’t pay a dividend this year.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Taylor Swift has released the highly anticipated music video for “Opalite,” the second single from her twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, pairing a 90s rom-com aesthetic with a quirky origin story that started on a British talk show sofa. The video is now streaming on Apple Music and Spotify Premium, with a YouTube release to follow.

A 90s-style love story with pet rock and pet cactus

Unlike her first single “The Fate of Ophelia,” which leaned into showgirl imagery and the price of fame, “Opalite” centers on the search for love and connection through a retro, 90s-filtered lens. The video opens as a tongue-in-cheek infomercial for an “Opalite” spray that promises to fix your life and bring you companionship.​

From there, it shifts into a narrative about two lonely people: Swift plays a “lonely woman” emotionally attached to her pet rock, while actor Domhnall Gleeson portrays a “lonely man” fixated on his pet cactus. After the magical Opalite spray enters the picture, the pair are brought together and fall in love, embarking on a montage of classic 90s date tropes—mall outings, dance competitions, and other era-specific set pieces.

Swift wrote and directed the video, reuniting with celebrated cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and shooting on film to heighten the nostalgic feel. She described making “new friends, metaphors, and fashion choices,” calling the shoot “an absolute thrill.”​

The Graham Norton origin: one joke, one idea, one script

In a post on X, Swift revealed that the idea for the “Opalite” video “crash landed” into her imagination while she was doing promotion for The Life of a Showgirl on The Graham Norton Show. Seated alongside Domhnall Gleeson, Cillian Murphy, Lewis Capaldi, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith and host Graham Norton, she was struck by a throwaway joke that Gleeson made on-air.

“He’s Irish! He was joking! Except that in that moment during the interview, I was instantly struck with an idea,” Swift wrote, explaining that within a week she emailed Gleeson a full script for the “Opalite” video with him in the starring role. She then had “the thought that it would be wild” if all of the other guests from that night — including Norton himself — appeared in the video as well, turning it into what she called “a school group project but for adults and it isn’t mandatory.”

To her delight, every guest signed on, and the finished video features Swift, Gleeson, Murphy, Capaldi, Lee, Turner-Smith and Norton all “time traveling back to the 90s” to help bring the concept to life. Swift also teased that “friendly faces” from The Eras Tour can be spotted in the supporting cast.

What “Opalite” is about – and its Travis Kelce connection

“Opalite” is the third track and second single from The Life of a Showgirl, released as a single in January 2026 after the album’s October 2025 debut. Sonically a shimmering love song, it focuses on the idea of creating your own happiness rather than waiting for it to arrive.

The title refers to opalite, a man-made version of opal, and the metaphor runs deep. Swift has explained that she associates onyx with “onyx night” — sadness and sorrow — and an “opalite sky” with an iridescent, pastel blue happiness, evoking a transition from dark to light. In one interview, she said she liked the idea that “opalite is a man-made opal, and happiness can also be man-made too,” framing the song as a juxtaposition between pain and the decision to build joy.

The track also carries a personal Easter egg: Travis Kelce’s birthstone is opal, as he was born in October, and Swift has said she has “always loved that stone” and used it as inspiration. Kelce, for his part, has called “Opalite” his favorite song on the album, telling listeners on his New Heights podcast that “every time it comes on I always… I’ve been dancing throughout the house,” praising how fun it is.

Rollout strategy: platform-first release and vinyl tie-in

Swift announced the “Opalite” video on February 4 through Taylor Nation and her official site, setting a February 6 premiere at 8 a.m. ET exclusively on Spotify Premium and Apple Music, with a YouTube drop scheduled for February 8. The staggered rollout mirrors a broader shift in how streaming data is counted: YouTube recently stopped providing some of its metrics for Billboard chart calculations, a change many fans believe influenced Swift’s decision to debut the visual on audio platforms first.

Alongside the announcement, Swift offered a seven-inch “Opalite” vinyl single in a blue pearlescent finish, priced at $10.99 and featuring an acoustic version of the track. The song has already been a commercial force, having reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and surpassed 500 million streams on Spotify, one of the fastest Swift tracks to hit that milestone.

Her album The Life of a Showgirl previously debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, while its lead single “The Fate of Ophelia” entered at No. 1 on the Hot 100, underscoring the commercial expectations surrounding “Opalite” and its visual. Many fans hope the video will give the song the final push needed to reach the top of the singles chart.

Swift’s evolving visual universe

With “Opalite,” Swift continues the progression of her self-directed visual universe, adding another short-film-like narrative to a catalog that includes “All Too Well: The Short Film” and multiple Midnights and Showgirl clips. Working again with cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, she leaned into saturated colors, film grain and period-specific styling to anchor the video in a specific time and emotional mood.

Swift described the process as equal parts collaborative and nostalgic: “I had more fun than I ever imagined… It was an absolute thrill to create this story and these characters. Shot on film. The ‘Opalite’ video is out now on Spotify and Apple Music.” Early reactions from fans and music press highlight the video’s romantic comedy energy, playful infomercial framing and the novelty of seeing a full late-night guest panel reunite in a scripted music video.

Between its Graham Norton–born concept, 90s rom-com visuals, gemstone metaphor and subtle nods to her relationship with Travis Kelce, “Opalite” extends Swift’s run of densely layered rollouts that reward close watching — and prove she’s not done finding new ways to turn a three-minute song into a fully realized cinematic world.

Swish is a Swedish electronic payment solution. It has now introduced a joint blocking feature to limit and prevent fraud.

The most popular electronic payment service in Sweden, Swish, has now been granted the right to introduce a joint blocking feature. The aim of the joint blocking function is to prevent fraud, and it will allow banks to block users from the entire Swish system. This makes it much more difficult for fraudsters to exploit the service and provides quicker responses when red flags occur regarding these criminals.

Joint Blocking Feature

Those misusing the service will not just be blocked from using their own bank. It will spread out across the entire Swish system. This can occur when those operating the system believe it is being used for criminal purposes or in a way that poses security risks to other customers, banks or Swish itself.

Swish continues to dominate Sweden’s mobile payment landscape, and is used by millions for everyday transactions across businesses and e-commerce. Its new joint blocking feature further strengthens protection against fraud, giving banks a coordinated tool to prevent misuse and reinforce trust in the cashless economy. Experts, including those at bedrageri.info, note that this robust system also benefits licensed Swedish online casinos, where secure and fast Swish payments ensure consumer safety and confidence in digital transactions.

Urban Höglund, the CEO of Swish, stated that the “misuse of Swish in criminal contexts is something we take very seriously. With a joint blocking function, we can act more quickly and in a more coordinated way to exclude those who abuse the service, while at the same time making Swish even safer for millions of users.”

What is Swish?

Those outside of Sweden may not be familiar with Swish. Launched in 2012, it was created by a consortium of six major banks and the Central Bank of Sweden. Its aim was to provide a real-time money transfer solution through an application. Those using it need a Swedish bank account number and a national ID.

Its original purpose had been for the transfer of funds between individuals. However, it soon proved so popular that it was used by small organisations, mainly micro traders and religious organisations, in lieu of a card reader. Companies must now pay a small fee for using it, though for individuals, it is free. It is a member of the European Mobile Payment Systems Association. The company behind it is Getswish.

Clearing Operations Authorisation Also Granted

The Finansinspektionen, Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority, has also recently granted Swish the ability to conduct clearing activities under the Payments Clearing and Settlement Act.

Payments and clearing are the processes by which a payment initiation, such as the swipe of a card or hitting send on an app, is processed to the final settlement. In between this, there are numerous steps. They can involve validating transactions, exchanging information, recording transfers and risk mitigation.

This is a complex process, and as a result, it must now come under the supervision of the Finansinspektionen. This relates specifically to the obligations of clearing companies. It has previously been designated by the Riksbank as a company of importance in the payment system infrastructure.

The Swedish Payments Market

Sweden is unique in that most of its payment market is entirely digital. The use of cash is continuing to fall according to the Riksbank, with card payments being the most used method of payment and mobile payments quickly catching up. Many small businesses have even stopped accepting cash, with many forgoing it over the last five years due to security issues. However, around two-thirds of small businesses asked in a recent survey by the bank do accept cash.

The same survey said that seven out of ten companies accept both Swish and cash. Many of these prefer payment methods by Swish or card, as it minimises the administrative work they have to do and provides a quicker and smoother transfer. However, there is a current Cash Inquiry which proposes that companies which sell essential goods should be expected to take cash.

Global Payment Preferences

There is now a wide range of payment methods available across the globe. These range from old-fashioned but still popular cash, all the way to digital wallets and cryptocurrencies. While this has provided even more choice for consumers, it can be hard work for businesses that need to choose the right ones for their customers.

Across the globe, around 70% of all transactions are now made by bank transfers, digital wallets, and cash payment vouchers. This is a huge change from the days of handing over coins and notes. Of these, digital wallets are the most used at 53% share of transactions. Credit cards come second at 20%, with debit and prepaid cards reaching to 12%. All of this shows just how important these changes have been.

Britain’s only tin mine could end up exporting much of its future production to the United States after the American government signalled it is prepared to provide up to $225 million (£166 million) in financing to revive the historic South Crofty site in Cornwall.

Cornish Metals, which is working to bring the South Crofty mine near Camborne back into production, has received a letter of interest from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Exim), proposing a potential financing package linked to supplying tin to the US market.

The move comes less than a year after Cornish Metals secured a £28.6 million equity investment from the UK’s government-backed National Wealth Fund, which was framed at the time as supporting a domestic supply of a strategically important mineral.

In its statement, Cornish Metals said Exim’s interest was explicitly tied to South Crofty providing a “responsible supply of tin concentrate” to the United States, as Washington seeks to strengthen critical mineral supply chains and reduce dependence on overseas producers.

The company estimates it will cost around £198 million to restart the mine by mid-2028, with both costs and timelines increasing over the past year. It is now seeking to secure funding to cover capital expenditure and operating costs as it moves towards production. Shares in Cornish Metals rose 2.7 per cent following confirmation of Exim’s interest.

Tin is classed as a critical mineral and is widely used in electronics, renewable energy systems and advanced manufacturing. The UK currently has no domestic tin production, and South Crofty is expected to produce an average of around 4,700 tonnes of tin concentrate annually in its first five years, roughly equivalent to the UK’s total yearly consumption.

Fawzi Hanano, Cornish Metals’ chief development officer, said the US financing proposal would inevitably come with expectations around offtake.

“Exim would not give money to a foreign entity unless there’s something in it for them,” he said. “Ideally they would want all of the production, but in reality it would be a certain percentage that aligns with the level of financing being provided.”

He confirmed that none of South Crofty’s future output is currently committed to buyers and that there is no obligation for the mine to supply UK customers, despite the National Wealth Fund’s involvement.

One of the challenges, Hanano said, is that while the mine will produce a high-grade tin concentrate, the UK and Europe currently lack the smelting capacity needed to process it into refined tin metal.

“There is no smelting capacity in the UK or Europe at present, so there is no outlet for tin concentrate domestically,” he said. While the US also lacks significant smelting capacity today, it is in the process of developing it as part of its critical minerals strategy.

Hanano suggested that government-to-government agreements could still allow for some tin to flow back to UK end users in the future. “If one country has upstream capacity and another has processing capability, there are structures where material can be processed and some of it returned. That’s ultimately a decision for governments to take.”

The potential deal highlights growing geopolitical competition for critical minerals, and raises questions over how far UK-backed resource projects may ultimately serve domestic industry when global supply chains, and foreign state financing come into play.

Amy Ingham

Amy is a newly qualified journalist specialising in business journalism at Business Matters with responsibility for news content for what is now the UK’s largest print and online source of current business news.

TraffordCity Arena will be future home of the Manchester Storm ice hockey team

A new ice rink and concert venue will be built in Trafford. The venue – TraffordCity Arena – will offer ice skating lessons and sessions, as well as hosting concerts, screenings, immersive experiences and ice hockey games with Planet Ice to run the centre.

It will become the future home of the Manchester Storm ice hockey team, which will relocate from their current base at Altrincham Ice Arena. Also included in the plans are family restaurants, bars and ‘VIP areas’.

The ‘state-of-the-art’ rink will to host up to 3,000 people, making it one of Planet Ice’s largest UK venues, and promises to offer a year-round programme of ‘entertainment and community activities’.

It will be built on the former Soccer Dome site in Trafford City, next to The Snow Centre, Trafford Golf Centre, David Lloyd, Fives Soccer, iFLY and The Padel Club.

The rink is not the limit of ambitions for the site, with further development opportunities being considered there. Peel Waters, which is delivering the scheme alongside ICITIES, said it is looking at the possibility of building hotels or more leisure facilities there.

The new venue will join a number of other developments in the area, including the £450m Therme Manchester wellness resort which is currently under construction. Once built, the rink will create more than 50 new jobs in the area.

Construction is expected to start in the spring and take up to 15 months to complete after planning permission was granted.

James Whittaker, managing director at Peel Waters, said: “Securing planning approval for the TraffordCity Ice Arena is fantastic news for the area. This is a significant step in delivering our vision for TraffordCity as a destination that offers something for everyone.

“The new arena will provide world-class ice facilities and enhance our growing portfolio of sport and leisure experiences; attracting new visitors, investment and employment opportunities to the region.”

Nick Payne, director of ICITIES, added: “This approval allows us to move forward with creating a truly unique venue. Our design combines professional ice facilities with flexible spaces for non-ice events, ensuring the arena can serve a wide range of uses and audiences.

“The design includes approximately 20,000 sq. ft of ancillary space for tenants offering complementary food, beverage and leisure facilities.”

Liz Patel, Trafford council’s Executive Member for Economy and Regeneration, continued: “Trafford Council is committed to the regeneration of the area and this project will bring a number of important benefits to the borough including the creation of 50 permanent jobs.”

Heath Rhodes, chief operations manager at Planet Ice, said: “As Planet Ice enters its 30th year, we’re delighted to see planning permission granted for this landmark project. Demand for ice facilities in the North West continues to grow, and this arena will help meet that need while delivering first class amenities for visitors. TraffordCity is the perfect location, with excellent transport links and complementary leisure attractions.”