5 important things happening in the UK today

Here are 5 important things happening in the UK today, Tuesday (13 January 2026):

X could ‘lose right to self-regulate’, says Starmer: The UK will bring into force a law which will make it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images, following widespread concerns over Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot. Speaking to Labour MPs on Monday, Sir Keir Starmer warned X could lose the “right to self-regulate”. “If X cannot control Grok, we will”, he said, adding the government would act quickly in response to the issue. The government also plans to unveil legislation to make it illegal to supply online tools used to create such images. [BBC]

BBC seeks dismissal of $10 billion Trump lawsuit: The BBC will take legal steps to have Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit over a Panorama programme edit dismissed, court documents have shown. Panorama faced criticism in 2025, over an episode broadcast in 2024, for giving the impression that the US president had encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol building in 2021. [Guardian]

Record two million workers to fall into £100,000 tax trap: A record two million people will fall into the £100,000 “tax trap” in the 2026-27 tax year, according to new HMRC forecasts. An extra 112,000 people are expected to earn above £100,000 in the next tax year, meaning they will lose 62p of every pound to National Insurance and income tax on earnings between £100,000 and £125,140. This is because the tax-free personal allowance begins to taper off once you earn six figures. [Telegraph]

Food spending saves UK festive shopping: Strong food spending helped Britain’s biggest retailers eke out festive sales growth but caution dominated non-food as squeezed shoppers waited for Boxing Day and January discounts before buying clothing and big-ticket items. Figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the retail industry lobby group, and the consultancy KPMG showed that retail sales rose by 1.2% year on year in the five weeks to January 3, easing from growth of 1.4 per cent in the previous month and below the 3.2% increase recorded in the same period in December 2024. [Times]