PHP cyber flaw is "unprecedented"

Afternoon all,

A cyber threat identified by tech researchers has left government bodies and multinational firms scrambling to build defences in an effort to stop hundreds of hacking attacks.

Meanwhile - in the latest in a long line of recent supermarket news - the competition watchdog has cracked down on Aldi and Lidl. The CMA is now bringing the two retailers under the remit of anti-“landblocking” rules.

We’ll be back in your inboxes at 8am tomorrow. In the meantime, have a great Thursday evening!

Matt

The UK government announced that dozens of services had gone offline as a precautionary measure to fend off cyber threats exposed by vulnerabilities in programming languages.

The Big Four firm said on Thursday it plans to create up to 100 new deal transformation jobs by 2030 across its Manchester and Leeds offices in an expansion of its M&A capability outside London.

Lidl and Aldi are currently excluded from a law which bans the UK’s biggest supermarket chains from engaging in so-called ‘landblocking‘. Top grocers have already warned that the existing rules allowed the two German discounters to use a “problematic” loophole to block rivals from opening nearby.

However, the competition regulator is now set to force the two grocers to comply. 

Bill Borden, Microsoft’s global head of financial services, told City AM that AI would replace much of the routine work traditionally carried out by junior bankers, changing the skills needed to enter the industry.

“Clearly there’s going to be an impact on human capital, for sure”, he said at Microsoft’s London conference on Wednesday.

The bumper rise between April 2025 and 2026 compared to growth of less than six per cent for workers in most other roles.

Full-time employees in professional occupations saw their pay rise by five per cent while those in “elementary” jobs – which includes cleaners and delivery drivers – enjoyed pay increases of around 4.7 per cent. 

Viessmann Generations Group has acquired 6.7 per cent of Bayern Munich AG, the commercial entity that houses the professional club and all its business operations, in a transaction local media reported as being worth €250m (£209m).

Could a day spent learning to tell your Pinots from your plonks at London’s WSET turn the average wine-lover into a bona fide wine connoisseur? Carys Sharkey finds out.

Lewisham’s £1.5bn shopping centre redevelopment freeze, caused by a breakdown between Landsec and the Council, has left residents, traders, and the town centre stranded in uncertainty, says Sergiy Lesyk.

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