Real estate agents in Australia using apps that leave millions of lease documents at risk, digital researcher says

Australian platforms used by real estate agents to upload documentation for renters and landlords are leaving people’s personal information exposed in hyperlinks accessible online.An analysis of seven rent platforms provided to Guardian Australia by a researcher, who wished to remain anonymous, revealed millions of leasing documents could be accessed by threat actors.Sign up: AU Breaking News emailReal estate agents manage sensitive tenant and landlord data on a daily basis, including lease agreements, identification documents, payslips and personal references. Online platforms enable agents to store these documents in the cloud and make them accessible via hyperlinks.The researcher found these links can be scanned by web crawlers and cached

Price of consumer goods could surge as shipping costs soar, industry body says

The price of consumer goods including computers, electrical machinery and transport equipment could surge this year as a result of soaring shipping costs, an industry body has said, adding that “cracks [are] forming in the global trading system”.The cost of transport, energy and raw materials continues to rise and prices remain volatile, which could feed through to businesses and consumers during 2026, according to a study by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS).Concerns about disruption to supply chains during the next three months reached the highest level in two years, suggesting growing worries among procurement teams. The concerns were reported in a survey conducted in late 2025 by CIPS, an international trade body that represents 64,000 member organisations in procurement and supply chains across 180 countries.Bosses responsible for procurement said they were often the first within companies to notice rising prices or problems getting hold of goods

The long-term cost of high student debt in the UK is not just for graduates | Heather Stewart

“It is not right that people who don’t go to university are having to bear all the cost for others to do so,” Rachel Reeves remarked this week, amid the increasingly angry row about student loans.But if something is “not right” here, it’s the complex and confusing loan system, and the debt burden borne by some recent graduates of English and Welsh universities.Since the chancellor slapped a three-year freeze on the repayment threshold for Plan 2 loans at November’s budget – covering students whose courses kicked off in the decade following 2012 – longstanding frustration about the system has erupted into full-blown fury. The personal finance guru Martin Lewis told Reeves recently: “I do not think this is a moral thing for you to do.”After the threshold freeze, the latest annual report on education spending in England from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) forecast that for the 2022-23 intake, for example, “the long-run cost of issuing loans … will be negative, with graduates repaying more than they borrowed”

US, UK, EU, Australia and more to meet to discuss critical minerals alliance

Ministers from the US, EU, UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand will meet in Washington this week to discuss a strategic alliance over critical minerals.The summit is being seen as a step to repair transatlantic ties fractured by a year of conflict with Donald Trump and pave the way for other alliances to help countries de-risk from China, including one centred on steel.Australia said on Friday it would establish a A$1.2bn (£610m) strategic reserve of minerals it believes are vulnerable to supply disruption from China, which last April restricted exports on rare earths in response to Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs.It is the second summit on the matter within a month and involves about 20 countries including the G7 members – the UK, US, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, and Canada – along with India and South Korea and Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and possibly Argentina

Can French Connection make FCUK fashionable again?

French Connection is back on the trail of global expansion with the aid of its cheeky initials-based slogan that made it so popular in the late 1990s.The label once known for clothes bearing FCUK is seeking to reinvent itself again under the ownership of a group of British entrepreneurs based in the north of England who rescued it in 2021.This week, the former high street darling signed a licensing agreement to develop and distribute men’s and women’s apparel and accessories across North America, which is understood to include plans to revive the FCUK branding.It is the latest chapter in a rollercoaster story of success and setback. French Connection was founded in 1972 by Stephen Marks, who named it after the film starring Gene Hackman released the previous year

Impose sanctions on refineries that buy Russian crude oil to end war, says Bill Browder

Bill Browder’s fight against Vladimir Putin has seen him face threats, lawsuits, false accusations of murder and Interpol arrest warrants. A disinformation-laden film was even made about him.But 16 years after the death of his friend and lawyer Sergei Magnitsky at the hands of Putin’s regime, Browder is unrelenting in his fight for justice. It is an endeavour that, by his estimation, has cost Putin and his cronies billions of dollars already, via asset freezes and sanctions. Hence the considerable risk to his safety