Business

If 2024 was the year when artificial intelligence dominated the headlines, then 2025 has been the year of the cyberattack. From luxury fashion houses to high-street retailers and car manufacturers, businesses across the UK and beyond have found themselves under siege from hackers. The scale, frequency and audacity of these attacks raise urgent questions about how well user data is …

Cyber criminals have stolen the personal details of potentially millions of Gucci, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen customers in a ransomware attack on their parent company, Kering. The luxury group confirmed that in April hackers gained “temporary access” to its systems and accessed customer records, though it insists no financial information such as card or bank details was stolen. The compromised …

Karachi/Islamabad: Pakistan has an unacceptably high burden of neonatal mortality with 40 lives lost per 1000 live births, each year from largely preventable causes. To confront this crisis, the Institute for Global Health and Development (IGHD) at the Aga Khan University united policymakers, clinicians, researchers, and development partners for a National Seminar on Accelerating Newborn Survival and Care in Pakistan. …

Pakistan: Hemani’s Dr. Herbalist has launched an exciting new TVC for its Shilajit Gummies, featuring the legendary cricketer and brand ambassador Wasim Akram in a never-seen-before avatar of a Kung Fu master. The campaign delivers a powerful message of strength, stamina, and natural vitality, values that are embodied both by the Shilajit herb and by Akram himself. The Kung Fu …

Women in the UK are on track to lose out on more than £93,000 in earnings over a 40-year career because of the gender pay gap, new analysis reveals. Research by Instant Offices shows how inequalities between men and women in the workplace compound over time, leaving women with a significant lifetime shortfall that directly impacts pensions, savings and long-term …

Ocado has begun using zero-emission refrigeration units across its flagship double-deck trailer fleet as part of efforts to cut emissions and reduce costs. The online grocer confirmed that Sunswap’s Endurance units — powered by batteries and solar panels — are now fitted to its double-deck trailers, keeping fresh and frozen produce chilled without using diesel. Each Endurance unit eliminates diesel …

Inflation in the UK remained stuck at 3.8% in August, the highest level in 19 months, reinforcing expectations that the Bank of England will keep interest rates unchanged when it announces its latest decision tomorrow. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed on Wednesday that consumer prices rose at the same pace as in July, broadly in line with forecasts …

Lynn Forester de Rothschild is preparing to sell her 20 per cent interest in The Economist, paving the way for the most significant change in the 182-year-old publication’s ownership since 2015. The British-American financier, 71, has appointed investment bank Lazard to oversee the process, which remains at an early stage. The stake, made up of voting shares, could fetch as …

When ministers and tech executives hailed Microsoft’s £22 billion UK investment package, one project stood out from the dense jargon of “compute capacity” and “data infrastructure”: Stargate UK. The name might sound like a science fiction franchise, but Stargate UK is in fact Britain’s most ambitious supercomputing initiative to date — a programme designed to provide the raw computing power …

Microsoft has unveiled its largest ever UK investment, committing £22 billion over the next four years to build Britain’s biggest artificial intelligence supercomputer and expand its data centre network. The announcement, timed to coincide with President Trump’s state visit, dwarfs other Big Tech pledges and forms the centrepiece of £31 billion in new US-led tech investment. Half of Microsoft’s spend …