Your commercial news round-up: oil prices rise, cybersecurity warning, Barclays job cuts, Airbnb

Dimitar Dimitrov is acting senior content and events coordinator at LawCareers.Net

Reading time: three minutes

Oil prices have surged to a five-month high following new attacks in the Middle East, raising concerns about further disruption to global supplies. Meanwhile, cybersecurity agencies have urged organisations to take websites offline due to programming vulnerabilities, Barclays plans to cut around 5,000 jobs as part of a modernisation programme and Airbnb is introducing new rules that’ll prevent hosts from requiring guests to complete chores upon checkout. Read on for LawCareers.Net’s pick of this week’s top commercial stories.

• Oil prices climbed to a five-month high on Thursday 22 October amid concerns over further disruptions to global crude supply following attacks in the Middle East. Brent crude, according to The Guardian, rose by 3% to $112 a barrel, its highest level since 18 May 2026. The increase came after Yemeni Houthis, aligned with Iran, struck targets in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday 21 October. Two people were killed and eight wounded in an attack on a civilian airport in Dammam, while a separate drone strike on a Saudi oilfield killed two people. Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said four vessels involved in what it described as “illegal” oil transfers in the northern Gulf were hit after being tracked by its forces. The IRGC also reported that three vessels struck mines west of the Strait of Hormuz and warned that continued US provocations could trigger a broader response against regional US bases.
   
• International governments and cybersecurity agencies have urged organisations to address two critical vulnerabilities discovered in the PHP programming language, which powers much of the internet. A fix was released on Wednesday afternoon, but agencies have warned that websites unable to apply the update should consider going offline. As a result, several organisations have temporarily taken websites and online services offline, including the Finnish government, the Netherlands’ cybersecurity agency, Edinburgh council and the BBC programme pages for Doctor Who and The Traitors. The flaws were identified using AI, with cybersecurity firm Wiz describing them as the “most severe vulnerabilities ever discovered” by the technology. The US National Security Agency warned that such vulnerabilities can provide direct access to a server’s file system or database and advised organisations to take systems offline if they couldn’t install the fix.
   
• Barclays is set to cut around 5,000 jobs, equivalent to approximately 5% of its global workforce, as part of an ongoing modernisation programme that includes increased use of AI. The banking group said 1,000 roles have already been removed, with a further 4,000 expected to go by the end of the year, primarily affecting its UK retail banking division. A significant number of cuts are expected to occur in India, where some UK back-office operations are based. Group CEO CS Venkatakrishnan said the reductions are linked to the bank’s investment in technology to simplify and improve the business. While AI will be deployed at scale, Venkatakrishnan described it as “the icing on the cake” rather than the primary driver of the strategy. Financials analyst at Quilter Cheviot, Will Howlett, said the cuts highlighted “how significantly AI and automation could reshape the banking industry over the next few years”.
   
• Airbnb will prevent hosts from asking guests to complete chores involving “significant effort” under new global rules that come into effect on 20 November. Under the updated rules, hosts will generally no longer be permitted to require guests to carry out tasks that take substantial time or would typically be performed by a cleaner. Examples include stripping bed linen, taking rubbish offsite and washing and putting away dishes. The change follows longstanding complaints from guests who were charged cleaning fees while also being expected to complete chores before checking out. Since April 2025, Airbnb has stopped displaying cleaning fees separately, allowing hosts to incorporate those costs into the total price of a stay.

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