Arden University is moving into three floors at the building, taking it to full occupancy

A prime Newcastle office will be at full occupancy this year after a private university struck a deal to take over all of its remaining space.

Arden University, which has its head office in Coventry, has agreed a deal with property agents to move into 27,095 sq ft on the ground, first, second and third floors in early spring this year.

Based in the Helix development, The Spark forms part of a 24-acre mixed-use innovation hub which has been delivered through a partnership between Newcastle City Council, Legal & General and Newcastle University. The science and business park brings together office, residential and scientific uses, creating an internationally recognised cluster for research, education and business.

The Spark is already home to businesses including the region’s largest law firm Womble Bond Dickinson and National Audit Office (NAO). The agreement was struck by real estate advisor Savills, together with joint agents Avison Young, on behalf of landlord Legal & General.

Greg Davison at Savills, joint letting agents for Legal & General, said the introduction of Arden University to Newcastle Helix builds on the growing cluster and introduces a new education offer to the city, while also underlining the strong demand for best-in-class office accommodation in Newcastle city centre.

He said: “Completing the final letting at The Spark is a fantastic result and demonstrates the depth of occupier demand for high-quality workspace at Newcastle Helix. Securing Arden University as the final occupier is a fitting conclusion to the successful leasing of this flagship building.”

Arden University started life in 1990 as part of moves to give all people equal opportunities for higher education. It began as the chosen online delivery partner for traditional universities, and in 2014 earned taught-degree awarding powers, and now awards its own degrees.

In 2015 it officially became Arden University, one of a handful of specialist online learning universities to launch in the last 50 years, and now provides flexible online and blended learning degree courses. Arden University was advised by James Andrew International.

Carl Lygo, CEO and vice chancellor at Arden University, said: “We’re excited to launch our new campus in Newcastle. This opening reflects an exciting next step in the expansion plans of our fast-growing university, providing a modern, welcoming space for those looking to develop the skills they need to advance their careers in the city.

“Newcastle is a real hotbed for talent, and we look forward to welcoming students from across the city and wider region into our new campus.”

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It comes at Swansea Council ratchet up efforts to prevent the demise of the Ospreys

The Welsh Rugby Union will not conclude a takeover of Cardiff Rugby until after the Six Nations, as Swansea Council continues to ratchet up efforts to convince the union to abandon plans to reduce the number of rugby regions from four to three.

The council confirmed on Wednesday that it was seeking a High Court injunction to halt the takeover of Cardiff Rugby – which the union acquired out of administration last year – by the current owners of the Ospreys, Y11 Sports and Media. The local authority said this was designed to allow discussions to take place while the current four-team regional structure remains in place.

The injunction was scheduled to be heard today. However, ahead of the hearing, the Welsh Rugby Union gave an undertaking to Swansea Council that it will not conclude any deal with Y11 before March 16, a few days after final weekend of the Six Nations.

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The union confirmed Y11 as its preferred bidder for Cardiff Rugby in late January, which saw both parties enter into a 60-day exclusivity period – which could be extended – to try to finalise a deal. What is not clear is whether a deal could have gone unconditional before March 16, or whether it is tracking to be in a position for legal sign-off only after that date anyway.

If the union sticks to its current position – endorsed fully by its board and driven by its executive team – of reducing the number of clubs from four to three by Y11 effectively closing the Ospreys, Swansea would seek to reschedule the injunction hearing before March 16.

Last week the council also submitted a case to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), claiming the proposed takeover of Cardiff Rugby breaches competition law by unfairly restricting competition, reducing choice for supporters, and damaging Swansea’s economy.

The CMA has confirmed it has received a legal letter from the council. However, it has yet to decide whether the case has sufficient merit to proceed to the next stage, potentially involving a future judgment from the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

It is possible that this could be clarified by the CMA before March 16. However, if the CMA has not made any determination by that point, the council would seek as long an injunction period as possible. If a CMA decision is not forthcoming before March 16, the WRU and Y11 would be at liberty to finalise a deal after that date.

Even if the CMA concluded it was taking Swansea’s case forward, the union could still potentially finalise a deal in the confidence that it could defend any future case alleging it had breached the Competition Act.

If there is no recourse via the CMA, the council could consider pursuing legal action. However, if it lost, it could face a counter-damages claim by the WRU, particularly if Y11 walked away from a deal for Cardiff Rugby due to legal uncertainty, leaving the union having to continue to fund trading losses. That does not appear to be the council’s strategy, but rather one of using all the levers at its disposal to get the WRU to perform a U-turn.

If there are to be only three regions, then for the continuation of a team in Swansea, new ownership of the loss-making Ospreys would need to be realised ahead of an exit by Y11. Leader of Swansea Council Rob Stewart is understood to be looking to attract interest from potential new investors. If it wished, the WRU could also approach parties that expressed interest in acquiring Cardiff Rugby before Y11 was announced as the preferred bidder.

There is time, as four regions will continue for the 2026–27 season. However, any new Swansea-based region ownership could be conditional on winning a competitive bid with the Scarlets for the west Wales franchise from the WRU.

A spokesman for Swansea Council said: “The Welsh Rugby Union has this morning given written confirmation that it will not complete the deal with Y11 to buy Cardiff Rugby prior to March 16. It follows Swansea Council’s application for an injunction to pause the deal. The council is now awaiting a date for its injunction application to be heard at the High Court prior to March 16.”

The WRU also confirmed that it has given an assurance that a deal with Y11 for Cardiff will not take place before March 16.

It is being advised by law firm Northridge and barrister Jason Pobjoy KC.

The union said it is also aware that Swansea Council has raised concerns relating to Welsh rugby with the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and that it will address such concerns with the regulator “proactively and appropriately”.

A spokesman for the union said: “The WRU Bbard has worked in good faith over the past two years to create a sustainable way forward for Welsh rugby, in light of the significant financial and performance challenges we all face.

“We appreciate that these are difficult and emotive issues for everyone involved, but our focus remains firmly on the long-term health of the whole game in Wales and on continuing to try to work constructively with all stakeholders, including Swansea Council.”

The council’s position is that it has had no discussions with the union since a meeting on January 22 between WRU chief executive Abi Tierney and Ospreys CEO Lance Bradley, along with Mr Stewart and a number of senior council figures, including chief executive Martin Nicholls. The local authority maintains that Y11 signalled in the meeting that the Ospreys would cease to be a professional region beyond the 2026–27 season.

In its CMA case, the council says it has also been financially disadvantaged, having already committed £1.5 million to preparing St Helen’s for redevelopment, including the cost of relocating Swansea Cricket Club, which played at St Helen’s, to a new ground.

While not a legal agreement, the council has signed a pre-lease agreement with the Ospreys (Y11) for a 50-year lease at St Helen’s starting at an annual rent of £100,000, subject to inflation-linked reviews.

Speaking last week following the CMA submission, Mr Stewart said: “The WRU’s proposals would mean the end of the Ospreys as a professional men’s rugby region. This would be a huge blow to our city – economically, culturally and emotionally.

“Players, supporters, residents, community clubs and local businesses all deserve a fair and transparent process from the WRU. We cannot accept a situation where decisions are made behind closed doors to remove one of Wales’s four professional teams and leave Swansea without top-level rugby.

“We are asking the CMA to step in urgently to protect competition and give our city and region the fair treatment it deserves.”

With regard to the CMA, Swansea Council is being advised by barristers Nick De Marco, Mark Vinall and Tom Watret of Blackstone Chambers.

Google has released an urgent security update for its Chrome browser to address a high-severity zero-day vulnerability actively exploited in the wild, marking the first such flaw patched in 2026.

The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-2441 and assigned a CVSS severity score of 8.8, is a use-after-free bug in Chrome’s CSS handling. It allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code inside the browser’s sandbox via a specially crafted HTML page, potentially leading to full compromise of affected systems if combined with other exploits.

Google confirmed the flaw was discovered and reported by security researcher Shaheen Fazim on Feb. 11, 2026. The company acknowledged that exploits for CVE-2026-2441 exist in the wild but provided no further details on the nature of attacks, affected victims or the threat actors involved.

The patch arrived in a Stable channel update released Feb. 13, 2026. Updated versions include:

• Windows and macOS: 145.0.7632.75/76 (with later point releases up to 145.0.7632.77 as of Feb. 18-19)
• Linux: 144.0.7559.75 (with subsequent builds reaching 145.0.7632.109 in some logs)

More recent Android and iOS releases align with Chrome 145.0.7632.109 and 145.0.7632.108, respectively, incorporating equivalent security fixes. Extended Stable channel users received updates to 144.0.7559.220.

Google’s Chrome Releases blog emphasized that the update “will roll out over the coming days/weeks,” a standard phased deployment to minimize disruptions. Cybersecurity experts and outlets including Forbes, The Hacker News, Malwarebytes and BleepingComputer urged users not to wait for automatic rollout.

To check and install the update manually, users should open Chrome, click the three-dot menu, navigate to Help > About Google Chrome, and allow the browser to download and apply any available patches. A relaunch is typically required to activate the fix.

This zero-day follows a pattern of rapid browser vulnerabilities in early 2026. Industry analysts note that use-after-free errors in rendering engines like Blink (Chrome’s core) remain common attack vectors due to the complexity of CSS and font processing.

Experts recommend restarting Chrome after updating to ensure the patched version loads. Users on outdated builds remain vulnerable until the update applies and the browser restarts.

Beyond the security fix, Chrome 145 introduced several enhancements. Developer notes highlight reduced User-Agent strings by default following the removal of the UserAgentReduction policy, improving privacy by limiting fingerprinting data sent to websites. Other changes include stability improvements, performance optimizations and under-the-hood updates to PDFium and other components.

Chrome maintains its position as the world’s most popular browser, powering billions of users across desktops, mobiles and enterprise environments. The rapid response to CVE-2026-2441 underscores Google’s commitment to timely patching, especially for actively exploited issues.

No additional vulnerabilities were detailed in the Feb. 13 advisory, though ongoing internal tracking suggests potential follow-up fixes. Google restricts full bug details until widespread patching occurs, a practice aimed at reducing exploitation risks.

Cybersecurity professionals advise enabling automatic updates where possible and exercising caution with unknown websites or links. Organizations using Chrome Enterprise or Education editions should monitor admin consoles for rollout status.

As threats evolve, browser updates remain a critical layer of defense. Users are encouraged to verify their version immediately—navigate to chrome://version in the address bar—to confirm protection against CVE-2026-2441.

Google continues to invest in sandboxing, site isolation and other mitigations to limit damage from potential exploits. This incident serves as a reminder of the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between browser developers and adversaries targeting web platforms.

With millions potentially at risk before full deployment, the message is clear: Update Chrome now to stay secure.