The Los Angeles Rams have acquired star cornerback Trent McDuffie from the Kansas City Chiefs in a major trade that bolsters their secondary and signals an aggressive push to contend in the NFC, multiple sources confirmed Wednesday.

The deal, reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport among others, sends McDuffie to the Rams in exchange for the 29th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, a fifth-round selection and a sixth-round pick this year, plus a third-round pick in 2027.

The transaction marks a significant shift for both franchises. For the Rams, it addresses a glaring weakness in pass defense that plagued them during the 2025 season and playoffs. Los Angeles ranked 19th in passing yards allowed per game (216.7) and surrendered 26 passing touchdowns, exposing vulnerabilities in coverage despite a strong offensive output led by quarterback Matthew Stafford.

McDuffie, 25, arrives as one of the league’s premier young cornerbacks. A first-round pick (21st overall) by the Chiefs in 2022 out of Washington, he has developed into a versatile defender capable of playing outside or in the slot. He earned first-team All-Pro honors in 2023 as a slot corner and has been named to the All-Pro team twice in four seasons. McDuffie contributed to Kansas City’s back-to-back Super Bowl victories following the 2022 and 2023 campaigns.

“Trent McDuffie is a proven difference-maker who brings elite coverage skills, physicality and championship experience,” Rams general manager Les Snead said in a statement. “This move aligns with our commitment to building a complete roster around Matthew Stafford and our core veterans. We’re excited to welcome him to Los Angeles.”

The trade reunites McDuffie with Rams assistant coach Jimmy Lake, who recruited and coached him at Washington before Lake joined the Rams staff this offseason. That connection added fuel to speculation in recent weeks, as reports noted McDuffie’s familiarity with Lake’s schemes could ease his transition.

Kansas City, facing salary cap constraints entering the 2026 league year, opted to move McDuffie rather than commit to a lucrative long-term extension. He was set to count $13.6 million against the cap in 2026 under his fifth-year option, which the Chiefs exercised last year. The Chiefs remain in their Super Bowl window with Patrick Mahomes but have made similar moves in the past, including trading Tyreek Hill in 2022 and L’Jarius Sneed in 2024 to manage finances and acquire draft capital.

The haul provides Kansas City with valuable assets to address other needs or maneuver in the draft. General manager Brett Veach has emphasized retaining core players but has shown willingness to pivot when economics dictate.

Rumors of McDuffie’s availability intensified earlier this week after Snead told reporters the Rams were actively exploring trades and open to using one of their first-round picks — they held the 13th and 29th overall selections entering the deal — for an impact player. Analysts quickly linked the comments to McDuffie, given the Rams’ secondary needs and his market value.

Speculation had circulated for months, with mock trades from ESPN’s Bill Barnwell and others proposing similar packages centered on a late first-round pick. Some observers questioned whether McDuffie, often deployed in the slot, fit perfectly with the Rams’ current personnel, including extended slot specialist Quentin Lake. However, his ability to play outside mitigates those concerns, and the trade’s completion indicates the front office views him as a flexible, high-upside addition.

McDuffie is expected to sign a new long-term contract with the Rams soon, sources indicated. His impending free agency in 2027 made the timing critical for Kansas City, which could not risk losing him for minimal compensation next year.

The move underscores the Rams’ “all-in” mentality under head coach Sean McVay. After reaching the playoffs in recent seasons but falling short of deep runs, Los Angeles has pursued upgrades to complement Stafford, wide receiver Cooper Kupp and a stout offensive line. Adding an All-Pro corner elevates the defense, potentially pairing McDuffie with safeties and other backs to create matchup problems for opposing quarterbacks.

For Chiefs fans, the trade represents a bittersweet moment. McDuffie embodied the team’s recent defensive identity — tough, smart and clutch in big games. His departure thins the secondary, though Kansas City retains pieces like Trent McDuffie replacements in development and incoming draft prospects.

League analysts praised both sides. The Rams gain a cornerstone defender at a reasonable cost relative to free agency prices for comparable talent, while the Chiefs stockpile picks to sustain competitiveness amid cap pressures.

The trade highlights the fluid nature of the NFL offseason, where cap realities, positional value and championship aspirations intersect. As free agency approaches and the draft nears, this deal could spark further movement across the league.

McDuffie’s arrival in Los Angeles positions the Rams as a legitimate threat in a competitive NFC West, where they seek to reclaim dominance. For Kansas City, the acquired selections offer flexibility to reinforce other areas and maintain their perennial contender status.

Starbucks is growing its corporate footprint and plans to open a new office in the South later this year.

The Seattle-based coffee company will establish an office in Nashville, Tennessee, as part of its broader plan to expand across North America, especially in the central U.S., the South and parts of the Northeast, according to an internal message sent Tuesday and reviewed by FOX Business.

“To support these ambitions, we have made the decision to establish a strategic presence in the Southeast region of the U.S., and will be opening an office in Nashville, Tennessee, later this calendar year,” the company said.

A sign with the Starbucks logo hangs near the entrance to a Starbucks coffee shop in Aspen, Colorado.  (Robert Alexander/Getty Images)

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The new Nashville office will be home to some of the teams that manage Starbucks’ supply chain across North America.

“We see Nashville, Tennessee, as an ideal location to open an office and establish a more strategic presence in the Southeast region of the U.S.,” Starbucks Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams said in a statement. “The city offers a deep, talented and growing workforce, making it a desirable location for us.”

The plans were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

“Included in this office will be our direct and indirect sourcing and sourcing operations teams, which will serve our North America operations, bringing together current and future sourcing roles in a geographic location that offers access to great talent and better proximity to key suppliers,” the company said.

Seattle will remain the chain’s North America and global support headquarters.

The Starbucks Corp. headquarters in Seattle, Washington. (David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Starbucks plans to offer relocation opportunities to dozens of Seattle-based employees, while also opening additional roles in the Nashville market over time, according to the Journal.

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Employees who choose not to move may receive severance pay and can apply for other open roles within the company, the Journal reported.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee welcomed the announcement, saying the state’s business-friendly environment continues to attract major companies.

“Companies across the nation recognize that Tennessee’s strong values and fiscally-conservative approach are good for business, and we are proud to welcome another Fortune 500 company like Starbucks to our state,” Lee said in a statement on Tuesday. “We’re grateful they have chosen to build a future in the Volunteer State and will create quality jobs for Tennesseans.”

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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee welcomed Starbucks’ announcement. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Nashville is already home to large employers such as Bridgestone and HCA Healthcare.

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In-N-Out is also expected to open a 100,000-square-foot eastern territory office near Nashville late this year.

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Leaders talk a lot about cybersecurity in 2026, but many still miss the less glamorous privacy blind spots quietly putting teams, devices, and customer data at risk.

These issues rarely make boardroom decks, yet they are exactly the kinds of exposures attackers exploit because they slip through day-to-day habits and decentralised workflows. Here are the seven risks most often overlooked, along with simple ways to shrink the blast radius.

1. Malicious Public WiFi That Silently Intercepts Traffic

Public hotspots in airports, trains, hotels, and conference centres remain a favourite target for attackers. Network spoofing, captive portal injections, and silent packet captures are still common, especially during high travel seasons.

In a study highlighted by arXiv, researchers describe how attackers use realistic-looking browser prompts and extensions to hijack sessions once a user connects to an untrusted network. The technique works because most people assume the risk only applies to unsecured websites, not to their entire device session.

• Quick fix: Encourage staff to avoid logging into sensitive accounts on public networks and use encrypted tunnels for any research or travel work.

2. Browser Extension Overreach That Acts Like an Always-on Spy

Browser extensions do not get nearly the scrutiny they deserve. Many have access to browsing history, clipboard contents, session tokens, and auto-filled personal data. The problem is worse now that attackers disguise malicious extensions as helpful AI tools.

Reporting from The Hacker News shows that extension-based data exfiltration rose sharply in late 2025, fueled by cloned productivity tools and fake AI assistants that quietly harvest user data.

• Quick fix: Maintain an allowlist, require periodic extension reviews, and block extensions that request unnecessary permissions.

3. Shadow AI Tools Slipping Past Oversight

Employees love AI shortcuts, which means new, unvetted AI tools appear in environments every week. These tools often store prompts, conversations, and uploaded files on external servers without any data retention clarity.

• Quick fix: Publish an internal AI usage guide, approve secure tools, and set rules for what can and cannot be uploaded.

4. IP-Based Tracking That Builds Detailed Behavioural Profiles

Modern tracking does not rely only on cookies. IP-based profiling can still reveal patterns such as which teams research which vendors, how often employees visit certain sites, or when executives are travelling. It quietly feeds data brokers and advertising engines without most users noticing.

This is also where leaders underestimate how often staff browse from hotels, coworking spaces, or unfamiliar networks. In many cases, using a VPN tunnel for streaming makes sense as a simple privacy layer because masking an IP reduces passive collection from unknown networks. It also means you can give travelling team members a way to stay entertained while on the move without risking company assets.

• Quick fix: Train teams on IP-based tracking and encourage encrypted browsing when working on sensitive research.

5. Data Broker Leakage That Exposes Corporate Patterns

Data brokers scrape and correlate browsing behaviour, geolocation hints, app analytics, and OS level signals. Even if individual data points look harmless, the combined profile can reveal travel schedules, vendor evaluations, and internal project timing.

• Quick fix: Audit what apps share analytics data and disable background telemetry where possible.

6. Unsecured Guest Networks Inside Offices and Partner Sites

Guest networks are usually treated as harmless conveniences, but they often share physical infrastructure with internal networks. A misconfiguration can allow attackers to hop from the guest VLAN to more sensitive areas or to capture device traffic of visitors who join automatically.

• Quick fix: Segment networks, avoid password reuse, and disable auto-connect settings.

7. Smart Office Devices and Misconfigured SAAS That Leak Metadata

Everything from room schedulers to hallway sensors to video meeting bars collects metadata. Combine this with misconfigured SaaS tools that are increasingly common, and you get silent leakage of meeting titles, access logs, and document previews that should never be publicly exposed.

• Quick fix: Review SaaS permissions quarterly and audit IoT devices for default credentials or open dashboards.

Final Thoughts on Data Privacy in 2026

Privacy risk in 2026 is not only about protecting files. It is about reducing the breadcrumbs that reveal behaviour, location, and intention. Leaders who tackle the small exposures end up improving security far more than those who focus only on big-ticket defences.

If you want more insights like this, consider checking out our other analysis-driven blogs and research roundups, which cover many issues that matter most to modern leaders.

Released in December 2025, the World’s 10 Least Stressful Cities to Live In list ranks, as its name suggests, the cities where it’s most comfortable, convenient, and hassle-free to live in.

Two Australian cities, namely Canberra and Melbourne, made it to the list. Neither city, however, didn’t quite top said list—that distinction goes to Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

Can you guess what their ranks are?

Key Metrics

Before we get to that, let’s first look at how Remitly came up with the list. According to Travel + Leisure, five key metrics were considered:

• Average time to travel 10 kilometers
• Annual pollution levels
• Cost of living index
• Health care quality and accessibility
• Crime index

Each city is then ranked on a scale from one to 10. 10 is the highest level of resident stress. To give you an idea, New York has been ranked the most stressful city to live in as it scored 7.56 out of 10.

Ireland’s Dublin and Mexico’s Mexico City rank second and third, respectively.

On other hand, Eindhoven has a stress score of 2.34 out of 10, which earned it the top spot. Another city in the Netherlands, Utrecht, landed second place with a stress score of 2.67 out of 10.

Canberra

So which city came third among the top 10 least stressful cities to live in? Well, that honor goes to Canberra, which has a stress score of 2.80 out of 10.

According to Remitly, the cost of living in Canberra is lower that both Eindhoven and Utrecht. However, the Australian capital has a higher crime index and lower health quality, which prevented it from ranking higher than the two cities.

Melbourne

Melbourne, on the other hand, landed in ninth place with a stress score of 2.98.

In comparison to Canberra, metrics of Melbourne show that the latter has a lower cost of living but a higher crime index and a lower health quality.

You can view the complete list as well as the metrics used here.

Plans to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport have come under renewed scrutiny after a report accused the airport of “misrepresentation” over its claims the project can be delivered within a decade without relying on taxpayer funding.

The report, authored by infrastructure adviser Paul Mansell, warns that the government-backed expansion could expose both the airport and airlines to major financial risks if the project suffers delays and cost overruns similar to those that have plagued the HS2 rail scheme.

Heathrow has estimated that a third runway, alongside major upgrades to terminals and infrastructure, could be delivered for around £49 billion, with the first flights operating by 2035. The airport has repeatedly stressed that the scheme would be privately financed, meaning it would not require direct taxpayer funding.

However, critics argue that the true cost of the expansion would ultimately be borne by airlines and passengers through significantly higher airport charges.

Airlines have already raised strong objections to Heathrow’s proposals, warning that the expansion could dramatically increase the cost of flying through Britain’s busiest airport.

Among the most vocal critics is International Airlines Group, which owns British Airways, as well as Virgin Atlantic and other carriers operating from Heathrow.

Airlines fear the project will be financed largely through higher landing charges, which are paid by airlines for using airport infrastructure and are often passed on to passengers through ticket prices.

Industry estimates suggest that costs per passenger could potentially double if Heathrow moves ahead with its proposed investment programme.

The airport has also outlined plans to increase its capital spending to £59 billion during its next regulatory period, known as H8. That figure includes approximately £10 billion required simply to maintain and operate the airport over the next five years.

According to Mansell’s report, the scale of spending represents a dramatic increase compared with Heathrow’s current investment levels.

“The scale of capital expenditure being proposed is staggering,” the report states, warning that consumers would ultimately carry the financial burden.

The report also questions whether Heathrow’s proposed timeline is realistic.

Even if the airport succeeds in securing planning permission by 2029, the schedule would require the new runway to be operational just six years later.

Mansell argued that such projections risk falling into what experts describe as “strategic misrepresentation”, a phenomenon where infrastructure promoters underestimate costs or timelines to increase the likelihood of political approval.

According to the report, experts consulted during the review described such forecasts bluntly as either “delusion or deception.”

Heathrow has said the timeline is contingent on external factors, including planning reform and regulatory approvals, and insists the schedule remains achievable under the right conditions.

The report also raises broader concerns about governance and transparency surrounding the expansion project.

It warns of a “breakdown in trust” between Heathrow and its airline partners, citing strained relations over previous infrastructure investments at the airport.

Airlines have pointed to examples of significant cost overruns and delays in recent Heathrow projects.

One example cited is the replacement of the baggage system at Terminal 2, which has seen costs rise to nearly £1 billion, up from an original budget of £645 million. Another major infrastructure upgrade involving a tunnel refurbishment has reportedly been delivered four times over its original budget and more than a decade late.

The report argues that such examples raise questions about Heathrow’s ability to deliver a much larger project on time and within budget.

“If a similar failure occurs at Heathrow,” the report states, “it will fundamentally undermine UK aviation, weaken confidence in UK infrastructure and construction sectors, and potentially hole Heathrow and its airlines below the waterline.”

The report was commissioned by Heathrow Reimagined, a coalition of airlines and aviation stakeholders campaigning for changes to the airport’s regulatory framework.

It comes ahead of a key ruling by the Civil Aviation Authority, which is currently assessing Heathrow’s proposed investment plans and the mechanisms that allow the airport to pass costs on to airlines.

Among the report’s recommendations are reforms to Heathrow’s governance structure and the introduction of stronger oversight mechanisms to ensure airlines and passengers are more directly involved in major investment decisions.

It also suggests that an independent body such as the Civil Aviation Authority should play a larger role in scrutinising Heathrow’s long-term spending plans.

Heathrow rejected the criticism, arguing that its track record shows it is capable of delivering large infrastructure projects successfully.

A spokesperson for the airport said the expansion plans had been developed with lessons from past megaprojects firmly in mind.

“We have seen the lessons of HS2 and we are confident in our plans, which build on our own successes of privately financed megaprojects like Terminals 5 and 2, both delivered on time and on budget,” the spokesperson said.

Heathrow also urged airlines to engage constructively in discussions about the expansion rather than commissioning what it described as “biased reports”.

Despite the criticism, the UK government remains broadly supportive of expanding Heathrow’s capacity as part of a wider strategy to boost international connectivity and economic growth.

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said expanding Heathrow would strengthen Britain’s global trade links and attract investment.

“Expanding Heathrow will attract international investment and strengthen Britain’s connectivity, with the airport supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country,” the spokesperson said.

The transport secretary has also launched a review of the Airports National Policy Statement, a key policy framework that underpins the approval process for major airport expansions.

The debate over Heathrow’s third runway has been ongoing for decades, balancing economic arguments for increased aviation capacity against environmental concerns and local opposition.

Supporters say the expansion is essential if the UK is to remain competitive as a global aviation hub.

Critics warn that the project risks becoming another costly infrastructure saga if costs spiral and timelines slip.

With regulatory decisions looming and tensions rising between Heathrow and its airline customers, the future of Britain’s most ambitious airport expansion project remains far from settled.

Jamie Young

Jamie is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, bringing over a decade of experience in UK SME business reporting.
Jamie holds a degree in Business Administration and regularly participates in industry conferences and workshops.

When not reporting on the latest business developments, Jamie is passionate about mentoring up-and-coming journalists and entrepreneurs to inspire the next generation of business leaders.