The Houthi capture of Mokha, a port city on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, has handed the Iran-backed militant group a tighter hold over one of the world’s most critical shipping corridors, raising fears for global trade and oil supplies. The fall of Mokha was reported by The Associated Press, citing Yemeni and Houthi officials, though CNBC said it could not independently confirm the account.Mokha sits roughly 75 kilometres north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the narrow waterway linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and, beyond it, to global markets. The city also gave its name to Mocha…
Author: Helen Rourke
Helen Rourke
Helen Rourke trained as a chartered accountant and spent fourteen years in financial services before starting to write. She qualified at a mid-tier firm, moved in-house to a media company's finance team, and spent her last years as a finance director at a creative agency, which gave her an unusual vantage point on both sides of the balance sheet. She writes about personal finance, tax, pensions, and the money questions people ask at dinner parties but never ask their accountant. She explains numbers without condescension and has no interest in making simple things sound complicated. Helen lives in North London. She files her own tax return on the first day it opens and considers this a character flaw.
President Donald Trump has expressed no regrets over the Iran war, saying he would make the same decision again even knowing the political cost, as Washington intensifies an economic pressure campaign that now targets foreign banks and, soon, every Iranian airline operating worldwide.The Trump Iran war no regrets comments came during an interview with Fox News presenter Laura Ingraham on Thursday. Ingraham suggested the conflict had damaged Republican prospects, telling Trump: ‘If we hadn’t done Iran, you would be cruising to midterms victory right now.’ Trump pushed back firmly. ‘Supposing we were cruising, and all of a sudden Iran has…
The Strait of Hormuz oil prices surge is pushing Brent crude to $105 a barrel, with global energy markets in turmoil as the conflict between the US and Iran shows little sign of ending before the American mid-term elections in November. UK and US government borrowing costs have climbed to levels not seen in decades, raising the prospect of steeper mortgage rates and household energy bills.Brent crude broke back above $100 a barrel on Wednesday and has continued to climb since. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran triggered the closure of the Strait of…
Dragons’ Den female entrepreneurs are landing some of the series’ most eye-catching investment deals, with a string of women-led businesses walking away from the Den with backing from the panel. The BBC programme, available to catch up on BBC iPlayer, has featured several deals in its current run that underline the range of businesses women are bringing to the Den.One of the standout moments involves an entrepreneur named Susie, who attracted an offer from Sara Davies. According to a BBC video, Davies offered Susie £40,000 in exchange for a 15% stake in her business, with Davies reportedly believing she could…
The government is set to hand England tourist tax powers to regional mayors, allowing them to charge visitors a percentage-based overnight levy on accommodation with no upper cap, under plans to be announced on Thursday. Housing Secretary Angela Rayner is meeting mayors virtually at No 10 North to set out the details of the Overnight Visitor Levy, a measure that has drawn sharp criticism from the hospitality industry and opposition parties alike.The levy would apply to hotels, bed and breakfasts and other accommodation, and would be set as a proportion of the room rate rather than a flat fee per…
Primark has announced plans for a Primark home delivery launch in Great Britain, backed by the purchase of a large fulfilment facility in Sheffield, as the retailer looks to revive sales after a difficult summer of subdued trading. The move marks a step-change for a chain that resisted selling goods online for most of its history.Owner Associated British Foods (ABF) confirmed that Primark would ‘continue to grow Click and Collect and, having undertaken a detailed review, will in the future offer home delivery in Great Britain’. The company did not set a date for when shoppers will be able to…
Oil prices pushed higher on Thursday, with Brent crude above $101 a barrel, after the United States military destroyed five Iranian oil tankers earlier in the week and Iran’s forces issued fresh warnings to shipping in the Gulf region. The moves deepened concerns that the ongoing conflict between Washington and Tehran could choke off a meaningful share of global oil supply.Brent futures for November delivery rose 0.62% to $101.84 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for October gained 1.01% to $96.06 a barrel. The price jump follows a period of relative calm in oil markets, making the…
The Apple iPhone Duo launch marks the company’s first entry into the foldable smartphone market, with a starting price of $2,000 (£1,475) and a top-storage model reaching $3,200 (£2,360), placing it among the most expensive handsets available. Apple chief executive John Ternus unveiled the device, describing it as ‘inspired by the iPad’ and calling its folding mechanics ‘fluid and completely intuitive’.The Duo follows a book-style format: when unfolded, it resembles a small iPad; when folded in half, it takes on the look of a wider iPhone. According to Wikipedia, the handset features a 5.4-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch inner…
The Anthropic AI extinction risk debate moved into sharper focus this week after the company’s Alignment Science Lead, Evan Hubinger, posted on X that he believes there is a greater than 10% chance artificial intelligence ‘could kill all humans’ within the next decade. According to Forbes, Hubinger leads alignment science at Anthropic, the AI company regarded as one of the field’s foremost safety-focused developers.Hubinger’s post, which has been viewed more than 10 million times, was careful to say the risk from models currently in existence was ‘low’. His concern centres on what comes next: the possibility that AI could soon…
Driving test waiting times remain stubbornly high, with learner drivers in England facing an average 20-week wait simply to book a practical test slot, according to figures published by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) for August 2026. That is only a marginal improvement on the 20.2-week average recorded in July, and the average time between booking and sitting a test remains unchanged at 11.1 weeks.The DVSA originally set itself a target of cutting the average wait to seven weeks by the end of last year. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander then pushed that deadline back to summer 2026, before…
