Oil prices climbed sharply on Thursday as the UAE Iran trade suspension rattled markets and US President Donald Trump threatened what he called the most crushing economic operation ever mounted against any country. Brent crude futures rose 1.59% to $93.08 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate futures for September delivery gained 1.63% to reach $87.23.The moves follow a turbulent 48 hours in the Gulf. The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday it was halting all trade and financial transactions with Iran after saying it had come under missile fire from the Islamic Republic the previous day. The UAE said…
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.
Vivien Wong, the co-founder behind the Vivien Wong Little Moons launch story that has been circulating widely, says founders should resist the temptation to wait for a flawless product before going to market. Wong, who walked away from an £80,000-a-year accounting job at age 28 to make ice cream with her brother, has become one of the more striking examples of a career pivot paying off in British business. From spreadsheets to ice cream: how the decision was made The turning point was not, by her own account, purely about ambition. According to a post on her Instagram, Wong’s father…
The California diesel prices crisis has pushed the cost of the fuel back above $7 a gallon, with war-related damage to refineries in Russia and the Middle East squeezing global supply and sending shockwaves through the wider economy. Bloomberg reports that the latest California average of $7.018 per gallon has topped the previous record of $7.012 set in June 2022, in the early months of Russia’s war in Ukraine.Truckers in the state are paying about 30 cents more per gallon than they were a month ago, according to data from AAA. Compared with the same period last year, prices have…
UK inflation hits 2.9% for the year to July, its highest reading in four months, driven by soaring gas prices and a sharp rise in household energy bills, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Gas prices rose at the fastest pace in almost four years, the ONS said, after disruption to global oil supplies linked to the US-Israel war with Iran.Energy costs for households rose on 1 July after Ofgem, the energy regulator, increased the price cap on gas and electricity by 13%, adding £221 a year to the typical bill. Ongoing conflict, which has led…
The UK inflation outlook for 2025 is clouding over, with rising energy bills already pushing prices higher and economists forecasting another step up later in the year, even as the worst-case scenarios from the war in Iran have so far failed to materialise.To understand where things stand, it helps to start with the basics. A small degree of price rises is a normal feature of a healthy economy. The problem is that after a sharp inflation spike earlier in the war in Ukraine, food alone now costs around a third more than it did four years ago, making it hard…
Iran has considered carrying out attacks on US targets in Europe if the conflict escalates further, the Financial Times reported, citing two regime insiders. US assets in Bulgaria and Cyprus were weighed as potential targets, according to that report. CNBC said it had reached out to Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment but had not independently verified the story.The development comes as the wider conflict shows no clear path to de-escalation. Negotiations between Washington and Tehran have stalled, with little sign that talks will resume, leaving both sides to consider their next moves in a prolonged confrontation.UAE suspends trade…
The Jersey minimum wage debate has spilled into open public conflict, with a coffee shop owner, a poverty charity and a rival minister all rounding on economic development minister Deputy Gerald Voisin after he suggested the island’s minimum wage could be harming its economy. Frank De Jesus, who runs Coffee Republic, said Voisin’s decision to air those views publicly was ‘madness’. The row began when an article published in the Jersey Evening Post at the end of July by business author Douglas Kruger accused the government of ‘bullying’ businesses into paying higher wages and called for the minimum wage to…
A Hormuz ship attack kills one crew member and has renewed fears over safe passage through the world’s most strategically watched waterway, even as President Donald Trump declared the strait ‘open and operating.’ The attack comes amid a fragile and deteriorating situation since the expiry of a US-Iran agreement meant to restore normal shipping.The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO) said a projectile struck a cargo vessel as it exited the strait, damaging its engine room. Oman’s Coast Guard moved in to assist the remaining crew, and no environmental damage has been reported. The ship was travelling southbound and…
Wetherspoons has introduced a Wetherspoons phone speaker ban covering all of its 792 pubs and bars across the UK, telling customers to switch devices to silent or use earphones after complaints that loud phone use was driving people ‘nuts’.The pub chain, which does not play background music in the vast majority of its venues, said staff had been receiving increasing complaints about customers playing music, watching videos and taking calls on loudspeaker. According to The Independent, signs will be going up in Wetherspoons premises warning customers to use their phones in silent mode or to use headphones, giving the policy…
Scotland’s state-owned Ferguson Marine has launched a Ferguson Marine redundancy plan that could see 70 jobs lost, as the Port Glasgow shipyard waits for the Scottish government to confirm promised new contracts. Workers have been invited to apply for voluntary redundancy while construction winds down on the second of two long-delayed CalMac ferries.The yard currently employs 283 staff, including 34 apprentices. The redundancy process, which is voluntary, is expected to reduce the headcount by roughly a quarter. Apprentices are unaffected in the short term, and a new intake of 10 trainees is about to begin its first year at college.Ferguson…
