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…
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.
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…
The Brent crude $120 risk became a live conversation in energy markets on Wednesday, as oil prices surged close to $100 a barrel following the destruction of five Iranian tankers by US forces and a fresh exchange of military strikes with Iran in the Gulf of Oman. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 1.55% to $99.44 a barrel, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for October delivery climbed 1.75% to $94.66 a barrel.The moves came a day after US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed it had destroyed five crude oil carriers belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).…
Jim Cramer says he is keen to add to his position in FedEx Freight, but the stock’s exposure to FedEx Freight oil pressure is keeping him on the sidelines for now. Speaking during the CNBC Investing Club Morning Meeting on Tuesday, Cramer said the stock has to get clear of rising oil prices before he is comfortable buying more. ‘I very much want to buy’ more FedEx Freight, Cramer said, before adding that the stock first needs to shake off its sensitivity to crude. He attributed the company’s recent share price slide not to management missteps but to broader concerns…
A Nats air traffic control failure is causing severe disruption to flights across the United Kingdom and Ireland, with departures paused or heavily restricted at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, East Midlands and Dublin airports. Nats, the organisation responsible for managing airspace over the UK, said it was investigating a fault in its flight processing system and had engineers on site working to restore normal operations.Heathrow saw departures initially paused around lunchtime. Traffic briefly resumed before further disruption took hold in the afternoon, and it is understood that very few flights are currently taking off. With aircraft unable to depart, landings are…
Iran’s foreign ministry has launched a sharp attack on Canada over the Iran Canada Hormuz dispute, accusing Ottawa of ‘a display of strategic confusion and submission to intimidation’ for backing US-led efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The rebuke came from Tehran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei, posting on X, and landed at a moment when Canada’s own relationship with Washington is under acute strain.The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, is one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes. Efforts to keep it open to commercial traffic have drawn in a widening…
The Chris Rokos Greece move has placed one of Britain’s biggest individual taxpayers at the centre of a debate about whether the UK can hold on to ultra-wealthy residents, with reports confirming he plans to transfer his residency to Athens and open an office there.Rokos was ranked third in The Sunday Times list of Britain’s top taxpayers, having paid £330 million to HMRC last year. His departure, first reported by Bloomberg and later confirmed by The Guardian, comes just weeks before Chancellor John Healey’s first Budget on 28 October.What Greece’s non-dom regime actually offersThe draw is straightforward: Greece allows foreigners…
The US Iran oil price surge pushed Brent crude above $100 a barrel for the first time in months on Wednesday, as markets absorbed the fallout from a weekend of military strikes between American forces and Iran that have rattled global energy supply routes.According to the Wall Street Journal, front-month Brent crude settled up 3.4% to $101.21 a barrel on Wednesday, while front-month West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rose 3.2% to $96.05 a barrel, the highest closing levels for both benchmarks since 22 May. That followed Tuesday’s already elevated readings, when Brent gained 1.1% to $97.00 a barrel and WTI…
