Your savings are dead money. That's the uncomfortable truth about how money works that politicians don't want you to understand.
On March 19, Ras Laffan, the largest liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal in the world, supplying one-fifth of the world's super-chilled fuel, was hit by Iranian missiles and drones. The Qatari terminal suffered substantial damage in the strikes - fires were raging across the gas-to-liquids facility within the complex, which covers 295 square kilometres - the size of a large city.
"Will you walk a little faster?" said the tanker to the well, "There's a market crash behind us, and the prices aren't so swell. See how traders chase the futures, and the pipelines twist and groan? They are waiting on production that we're struggling to own!".
The narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial maritime chokepoint off the coast of Yemen, has recently become the focus of international attention as Houthi forces threaten to disrupt shipping through this vital passage. Connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, the strait serves as a critical artery for global trade, especially oil shipments from the Middle East to Europe, Asia, and North America.
Over the past five years, the north of Scotland—particularly Caithness, Sutherland and waters east of Orkney has become one of the most important testbeds in the world for floating offshore wind. What began with the ambitious 2022 ScotWind leasing round, awarding seabed rights for nearly 25 GW of projects, has since evolved into a far more complex and fluid landscape.
For months now, fuel security has hovered uneasily over the national conversation. Prices rise, global tensions escalate, and supply chains creak under the strain of geopolitical shocks.
Russia's oil export system is often described as a network, but it is better understood as a geopolitical lifeline. One that connects fields in Siberia to consumers across Europe and Asia through a combination of pipelines and maritime routes.
Recent tensions involving missile incidents near NATO territory have raised a familiar but serious question. Why has NATO not invoked Article 5, the alliance's collective defence clause? At first glance, the situation may appear straightforward.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is one chokepoint, but there are several other critical locations globally where oil shipments are vulnerable to conflict, piracy, or political instability. Details of the main choke points for oil.
The global surge in energy prices is now feeding directly into agriculture, with fertiliser costs rising sharply once again in 2026. For UK farmers, this is not a theoretical concern but an immediate economic pressure, arriving just as the spring planting season begins.
Energy markets in 2026 are experiencing one of their sharpest shocks in recent years. While headlines often focus on surging gas prices in Europe—where wholesale prices have risen by as much as 80-100% in a matter of weeks.
Seven innovative projects to support small food and drink producers in parts of the Highlands and Islands have been awarded a total of £169,750 through the Small Producers Pilot Fund. Seven innovative projects to support small food and drink producers in parts of the Highlands and Islands have been awarded a total of £169,750 through the Small Producers Pilot Fund.
An estimated £547 million in business rates, generated through the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport (ICFGF), will be reinvested in jobs, skills development and infrastructure improvements. On Thursday 26 March 2026 Highland councillors endorsed an Investment Plan, which sets out a framework for the management and spend of retained Non-Domestic Rates (rNDR) from the Green Freeport.
The UK will urgently commit an additional £100 million for air defence support to Ukraine, helping to defend the country from Russia's relentless attacks. New funding brings the total in air defence commitments made over the last two months by the UK to protect Ukraine to £600 million.
For most families, the weekly food shop has become a moment of quiet dread. Prices that once felt stable now seem to creep upward every month, and the familiar basket of basics costs noticeably more than it did even a year ago.
Good homes will be placed at the heart of UK military family life, as the first forces family homes built by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) in nearly a decade are set to begin construction - ensuring that British personnel working round the clock to defend the nation get the housing they deserve. 265 brand new forces homes, flats and bungalows to be built at RAF Brize Norton.
If there is one theme that continues to define the global economic landscape, it is the uneasy relationship between inflation and interest rates. Despite shifting headlines from geopolitical tensions to energy shocks this underlying dynamic remains at the heart of today's economic challenges.
For years, households in rural Scotland have been treated as second‑class citizens when it comes to heating our homes. Most of us are off the gas grid.
If there is one force quietly shaping the global economy right now, it is not technology, trade, or even interest rates—it is energy. From oil to natural gas and electricity, energy prices have once again taken centre stage, influencing everything from inflation and business costs to household budgets and economic growth.