Thursday 19/03/26

Iran inflicts ‘extensive damage’ on site of world’s largest LNG facility in Qatar (Financial Times, Malcolm Moore, Andrew England and Najmeh Bozorgmehr) shows that Iran successfully attacked the world’s biggest LNG facility in Qatar with a ballistic missile. This was said to be in response to an attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field. Qatar said that four ballistic missiles out of the five fired from Iran were intercepted but the damage caused could impact for months or even years, depending on how much damage was actually done. The facility makes up about 20% of global LNG supplies. Oil and gas prices jump after attack on world’s biggest gas field (The Times, Emma Powell and Martin Strydom) highlights the market response to this escalation while Trump ally warns US economy not strong enough to cope with Iran war (Financial Times, George Steer) shows that Trump’s former nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics cast doubt on America’s ability to cope with the war financially while US spending on first week of Iran war raises stark questions about priorities (The Guardian, Oliver Milman) shows just how much Trump is pouring into this – according to the Pentagon, the first week cost $11.3bn! That’s more than it costs to fully fund the Environmental Protection Agency for a year ($8.8bn), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ($9.2bn) or the National Cancer Institute ($7.4bn). There will no doubt be rumblings about the Trump administration prioritising this “war of choice” over healthcare for millions of Americans – and I’m sure these will get louder as we approach the midterms. Meanwhile, America’s war on Iran is a gift to Vladimir Putin (Financial Times, the editorial board) is the latest article to highlight just how much Russia is benefiting from the Iran war as Putin loves a higher-for-longer oil price and the fact that countries like China and India remain thirsty for oil.

Meanwhile, Fed holds interest rates steady as Iran war drives up oil prices and inflation fears (The Guardian, Gaya Gupta) shows that the Fed kept interest rates unchanged for the second time this year as the prospect of skyrocketing inflation loomed large. 11 of the 12 members voted to keep interest rates where they were as Trump’s stooge, Stephen Miran, was the only dissenter (gotta admire the blind loyalty of the man). Trump wants interest rates to be cut in order to encourage growth that would help the unemployment situation. The US is in a pickle – but it is of its own making.

Elsewhere, How hard will war hit the Gulf’s economies? (Financial Times, Steffen Hertog) shows that although the region’s oil and gas exports, tourism and aviation sectors have already been hit badly, the long term effects could be more wide-ranging. As things stand currently, it

looks like Iran’s regime will survive, bloodied but defiant – an ever-present danger – while the UAE will continue to be vulnerable due to its geographical proximity to Iran and number of pressure points. Saudi Arabia, whilst being less vulnerable due to its position and more closed economy, will suffer more if Yemen’s Houthis get more involved. That being said, the kingdom will now be able to catch up with the UAE’s previously unassailable lead in logistics and aviation. Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman are less diversified and globalised economies but they are likely to be vulnerable to an ongoing threat from Iran due to their proximity. * SO WHAT? * Of the Gulf states, the UAE is likely to benefit most from an Iran regime change because of its ties with the US and Israel – but will conversely remain vulnerable if such a change does not happen. And while we’re on the subject, UAE set to show leniency on tax rules for expats leaving to avoid Iran conflict (Financial Times, Ortenca Aliaj, Josh Spero and Simeon Kerr) suggests that strict rules which govern how much time expats need to spend in the country to keep their lucrative tax status will be relaxed to take account of the number of expats who’ve fled the country since the start of the war. Such a move would be particularly important for Dubai. Without such a relaxation, some individuals could not only lose their tax status in the UAE but they’d also have to pay extra tax in the UK!

Then in Economists raise UK inflation forecasts after energy costs surge (Financial Times, Valentina Romei) we see that the Treasury’s summary of independent forecasts, published yesterday, showed that economists reckon annual inflation will hit 2.6% in Q4, which is far north of the 1.9% forecast by the OBR earlier this month. Conclusion – the longer the war lasts, the longer it will take to see inflation fall back to the original 2% target. Economists have also lowered their growth forecasts for 2026. No surprises there…

UK to double steel tariffs to 50% to save plants from collapse (The Guardian, Bethan McKernan) shows that the government is going to double tariffs on Chinese and other foreign steel in order to save its remaining plants from going under. Business secretary Peter Kyle said that the government wants 50% of steel used in the UK to be made domestically and 50% should be made in Wales. * SO WHAT? * From July, import quotas of a lot of overseas steel products will be cut by 60% while duties above those quotas will be raised to 50%. Other countries have made similar moves to counter China flooding markets with cheap steel. You do wonder whether this is too little too late…

French music streamer Deezer battles deluge of AI fraud (Financial Times, Daniel Thomas) shows that the French streaming service is battling fraudsters on its platform who flood it with AI-generated music and then repeatedly listen to it to generate loyalty payments. This is becoming a problem because it crowds out legitimate artists. The company posted its first net profit yesterday since it was founded almost two decades ago! I haven’t really heard of this before and wonder what other larger streamers do in order to fend off such actions…

Then in PwC US boss says partners who resist AI have no place at the firm (Financial Times, Stephen Foley) we see that the US boss of PwC is getting aggressive about making sure partners are moving with the times. One of the more interesting aspects of this is that the company is going to start to offer alternatives to charging for their services by the hour. Instead, the company will convert some tax and consulting services into AI-powered automated tools that clients could use “without a PwC person in the loop”, which would be paid for via an annual subscription. The PwC One platform is the company’s AI platform that is launching today and will offer six automated services that will be added to in the coming months. Senior staff are being told to consider which of their services could be replaced by AI and dropped onto the PwC One platform which will free them up to do higher value work requiring human input. * SO WHAT? * I guess the whole thing depends on how well the platform works from the off because it feels to me

like so much AI looks brilliant initially and then turns out to be disappointing. Forcing AI-sceptics to think about what aspects of their jobs could be automated does have that turkeys-voting-for-Christmas feel about it, but I guess it’s necessary to speed up the transition. Still, I think an approach that includes AI could have a profound impact on professions that have relied so long on the billable hour because it should lower bills significantly. PwC’s boss says that this move to AI will lower the cost of entry for a client to get PwC expertise and broaden the company’s addressable market. I think that once companies like PwC do it, everyone else will be scrambling to do the same thing.

Then in Actors, musicians and writers welcome UK U-turn on AI use of copyrighted work (The Guardian, Dan Milmo) we see that the UK government has relented on its stance on AI firms using copyrighted material to train their models. The government had been planning to let AI companies use copyright-protected work without having to seek permission. Tech secretary Liz Kendall says that government has now backtracked on this and the creative industry is now breathing a collective sigh of relief. * SO WHAT? * This is a welcome respite, but the battle isn’t over yet. The thorny issue of copyright and what constitutes fair compensation for use of the underlying material is still yet to be solved.

In a quick scoot around some of today’s other interesting stories, Cruise bookings surge as worried holidaymakers abandon flights (Daily Telegraph, Christopher Jasper) highlights an emerging trend of travellers opting to book cruises since the start of the Iran war as attacks on airports and flight disruptions have prompted a rethink of holiday plans. Hays Travel said that cruise bookings had increased by 11% for Mediterranean sailings this week and by 9% in the Caribbean versus the same period in 2025. Travelling by plane to destinations in India, the Far East, Africa and Australia have been made more difficult because the hubs of Dubai, Qatar and Abu Dhabi have been severely disrupted by the war.

Then in Rolls-Royce scraps electric car target as ‘drivers prefer V12 engines’ (Daily Telegraph, James Titcomb) we see that Rolls-Royce has become the latest car marque to ditch its EV ambitions and continue to offer cars with these massive internal combustion engines because it says that many customers prefer the feel of a V12. It had announced plans five years ago to go 100% electric by 2030 but it announced yesterday that it will still produce internal combustion engine cars into the next decade.

Learning languages takes time and there can be difficult issues to overcome! Take these words, for instance…if you don’t have the same sounds in your own language, things can get tricky!