Aleksander Kwasniewski tells DW that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has produced the opposite of what Vladimir Putin hoped for: rather than weakening NATO, Moscow’s aggression has only strengthened the alliance.
“I met Putin around 20 times between 2000 and 2005, during my second term as president, when he was still a young president. We belong to the same generation. Back then, we had a lengthy conversation in the Kremlin, and I asked him what his main goal was. He replied: ‘You know, I want to restore Russia’s greatness.’ A ‘great Russia,’ in Putin’s view, cannot exist without Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasus and Central Asia. At the time, however, I believed, wrongly as I can see today, that this was simply the dream of a young president who wanted to be among the world’s leading statesmen.”
“In 2022, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine became a historic mistake. But taking on NATO today would no longer be a historic mistake. It would be a mega-historic mistake, because NATO is stronger than Russia, and that is evident. As for military provocations against NATO, he simply does not have the capabilities for that today.”
“There are hybrid provocations against NATO, and there will continue to be. Their purpose is to test how united the allies are, how they respond, how they make decisions, and whether they are strong or weak. In my view, this is another mistake in Putin’s policy.”
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images
The quickest and cheapest response to historically high diesel prices is also the simplest: Use less of it.
Why it matters: That’s easier said than done. Diesel is so entrenched in farming, trucking and other industries that even soaring prices aren’t enough — at least not yet — to prompt a wholesale shift to alternatives like electric semi-trucks and manure-powered tractors, Axios’ national energy correspondent Amy Harder reports.
Catch up quick: Diesel averages $6.32 a gallon today, up 74% from a year ago, according to AAA.
Regular gasoline averages $4.29, up 39%.
The big picture: Gasoline gets the attention, but diesel is the workhorse of the American economy.
It powers grocery trucks, tractors, freight trains, construction equipment, hospital backup generators and even school buses
The price spike is hitting farmers during the fall harvest.
“Farmers buy diesel by the truckload,” says Curt Blades, senior vice president at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. “So we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars in diesel, and when it goes up the way it has spiked, that’s the difference between profit and loss in a year.
“President Trump announced$8 billion in one-time aid for farmers at a campaign rally in Kansas on Monday, where Republicans face a competitive Senate race.
What Aristotle can teach us about navigating life with AI
Harvard’s Sergio Imparato, at left, discussed the annual Lyceum Project in Athens, Greece, with three of the conference’s organizers: Maria Dagioglou, Vangelis Karkaletsis, and Alexandra Mitsotakis.Iris Liu/Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Greek conference, inspired by ancient philosopher’s Lyceum, offers model of dialogue between humanities and tech
Oct 22, 2026 / Read time: 5 minutes
Eileen O’Grady
Harvard Staff Writer
The multidisciplinary conversations Aristotle had with students at his Lyceum thousands of years ago might be useful today in thinking about humanity’s relationship with AI.
At least, that’s the premise of an annual conference in Greece that brings together scientists, technologists, humanists, and civic leaders to discuss AI and philosophy.
“How does AI reshape, if at all, the ways in which we conceive of excellence, the ways in which we conceive of our ‘ergon’ — of our functions, what it means to be human?” lecturer on government Sergio Imparato asked an audience packed into the Barker Center’s Thompson Room. “A related question, which we sometimes ask in a different tone, is ‘What is the end of AI?’ It is a tool, after all. What is its function? And who gets to decide it?”
Imparato, a Lyceum Project attendee since its founding in 2024, was one of four speakers to appear on the October 14 panel, which was moderated by Associate Senior Lecturer on Social Studies Nicolas Prevelakis. Joining them in conversation were representatives of the two organizations that host the Athens-based conference: Vangelis Karkaletsis and Maria Dagioglou from the National Centre for Scientific Research Demokritos (NCSR), and Alexandra Mitsotakis with the World Human Forum.
Dagioglou, a researcher specializing in AI methods, human behavior, and human-AI collaboration, explained that the conference takes inspiration from the ancient Greek concept of schole, often translated as “leisure,” which refers to time spent away from work dedicated to the contemplation and discussion of philosophy.
“This is so urgent,” said Karkaletsis, director and chairman of NCSR’s board. “We can see this today with all this discussion around artificial intelligence and the dilemmas that are discussed in Europe, in the U.S., and all [over] the globe. We have initiated all this in order to bring together people for discussions about values, about these dilemmas.”
While humanities scholars may take it as a given that philosophy should be used to guide AI design and development, Dagioglou said not everyone in the tech industry thinks this way.
“Unless you are trained to do so, it’s impossible to translate philosophical questions to technical requirements,” she said. “It’s impossible to realize that on some occasions, rounding a decimal number up to the second or the third even, might be actually a moral dilemma and not just a mathematical act.”
Dagioglou added that this type of conference offers exposure to different perspectives, to people from fields participants may not usually interact with.
“We have been experiencing this massive explosion of knowledge and overspecialization,” Dagioglou said. “This is why we need all these people to come together and discuss.”
Conversations held during the Lyceum Project have contributed to real policy changes, Karkaletsis said, such as Greece’s new law banning children aged 15 and under from using social media.
The conversation was moderated by Nicolas Prevelakis, associate senior lecturer on social studies.Iris Liu/Harvard Faculty of Arts and SciencesAttendees packed the Barker Center’s Thompson Room.Iris Liu/Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
During the audience Q&A, several students asked about the role of major AI corporations like Anthropic and OpenAI. One undergraduate wondered how ordinary citizens can realistically plan for a “flourishing” future with AI, when the companies maintain total control over the technology’s development.
Karkaletsis suggested more focus on regulation, with protections found in the 2024 European Union Artificial Intelligence Act providing one useful framework. He added that the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty set an important precedent for international collaboration on regulating technologies.
“We need to do something similar here, following the example of the European Union,” Karkaletsis said.
Mitsotaki’s organization is currently in the process of getting approval to build a pavilion on the historic site of Aristotle’s Lyceum, next door to the Athens Conservatoire where the conference occurs. The building project will create a space for both the Lyceum Project and for visitors to learn more about Aristotle’s philosophy.
“This space can play an important role. It can not only bring science, technology, philosophy together; it can make Aristotle relevant for people who, like me, have never studied philosophy in our life,” said Mitsotakis, a social entrepreneur.
Aristotle believed ethics and politics share the same purpose, or telos, Imparato explained. As the ancient philosopher saw it, both exist to serve eudaimonia, or “happiness,” which some define as “human flourishing,” but Imparato interprets as “activity of the soul in the pursuit of excellence.”
It’s an idea that can be used to think about the ethics and politics of AI.
“Can AI help us rethink what it means to be a citizen?” Imparato asked. “Can it help us deliberate over what is the telos of politics? Should it be happiness, or should we leave people free to determine what happiness is to them, and not come to a shared understanding of ‘the good life?’”
The Rundown: Colossal Biosciences’ Ben Lamm and Anduril’s Palmer Luckey just launched Warhound, a startup that wants to genetically engineer war dogs for the U.S. military and law enforcement and suit them up in Anduril hardware.
The details:
Warhound plans to collect cells from elite military, police, and first-responder dogs, edit their genomes, and clone animals selected for high performance. Early gene edits would target inherited conditions like hip dysplasia; later efforts could boost speed, agility, and smell, potentially using wolf genes. Anduril is expected to develop protective equipment and software for the animals, including advanced body armor, goggles, and battlefield-awareness systems. Warhound expects its first gene-edited puppies in early 2027, with future dogs intended for search-and-rescue to military and law-enforcement operations.
Why it matters:A de-extinction biotech and a defense-tech partner want to clone gene-edited war dogs in sensor-laden armor, in a B-movie pitch now worth $1.2B. If it works, the dogs get healthier and more capable, but it also pushes gene editing into a strange new arena where animal welfare and battlefield optimization blur together.
Young people are facing a future that feels increasingly uncertain. Although every generation experiences turbulence while navigating adolescence, the pressures experienced by Gen Z – those born between 1997 and 2012 – are different and seem more pervasive.
From climate change and mental health concerns to academic pressure, housing costs, job and economic insecurity, today’s young people are navigating a complex set of expectations. Understanding their frustrations, including those expressed through protests across Europe, requires looking beyond individual experiences to the social conditions shaping their lives.
Adolescence has long been seen as a period of “storm and stress”. This reflecting a belief that is a universal and inevitable period of emotional turmoil, behavioural conflict and identity crisis. However, this has been increasingly challenged.
Rather than being defined solely by difficulty and disruption, adolescence is increasingly viewed as a period of possibility, opportunity and growth. Yet realising that potential depends heavily on the social environments in which young people grow up.
A growing body of evidence highlights adolescence as a critical developmental period with profound implications for future health and wellbeing. There is also increasing recognition that adolescence extends well beyond the teenage years and well into the twenties.
Young people nowadays grow up under intense and often overlapping pressure, and today this is to a higher extent than generations before.
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Evidence from the World Health Organization’s Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study suggests that school-related pressure increased between 2002 and 2022 across many countries.
In 2022, among 15-year-old girls, almost two-thirds reported feeling pressured by schoolwork, compared with less than half of boys. The same research documented declines in perceived family and peer support. In other words, young people appear to be facing increasing demands while some of the social resources that help them cope with those demands are weakening.
Parental expectations and criticism have also intensified in many contexts. Success is increasingly framed as an individual responsibility, while educational pathways have become more competitive. At the same time, social media can amplify processes of social comparison, putting young people’s achievements, appearance and lifestyles under constant public scrutiny. For many, there is little respite from the pressure to perform.
Economic concerns add another level of pressure. Rising living costs, high tertiary education expanses and uncertainty about future employment rank among young people’s greatest worries. Across the EU, 40% are highly concerned by rising prices and the cost of living. In 2026, national surveys show that around 70% of Irish adolescents consider emigration for better life conditions. Over 20% of Dutch secondary school students are concerned whether they will ever be able to afford a home.
A warming planet and an uncertain future
Today’s young people are growing up amid an increasingly visible climate crisis. They hear repeated warnings about the short- and long-term consequences of climate change. Their generation will be disproportionally affected, and they know it.
For some, this contributes to feelings of anxiety, worry, sadness, anger and helplessness about environmental degradation and the future. Concerns like this about a genuine global threat can be a rational and entirely understandable response.
What can make these concerns particularly difficult is the perception that the decisions affecting young people’s future are often made without their meaningful involvement or consideration of their needs. This cycle of intergenerational injustice needs to be acknowledged and addressed. When people feel they have little influence on issues that will meaningfully shape their lives, this can lead to frustration.
Evidence from many countries suggest that Gen Z are experiencing poorer mental health than previous generations. Although patterns vary across cultures and contexts, large scale studies point to increasing levels of emotional distress and psychological difficulties among young people.
Public discussions often focus on explanations at an individual level: excessive screen time, reduced resilience and difficulties coping with everyday challenges. While these factors may play a role, they do not account for the whole story.
Mental health is shaped by the interaction between individual experiences and wider social, economic and cultural environments in which people live. As such, the current rise in mental health difficulties should not be understood as a solely individual problem. Rather, it reflects a response to broader societal pressures that young people face as they move towards adulthood.
Despite these challenges, it would be wrong to portray Gen Z as a generation defined only by anxiety or pessimism. Protests concerning housing, education, climate policy and economic inequality can express frustration, but they also demonstrate agency and a desire to influence decisions about the future.
A 2025 survey of 6,703 young people across Europe found that 80% of young respondents in Germany considered EU membership a good thing, up from 65% in 2024. In France, the figure rose from 53% to 60%. The study also highlighted the importance young people attach to making the cost of living affordable.
These findings challenge the assumption that today’s young generation is simply disengaged from society. Young people are not passive recipients of social pressures. They organise, question existing arrangements and seek alternatives.
The difficulties facing Gen Z are not entirely new. What makes their experience distinctive is the combination of pressures and the uncertainty surrounding the transition to adulthood. Rather than asking whether today’s young people have it harder than previous generations, we should ask more productive questions: what kind of society are we asking them to navigate? And what can be done to make it healthier, fairer and more hopeful?
This explanation, provided from the perspective of a specialist, explores the relationships and treatment methods concerning anxiety disorders, social anxiety disorder, avoidant personality disorder, and hikikomori (social withdrawal) within the field of psychiatry. In clinical practice, it is difficult to strictly distinguish between these diagnoses; because they essentially share a common neurobiological basis—namely, hyperactivity of the amygdala—it is important not to become overly fixated on the specific diagnostic labels. Effective treatment involves a combination of approaches: pharmacotherapy to address the brain’s “hardware,” “software-oriented” methods such as cognitive behavioral therapy, and environmental adjustments. The text also emphasizes the need to break the negative cycle by clearly distinguishing between self and others and by honing interpersonal skills. Ultimately, it concludes that the key to recovery lies not merely in acquiring knowledge, but in the painstaking, repetitive process of gradually becoming accustomed to unfamiliar situations at a pace that feels manageable.”Disclaimer: This video is based on information from medical professionals. Please do not rely solely on the information presented here; we strongly recommend consulting a general practitioner or a specialist for your specific condition. We provide this content to help support your health and well-being. Thank you for watching.”
In his new book Michael Lewis, bestselling author of The Big Short and Moneyball, reveals the inside story of Elon Musk’s DOGE and Donald Trump’s assault on the US government. [Subscribe to our Substack newsletter: https://channel4news.substack.com/sub…] In Blockers, Lewis tells the stories of the civil servants who tried to stop Musk’s cost-cutting crusade and paid the price. What happens when the people protecting the government become the enemy?
What is actually left of America’s administrative state? And what comes next? ——-
[EXCLUSIVE] Leaked WhatsApps between ex-EU commissioner Reynders and senior Belgian spy reveal attempts to bury allegations of his possible Russia ties
“The ‘job’ … has been mostly accomplished,” said a senior official in Belgium’s spy service, Hugues Brulin, in a WhatsApp message to the Belgian then EU commissioner, Didier Reynders.
“Bravo for the work you did,” said Reynders.
It was back in 2022, and, at least on the surface, they were chatting about a staff reshuffle inside Belgium’s intelligence service, La Sûreté de l’Etat/Veiligheid van de Staat (VSSE) — which was already a peculiar thing for Brulin to be doing on WhatsApp with an EU official.
But their messages, seen by EUobserver and published in full below, were now also evidence in a Belgian police investigation into Reynders on money-laundering charges, which painted them in the light of a potentially criminal conspiracy.
Brulin’s real “job” had been to stop the VSSE from probing Reynders and his potential Russia links, according to five former and current Belgian intelligence officers who spoke to EUobserver.
And Brulin also WhatsApp-ed Reynders on how to “counterattack” a Russia whistleblower.
The 68-year-old liberal politician from Liège, in French-speaking southern Belgium, had had a glittering career before his sudden fall from grace in December 2024, when Belgian police raided his properties, and before he was subsequently charged in 2025 with having laundered some €1m via the ING Bank, using lottery tickets and cash deposits.
Reynders had been EU justice commissioner from 2019 until 30 November 2024 (just four days before the police raid) and Belgium’s foreign and defence minister from 2011 to 2019.
And Belgium had vetted and cleared him to read “top secret” national, EU, and Nato documents.
But if a figure with Reynders’ CV was also found guilty of corruption and foreign collusion, it would be yet another security fiasco for Western allies.
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If a figure with Reynders’ CV was also found guilty of corruption and foreign collusion, it would be yet another security fiasco for Western allies. (Source: EPA/Ronald Wittek)
Andrew Rettman is EUobserver’s foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.+ Follow author by email
File photo of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, northern Brooks Range, Alaska. Rocks in the background produce oil on the North Slope. (Photo provided by the U.S. Geological Survey)
New Geological Estimate Puts Alaska North Slope Gas Resources At 96 Trillion Cubic Feet
A U.S. Geological Survey assessment released Wednesday estimated a mean of 96 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered conventional natural gas and 17 billion barrels of undiscovered oil across Alaska’s North Slope, roughly three times the 35 trillion cubic feet of known gas reserves.
The figures represent a range of 17.3 to 276.6 trillion cubic feet for gas and exclude unconventional resources such as gas hydrates; the assessment does not consider extraction economics and is the first North Slope-wide natural-gas resource estimate.
Known and prospective gas remains stranded without a viable pipeline; the Interior Department linked the findings to Trump administration energy policy, while recent claims of firm investment commitments from South Korea and Taiwan have been denied by those governments.
(Alaska Beacon) — Alaska’s North Slope probably holds enough undiscovered natural gas to fuel the nation for nearly three years, according to a new federal report.
A resource assessment released Wednesday by the U.S. Geological Survey produced a mean estimate of 96 trillion cubic feet for undiscovered conventional natural gas reserves across the entire North Slope.
That is far more than the 35 trillion cubic feet of known reserves, most of which lie within the Greater Prudhoe Bay Unit, which has been producing oil since the 1970s.
The 96 trillion cubic feet estimate is “roughly three times the size of the known gas accumulations on the Alaska North Slope,” said Alicia Lindauer, coordinator of the USGS energy resources program, in a news briefing Wednesday.
“If you think about the total natural gas consumption across the country, it would be the equivalent of just under three years’ worth of U.S. natural gas consumption.”
The new assessment also contains a mean estimate of 17 billion barrels of undiscovered oil on the North Slope.
It is the first North Slope-wide resource assessment for natural gas. Past USGS assessments have been for portions of the North Slope. Recent USGS assessments for different areas were released in 2021, 2020 and 2017.
The total was not surprising, given that it was a North Slope-wide assessment, said William Craddock, a USGS geologist who was one of the report’s authors.
“In a sense, we think this is fairly consistent with how the province has been viewed in the past,” Craddock said at the news briefing.
The report incorporates new knowledge and new technology, the USGS officials said. Like other geologic reports, it does not consider the economics of extracting that oil and gas, they said.GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.SUBSCRIBE
Big oil discoveries at Willow, the huge project that ConocoPhillips is developing on the western North Slope, and at Pikka, the nearby project where operator Santos started production this year, were among the factors considered, the report’s authors said.
“Those plays in particular are very prospective, are highly prospective, for undiscovered oil and gas resources,” Craddock said. “The geology that defines those fields extends across vast portions of the northern part of this province, and so that prospectivity is reflected in the undiscovered oil and gas resource numbers.”
Like other USGS resource assessments, the new report does not consider economic factors. The new report also considers only conventional oil and gas, whether associated with oil deposits or independent of those liquids. It does not consider unconventional resources like gas hydrates or coalbed methane.
And like other USGS resource assessments, it includes estimate ranges. For natural gas, the range is between 17.3 trillion and 276.6 trillion cubic feet.
The new assessment includes three general geologic layers below the North Slope’s surface: the Brookian sequence, which holds rocks 140 million years old and younger, covering most of the Cretaceous era; the Beaufortian sequence, which holds rocks from about 140 million to 200 million years old, including the Jurassic period; and the Ellsemerian sequence, which has rocks as old as about 350 million years, and includes the Triassic period.
The Brookian sequence is the one most relevant to current and future oil activities on the North Slope. It holds formations that are important to current North Slope oil production, including the Sagavanirktok formation, which provides oil produced at Prudhoe Bay and other fields, and the Nanushuk and the Torok formations, which underlie newer fields on the western side of the North Slope.
Trump administration touts report
USGS officials said the new resource estimate was not ordered for any specific reason but is part of the agency’s normal operations, which include periodic assessments every few years of energy resources on the North Slope and elsewhere.
“This assessment was conducted as part of our regular process. We’ve had ongoing work to really assess both oil and gas resources across the Alaska North Slope. This one wasn’t prompted by a specific request but was part of that overall plan to assess the entire Alaska North Slope,” Lindauer said.
However, Department of the Interior leaders said the new assessment is in line with President Donald Trump’s policies and an Inauguration Day executive order called “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential.”
“Alaska is one of America’s greatest energy frontiers, and President Trump is committed to unlocking its extraordinary potential,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a statement. “Alaska’s natural gas reserves can supply affordable, reliable, secure energy to Americans and our South Pacific allies for generations, and this assessment helps underscore the importance of understanding these vast resources beneath the North Slope and using world-class American science to turn that potential into opportunity. By advancing responsible energy development, we can strengthen American Energy Dominance, create jobs and deliver lasting economic benefits for Alaskans and the entire nation.”
For now, the 35 trillion cubic feet of known natural gas and the estimated 96 trillion feet of prospective natural gas remains stranded on the North Slope, hundreds of miles from any market. For that reason, energy companies have not explored for North Slope gas and have focused instead on oil, which has been shipped through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System since 1977.
Proposals to build a massive natural gas pipeline project to commercialize the North Slope’s gas — sending it either through Canada to Lower 48 markets or through an 800-mile pipeline to a liquefaction facility at tidewater for shipment to Asian markets — date back to the time even before oil production started at Prudhoe Bay in 1977.
None has been deemed economically viable.
The Trump administration is the latest presidential administration to advocate for a massive natural gas pipeline project to ship North Slope reserves to markets.
Trump, his cabinet members, Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, said last month that the Republic of Korea had pledged to invest $54 billion in the current project, which proposes to ship LNG to Asia using an 800-mile pipeline and a liquefaction plant at Cook Inlet.
The claim was false. The Korean government said it has not made any such commitment, though it is evaluating possible participation in the Alaska LNG project.
During an Oct. 13 campaign rally in Wasilla, Trump said the government of Taiwan has committed to invest in the project. In response, the Taiwanese government said it, too, is considering participation but has not yet made a commitment.
About Alaska Beacon
Alaska Beacon is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government. Alaska, like many states, has seen a decline in the coverage of state news. We aim to reverse that.
The UK government has just approved the Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea, clearing the way for production to begin as early as this winter.
Jackdaw, around 150 miles east of Aberdeen, could account for roughly 6.5% of UK North Seagas production at its peak and will connect to existing infrastructure at the Shearwater platform.
But what will this actually mean for households and public finances? Will Jackdaw lower energy bills? Probably not by any noticeable amount.
Producing more British gas may sound as though it should lower prices. But North Sea gas is not reserved for British consumers at a special domestic price. It is sold into a market connected to Europe and influenced by international gas prices. This was clear following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Britain continued producing gas domestically, yet consumers were still exposed to soaring international wholesale prices.
According to one analysis, even if Britain maximised North Sea production and returned all resulting government revenues to households, the average annual saving would be no more than £82. Jackdaw is one field, so its effect would be small.
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Will this new gas field licence improve energy security? Here the case is stronger.
Britain consumes more gas than it produces and increasingly depends on imports as older North Sea fields decline. Jackdaw will not make Britain energy independent, but additional domestic production can reduce imports.
There is an important distinction between security of supply and protection from high prices. Jackdaw can contribute to the first, but not the second while consumers remain exposed to international gas prices.
In terms of how much tax Jackdaw will generate, North Sea taxes are currently charged on profits, not total sales. Investment reliefs (tax breaks that allow companies to deduct certain investment costs) can reduce those taxable profits.
Companies can generally deduct day-to-day operating costs when calculating taxable profits. They can also claim tax relief for certain development costs, investments to reduce emissions and, eventually, the costs of dismantling the field.
For Jackdaw, development investment will be in the region of £2.1 billion according to Adura, the UK North Sea’s largest independent oil and gas producer. Yet using the developer’s production forecast which estimates of how much gas and other products Jackdaw will produce each year, and the UK government’s Office for Budget Responsibility’s March 2026 oil and gas price assumptions, we estimate Jackdaw would generate only around £1.5 billion to £1.6 billion in gross sales by the end of 2029. Around £1 billion would come from gas, with the remainder from condensate and natural gas liquids (these are the liquid products extracted alongside natural gas that are sold separately).
Based on this simple comparison, gross sales through 2029 would still be below the project’s implied development investment, even before operating costs are taken into account.
This does not mean Jackdaw will pay no tax. Public information does not reveal how much investment qualifies for tax relief, when allowances will be used or how Jackdaw fits into the operator’s wider North Sea tax position. Adura estimates that Jackdaw and the much larger Rosebank project together could generate around £1.4 billion in tax by mid-2029 but does not say how much of that would come from Jackdaw.
There is another complication. The energy profits levy (a temporary 38% tax on oil and gas profits) is due to end by March 2030. It will be replaced by the oil and gas revenue levy, a new tax that would apply when oil and gas prices rise above specified levels. Unlike the current windfall tax, this would charge 35% on revenues above specified price thresholds, regardless of a field’s costs. My research suggests the same revenue threshold can affect high- and low-cost fields very differently.
What Jackdaw really changes
Jackdaw will not give Britain cheap gas or make the country energy independent. Its significance is more limited: it can replace some imported gas and support economic activity, but Britain will remain exposed to international gas prices.
The financial picture is similarly complicated. A 78% headline tax rate does not mean 78% of Jackdaw’s revenues will reach the Treasury. Investment reliefs can reduce tax in a field’s early years, while jobs and supply-chain activity generate other tax revenues and eventual decommissioning costs can also qualify for tax relief.
These benefits must be weighed against the emissions and environmental costs of further fossil-fuel production, and against investing instead in renewables, storage and other ways of reducing dependence on gas.
By producing a little more of its own gas, Britain can marginally improve its security of energy supply, but this won’t lower prices or guarantee an immediate tax windfall.
Karl MatikonisAssistant Professor in Taxation, University College Dublin
Hafez AbdoAssociate Professor of Accounting, University of Nottingham
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Can’t quit diesel
Catch up quick: Diesel averages $6.32 a gallon today, up 74% from a year ago, according to 
The price spike is hitting farmers during the fall harvest.
Image sources: Ideogram / The Rundown
The EU’s ‘return regulation’ makes your home fair game for police — and Belgium is racing to use it
Andrew Rettman
