British households could be facing another massive energy price shock, with some forecasts suggesting annual bills could climb to more than $3,200 by April 2027 as the Iran war drives international gas prices higher. The crisis is again exposing Britain’s dependence on imported energy, with successive Conservative and Labour governments having refused to encourage energy production at home and pursued net zero ideology.

The National Pulse brings you detailed analysis on global energy trends and many other topics. To help Raheem J. Kassam and his team continue this work, please JOIN THE NATIONAL PULSE or MAKE A DONATION. We are 100% reader-funded.

Forecasts from energy supplier EDF suggest the typical annual household energy bill could rise by 27 percent in January, from the equivalent of approximately $2,309 to $2,937, before climbing again to $3,201 in April. Wholesale gas prices have reached a four-year high, driven by disruptions to liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and concerns about European gas reserves.

Britain’s North Sea Retreat.

Britain was once an energy powerhouse, extracting enormous quantities of oil and natural gas from beneath the North Sea. However, domestic production has declined dramatically, leaving the country increasingly dependent on foreign suppliers.

According to the House of Commons Library, British North Sea oil and gas production peaked in 1999 and has subsequently fallen by more than 70 percent. In 2004, Britain became a net importer of natural gas, much of it from the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.

The decline has partly resulted from the natural depletion of mature offshore fields. However, government policy has repeatedly discouraged new exploration, with the leftist Labour Party going as far as committing to ending new oil and gas exploration and production licenses, while allowing limited developments around existing fields.

Ofgem’s analysis of Britain’s gas supplies indicates that approximately 47 percent of Britain’s gas comes through pipelines from Norway, compared with just 29 percent from domestic North Sea fields. Despite having domestic reserves, Britain is increasingly forced to rely on overseas suppliers to meet its energy requirements, driving up costs for consumers and businesses alike.

Britain’s Electricity Market Makes Everything Worse.

Britain’s energy problems extend far beyond the long-standing declining domestic gas production. The structure of its electricity market means international gas price increases can affect households even when their electricity is generated by renewable sources like wind and solar, or nuclear power.

Under Britain’s marginal pricing system, the wholesale electricity price is frequently determined by the most expensive generator needed to satisfy demand. That generator is often a gas-fired power station. A recent parliamentary Energy Security and Net Zero Committee report warned that Britain already had some of the highest domestic and industrial electricity costs among comparable countries before the current crisis in the Middle East. It also called for reforms to reduce the disproportionate influence of gas on electricity prices.

France, Norway, and America Invested in Energy Independence.

Other Western countries show how different energy strategies can reduce dependence on imported natural gas.

France has maintained its large nuclear power industry, with reactors generating approximately 68 percent of the country’s electricity in 2025, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Nuclear generation has helped limit France’s reliance on gas-fired electricity, although it still has some exposure to energy markets in Europe.

Norway pursued a different strategy, continuing to develop its North Sea oil resources while relying overwhelmingly on domestic hydropower for electricity. According to Norwegian government figures, hydropower accounted for approximately 90 percent of electricity production in 2025.

The United States, meanwhile, has benefited from the shale gas revolution, which dramatically expanded domestic production through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that American natural gas production reached a record 118.5 billion cubic feet per day in 2025, helping sustain a huge domestic energy supply.

All three countries show that prioritizing the cost of energy for their own residents over net zero and the green agenda has consistently left them more insulated to global energy market fluctuations and grants their own people cheaper energy at home.

Net Zero Has Made Britain Less Secure.

The contradiction in Britain’s energy strategy is that governments have sought to restrict domestic fossil-fuel development while the economy continues to rely heavily on natural gas.

According to the British government’s 2025 security of supply report, natural gas accounted for 35 percent of total British energy demand in 2024. The same report projects continued declines in North Sea production, although it argues that ending new exploration licenses will have only a marginal impact on future output.

Wind and solar alone cannot guarantee a continuous energy supply, leaving gas-fired generation important during periods of low renewable output. However, Conservative and Labour governments have moved away from domestic fossil fuel production without first establishing sufficient alternatives. With household energy bills potentially approaching $3,200 annually, that issue is becoming increasingly urgent.

To help Raheem J. Kassam and his team provide you with more of the original reporting and analysis you deserve, please JOIN THE NATIONAL PULSE or MAKE A DONATION today.

Image by Alnitak3.

Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.

Two European NATO members sharing borders with Russia have broken with the European Union, opening direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the war in Ukraine continues to devastate the country and tensions escalate across the Baltic region.

The National Pulse brings you world-class analysis and reporting. To help us continue this work, please JOIN THE NATIONAL PULSE or MAKE A DONATION today. We are 100% reader-funded.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre spoke directly with Putin on Tuesday, calling on the Russian leader to negotiate an end to the conflict. Their intervention represents a major departure from the diplomatic isolation pursued by most European Union governments since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The two leaders emphasized that their countries’ proximity to Russia gives them a particular interest in preventing further escalation. Finland shares an approximately 830-mile border with Russia, while Norway shares a roughly 120-mile frontier in the High North. “Ending the war requires direct discussions,” Stubb said following the conversation.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen criticized the decision to engage Putin independently, questioning what the Norwegian and Finnish leaders hoped to accomplish and insisting that European governments must maintain a united position.

The disagreement comes as Russian forces continue their offensive in eastern Ukraine, Moscow targets Ukrainian infrastructure, and tensions surrounding Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad raise fears of a wider confrontation.

Russia Pounds Ukrainian Infrastructure.

On October 27, Russia launched 16 ballistic missiles and more than 280 drones against targets across 11 Ukrainian regions, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The attacks killed civilians in Kiev and Kharkov despite a separate, localized humanitarian ceasefire in southern Ukraine.

Days earlier, Russian missiles struck Kiev, damaging subway infrastructure on the Southern Bridge over the Dnieper River and disrupting traffic. Russian drones also targeted energy infrastructure near Kremenchuk, an important industrial center in central Ukraine.

The attacks show Russia’s strategy is to cripple Ukraine’s ability to sustain the war by damaging electricity supplies, transportation infrastructure, and industrial facilities, as well as possibly provoke another refugee crisis as many flee cities in winter if no reliable power is available to heat their homes.

Ukraine has also continued striking Russian territory, including oil infrastructure, as both sides seek to increase the economic and military costs of the conflict, which has another effect of keeping international energy prices high.

Battlefield Developments.

The Russians continue to demand control over the entirety of Donbas, encompassing the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as Ukraine still has footholds in both territories. The fighting around Dobropillia, a strategically important town northwest of Pokrovsk, has become the latest key battle for the region.

Russian forces have intensified operations in the area, attempting to penetrate Ukrainian defenses and threaten transportation routes supporting Ukrainian positions farther north.

Moscow has claimed to have taken Dobropillia,  while Ukrainian officials dispute the claims. An assessment by the Institute for the Study of War reported intensified Russian infiltration operations but claimed that these did not necessarily mean that Russian forces controlled the town. The assessment also highlighted Russian efforts to advance along routes supporting operations toward Dobropillia, with the longer-term objective of threatening Ukraine’s defensive positions around Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the last major strongholds under Ukrainian control in the Donbas.

Putin reiterated during the Nordic leaders’ diplomatic outreach that Russia would not compromise on its objective of securing the entire Donbas.

Kaliningrad.

While fighting continues in Ukraine, another potential confrontation is developing around Kaliningrad, Russia’s heavily militarized Baltic exclave situated between Poland and Lithuania. Kaliningrad houses the headquarters of Russia’s Baltic Fleet and is an important military position, surrounded by NATO members.

The territory is also strategically sensitive because of its proximity to the Suwałki Gap, the narrow corridor connecting Poland and Lithuania that separates Kaliningrad from Belarus. Any military confrontation involving the exclave could quickly draw both NATO and Russia into direct conflict.

Earlier this month, Putin warned that Moscow could employ nuclear weapons if NATO attacked or attempted to isolate Kaliningrad. The warning followed Russian concerns over the possibility of NATO restricting access to the territory. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte responded by emphasizing the alliance’s defensive character and rejecting the usefulness of nuclear threats.

Military encounters in the Baltic have meanwhile continued. According to Lithuania’s Ministry of National Defence, NATO aircraft conducted multiple interceptions during October 12–18, including encounters with Russian military aircraft traveling between mainland Russia and Kaliningrad.

Some Russian aircraft operated without active transponders, filed flight plans, or radio communication, increasing the risk of dangerous incidents in the air.

The Baltics Are Resisting Peace Talks.

The willingness of the Norwegian and Finnish leaders to speak directly with Putin is directly contrasted by their neighbors in the Baltics, such as former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who now serves as the European Commission Vice President for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

Kallas has emerged as one of Europe’s most outspoken advocates of maintaining economic and military pressure on Moscow. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have consistently supported extensive sanctions against Russia, increased military assistance to Ukraine, and a stronger NATO presence along the alliance’s eastern frontier.

Kallas has also defended Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, telling Euronews earlier this month that such operations constitute legitimate self-defense because Russian energy revenues help finance the war.

Finland and Norway, meanwhile, appear increasingly convinced that direct communication with Moscow is necessary alongside sanctions, deterrence, and military assistance.

Trump Forces Europe to Reconsider Its Position.

President Donald J. Trump has repeatedly pursued negotiations aimed at ending the Ukraine conflict since the start of his second term, but has been frustrated by both sides, who refuse to agree to terms.

Recent diplomatic efforts included meetings involving U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, Ukrainian officials, and Russian representatives, with another round of negotiations expected in Abu Dhabi in November.

Finland and Norway’s intervention follows an important October 20 meeting in Oslo, after which President Zelensky stated for the first time that he may be willing to end the war along the current line of conflict, with Russia continuing to occupy around 25 percent of pre-2022 Ukraine.

The two Nordic leaders challenging the status quo in Europe may reflect the emerging reality that it is America and Russia, rather than the EU and Ukraine itself, determining the peace.

Europe’s Choice.

The decision by Finland and Norway to engage Putin is just the latest fracture in Europe in what was once a united front against Russia and for Ukraine.

As the fifth anniversary of the conflict approaches in February, Russian attacks continue to damage Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. Fighting in Donbas remains intense, while a potential conflict over Kaliningrad could drag NATO, including Finland and Norway, into a hot war with the Russians at their doorstep.

For years, much of Europe’s strategy has rested on the assumption that sustained pressure from economic sanctions and arms to Ukraine could force the Russians to reconsider their war aims and possibly retreat altogether. That strategy has not borne fruit, and now countries are beginning to look for other avenues to avoid conflict with the Russians and broker some kind of peace.

What follows could determine the fate of Europe, as the bloc will have to decide whether to pursue a potentially unpopular peace or a catastrophic war.

To help Raheem J. Kassam and his team continue to provide you with the latest developments of international conflicts, please JOIN THE NATIONAL PULSE or MAKE A DONATION today.

Image via Kyivcity.gov.ua.

Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.

A recent court case in Bristol has again put the spotlight on the risks some migrant groups pose to British women and girls. In November last year, three Afghan men and an Afghan minor aged 17 subjected a teenage girl to a prolonged gang rape lasting several hours. They had first contacted her through Snapchat, supplied her with alcohol, then assaulted her before attempting to leave the country hidden in a lorry bound for France. French officials sent them back, British courts convicted them, and they were sentenced on October 6.

Such cases reinforce public concerns about migrant crime that have been growing for years. A government booklet distributed to asylum seekers recently felt the need to spell out that the age of consent is 16 and that rape is a serious offense. Statistics suggest that these concerns are justified, with migrants from Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa perpetrating sex crimes at much higher rates than other demographic groups and the native population.

If you value the work of Raheem J. Kassam and his team, please JOIN THE NATIONAL PULSE or MAKE A DONATION today. We are 100% reader-funded.

What the Data Reveals.

Official statistics do not routinely break crime rates down by immigration status, so researchers must work with the limited figures available. Freedom of Information Act requests secured by the Migration Observatory at Oxford University produced Ministry of Justice records covering cautions and convictions in England and Wales from 2010 to 2024. Afghans accounted for 409 cases over the full period.

That raw total becomes meaningful once set against population size. The 2021 census counted roughly 21,400 people of Afghan origin in England and Wales. Subsequent arrivals after the Taliban takeover in August 2021 pushed the estimated Afghan population to around 45,000 by the end of 2022. Focusing on the 2020–22 window and adjusting for age and sex, the analysis finds Afghans convicted of sex crimes at seven times the rate of British nationals.

This is a large and persistent gap. The elevated rate means additional victims in every period, and continued high inflows will multiply the total impact.

The National Pulse can bring you original news and analysis without sugarcoating the truth because we do not rely on government or corporate cash. To keep it that way, please JOIN THE NATIONAL PULSE or MAKE A DONATION today.

A Pattern Across Europe.

Britain is not unique. Data from Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, and Sweden show immigrants from the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, and the Horn of Africa are over-represented among both suspects and those convicted of sexual offenses. Age-standardized comparisons reduce the disparity, but the elevated rates do not disappear. Alice Weidel, leader of Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has noted that Syrians and Afghans form the main category among those responsible for the most serious crimes, including rape and homicide.

The practical consequence for public safety of importing demographic groups with substantially higher rates of offending per person is more victims. Official reluctance to publish detailed, regularly updated rates by nationality has left the field open to competing claims. However, the available evidence confirms that Afghan, Middle Eastern, and African migrant groups commit sex crimes at markedly higher rates than the native population.

That reality, illustrated in repeated court cases and European data, is a serious problem that requires clear acknowledgment.

To help Raheem J. Kassam and his team expose the truth about mass migration and its consequences, please JOIN THE NATIONAL PULSE or MAKE A DONATION today.

Image by Tim Sheerman-Chase.

Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.

The British establishment media has spent days targeting Raheem Kassam, Editor-in-Chief of The National Pulse, for branding Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch a “Nigerian scammer.” Media organizations including LBC, The Huffington Post, and the notionally right-leaning Daily Mail, which employs former Labour and Hope Not Hate activist Dan Hogdges, have joined the deeply chequered Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake in attacking Reform figures, including Robert Jenrick and Danny Kruger, for declining to denounce Kassam as “racist,” with Kruger dismissing the supposed controversy as “rumbustious debate online.”

Kassam has responded to the attacks with a detailed thread providing evidence that Badnenoch is a “scammer,” and noting that “Nigerian” is not a race. Significantly, Badenoch has also indicated that she does not believe “Nigerian” is a race, previously stating that she identifies with her “specific ethnicity” as a Yoruba, and that she regards northern Nigerians as her “ethnic enemies.”

I enjoyed this. Nigerian isn't a race, and calling her a scammer because she invokes it when its politically convenient isn't racism.

Kemi is a scammer.

On race, on politics, on the economy, on her own background, and more.

The fact she has the most left wing reporter in… pic.twitter.com/TBglJ4SWgG

— Raheem J. Kassam (@RaheemKassam) October 25, 2026

Reader support allows Raheem J. Kassam and his team to bring you honest, forthright news and analysis without fear of cancel culture. To keep our work RADICALLY INDEPENDENT, please JOIN THE NATIONAL PULSE or MAKE A DONATION today. 

Selective Nigerian Identity.

Kassam’s core point is straightforward. Badenoch was born in Wimbledon, London, in 1980 to visiting Nigerian parents, who immediately returned to Nigeria to raise her. Early in her British political career, she directly appealed to Nigerian diaspora voters for support, and suggested she entered British politics to “[speak] for the Africans,” particularly on foreign aid.

Badenoch has at times emphasized her Nigerian roots and, in footage highlighted by Kassam from 2022, told a Nigerian audience she loves Nigeria “just as much as” England while speaking in a Nigerian accent. At other times—particularly when speaking to British audiences—she has said she no longer identifies as Nigerian, or even, as mentioned previously, that she has never identified as Nigerian, but only as a Yoruba.

Kassam argues this is convenient identity politics: using her Nigerian background for career advancement or making emotional appeals situationally, but downplaying it when dual loyalty concerns arise. He has noted he is Indian by heritage, but would never declare equal love for India and Britain.

Have you seen this before???

When Kemi Badenoch speaks to other Nigerians, she turns off her fake English accent.

She also tells them that she loves Nigeria just as much as England.

And what’s all this about saying Islamic prayers in Nigeria?

She is running to be PM while… pic.twitter.com/thVCrPxblk

— Raheem J. Kassam (@RaheemKassam) September 24, 2026

The Stanford ‘Pre-Med’ Claim.

Badenoch has repeatedly said that at age 16, while attending school in the U.S., strong SAT scores earned her an offer and partial scholarship to study medicine or “pre-med” at Stanford, but her family could not afford it. Former Stanford admissions staff have called this implausible or impossible, as Stanford has no undergraduate pre-med degree.

Admissions were also not based on test scores alone, and partial scholarships of the type Badenoch described were not how the university operated at the time—if they admitted someone who needed aid, they covered the full cost so the student could enroll. Badenoch has stood by the story, but says she no longer has the paperwork to prove it.

This is one of several origin-story embellishments. Earlier reporting has also challenged a claimed national girls’ chess championship win at age seven, which, if it ever took place, appears to have involved only two competitors, and questions around Badenoch’s account of a supposedly difficult Nigerian childhood, despite the fact that her father was a doctor with a clinic and she attended elite schools.

Inconsistencies.

Kassam also referenced “Melonigate,” a conversation reported by The Times in which Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni supposedly advised Badenoch against any electoral arrangement with Nigel Farage and Reform UK. Meloni’s party subsequently indicated that no such discussion took place, and The Times made extensive stealth edits to remove the claims without a proper correction note.

On the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), Badenoch previously said leaving it would not be a “silver bullet” for immigration control. She now claims she would abrogate the convention, despite her party upholding it over 14 years in government while overseeing record immigration and falling deportations.

As Equalities Minister, she advanced the “Inclusive Britain” agenda, including ethnicity pay gap reporting and pushing for greater racial diversity in the judiciary and policing, despite public criticism of DEI. Farage has called the shift “totally disingenuous.”

On the Chagos Islands, Badenoch attacked Farage’s comments about offering the U.S. perpetual use of the vital Diego Garcia base as “humiliating” and falsely claimed the Reform leader was advocating giving away the British territory. The U.S. government publicly rebuked her for “spreading fake news,” clarifying that Farage was referring to continued U.S. use of the Diego Garcia base, not transferring control over the islands to the U.S. Significantly, Britain’s negotiations to hand the territory to Mauritius began under the Conservatives, while Badenoch was a government minister.

British Conservative (Tory) Party leader Kemi Badenoch has been rebuked by the White House after she attacked Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage over recent comments about the Chagos Islands, with a senior official accusing her of spreading “fake news” and undermining the… pic.twitter.com/GFcMMxjmnC

— Raheem J. Kassam (@RaheemKassam) October 14, 2026

Deep dives exposing the gap between politicians’ public and private positions take time and research to assemble. To support this work, please JOIN THE NATIONAL PULSE or MAKE A DONATION today.

Same Old Tories. 

Kassam noted that the vast majority of Badenoch’s top team are, like her, veterans of the failed 2010–2024 Conservative governments which botched Brexit and accelerated Net Zero and mass migration, warning voters: “There is a REASON that 92% of her shadow cabinet are the same Tory ministers and spads from the failed 14 years. Don’t fall for the great Kemi scam.”

He also noted that her husband Hamish Badenoch has been described in the press as a “sopping wet Remainer,” firmly on the left of the Conservative Party.

The Woke Tories only have two modes of attack:

1. Call people racist
2. Call people sexist

That’s literally it.

No policies, no principles, no depth. https://t.co/xntwdgaHUC

— Raheem J. Kassam (@RaheemKassam) October 23, 2026

Free Speech and Priorities.

Kassam has doubled down on the original “Nigerian scammer” line as a colorful way to draw attention to his underlying critique of Badenoch as, at best, a serial embellisher and political chameleon, whose record and actions do not match her public positions.

The Conservatives joining the left-wing media in focusing on Kassam’s reference to her Nigerian nationality and demanding ritual disavowals from Reform figures, instead of focusing on the substance of the critique, shows they remain a fundamentally center-left party in hock to leftist identity politics and political correctness.

American observers will recognize the pattern. When a politician’s résumé, past statements, and policy consistency face detailed challenge, establishment outlets and politicians pivot to policing the tone of the critique on woke, left-wing terms. Kassam’s receipts are there for anyone with the wherewithal to read past the familiar accusation of “racism.”

Kemi Badenoch is an unrelenting scammer, and she has used her Nigerian background as a means by which to advance her career when it suits her. Of that there can be no doubt. A thread… 🧵

Lets start with HER STORY of how she joined the Tories in order to promote foreign aid to… pic.twitter.com/lvLRrODAwh

— Raheem J. Kassam (@RaheemKassam) October 25, 2026

To help Raheem J. Kassam and his team hold the political class to account free from corporate influence, please JOIN THE NATIONAL PULSE or MAKE A DONATION today. 

Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.