Charlie Alford

Refuge data reveals 78% rise in tech and economic abuse referrals

Post author:The Canary
Post published:9 July 2026
Post last modified:9 July 2026

Refuge, the UK’s largest specialist domestic abuse charity, has recorded a staggering 78% rise in referrals for cases of technology-facilitated abuse and economic abuse. Of these cases, Refuge’s frontline team has observed a worrying increase in perpetrators exploiting car finance agreements, putting survivors in significant debt. Between April 2025-March 2026, there were 967 referrals to Refuge’s specialist Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment team, compared to 542 referrals in 2024 – 2025. Of the 2025-2026 referrals, 43% (414) survivors reported experiencing some form of economic abuse, compared to 37% (198) of survivors in 2024-2025. Economic abuse can take many forms, all of…

The Iran economic shock is coming. How to protect yourself

Post author:oscar
Post published:5 April 2026
Post last modified:13 July 2026

This is an AI-written (but human-edited) summary of Gary’s recent video: The Iran economic shock is coming. How to protect yourself The US and Israel have effectively invaded Iran. Iran’s response has been to block the Strait of Hormuz – the narrow body of water through which an enormous share of the world’s oil and gas passes. Nobody knows how long it will stay blocked. What we do know is that this will cause a large increase in the price of energy, and knock-on increases in the price of food and pretty much everything else. There is also something not being…