Oil, Missiles, And A Foldable iPhone

World & Security

The US and Iran spent Wednesday turning the Gulf into a live-fire lesson in escalation. The US military destroyed five Iranian oil tankers after IRGC attacks on a US warship, while Iran fired about 20 ballistic missiles at the US base at Al-Azraq in Jordan; Jordan said it intercepted 18 and the other two fell in civilian areas, with no casualties. Iran also claimed hits on two US destroyers and 10 ships near Hormuz. Nuclear diplomacy caught up: the IAEA board referred Iran to the UN Security Council for the first time in 20 years, with 23 countries backing the move; Russia, China and Niger opposed. Tehran, Moscow and Beijing demanded guarantees against further strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

Ukraine kept extending its reach. Ukrainian drones hit a gas facility in Novy Urengoy, Yamal, a record strike more than 3,000 km from the border; another report put the drone’s flight at 3,300 km. In Europe, a Russian drone nearly hit Zelensky’s plane en route to Oslo, a Russian jet-powered Shahed flew deep into Romanian airspace and evaded NATO fighters, and Romania arrested a Russian man accused of photographing NATO bases and a Ukrainian Antonov aircraft. Meanwhile, Houthi attacks on Saudi oil sites wounded 73, Saudi airstrikes hit Yemen, and Pakistan said its new Mecca defence pact with Saudi Arabia and Turkey could become operational.

Markets & Economy

Oil finally did it: Brent closed above $100 a barrel, at $101.21, with WTI at $95.78, after the latest US-Iran exchange. It was the first close above that level since late July. European gas followed: the Dutch TTF benchmark hit €80.99/MWh, the highest since January 2023. Equities did not enjoy the show: stock markets tumbled in early trade, while Treasuries weakened as soaring oil revived rate-hike worries.

The trade war next door got pettier and more expensive. Trump banned imports of Canadian alcohol, dairy, motorcycles and more, with a 50% surcharge from September 15 on items from mattresses to golf carts. Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on $20bn of US goods had just kicked in, and Trump told federal agencies to stop buying Canadian products. Prime Minister Mark Carney said the pivot away from the US “will come at a cost” — a sentence that deserves its own tariff. In China, factory-gate prices rose 3.8% year on year in August as energy volatility fed through; shipping nations warned global trade is fracturing, and US strategic oil reserves fell to 287m barrels, a half-century record drop.

Technology & Industry

Apple’s new CEO, John Ternus, got his first big launch and used it to unfold a phone. Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first foldable iPhone, a passport-shaped device that opens into a wide screen, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max starting at $1,199 and $1,299. It also showed AirPods 5 and new Apple Watches. Apple’s shares slipped about 1% during the event; the Duo is expected to cost over $2,000, which is one way to make a foldable feel flat.

OpenAI said an unreleased model solved the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem in 88 hours using 10,000 AI agents, and will not claim the $1m prize. The Clay Mathematics Institute says evaluation will be “deliberately unhurried.” Mathematician Tristan Buckmaster says OpenAI used his unpublished approach and that employees threatened to “destroy his career”; OpenAI rejects the accusation. Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon quit, warning firms are “gambling with our lives”; safety researcher Evan Hubinger publicly agreed there is more than a 10% chance AI could kill all humans.

US officials accused DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba and other Chinese firms of industrial-scale “distillation” theft from American models; China called the claim baseless. Meta launched Muse, an AI assistant that can plan, book and shop across Meta’s apps. Google put €13bn into Finnish AI data centres and nuclear power.

Politics & Policy

Germany’s political weather turned nasty. The AfD took almost 44% in Saxony-Anhalt, its strongest state result since World War II, while the CDU fell to 17%. Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the AfD’s “remigration” proposal “ethnic cleansing” and warned that mass deportations would empty hospitals, care homes and restaurants. Trump congratulated the AfD on its “great night.” Once again, the most stable thing in the room was the irony.

The UK, France and Canada said they would ban imports from Israeli settlements; Israel ordered the UK consulate in East Jerusalem closed in retaliation. All EU member states backed sanctions on settlers after Hungary dropped its veto. The UK’s foreign secretary accused settlers of ethnic cleansing. The EU’s move is symbolic in places, but the trade ban has real paperwork attached.

Trump gave $45,000 in cash to close aide Natalie Harp and other West Wing staff, raising ethics concerns because federal employees generally cannot receive outside compensation. Republicans have begun discussing a future without Trump, with JD Vance and Marco Rubio floated. And Trump said the Iran war will end shortly after the midterms and oil prices will plunge.

Human Stories / Social Trends

New York released more than 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed 9/11 documents showing city officials knew the air around Ground Zero was unsafe while reassuring residents. The records came with a settlement of lawsuits by 9/11 Health Watch.

Only 12 of Gaza’s 34 oxygen-generation stations remain operational. In Iran, families grieve at a school in Minab where about 120 children were killed by a US airstrike. In Kyiv, Russian strikes on food storage and logistics have emptied supermarket shelves, with businesses warning price rises could reach 15%.

Bangladesh’s worst measles outbreak has killed nearly 1,000 people after vaccination campaigns were disrupted. Kabul could run out of water by 2029. In Italy, thousands of teachers are quitting permanent posts in the north because €1,480 salaries cannot cover rents up to €1,000. And Meta agreed to a settlement worth up to $17bn with 47 US states over child and teen safety, promising usage limits and stronger age checks.