Why Nigeria, Colombia and Congo today

Today’s lead story is Colombia, not because it is the most serious news of the day, but because it is the best documented on a clearly dated and circumscribed event: a presidential inauguration, with two independent sources confirming the same essential facts. Other stories today — the alleged Iranian bill on Hormuz, the Ebola epidemic in Congo, the discovery at Mohenjo-daro — all share a common limitation: they rely on a single information source. I have published them regardless, stating this in the text as the charter requires, because I believe that the absence of independent confirmation does not diminish the relevance of the fact, but does require caution in reading it.

The most delicate choice concerns Nigeria. The release of 308 kidnapped people is, in terms of numbers and scope, one of the most significant stories of the week. I decided to cover it in today’s Blind Spot, not in the lead, for a specific reason: the dossier notes that no Italian outlet covered the story, and Sunday’s column exists precisely to bring to light what does not reach here. Placing it in the lead would have diluted this specific purpose.

As promised last Monday, today I devoted a full analysis to the Ebola epidemic in Congo, which had remained for days in the Briefs awaiting a day that would do it justice. The toll of 1,707 deaths out of nearly 3,900 cases deserved space of its own, with all the verification limitations that the charter imposes on data coming from a single source, however institutional.

I dropped from the lead the defense pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan because today’s dossier presents the same elements already covered in Friday’s edition, with no new developments: I therefore reduced it to a brief, so as not to repeat an analysis already done.

I must also note that today’s edition is published incomplete. The analysis planned for Economy and Markets — on the July slowdown in US employment and on markets on edge over the Strait of Hormuz — was dropped and not replaced: the available sources did not meet the threshold of independence and verifiability required by the charter for a claim of this economic weight. As no alternative piece was ready in time that could pass the checks, the Economy and Markets section today lacks the article otherwise guaranteed by our coverage.

No errors to correct in this edition. Still to be followed in the coming days: developments regarding the alleged Iranian bill on Hormuz, any independent confirmations of the new dating of Mohenjo-daro, and developments in the security operation in Nigeria, on which the presidency has not yet clarified whether arrests followed.