The afternoon of August 25: sanctions, German data, two typhoons

This morning we opened on the warning issued by Tehran to ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, noting that the text of the rules was not available. That limitation remains. Meanwhile, the other side of the confrontation has moved: the U.S. Treasury Department has presented a plan to isolate the Iranian economy centered on secondary sanctions, which extend the effect to third parties, including China. This is our lead story. Alongside it, a second development of a different nature: the United Nations has offered to facilitate fertilizer trade blocked by the closure of the waterway and, according to the Chinese broadcaster CGTN, has set up a working group on the strait.

On the economy, the morning’s assessment needs to be corrected in timing, not in substance: at 6:30 the section was looking at the week’s appointments, Nvidia’s earnings and the Jackson Hole symposium. However, the two most significant data points arrived today from Berlin and Munich. The ifo business climate index rose in August to 88.8 points from 86.7, above the consensus of 87.2; Destatis revised upward second-quarter gross domestic product to +0.3% on the previous quarter, one tenth higher than the flash estimate from late July, due to the arrival of export information not available in July. Both pieces are new this afternoon.

Europe is updated with the first act to emerge from France’s political return: the promulgation of the law on the protection of minors, with the ban on mobile phones in high schools. We are publishing this while stating in the piece that at this time the news rests on a single source. Same transparency in the article on the two typhoons in East Asia — evacuations in Okinawa, more than 28,000 people displaced in southern China — where the Japanese part relies on a single source.

Rounding out this edition: Cgil Puglia’s request to the authorities on the conditions of farm laborers in the Foggia area, where we report the request but not the context behind it; the completed restoration of the Rocchetta Mattei; the overtaking of Nigerian films over American ones at the local box office in the first half of the year; and Briefs.

For Health, Sport and Tech & AI, this edition adds nothing: the morning’s articles remain valid, published and accessible on their respective section pages.

The nearest item on the calendar is Italian: a Council of Ministers meeting scheduled for August 26, with the agenda including the extension of the 17-cent-per-liter cut to the excise duty on automotive diesel.