The Hormuz bill shows up in prices

At 6:30 this newspaper opened on the US military action against two Iranian rocket launchers on the island of Larak, off Bandar Abbas. In the afternoon the story moved on two distinct levels, and we have kept them separate.

The first is military: the Pasdaran claimed responsibility for launching missiles and drones against the King Hussein and Al Azraq bases in Jordan. It is the first direct exchange of fire between the United States and Iran since July 29. The assessment the morning edition had maintained since mid-August — a crisis playing out on the diplomatic and economic level — no longer holds: since August 30 things have returned to the military level, and we write this without qualification.

The second level is that of prices, and it led the afternoon opening. Brent crude passed $90 a barrel, the benchmark oil gained 2% at the opening of Asian trading, and the region’s stock markets closed lower. This is the part of the story the morning edition could not yet have, because the markets had not yet opened.

On the European front, the decision the 6:30 edition described as expected has arrived: the Interior Ministry (Viminale) has extended border controls at air and sea crossings with Spain by fifteen days, until September 15, with notification sent to Brussels. Madrid has done the same. The morning piece said “decision expected today”; the afternoon reports how it went, in Europe and in Italy.

The new sections in this edition are Foreign Affairs and Geopolitics, Economy and Markets, Europe, Italy, Tech & AI — with the designation of ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox as very large services under the European Digital Services Act — Health, with the EMA’s crackdown on PDF forms and a study in The Lancet whose limitations, as stated by the authors, we report, and Sport, which at 6:30 was uncovered and now has its article: Djokovic’s first-round elimination at the US Open at the hands of Mariano Navone. Also added are the Briefs and two pieces the morning edition did not contain: the announced oil agreement on Venezuela, for which no public text exists, and the Dutch decision not to order an autopsy or criminal investigation into the death of Ratko Mladic, with the UN Mechanism’s internal inquiry entrusted to Judge Bonomy.

For Cinema & Entertainment and Culture, the 6:30 edition stands, and remains published and readable on the section pages: we have not updated them because there were no developments, not because they are missing.

One figure for context: in Nepal, the official count from the August 26 flood has risen to 903 dead, 1,473 injured and 4,247 missing, including 592 foreigners. Teams are searching for workers in the tunnels of hydroelectric plants.