Daily Digest — 12 Sep 2026

Saudi Arabia shut its East-West crude oil pipeline after multiple drone strikes from Iraq, a critical disruption that forces Riyadh to reroute exports through the Strait of Hormuz and compounds the energy shock from the ongoing Iran conflict. The attack comes as Houthi militants escalate strikes on the kingdom, raising fears of a widening war that could choke Red Sea shipping lanes. Markets reacted with a broad retreat in oil prices by Friday—enough to lift the Dow 500 points and snap a four-day slide—but the relief may be temporary. US core CPI rose a faster-than-forecast 0.3% in August, cementing expectations of a Fed rate hike, while bitcoin hovered near $⁠77,200, nursing losses as yields and oil prices remain elevated.

The 25th anniversary of the ⁹⁄₁₁ attacks drew commemorations across the US, with President Trump linking the “war on terror” to his current campaign against Iran. The day also saw Xi Jinping arrive in New Delhi for the BRICS summit—his first visit to India in seven years—as the bloc grapples with internal divisions over de-dollarisation and expansion. Russian and Iranian presidents called out US dollar dominance ahead of the meetings, which come as the UN Security Council extended the Darfur arms embargo for just four weeks amid US-Russia friction over a wider Sudan-wide ban.

Meanwhile, India’s richest state Maharashtra is exploring tokenising state assets on a blockchain to fund infrastructure, a rare government-led application of real-world asset tokenisation that could shift public finance away from borrowing if governance holds. In the UK, MPs voted against legalising assisted dying, and Northern Ireland schools must allow girls to wear trousers from next year. Reform UK received a record £36m donation from a British crypto billionaire. In tech, OpenAI’s feud with mathematicians escalated as 25 leading mathematicians signed an open letter, while Google dropped direct URLs from search results, targeting scrapers.

References

1. Robinhood CEO says companies shouldn’t get veto over stock tokens in AMC feud
2. The legal drama of imprisoned Sam Bankman-Fried is waiting on its last act
3. With Fed rate hike all but assured, here’s how markets might react
4. India’s richest state is exploring tokenizing its own assets to fund new infrastructure
5. Metaplanet cuts executive reward pool by 41%, extinguishes $⁠220 million in value
6. Zodia Custody CEO Julian Sawyer steps down, becomes adviser
7. Core CPI rose a faster-than-forecast 0.3% in August, setting up possible Fed rate hike
8. Rising yields, oil prices leave bitcoin vulnerable ahead of U.S. inflation report
9. Live updates: Bitcoin gives up early gains, with markets moving to price in multiple rate hikes
10. Bitcoin recovers toward $⁠77,300 as zcash leverage unwinds
11. A misalignment of AI in mathematics
12. Pandas Should Go Extinct
13. I spent $⁠220 on Google app ads and 60% of the installs were robots
14. A Design Space Exploration of Async/Await
15. Google no longer provides direct URLs in search results
16. OpenAI agents carried out an undisclosed attack on RubyGems
17. GrapheneOS’ rewritten Messages app is released
18. Mind-altering drugs played key role in rise of Andean civilization
19. Project Blinkenlights
20. Litelm: LiteLLM Without the Bloat
21. Here’s the inflation breakdown for August 2026 — in one chart
22. Saudi Arabia shut down East-West crude oil pipeline after multiple attacks by drones from Iraq
23. I went to Caracas for Venezuela’s new oil deals. Here’s what stood out
24. Dow rises 500 points to snap 4-day slide as oil cools, traders look past inflation report: Live updates
25. Dell stock jumps on RBC initiation, now up nearly 350% in 2026
26. This logistics company’s growth is hiding in its pipeline. Investors have a chance to be early to the upside
27. Dan Chung rebuilt a decimated Alger Management after ⁹⁄₁₁. He’s still finding the market’s winners
28. Election officials ban certain public workers from trading on prediction markets ahead of midterms
29. Arizona accuses L’Oreal of concealing cancer risks linked to hair relaxers
30. Tesla eyes European freight market with long-delayed Semi truck