1504 ET – Oil futures end the session little changed as the market sees the U.S.-Iran conflict going on for longer with this week’s resumption of military strikes. “Iran is trying to constrain the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. is trying to open it,” says Simon Wong, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds. “There’s a dispute about how much oil is coming out, but I don’t think Iran wants to let that card go because that’s all the leverage they have at this point.” WTI for October delivery rises 0.3%, to $91.30 a barrel, in a fourth consecutive gain. Front-month Brent for November delivery slips 0.1%, to $95.52 a barrel, snapping a three-session winning streak. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)

Oil Extends Rally With Iran Conflict Seen Dragging On

0855 ET – The rise in oil prices stretches into a fourth day with the resumption of fighting in the Middle East rekindling concerns about tight global supplies for longer. “Some measure of comfort had gradually been developing as increased ships were reportedly exiting the Strait of Hormuz,” Ritterbusch & Associates says in a note. But with a diplomatic solution seen far off “it is safe to say that there is no end in sight to this quagmire that is likely to keep petroleum prices much elevated through the end of this year.” WTI is up 1.6% at $92.46 a barrel, and Brent gains 1.1% to $96.65 a barrel. (anthony.harrup@wsj.com)

After foreign currency non-resident (bank) or FCNR(B) scheme closed in August with a bumper accretion of more than $127 billion, Jefferies said small private banks and NBFCs will benefit more while noting that the overall banking sector may see an earnings boost to the tune of Rs 10,000-11,000 crore.The bumper collections have taken the total inflows from such special schemes so far to $136.4 billion, according to provisional data released by the RBI. The scheme was launched in June to boost dollar inflows and strengthen foreign exchange reserves, allowing banks to swap eligible overseas borrowings with the central bank at concessional rates, significantly lowering their cost of funds.

While fortnightly data on credit growth won’t change much as it captures domestic credit, Jefferies noted that banks’ balance sheet credit growth can improve by 3-4 ppt as it captures the leverage provided by banks from foreign branches. For the banking sector, Jefferies expects domestic credit growth to moderate from 18% now to 15% by March 2027 as base resets in December 2026 and supply from bonds and ECB normalise.

The strong FCNR(B) inflows meanwhile can lift deposit growth from 12% pre FCNR-B to 17% (currently at 15%), Jefferies said, adding that it expects slight normalisation by the end of March 2027 to 16%. Fortnightly LDR data meanwhile will likely fall from 83% pre-FCNR-B to 80% (82% now), the international brokerage said.

What happens to banks’ margins?
Net interest margins (NIM) for banks will likely fall in the second quarter due to a timing gap in the placement of banks’ fund-raising, Jefferies said in its latest report. It added that banks are likely to quantify the short-term non-recurring impact on NIMs in their earnings print for Q2. Structurally, FCNR-B is a lower NIM business due to the double-counting of deposits and assets, and the first leg makes a 10-15 bps spread, the analysts added.
While FCNR-B deposits dilute NIMs and return on assets (ROA), they are accretive to net interest income (NII) and return on equity (ROE), Jefferies said. In fact, it estimates that at the sector level, it may boost earnings by Rs10,000-11,000 crore, annually, which is 2% of PBT. “We feel it’s better to see from the lens of an incremental profit pool, instead of margins. We feel banks may be able to normalise margins over 2-4 quarters by reducing dependence on high cost wholesale deposits, reducing share G-Secs that is held towards LCR and lower share of low-margin overseas trade financing.
Also read | Explained: What $127 billion FCNR(B) inflows mean for ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, other bank stocks

Nomura says FCNR(B) scheme gives forex firepower to RBI

Nomura in its note said that the bumper finale to the FCNR(B) scheme has given the RBI ample foreign exchange reserves firepower, adding that the challenge now is how it will mop up the surplus liquidity. It expects this to boost the balance of payments surplus to $66 billion in FY27 from a deficit of $23.6 billion in FY26.

Motilal Oswal Financial Services meanwhile said that the record high FCNR(B) inflows have backed its estimates of a 150 bps increase in system credit growth to 15.5-16% for FY27. It noted that ICICI Bank mobilised $17.9 billion, capturing 14% market share of the total FCNR(B) inflows. SBI has garnered $9 billion a few days prior to the close and is expected to beat its $10 billion guidance. RBL Bank has added $3.4 billion, capturing 2.7% share, better than its deposit market share of nearly 0.5%.

“FIIs, who were on a selling spree before the FCNR(B) deposit scheme, have added net inflows of $4.8b in the last two months, while INR depreciation against USD has also stabilized,” Motilal noted. While net interest margins are expected to be under pressure in the near term on account of limited spread on the overseas leveraged portion of FCNR(B) deposits, the deployment of these deposits and an improving asset mix will drive faster balance sheet growth and support earnings, according to the domestic brokerage.

Also read | Which stocks should you buy ahead of the festive season? Here are Kotak Securities’ top 10 picks

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

TOKYO — Japanese physicians say the debate over popular weight-loss injections has been aimed at the wrong target. Stopping off-label prescriptions and black-market sales is necessary, they argue, but it will not prevent the most serious harm if people keep starving themselves while the drugs suppress appetite.

In an editorial published Aug. 26 in Diabetology International, researchers led by Wataru Ogawa of Kobe University wrote that “inappropriate use” of GLP-1 and dual GIP/GLP-1 medicines should be judged on two tracks at once: whether the drug was obtained legally, and whether the weight loss itself was medically safe.

“We argue that inappropriate use should be understood from two complementary perspectives: regulatory appropriateness and medical appropriateness,” they wrote. Medical appropriateness, they added, “encompasses not only drug-related risks but also the safety of weight reduction itself.”

The warning follows a cluster of Japanese hospital reports in which young women without type 2 diabetes developed ketosis or ketoacidosis after using tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound. The three patients cited in the editorial were 21, 21 and 23 years old. Two were not obese when they started the drug. The third began treatment with a body mass index of 30.2 and had already fallen to 21.9 by the time she was hospitalized. None of the reports documented nutritional counseling or ongoing medical supervision.

Two of the women were on the lowest weekly dose, 2.5 milligrams. The third had moved up to 5 milligrams after four weeks at the starting dose. One case involved deliberate carbohydrate restriction. In all three, the authors said, “inappropriate dietary restriction during weight-loss attempts may also have contributed.”

The distinction matters because GLP-1-based drugs are already known for nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation. Those gastrointestinal effects can quickly cut food intake. Combined with a crash diet, the result can be starvation metabolism: the body burns fat so fast that ketone acids accumulate in the blood. That pathway is different from classic diabetic ketoacidosis, and it can appear even when blood sugar is normal or only mildly high.

Published case reports fill in the clinical picture the editorial summarized. In one, a 21-year-old Japanese woman with obesity started weekly 2.5-milligram tirzepatide while restricting carbohydrates, lost 21 kilograms in a month, then arrived in an emergency department with hypoglycemia and severe metabolic acidosis after persistent vomiting. Intravenous glucose corrected the acidosis within 12 hours; she did not need insulin. In another, a 23-year-old woman who was not obese obtained 2.5-milligram tirzepatide from an aesthetic clinic, gave herself a second dose, and developed nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Tests showed high-anion-gap acidosis and sharply elevated ketone bodies. A third report described a 21-year-old who bought tirzepatide through an online service, dropped from 47 kilograms to 41 kilograms, and was later found to have anorexia nervosa after presenting with starvation ketosis.

Ogawa and colleagues said those events should not be dismissed as rare quirks of one molecule. Tirzepatide and related drugs cause weight loss mainly by reducing appetite. That happens whether the prescription is on-label for obesity or type 2 diabetes, off-label for cosmetic slimming, or obtained through an unofficial channel. The authors wrote that many of the worst metabolic complications “may reflect unsafe weight-loss practices rather than the intrinsic pharmacological toxicity of the drug,” while adding that drug toxicity remains a separate concern.

Japan’s reimbursement rules help explain why diversion has become a political issue. Wegovy, a semaglutide product approved for obesity, and Zepbound, tirzepatide approved for obesity, are covered only at specialized institutions and only after a structured six-month lifestyle program. Mounjaro contains the same tirzepatide molecule but is reimbursed for type 2 diabetes without those obesity-program gates. Japanese media have reported illegal resale of insured Mounjaro to people seeking cosmetic weight loss. The Health Ministry issued a notice in mid-June on improper off-label use of GLP-1 drugs for dieting and has said it is weighing tighter guidance with the bureau that oversees medical practice.

The editorial’s larger claim is that a compliance crackdown will not be enough. “Current efforts to promote the appropriate use of GLP-1-based medications have largely focused on regulatory compliance related to off-label prescribing and illegal acquisition,” the authors wrote. Messages that simply tell people not to use the drugs off-label, they said, “are unlikely to curb inappropriate use.”

What they want instead is a shift in how success is defined. “We propose that the discussion surrounding GLP-1-based therapies should move beyond appropriate drug use toward appropriate weight reduction,” they wrote, “regardless of whether weight loss is pursued to improve obesity-related health conditions or for cosmetic purposes.”

That standard includes realistic targets, enough protein and calories to avoid undernutrition, and monitoring for the point at which further loss becomes harmful. The authors pointed to a recently proposed idea they call female underweight/undernutrition syndrome, a framework for the physical and psychological damage that can follow when women are driven below a healthy weight. Underweight, they noted, is itself a clinical problem, not a cosmetic victory.

The argument lands in a global market that has already outrun clinic capacity. GLP-1 and dual agonists have changed obesity care by producing large average weight losses and improvements in blood pressure, lipids and diabetes control. Demand has also produced compounded products, online questionnaires with little follow-up, social-media marketing aimed at people who do not meet obesity criteria, and a secondary trade in leftover pens.

International agencies have begun to describe the same pattern. In a July 30 statement, World Health Organization advisory committees said they were concerned about people obtaining GLP-1 medicines “outside approved indications and medical settings, including through online platforms,” especially those without obesity and without a prescription from a qualified clinician. The committees urged patients to use only authorized sources and to stay under medical follow-up. WHO’s own guidance on the drugs for adult obesity remains conditional and pairs medication with behavioral care.

Other research published this year has widened the safety file beyond Japan. An interim U.S. survey in JAMA Psychiatry found that among more than 400 people with eating disorders, about one in three reported having used a GLP-1 drug and about one in 10 reported misuse. A consensus statement from European obesity and dietetic groups warned that rapid loss, appetite collapse and gastrointestinal side effects can create nutritional and psychological risk even in supervised treatment. U.S. poison-center analyses have shown a sharp rise in calls after semaglutide’s weight-management approval, many of them dosing errors rather than intentional overdose.

None of that erases the drugs’ documented benefits when they are used as intended. It does change the question clinicians are being asked to answer. The Japanese editorial treats “How did you get the pen?” as incomplete. The better questions, the authors say, are how fast the weight is coming off, what the person is still eating, and whether anyone is watching for starvation chemistry.

“Whether pharmacological therapy is administered or not, weight reduction should be supported by appropriate nutritional counseling, careful monitoring, and ongoing medical supervision,” they wrote. In the end, they said, success “should be judged not only by the amount of weight lost, but by how safely and appropriately such loss is achieved.”

TUPPER LAKE, N.Y. — Spain’s decision to commit up to 2 billion euros toward Europe’s Iris2 satellite constellation was directly motivated by concerns over Elon Musk’s dominant position in global satellite communications, according to Spanish Science and Innovation Minister Diana Morant, who oversees the country’s space sector.

Morant said Musk’s control over roughly two-thirds of all satellites currently operating in orbit, largely through his company SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network, factored significantly into Spain’s calculus when the government finalized its major investment in Iris2, Europe’s answer to Starlink, according to reporting from Space Intel Report.

Spain formally committed to spending up to 2 billion euros, or approximately $2.3 billion, into the Iris2 multi-orbit constellation in late July, when Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the investment as part of the country’s broader Multi-orbit Satcom Special Modernization Program. The funding will support a national secure satellite broadband constellation that will ultimately be integrated into the wider European Iris2 network, while remaining under direct Spanish control.

Iris2, formally known as Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite, is being jointly managed by the European Commission and the SpaceRise consortium, a group of the continent’s leading satellite fleet operators, including SES, Eutelsat and HispaSat. The project represents Europe’s most significant effort to date to build an independent, secure satellite communications capability, reducing the bloc’s reliance on commercial providers such as SpaceX’s Starlink network for critical government, defense and emergency services communications.

Spain’s commitment marks the largest single national contribution to Iris2 announced so far among European Union member states, surpassing an earlier pledge of approximately 470 million euros, or roughly $536 million, from Poland, which is funding six dedicated satellites for the constellation’s medium-Earth-orbit layer and six more for its larger low-Earth-orbit shell.

The overall Iris2 program carries a total planned cost exceeding 15.6 billion euros, or roughly $18 billion, according to figures from the European Commission and industry reporting. The funding structure combines 11.6 billion euros in public investment from the European Commission and the European Space Agency with up to 4 billion euros contributed collectively by the three SpaceRise consortium members. The full constellation is designed to include 330 new satellites in low Earth orbit alongside 12 additional satellites in medium Earth orbit, with initial services expected to begin in 2030 following the program’s first satellite launches in 2029.

Spain’s own national contribution to the broader effort will fund a sovereign satellite communications capability comprising satellites operating across both low and medium Earth orbit, according to details of the Spanish Defense Ministry’s budget disclosure accompanying the announcement. That national system is designed to remain fully compatible with the broader Iris2 architecture while staying under direct Spanish governmental control, reflecting a broader European push toward what officials have described as sovereign satellite capabilities independent of any single foreign commercial provider.

HispaSat, part of Spain’s Indra Group, has separately been selected as the prime contractor for the ground segment of the broader Iris2 program, a role valued at more than 1.6 billion euros covering antenna infrastructure, control systems and land-based network connectivity across the constellation’s various orbital layers. That selection makes Indra the first Spanish company to secure a lead contractor role within the broader European program, further underscoring Spain’s growing stake in the project beyond its direct national funding commitment.

Musk’s Starlink network has grown rapidly since its initial launches, now comprising thousands of satellites providing broadband internet service across much of the globe, including regions with limited access to traditional terrestrial internet infrastructure. That scale has made Starlink the dominant player in the emerging low-Earth-orbit satellite broadband market, a position European officials have increasingly cited as a strategic vulnerability given the network’s status as a commercial asset controlled by a single American entrepreneur rather than a sovereign or multilateral European entity.

Concerns over reliance on Starlink for critical infrastructure have intensified across Europe in recent years, particularly in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, where Starlink terminals have played a significant role in maintaining military and civilian communications. That dependency has fueled broader European interest in developing independent satellite communications capabilities less exposed to decisions made by a foreign commercial operator, a dynamic that has featured prominently in policy discussions surrounding Iris2’s development.

European telecommunications companies have signaled a similarly cautious stance toward relying on Iris2 itself absent competitive terms. Telecom operators Orange and Deutsche Telekom have previously indicated they would only purchase capacity on the Iris2 constellation if the network’s offerings proved competitive with existing commercial alternatives, reflecting broader industry skepticism about whether a government-backed constellation can match the cost and performance benchmarks already established by Starlink’s commercial network.

Morant’s comments came during remarks at industry gathering in Tupper Lake, New York, where Space Intel Report covers ongoing developments across the global satellite and space industry. Her characterization of Musk’s satellite dominance as a motivating factor behind Spain’s Iris2 commitment reflects a broader pattern among European officials who have increasingly framed satellite communications sovereignty as a matter of national and continental security, rather than purely a commercial or technological consideration.

Spain’s investment adds to a growing list of national contributions to Iris2 from individual European Union member states, building on the underlying public-private partnership structure established between the European Commission, the European Space Agency and the SpaceRise consortium. With initial satellite launches still several years away and full operational capability not expected until 2030, the program remains in a relatively early phase of implementation, even as individual countries including Spain and Poland continue announcing substantial national funding commitments tied to the broader constellation.

As Iris2 continues moving through its development phase, with major manufacturing and launch contracts still being finalized among consortium members and their industrial partners, European officials are likely to continue emphasizing the strategic rationale behind the program, framing it explicitly against the backdrop of Starlink’s continued global dominance in the satellite broadband sector under Musk’s ownership through SpaceX.

Diesel hit a record price in the U.S. on Friday, soaring to an average of $5.85 a gallon for the first time as the six-month war with Iran disrupts the world’s flow of fuel.

Because diesel is used for many freight and delivery networks, higher diesel prices mean higher transportation costs for a long list of everyday goods.

This could add to Republicans’ political challenges ahead of November’s midterm elections, with voters already sour on President Donald Trump’s management of the economy. AP-NORC polling this summer showed 2 out of 3 U.S. adults disapproved of how Trump is handling the economy.

More expensive fuel is increasing bills for businesses across sectors – some of which have already passed on costs to consumers in the form of added fees on online orders and packages in the mail. And shoppers may see more and more sticker shock trickle down to store shelves.

One of the most immediate strains is being felt in the grocery aisle, particularly with produce, meat and other perishable foods that need to be hauled in and restocked frequently – or even harvested using diesel-powered farm equipment. It can take time for all of those costs to trickle down.

Still, experts warn that price hikes could mount the longer diesel remains expensive. A range of other products are also transported by diesel trucks, trains and boats, including clothing, cosmetics, furniture and more.
The price for regular gasoline has also been going up, although not as fast as the price of diesel. The average price was $4.15 a gallon, compared with $3.20 at this time last year, according to AAA, which says gas has never been above $4 a gallon on Labor Day.What’s driving the latest jump for diesel

Before the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran in late February, the national average for a gallon of diesel was about $3.76 in the U.S., per AAA. Prices quickly climbed as the cost of crude oil – the main ingredient in diesel, as well as gasoline – soared amid supply chain disruptions and production cuts across the Middle East, notably with most tanker traffic bottlenecked in the key Strait of Hormuz.

Despite prices cooling some during hopes for peace earlier in the summer, oil has now renewed its climb as fighting once more escalates between the U.S. and Iran. Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at more than $95 a barrel Friday, up from roughly $70 before the war. Prices at the pump always follow closely behind.

The last time U.S. businesses and drivers saw sky-high fuel prices was in June 2022, when diesel reached as high as nearly $5.82 a gallon on average, months after the Ukraine war began and world leaders imposed sanctions against Russia, a leading oil producer.

When adjusted for inflation, however, prices have been higher in the past. Ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, for example, diesel peaked at about $4.74 a gallon – equivalent to $7.20 in 2026, according to the government’s latest data. And 2022’s record of nearly $5.82 would be about $6.56 this year when accounting for inflation.

That doesn’t take the pain away from today’s steep prices, which are already bringing ripple effects for the economy and wider costs of living. Drivers are feeling the pain each time they fill up gasoline, too.

The average $4.15 for a gallon of regular unleaded is up from $2.98 before the Iran war, although still well below the 2022 peak of nearly $5.02 a gallon nationwide.

Diesel has been more expensive than gasoline for decades, and its price has risen at a faster pace during recent energy crises. Some reasons include tighter supply, less flexibility in demand, and diesel’s position in global commerce overall. Individual households may find ways to drive less when gas prices are high, for example, but there’s fewer immediate substitutes for networks that rely on diesel to help produce and haul goods worldwide.

All eyes on food

Diesel is integral to every part of the food supply chain. It powers farm equipment and fishing boats as well as the trains and trucks that get food to grocery stores.

Fuel accounts for roughly 15% to 30% of the total cost of food, according to the Independent Grocers Alliance, a grouping of 7,500 global supermarkets. Because of this, higher diesel costs often result in more expensive food, although it can take a while for energy shocks to wind their way through the supply chain.

Items that need to stay refrigerated while they’re transported are often the first to see prices rise, according to David Ortega, a professor of food economics and policy at Michigan State University. In July, for example, overall U.S. grocery prices were up 2.7% compared to last July, but seafood prices were up 7% and fresh fruit prices were up 4.9%.

Ortega cautioned that there can be other factors at play when food prices go up or down. Lettuce also faced higher transportation costs in July, but a drop in demand due to the cyclospora outbreak caused prices to fall.

Still, consumers could feel more of a squeeze the longer diesel prices remain high.

“Early on, much of the cost increase gets absorbed along the supply chain through existing freight contracts and retailer margins,” Ortega said. “But as contracts reprice and fuel surcharges take hold, more of that cost makes its way to the grocery store.”

More fuel shocks

Back in April, e-commerce giant Amazon rolled out a temporary 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on some third-party sellers. And United Parcel Service, FedEx and the United States Postal Service also moved to add fees on some of the packages they ship earlier in the war, citing rising operational costs for fuel overall.

Ajesh Kapoor, CEO and founder of trucking technology company SemiCab, said trucking and transportation can adapt to rising diesel prices – but at some point there is a limit.

“Diesel price has a very, very direct impact on everything that moves on pretty much any mode,” Kapoor said.

The ramifications extend beyond the movement of consumer goods. Some public transit buses and trains also run on diesel – and diesel generators are often used for backup or emergency power, if not central electricity sources in some remote parts of the world.

Experts warn that the consequences could continue to deepen – particularly in countries in Africa and Asia, which rely more heavily on imports from the Middle East and have already been hit the hardest by energy shocks over the course of the war.

Neil Atkinson, energy analyst and senior fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics, said refined oil products like diesel are becoming more expensive as supplies get stretched.

“This is gradually becoming a major crisis because A) the prices themselves are very high – but the physical stocks of these products are dwindling,” he said in a weekly briefing with maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence, pointing to the strain on the global refining system. “This cannot go on forever.”

Associated Press writers Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit, Mae Anderson in New York and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Consumers weighing whether to buy Samsung’s newly released Galaxy Z Fold 8 or hold out for Apple’s long-anticipated first foldable iPhone face a decision complicated by an unusual asymmetry: one device is already on the market with confirmed specifications and pricing, while the other remains an unreleased product built almost entirely on leaks and analyst projections ahead of its expected Sept. 9 unveiling.

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 lineup launched Aug. 7 following its formal reveal at Galaxy Unpacked on July 22 in London. The standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 starts at $1,899 and features a notably different design than its predecessor, adopting a shorter, wider form factor with a 5.5-inch external cover display and a 7.6-inch internal display when unfolded. For buyers seeking a more direct successor to last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 7, Samsung also released the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which starts at $2,099 and retains a thinner, taller design philosophy alongside more premium specifications, including an 8-inch internal display, a triple rear camera system, a 5,000 milliamp-hour battery, 12 gigabytes of RAM and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset running Samsung’s One UI 9 software atop Android 17.

Apple, by contrast, has not yet officially confirmed the existence, name, specifications or pricing of its first foldable iPhone, expected to debut at the company’s Sept. 9 media event alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. Based on leaks and analyst reporting, the device is widely expected to carry the “iPhone Ultra” branding, though some outlets have also referred to it as the “iPhone Fold.”

On pricing, multiple research firms have converged on broadly similar, though not identical, projections for Apple’s device. Research firm IDC has projected an average selling price of approximately $2,550 for the foldable iPhone, with higher-storage configurations potentially reaching $3,000. Taiwanese research firm TrendForce has separately estimated a U.S. starting price between $2,099 and $2,299, with top-tier storage configurations similarly capable of exceeding the $3,000 mark. Either projection would place Apple’s foldable well above the pricing of Samsung’s standard Galaxy Z Fold 8, and roughly in line with, or somewhat above, the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s $2,099 starting price.

On design and display size, leaked specifications point to Apple’s foldable featuring a 7.8-inch inner display alongside a 5.5-inch external cover display, dimensions broadly comparable to Samsung’s standard Galaxy Z Fold 8, which offers a 7.6-inch inner display and matching 5.5-inch cover screen. Where the two devices are expected to diverge more significantly is in biometric authentication: Apple’s foldable is rumored to abandon Face ID in favor of Touch ID, reportedly due to space constraints created by the foldable design, a notable departure from the Face ID system used across the rest of Apple’s current iPhone lineup. Samsung’s Z Fold 8 devices, by comparison, continue to rely on a combination of fingerprint and facial recognition options consistent with the broader Galaxy lineup.

On processing hardware, Apple’s foldable is expected to include the company’s new A20 chip alongside its in-house C2 modem, aligning it technically with the broader iPhone 18 generation despite its distinct form factor. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, a chipset built specifically for Android’s current generation of flagship devices, while the standard Z Fold 8 is expected to use comparable, if not identical, silicon given its release alongside the Ultra variant.

Software represents another significant point of differentiation for buyers to weigh. Samsung’s foldables run Android 17 with the company’s One UI 9 software layered on top, offering deep multitasking features, an S Pen-compatible design in some configurations, and Samsung’s own suite of productivity tools optimized for the larger internal display. Apple’s foldable would run iOS, giving buyers access to Apple’s ecosystem of apps, services and cross-device integration with other Apple products such as the Mac, iPad and Apple Watch, a consideration that often weighs heavily for consumers already invested in one company’s broader hardware and software ecosystem.

Given that Apple’s device remains unreleased and unconfirmed in nearly every technical respect beyond leaked reporting, a definitive head-to-head buying recommendation is premature at this stage. Consumers who need a foldable device today, or who are deeply invested in Google’s Android ecosystem, have a confirmed, available option in Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 lineup, which offers a choice between the more compact, wide-format standard model and the taller, more premium Ultra variant. Buyers committed to Apple’s iOS ecosystem, or those willing to wait for additional details and independent reviews, will need to wait until after Apple’s Sept. 9 event, and likely several additional weeks beyond that for hands-on reviews, before a fully informed comparison becomes possible.

Cost remains a significant consideration regardless of which ecosystem a buyer prefers. Even under the most conservative pricing estimates currently circulating, Apple’s foldable iPhone is expected to launch at a price point matching or exceeding Samsung’s most expensive current foldable option, the Z Fold 8 Ultra, and could climb considerably higher for buyers seeking maximum storage configurations. That pricing structure suggests Apple’s entry into the foldable category will function as an ultra-premium flagship offering rather than a direct, budget-competitive alternative to Samsung’s existing lineup.

For now, prospective buyers face a choice between a proven, already-shipping foldable device from Samsung with a well-established software ecosystem built around Android, and an unreleased, rumored Apple device that, based on current leaks, appears likely to command an even steeper price premium once it becomes available. Those prioritizing certainty and immediate availability may find the Galaxy Z Fold 8 the more practical choice today, while those deeply committed to Apple’s ecosystem, or simply curious about the company’s first entry into the foldable category, will need to wait for confirmed details following the Sept. 9 unveiling before making a final purchasing decision.

Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson has blamed flight price rises on “foolish leaders” starting wars, in a thinly veiled reference to the US-Israel conflict with Iran.

Middle East tensions have choked the production and transportation of millions of barrels of oil, causing a surge in the price of car and jet fuels, which are made from oil.

In May, Virgin Atlantic added a fuel surcharge to ticket prices in response.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly defended the conflict as necessary for peace and security long-term.

However, Sir Richard said there was “no need” for the war.

“The Iran conflict was completely unnecessary. There was a nuclear agreement between Iran and the rest of the world that had been negotiated by President Obama and a lot of European people.

“It was working, so there was no need to rip it up… And this war has just resulted in much higher oil prices all over the world. And inflation has been one of the consequences.”

The BBC has contacted the White House for comment.

The European benchmark jet fuel price had been hovering around $800 (£590) a tonne but spiked following the outbreak of the Iran war, reaching a peak of over $1,800 in April. It has since dropped to around $1,450.

Virgin Atlantic’s chief executive, Corneel Koster, told the BBC that for “this level of fuel price” fuel surcharges were “absolutely required”, adding that it’s “hard to be optimistic at this moment about the situation in the Middle East”.

The surcharge Virgin introduced added £50 to an economy class fare, £180 to premium and £360 to business class.