Misery at Heathrow: ‘Never Seen Chaos Like That’
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Apple joins foldable phone race with $1,999 passport-shaped iPhone Duo
CUPERTINO: Apple on Wednesday redefined its flagship smartphone with the launch of the Duo, a folding $1,999 iPhone, betting its design and promises of data privacy will let it leap ahead of rivals who have been selling folding phones for years.
The Duo could shake up a category long dominated by Samsung and Chinese companies like Huawei, whose devices have struggled to move beyond a niche audience. Analysts have long said Apple’s entry could be the catalyst foldables need, helping bring the form factor into the mainstream much as the company did with smartwatches and wireless earbuds.
The Duo is sized and shaped like a passport, with rounded edges. It opens into a horizontal, 7.6-inch-diagonal (19 cm) screen that also can be viewed vertically. There is a smaller single screen on the front, when the phone is folded. When open, it is Apple’s thinnest phone, the company said.
New CEO John Ternus led the event, the most noticeable overhaul of Apple’s flagship product since the iPhone X in 2017. The iPhone brought in $209.6 billion, or just over half of Apple’s sales, in its most recent fiscal year.
Also read: Apple launches faster Mac mini, Mac Studio to tap AI boom
Ternus criticized existing foldables as awkward and poorly suited for common tasks such as scrolling and video viewing, saying the Duo was designed to deliver an iPad-like experience in a pocket-sized device through a custom hinge, dual displays with a consistent aspect ratio, and a new titanium body.
“It’s entirely new and at the same time remarkably familiar. A similar size to your passport, it feels familiar to hold and comfortable to use with one hand,” Ternus said.
It will fall to Ternus, the previously low-profile hardware chief, to persuade Apple’s customers that they need a foldable device costing about $2,000, a new high for a global brand that has defined mass luxury. Analyst firms such as International Data Corporation expect Apple will sell every foldable iPhone it can produce and secure a 40% share of the lucrative niche by the end of next year.
Apple positioned the iPhone Duo as a business productivity device, showing how it would manage Zoom calls with multiple participants and a broader view of the Slack messaging app. The Duo’s larger screen will support multiple app windows at once, a move aimed at productivity that Apple has made with some of its iPads.
Apple said the iPhone Duo will feature the A20 Pro chip to drive its displays and also a new C2 modem chip designed by Apple, part of its move away from Qualcomm’s wireless data chips. Its battery supports 24 hours of mixed dual-screen use and can charge to 50% in about 20 minutes.
“Apple has created a new premium growth opportunity, opened up another revenue stream and injected fresh momentum into the iPhone business,“ PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore said. Shares were up less than 1% after the presentation.
Ternus emphasizes privacy focus
Former CEO Tim Cook handed over the leadership baton to Ternus at the start of the presentation with a video about how to start the event. The video ended with a closeup of Cook, who said, “Not me. That’s your guy,” pointing back toward the new CEO.
Ternus touted the iPhone platform as a personal AI hub that focused on privacy, saying that others wanted to collect and store personal data. “Honestly, trust only goes so far when your data is no longer yours to control,” he said. “That’s why Apple Intelligence runs on device whenever it can.”
Also read: Apple trains its own AI model for China market with Alibaba’s support, sources say
Apple’s Lilian Rincon, who oversees AI products for the iPhone maker and was recruited from Google earlier this year, described an updated Siri assistant.
Executives also showed off the iPhone 18 Pro and the 18 Pro Max handsets that are the latest versions of Apple’s well-known line, which do not fold. Pricing for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max starts at $1,199 and $1,299, up $100 from the starting prices of the 17 Pro and Pro Max.
Airpods and apple watch updates
Apple also unveiled a feature aimed at addressing growing concerns over AI-generated and manipulated images. It introduced a new standard it calls “Apple Reference Image” to prove the authenticity of the images taken with the new iPhone 18 Pro cameras and said it will also support the emerging SynthID standard for identifying images that have been created or edited with AI. The Apple Reference Image feature will not be available in the EU or China.
The iPhone 18 Pro also will include the new A20 Pro chip, which brings improvements to help advanced AI models run directly on iPhones.
The company also said a new version of AirPods would start at $129 with noise cancellation, a first for its budget line of earbuds, and the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, positioned as major health-focused upgrades with new features that gauge recovery and fitness, as well as improved heart-rate tracking.
10-year yields highest since 2023
Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields reached their highest levels since 2023 on Wednesday after the announcement of an enlarged Treasury buyback of longer-dated bonds disappointed some investors who had wanted more.
Yields retreated from their highs, however, after the Treasury saw very strong demand for a $39 billion sale of 10-year notes.
The U.S. Treasury Department said it will buy up to $6 billion in 10- to 20-year Treasury bonds during its buyback operation on Thursday, triple the size of its last long-dated operation.
“People thought the buyback was going to be larger than $6 billion. It was a disappointment so bond prices sank and yields rose,” said Tom di Galoma, managing director at Mischler Financial.
After a selloff that pushed 30-year yields to their highest level since 2007, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced in August that the government would increase buybacks of longer-dated bonds.
Very strong demand for a 10-year note auction then brought yields off this highs, with the debt selling at the highest yield since 2007.
Also read: US Treasuries: Ten-year yields end 2023 slightly higher
“The auction came at a historical high for 2026 and buyers showed up with very strong demand. The reason they showed up in a very large way is because tomorrow the Treasury is going to buy 10-year to 20-year paper. Investors may have thought it was a risk-free trade,” di Galoma said.
Treasury Department sold the 10-year notes at a high yield of 4.834%, more than a basis point below where they traded ahead of the auction. Demand was 2.71 times the amount of debt on offer, the highest since 2019.
The U.S. government already saw solid demand for its $58 billion sale of 3-year notes on Tuesday and will also sell $22 billion in 30-year bonds on Thursday.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes was last up 3.06 basis points at 4.835% after earlier reaching 4.8568%, the highest level since November 2023.
The 30-year bond yield rose 2.06 basis points to 5.2846% after touching its highest level since August 18.The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, rose 2.52 basis points to 4.423%, after earlier trading at 4.4316%, its highest level since July 2024.
A closely watched part of the U.S. Treasury yield curve measuring the gap between yields on two- and 10-year Treasury notes, seen as an indicator of economic expectations, was at a positive 41.0 basis points.
Meanwhile, oil prices breached $100 for the first time since July as the intensifying conflict in the Middle East heightened concerns about supply. The move came as investors waited for inflation data, which analysts say will be key to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision next week.
“The inflationary story is getting a little stickier, and that could cause the Fed to hike rates,” saidLawrence Gillum, chief fixed income strategist for LPL Financial in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
Fed policymakers meet next week
U.S. producer price and consumer price inflation reports are due to be released on Thursday and Friday, respectively. And analysts said the data will play a key role in whether the Fed hikes rates at its September 15-16 meeting.
Rising oil prices have reignited concerns that higher fuel costs will flow through to consumer inflation and add to inflation that is already running above the U.S. central bank’s 2% annual target.
Traders raised bets on a rate hike at the Fed’s meeting next week after the Labor Department reported on Friday that employers added far more positions than expected in August.
Fed funds futures traders are now pricing in about 60% odds of a rate hike next week.
Israeli missile strike hits near Lebanese reporter
An Israeli airstrike has struck near a Lebanese television journalist as he prepared to go live from southern Lebanon, amid renewed tensions between Israel and Hezbollah despite a June ceasefire.
A TV correspondent, Ali Chbib, was preparing for a live broadcast on Sunday, 6 September, 2026, in the town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa when an explosion occurred behind him.
Footage released by the broadcaster shows the journalist preparing to go live when an Israeli strike hit behind him.
According to reports, Chbib and cameraman Mohammad Berjawi were wounded in the incident.
Israeli strike comes despite a ceasefire agreed in June, which had sought to halt renewed fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
How Republicans and Democrats see their advantages in the midterms.
How Republicans and Democrats see their advantages in the midterms.
Spain Declassifies Warning to Morocco About Migrant Crossing Plans
Spain’s intelligence service had alerted Morocco about social media calls for a border exodus into Ceuta, which led to more than 100 deaths and a political crisis in Spain.
Petrol, diesel prices increased in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has issued a notification announcing an increase in the petrol price and diesel rate for one day, ARY News reported.
According to the notification, the petrol price has been increased by Rs3.40 per litre, taking the new petrol price to Rs367.75 per litre.
The diesel price has been increased by Rs6.72 per litre, with the new diesel price set at Rs392.67 per litre.
The revised petroleum product prices have been issued by OGRA.
Pakistan started daily reporting on petrol and diesel prices in July 2026, ditching the decades-old system of reporting every month, then 15 days and then every week, due to oil prices taking a dive and surging after the resurfacing conflict between Iran and America early in the year which threatened the Strait of Hormuz.
The government had switched to a 15-day reporting mechanism last March, later changing to weekly pricing before moving to a 7-day reporting. The OGRA now works on a seven-day moving average on global oil price reference – and revises prices on a daily basis. So now consumers will not have to wait 15 days or even a week for the revised price to kick in.
They say the objective behind the price revision is to further promote transparency in the system and bring it more in sync with market forces. The petroleum minister Ali Pervaiz Malik and information minister Attaullah Tarar were of the opinion that daily reporting would lead to more transparent system and ensure the prices change on the back of the changes in global price movements. OGRA now does not require the prior approval of the federal government for every revision in prices and it publishes the daily reference international prices on its website.
It was being treated by government sources as the last step in a gradual process of decontrol, on the lines of daily exchange rate movements, in the hope of reducing state intervention and state risk.
The government admits that the move would bring pain to consumers, but claims that the measure would ultimately strengthen the state and avoid financial crisis.
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Iran says ‘prohibited zone’ near Hormuz to cover parts of Gulf of Oman and beyond
Iran’s Guards said on Wednesday that a new “prohibited zone” outside the Strait of Hormuz would cover parts of the Gulf of Oman and beyond, adding that they would announce the exact coordinates later.
“It approximately starts from the direction of Chabahar, covering part of the Sea of Oman and another part of the Arabian Sea, along the route that can lead to the Strait of Hormuz,” Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi told state television.
“If a vessel enters that area without coordination, it will be subject to our sanctions… It means, for example, that if it later wants to come and use the Strait of Hormuz, if it wants to receive services somewhere, such as insurance or other related services, we will refrain from providing those services,” he added.
The announcement comes after Iran reported “significant progress” with Oman, both coastal states on Hormuz, in discussions of a temporary shipping route through the strait.
Iranian forces have restricted traffic through Hormuz, a vital energy conduit, since the start of the war with the United States on February 28. The US has imposed a counter-blockade on Iranian ports.
Tehran has required vessels to seek permission to transit, insisting there will be no return to the pre-war system of unrestricted navigation.
On Tuesday, Iranian forces said they have struck 10 vessels which attempted to cross Hormuz without coordination.
US President Donald Trump said in recent days that American forces have helped facilitate the passage of vessels through the strait, “averaging 30 ships a night”.
Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei said Sunday that the US tries each night to help five or six ships through, “and usually these ships get hit”.
During his interview on Wednesday, Mohebi said the war with the United States could end if Washington halts “renewed threats, withdraw the Israeli regime’s army from Lebanon and end the blockade of Yemen,” in reference to Saudi Arabia’s decade-long restrictions on ports and airports run by Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
He added the US should also “release $24 billion in Iran’s frozen assets, and refrain from any interference in the country’s nuclear and missile capabilities.”
