LONDON, Aug. 26 -- The pump did not get the memo. Crude oil price today, Tuesday, August 25, 2026, ended with Brent near $87.12 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate at $82.36, a second straight fall from Monday's close of $92.17 and $85.01, and yet the American national average for diesel this morning is $5.620 a gallon, fifteen cents dearer than it was a week ago.

Brent is now $7.27 below where it closed on Friday, a drop of 7.7 per cent. All of it arrived in the two sessions after Washington declared what it called an economic D-Day on Iran. That sequence is backwards, and untangling it is the whole of the session.

Two things pushed crude down, and they pull in the same direction. The sanctions Treasury unveiled on Monday set no deadl...