Hormuz, spread, France: three fronts moving together

The day closes with two fronts that were set this morning and moved in the afternoon. In the Strait of Hormuz a supertanker was struck, while the Houthis claim a separate attack on Sana’a: the newspaper treats them as two distinct events of the same regional conflict, not as a coordinated action, because the sources do not establish a direct causal link between the two episodes. This is an aggravation of the picture of U.S. military reinforcement in the Gulf already reported this morning, not a turning point: the caution in keeping the two episodes separate also applies to upcoming editions.

On the economic front, the Btp-Bund spread exceeded 130 basis points with the Italian ten-year at 4.67%: an upward update, not a correction, which confirms the reading already given this morning on the contagion of French debt toward Rome. The movement fits into the flight toward German Bunds and the record yields of France and the United Kingdom, though the sources do not specify the exact value.

The afternoon updated eight pieces: the lead story on Hormuz, the analysis on the spread, the one on the Covid variants monitored by the WHO, today’s general strike, the three Italian archaeological discoveries, the bad weather between France, Sicily and Greece, the Nations League with Italy expected this evening in Saint-Denis after Germany’s 2-0 win over Serbia, the electoral law after today’s vote on the preliminary objections in the Chamber, and Siegmund’s candidacy in Saxony-Anhalt. There are also the Daily Briefs.

For everything else, the 6.30 edition remains valid, still published: Cinema & Entertainment, News, Culture, Economy and Markets (aside from the spread update), Foreign Affairs and Geopolitics, Europe, Italy, Health, Sport and Tech & AI remain with this morning’s pieces. Two developments expected to be in the works — on closed schools in France and on researchers leaving OpenAI — did not find sufficient elements for an independent update in the afternoon: the two sections, Europe and Tech, remain covered by the pieces already published this morning, which the reader can find there.

On the electoral law, the schedule written on September 17 holds: the Chamber rejected the preliminary objections, the final vote is set for October 8. On the Hormuz-Yemen affair and on the spread, the next useful edition is tomorrow’s at 6.30.