The Ets Knot Unravels at Night, Markets Recover by Day

The European Council, which this morning appeared stuck on the energy dossier, reached an agreement overnight: the Ets2 knot, at the center of the clash between the Visegrad group — backed by Italy and Greece — and the rest of the Twenty-Seven, was unblocked by tasking the Commission with updating the measure’s impact assessment. This is the opening piece of this edition, and it updates the account of a summit that was still open this morning.

At the same summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked for more military and financial support while, according to what was reported to CNN, Ukraine’s stocks of Patriot missiles are reportedly exhausted: a detail that worsens the picture of Kyiv’s air defense reported in recent days.

On the markets, the recovery is clear. The Asian tech rout flagged this morning — with the Nikkei close to -5% — has given way to a rebound: Tokyo closed up 1.39%, Seoul up 2.05% with Samsung at 8.69%. Piazza Affari gained 1%, driven by defense and luxury, with Brunello Cucinelli leading at 6.14%. This morning’s reading — a black day for AI-linked stocks — holds, but it has not turned into a trend: the correction was absorbed within twenty-four hours.

In Italy, the day of student mobilization saw moments of tension in Turin, with charges and water cannons after a group of masked protesters broke away from the march, and incidents in front of the ministry in Rome.

On the international front, the Istanbul flood now has a more precise toll: three dead and six missing, according to Turkish authorities, with 273 millimeters of rain falling in a few hours and more than three thousand people rescued.

Two pieces round out the update: the WHO bulletin on lead poisoning, which the organization links to more than 3.5 million deaths a year — a figure so far from a single source, without independent confirmation — and the convergence of three initiatives on artificial intelligence safety, including DeepMind’s report on Gemini 4 Argon, which is likewise a party position not yet verified by third parties.

Cinema & Entertainment, Culture, Italy and Sports remain as published this morning: no updates on these fronts in the afternoon. Today’s edition closes here: the next one is out tomorrow at 6:30 AM.