Two parallel tracks on Kyiv, a decree and a new virus

This afternoon’s lead story updates last night’s news: Kyiv struck by ballistic missiles and drones while, on the same day, diplomatic contacts continued in Saint Petersburg. The two tracks - the attack on the Ukrainian capital and the dialogue on a possible negotiation - remain distinct and should be read as such: a bombing does not cancel an open channel of dialogue, and vice versa. The civilian casualty toll reported this morning is confirmed by afternoon sources.

On the domestic front, the decree approved by the Council of Ministers for haulers, agriculture and fishing comes to close - at least on paper - the matter of the road blockades in Southern Italy that this morning’s edition was still following as ongoing. The fuel allocation is a verifiable fact in the Palazzo Chigi statement; on the technical details of the measure we do not yet have a source independent of the government, and we state this in the piece.

In France, Macron chooses the path of a clear distinction between unions and non-union groups for Saturday’s demonstrations: a measure that responds directly to last weekend’s clashes, not covered in this morning’s edition.

The rest of the day moves on different registers: Tesla’s accounts confirm a quarter of flat revenues and sharply declining profit, consistent with already known tensions over margins in the electric car sector; a Roman amphora resurfaced at Punta Chiappa enriches the picture of Ligurian underwater archaeology; the agreement between OpenAI and Google Cloud redraws the balance among major infrastructure providers for artificial intelligence. The Health section closes with the world’s first human case of Shamonda virus, confirmed in France and certified by the ECDC: a piece of epidemiological surveillance news, not a widespread alarm, and we treat it within the strict limits the section requires.

A piece on the flooding in the Valencian Community did not make it through production for this edition: the News section remains covered by the article published this morning, which readers will find in its place.

For Cinema & Entertainment, Culture, Foreign Affairs & Geopolitics, Europe, Italy, Health as a whole, Sport and Tech & AI beyond today’s piece, the articles published at 6:30 AM stand: they have not been updated this afternoon and remain the reference pieces. The next edition is out tomorrow morning at 6:30.