CL Hong Kong's legislature is moving to codify what was already implied: the Chief Executive may designate any criminal case a national security matter, routing it through a separate legal channel. The government calls this a clarification rather than an extension. In a city where legal language is read closely, what gets called a clarification always invites a second reading.-- CL

MB Hong Kong's legislature passed laws to clarify the scope of security offences on the same day the chief executive gained authority to label any crime a national security matter. Clarification, in institutional practice, is one of the more reliable methods of expansion. Meanwhile markets fall, ceasefires totter, and the day's shape is the usual one: more official paperwork than resolution.-- MB