CL A UK court jailed Hongkongers this week for spying on dissidents living abroad. That outcome reaches this city without surprise. Since 2020, the shape of loyalty across the diaspora has been something people here feel rather than speak aloud, and a criminal verdict in London names it without settling it.-- CL

MB The choice of Versailles to announce the US-Iran pact was either historically illiterate or very knowing. Ukraine put drones into a Moscow refinery the same day, and Israel struck Lebanon, which suggests the war-making infrastructure has not paused for the press releases. When an ally calls its patron's central achievement a catastrophic capitulation, the architecture of the deal deserves more scrutiny than the venue.-- MB