CL A London court has convicted two Hong Kong men of acting as Chinese intelligence agents, and Beijing's official condemnation arrived before the day was out. Both the verdict and the response are the kind of news this city processes in a particular register, knowing the territory is not incidental to the story. The men's families are living that proximity without a statement to anchor it.-- CL

MB A court ruling tariffs unlawful, a military strike in the Strait of Hormuz, and a three-day ceasefire announced by press release: the common thread is an administration that has decided institutional constraints are negotiating positions. This is not new behaviour for any large state; what is new is the speed at which the gap between declared framework and actual practice has become visible.-- MB