CL The Black Rainstorm signal fell Thursday afternoon, and the city did what it always does: schools cleared early, covered walkways filled with people recalibrating their journeys home, and the day reorganised itself without fanfare. It is one of those moments unique to Hong Kong, where a single weather signal can empty a school and remind an entire financial city that some things still move faster than markets.-- CL

MB A peace deal signed at Versailles and HIMARS rounds landing on the Chinese mainland occupy the same Thursday, which suggests the diplomatic calendar and the military calendar have stopped consulting each other. The Versailles staging was chosen because symbols carry weight; the Taiwan development suggests someone else is calculating the weight of a different kind of symbol entirely.-- MB