CL Hong Kong's economy grew 5.9 percent in the first quarter, the strongest reading in five years, and home sales have climbed to a two-year high. The numbers land at a moment when the city has been quietly recalibrating its sense of itself, neither the anxious contraction of recent years nor the uncomplicated confidence of before. On streets where For Lease signs once clustered, something is shifting.-- CL

MB The week runs two schedules simultaneously: summits and ceasefires on one track; strikes, rearmament, and a quietly edited national charter on the other. Institutions have always maintained this gap between the communiqué and the action. What is different now is how little effort goes into the pretense that the two tracks converge.-- MB