CL Zac Purton has become the first jockey in Hong Kong to ride 2,000 winners, a milestone that lands differently here than it would anywhere else. Racing in this city is not peripheral; it crosses class and generation, and the men who master it at scale become part of the city's own record. Purton has been here long enough to know that.-- CL

MB The US and Iran are trading strikes and conducting peace talks in the same week, which is less contradictory than it sounds: both are pressure instruments, not separate tracks. Iran's president has resigned while the military claims 20 American bases hit, which means the civilian and security establishments are no longer describing the same war. Netanyahu has meanwhile reopened Beirut, in case anyone thought the frame was narrowing.-- MB