CL The finding that safety checks were not carried out before the Tai Po blaze lands not as a bureaucratic footnote but as a quiet accusation settling over a neighbourhood still in grief. For the families, the question was never whether something went wrong. They were waiting to learn who was supposed to be watching.-- CL

MB Washington declared the offensive phase of the Iran confrontation finished on Wednesday, while Iranian missiles were still striking UAE oil infrastructure and the dollar was sitting at pre-war lows. The political statement came not after the shooting stopped, but while it was ongoing. Institutions do not announce the end of crises because they have ended; they announce it because the announcement is the policy.-- MB