THE TRAILBLAZER

Bowing to tens of thousands protesting for the past week, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has indefinitely suspended a proposed extradition law that potentially allowed China’s central government to arrest people in its semi-autonomous territory. While insisting that the law would improve security, Lam said she was “heartbroken” and urged the restoration of “calmness in society” and defended police action against demonstrators. With leaders of the 2014 Umbrella Movement jailed or exiled, protesters organized organically, such that supplies, medical care and communication is arranged virally, to the point where a protester touching her head quickly received a helmet.

Four years after his now-famous entrance down a Trump Tower escalator, President Trump will do it again Tuesday in Orlando, Florida: launch his 2020 presidential campaign. But nobody thinks it’s a lark, and Democrats plan a rebuttal.

On Thursday, two oil tankers bound for Asia from the Persian Gulf were crippled by explosions in the Gulf of Oman. After that, the facts aren’t so certain, with America offering a video it says shows Iranians removing a probable limpet mine from the side of one tanker to conceal evidence of their involvement. “You know they did it because you saw the boat,” insisted President Donald Trump. Media reports also indicate Iran may have detained crew members.