Hong Kong is still healing from the trauma of the Wang Fuk Court fire that claimed 168 lives nearly a year ago. The difficult process has been taken a step further with the release of the final report of an independent committee of inquiry led by a High Court judge, and the response of the government, revealed on Thursday by the city’s leader and his administration. The concept of accountability has hung heavily over proceedings. It is only natural after such a catastrophe for people to expect...

Brazil has given Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a fourth, non-consecutive term, a feat without precedent in its democratic history. Lula came back from a first-round defeat to win 51.8 per cent of the run-off vote against Flavio Bolsonaro, son of the jailed former president. Yet the victory leaves Lula little room to manoeuvre. Opposition parties may yet control both chambers of Congress. Nearly half of Brazilians say the economy has worsened over the past year. Last year Washington threatened...

Hong Kong might have grown accustomed to treating seasonal influenza as a temporary inconvenience rather than a public health menace as the virus comes and goes every year. But with a lower vaccination uptake and a raging and longer-than-expected summer outbreak this year, the same business-as-usual response is hardly the right defence. Members of the public, especially high-risk groups, should waste no time coming forward for the jabs as local health authorities put the city on alert. Officials...