Watching with horror from London last week as flames ripped through seven adjacent apartment blocks in Hong Kong, it was impossible not to think back to the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017, which exposed major systemic failures around UK social housing and eventually led to law changes around safety and accountability for high-rise buildings.
The comparisons with Hong Kong were not just visually obvious but also because the semi-autonomous city’s worst fire in decades appears to have followed months of complaints from residents about shoddy materials used in building works.
Hong Kong is of course a very different place to London, with politicians facing less public accountability in a political climate that makes it much harder for citizens to express dissent. But, as anger rises, hard questions are nevertheless being asked of authorities amid accusations of negligence and corruption.
For our cover story this week, Helen Davidson and Shanshan Kao report on the devastating aftermath of the fire, which has killed at least 151 people at the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex, as public demand for accountability grows.
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Five essential reads in this week’s edition
The big story | Can Europe unite to tame Russia – without the US?
Washington’s Putin-appeasing plan for peace in Ukraine has failed, but many heard the death knell sound for European reliance on US protection, writes Patrick Wintour
Spotlight | If Rachel Reeves goes, will Keir Starmer fall with her?
British prime ministers rarely sack their chancellors – and when they do it almost inevitably leads to their own downfall. After last week’s budget, Starmer knows the same is true of him and Reeves, says Jessica Elgot
Feature | The dangerous rise of extremist Buddhism
Buddhism is still largely viewed as a peaceful philosophy – but across much of south-east Asia, the religion has been weaponised to serve nationalist goals. Sonia Faleiro investigates
Opinion | From the West Bank to Syria and Lebanon, Israel’s onslaught continues
Broken ceasefires, bombing, ground incursions and mounting deaths: Israeli imperialism is now expanding across the region, says Nesrine Malik
Culture | Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater: two men on the moon
As their 11th movie together, Blue Moon, is released, the actor and director tell Xan Brooks about musicals, the legacy of Philip Seymour Hoffman and what being bald and short does to your flirting skills
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What else we’ve been reading
• At the spritely age of 85 and despite having long been exiled from the airwaves, Cliff Richard has hit the road again on a new tour. To the passing observer, Sir Cliff’s enduring appeal is at best a mystery, and at worst an affront to taste. But that is to misunderstand him, as Michael Hann explains. Graham Snowdon, editor
• Like Patrick Marber, I cried at the end of Tom Stoppard’s final play, Leopoldstadt, but he knew the man as well the work and writes of how his “charmed” life and dramas – if they have a common thread – are all about the instability, chaos but also delight in the absurdity of life. Isobel Montgomery, deputy editor
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Other highlights from the Guardian website
• Audio | The women throwing off their hijabs in Tehran
• Video | It’s complicated: How the beauty industry still profits from colonialism
• Gallery | It’s the cavalry! The horsewomen of escaramuza
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