[olympus]

Right, but what they've said is "we've lost TM and it's going to deorbit sometime in the future. We'll watch it and keep you posted." Which is all well and good until you realize what they haven't said, and they've had more than a year to say it:

What they haven't said is "the reason it's going to deorbit at an unspecified time instead of an exact time is because we've lost control so we can't do a controlled reentry burn to have it splash harmlessly in the Pacific. So if it puts a few redhot hunks of ceramic through an apartment building there's nothing we can do. Sorry."

Everyone knows they've lost control, and it's not the first time a country has lost control of a satellite. But maybe they get some legal benefit out of not admitting the loss of control. Because otherwise they should confess, it's not like this is the first time a country has lost control of a satellite.