Many of you will have woken up to our extensive coverage of the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office over his links to Jeffrey Epstein and concerns that he leaked confidential government documents.
The news junkies among you will have spotted reports of the arrest as it broke on Thursday evening, when our world team and overnight homepage producers quickly swung into action, producing a live blog, a “trunk” news story, some quick analysis from Europe correspondent David Crowe, and a what you need to know article that hopefully answers all your key questions.
With events such as this, we really see the benefit of being a 24-hour news organisation, with journalists based in the US and UK ensuring subscribers wake up to the latest comprehensive coverage of events.
As our former chief political correspondent in Canberra, Crowe has extensive experience in covering big political crises – and his expertise in distilling the key facts of a story and providing balanced and insightful analysis while others are still scrambling to catch up makes him the best in the business.
The royal family has quickly moved to try to cauterise any damage to the institution from Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest, with King Charles saying the “law must take its course”, and confirming that authorities have “our full and wholehearted support and co-operation”. The sight of the King attending a fashion show as Mountbatten-Windsor was being driven from a police station in the back of a car was both confronting and surreal.
The impact and fallout from this arrest will be a significant news event that will take weeks, months and maybe even years to come to terms with – and it’s a story you can be reassured we will stay on top of.
It has been a busy time for our world desk, who have been closely monitoring the build-up of US weapons in the Middle East over past days as President Donald Trump threatens Iran over the future of its nuclear program. Despite Trump giving Iran a 10-day deadline to abandon its ambitions to have nuclear weapons or face military strikes, experts say a move could happen any time from this weekend. So watch this space.
Before the news of Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest broke last night, I had intended to write to you about yet another of Pauline Hanson’s extraordinary outbursts this week about Muslims in general, and Lakemba in particular.
The Queensland senator began the week with an interview in which she asked, “How can you tell me there are good Muslims?”
Then she doubled down on Wednesday, singling out Lakemba when pressed to name parts of the country people “can’t go into” without feeling unwelcome or unsafe.
These comments are offensive, dangerous, ignorant and clearly wrong. So, should we have ignored them, as some of our readers have suggested? I don’t think this is really an option, as Hanson is a public figure of some importance, with the Herald’s latest opinion poll showing the party has drawn level with the Coalition.
Our Canberra bureau noted that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese labelled the remarks “disgraceful”, but we decided it would be worthwhile asking the people of Lakemba what they thought. Patrick Begley visited the suburb on Thursday with photographer Sam Mooy, where visitors and residents alike, including local pharmacist Fatma Youssef (pictured below), provided a big thumbs down for Hanson’s comments, plus a positive assessment of a suburb that will be jammed with visitors and locals happily mixing on the streets during the Ramadan night markets this weekend and beyond.
Hopefully, that’s enough said on that topic, and we can all move on to more positive and constructive debates that will build a better and more unified Australia.
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