Understanding the world and our place in it

Please forgive the stilted nature of today’s note. My attempts to write it are being frequently interrupted by my irrepressible compulsion to constantly refresh The Age’s UK election blog.

As I write to you amid reports of Labour Party domination and Conservative demolition, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has just won its first seat. Over the coming hours, and by the time this note reaches your inbox, we should also know whether the surge of right-wing populism sweeping France has crossed the English Channel.

Keir Starmer - the new man in town.Credit: AP

As the clock ticks past 3am in London, a live feed from the electorate of Holborn and St Pancras is creating a particular distraction. It shows a surprisingly fresh-faced press pack awaiting the result in the seat held by Keir Starmer, the man set to become the UK’s next prime minister.

In the foreground, a media liaison worker gesticulates excitedly during an animated discussion with an older man obscuring the view due to his abnormally large hat and an outlandish outfit. He later joins Starmer and the other candidates on stage where he is identified as Nick the Flying Brick from the Official Monster Raving Looney Party – I think I got that right.

From the bizarre and trivial to the game-changing and significant, elections throw up all kinds of interesting stories. And although it was a shorter campaign than usual, this one started generating discussion from the moment it was announced in the pouring rain. Since that moment, our Europe correspondent Rob Harris has been on top of every development, providing insight and analysis tailored for The Age’s readers.

Harris always writes beautifully, but he set a particularly high standard for his election coverage with this opening line of analysis following a rain-soaked and protest-interrupted election announcement: “If George Orwell was correct when he wrote that every joke is a tiny revolution, then the widespread mockery of Rishi Sunak’s election announcement might be enough to overthrow him.”

Rishi Sunak’s rain-soaked election announcement invited an avalanche of mockery. Credit: PA

Readers of The Age and our sister publications are blessed to have such excellent correspondents posted abroad. We have four based overseas: Rob Harris in Europe, Farrah Tomazin in the United States, Lisa Visentin covering North Asia and Zach Hope in South-East Asia. Visentin and Hope are both based in Singapore. Others are dispatched on assignment when big news breaks.

Tomazin is preparing for an election in her part of the world, where she will keep you updated on every major development from her front-row seat to what has already been a momentous year in US politics. The fallout from the candidates’ debate and the recent Supreme Court decision granting Trump substantial immunity from prosecution, have been huge global stories already. And there’s still months to go in that campaign.

I have always been a world news tragic. When I started at The Age in 2019, I joined as world editor where I had the privilege of working with our foreign desk and stable of correspondents. I remember sending Bevan Shields, now editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, into Italy with hand sanitiser and a mask to tell Australians what that country’s efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak looked like on the ground. Little did we know Australians would not have to wonder about it for long.

I remember calling the fearless Kirsty Needham – one of the last Australian correspondents to be based in China – as she sidestepped tear gas canisters during the Hong Kong protests and avoided flames and projectiles during the Polytechnic university siege.

James Massola would then call me to discuss his latest interview with one of the towering and controversial figures of South-East Asian politics: Hun Sen, Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar Ibrahim, Joko Widodo. Then Matthew Knott would file an incisive piece of analysis from a little-known “flyover state” in what was then Donald Trump’s America.

As Islamic State’s influence in Syria receded and Turkey invaded from the north, we dispatched seasoned correspondents Michael Bachelard and Kate Geraghty, who managed to find the Australian women and children in detention behind the battle lines at the al-Hawl refugee camp.

Although my stint on the world desk was relatively brief, it was a fascinating time to be studying the world through the eyes of such excellent correspondents. I still struggle to properly articulate the depth of my admiration for the work they do, far from home and often under extremely challenging circumstances.

The work itself is hard enough. But one challenge that may not be apparent to many subscribers is the incredible logistical gymnastics involved in running a bureau or a foreign desk around the clock and across the calendar. There is no greater case study of these gymnastics than Lisa Visentin’s recent dash to the US-governed island of Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands, far to the east of the Philippines, to cover the court hearing that led to the release of Julian Assange.

Visentin tells the story of how she got there at short notice with humour and self-deprecation in this rollicking first-person piece: Mission improbable: My race to Saipan for a date with history. Spoiler alert: she made it in time – but only just.

In that piece Visentin rightly praises our excellent world editor, Nick Ralston, for his nous and quick thinking. Ralston’s colleagues on the world desk – Lia Timson, Chris Zappone and James Lemon – are also extremely knowledgeable editors who help make sure our subscribers stay informed about global events.

Our foreign correspondents deal with innumerable calculated risks, personal sacrifices and admin nightmares (try applying for a visa in a language you don’t speak). But they persevere because they – and the publications that employ them – value reporting that helps Australians understand their place in the world.

This reporting also involves large financial investments, but it is something The Age is proud to offer subscribers. And in strange times like these, understanding the world and our place in it is something we certainly need.

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