Full disclosure: I was once part of a chamber group which sang madrigals while Queen Elizabeth had lunch. Maybe it was the fact that they neglected to save any lunch for us which made me the republican I remain to this day, but – as fellow human beings – I can’t help sometimes feeling sorry for some of the family. This goes particularly for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who have taken what to my mind appears to be the eminently sensible decision to try to step away from the goldfish bowl which is the modern monarchy and forge a new path.

But whether the couple will be successful in their aim to exist half in and half out of the royal family is a tricky question for which there is no easy constitutional answer. It’s the age-old problem of what to do with the “spare” once the “heir” has produced children and the succession is secured. The first in line to the throne, Prince Charles, is said to want to streamline the British monarchy, so perhaps he’ll be grateful that his second son has made a helpful start on that project. The move could even reignite the republican debate, particularly in Australia which voted in a 1999 referendum to keep the monarchy but where polls show many people have changed their mind in the years since.

This week, as the Iran crisis raged, we also learned about the beauty and value of Iran’s amazing (and threatened) cultural heritage sites and got a glimpse inside the rarified world inhabited by India’s super-rich women.

And as bushfires still rage across Australia, our colleagues have continued to provide us with stellar coverage of the main issues. Meanwhile, the world is still reeling at the fallout of the assassination of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani and the crash of a Ukrainian airliner outside Tehran with the death of 176 people.

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