Around our dinner table we volunteer our ‘best bits’ for the day. My eldest daughter started it with her boys, and it has now become an evening ritual for us all. It forces you to articulate the good bits of the day, and to listen to what have been the good bits for others. So I thought I would start doing that with readers as well. Each week, as I filter through the hundreds of articles, podcasts, and Instagram posts that inform our coverage, I will pick a best bit. If you are reading this on social media I would love to hear your best bits.

This week’s best bit comes from the fabulous young Egyptian/Australian comedian and storyteller Khaled Khalafalla. Take a break and listen to his skit on Pauline Hanson on Facebook below or have a look at him on his website.

Retreating in the face of prejudice, hate, and the torrent of bad news that swirls around us right now can be deeply tempting. But people like Khaled remind us how self-defeating ignorance is. We can poke fun at hate and hypocrisy, expose it, and stand up to it, but we cannot let it pass.

An example of our system not letting acts of brutality slip is to be found in Greg Barns’s story on the High Court’s rejection (again) of our Government’s rushed laws to keep 140 people in detention. The highest court in the land has ruled that ankle bracelets and curfews are unconstitutional and this is, Barns says, an example of our system working.

Many of us have been following the genocide in Gaza through the eyes of our correspondent Refaat Ibrahim. He turns 25 this Saturday, and on a day that should be a joyous celebration, he chronicles for us a generation growing up under siege. It is a hard read, but an important one.

The US-Israeli war against Iran has become so complex and so dangerous that we are running a number of multi-part articles on the topic. Also, we are keeping an eye on what is happening in Lebanon as the death toll mounts and civil war threatens.

This month marks my first anniversary as editor of P&I. Every day I learn something new, and am, by turns, delighted and heartbroken by the wit, resolve, and open-mindedness of our readers and authors. My thanks to you all for your support.

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