For one brief shining moment...

Last week the tennis world provided a story that not even the most romantic scriptwriter could have concocted.

The Women’s Title at the Toronto Masters, which is one of the major non-Grand Slam tournaments on the tennis calendar , was won by the unseeded Victoria Mboko. Aged 18. Before the victory ranked 85 in the world.

An unheralded player making her mark on a big stage is exciting enough. However, Mboko’s story may well be close to the epitome of a combined triumph of individualism and globalisation as is possible.

Her parents fled the political and civil chaos of the ironically named Democratic Republic of Congo.

She was born in North Carolina, before her family moved to Toronto and became a Canadian citizen.

Victoria beat four Grand Slam champions en route to her first title, charming and captivating her hometown crowd as she did so: Sofia Kenin, Coco Gauff, Elina Rybakina and Naomi Osaka were all swept away.

Her and her family’s triumph over adversity is a compelling narrative. It was a reminder that winning tennis matches is one thing but enjoying freedom, choice, democracy, liberty and displaying courage are altogether more important.  These are the individual and social qualities that have defined the Western world in the post-revolutionary age.

How strange it is then to see Western societies become obsessed in the social media age with bagatelles and Western leaders shamefully display their lack of commitment to such values.

First, the seemingly perpetual obsession with the incidental.

Maybe I am mistaken, but I am not sure that President Truman would have been asked his opinion about clothes advertisements. He had to worry about how to end the war in the Pacific.

Yet President Trump has recently been drawn into a debate about whether the following advertisement for women’s jeans was an existential threat to society, invoking strains of eugenics and racism.  Frankly, my dear I could not give a denim.

For mine, the advertisement was nothing more than rather puerile sexism which we saw in the 1980s when Brooke Shields advertised her jeans of choice. Whatever happened to perspective?

This week the President has more substantial matters to consider when he attends a summit in Anchorage, Alaska with Russia’s President Putin. The summit has put Alaska on the political map for the first time since Sarah Palin, a former Alaskan Governor, was chosen as Senator John McCain’s Vice-Presidential running mate in 2008.  Palin famously observed that she was a good person to deal with Russia.  In an interview during the campaign she commented that "They're our next-door neighbours, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.”

Whether Trump and Putin can see eye to eye on the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict remains to be seen.

If we turn our mind to the tennis, the US Open commences in ten days. The traditional lead up tournaments in Toronto and Cincinnati have confirmed the decline of Tiafoe, Tsitsipas, and Medvedev.  Zverev plays on , notwithstanding his post-Wimbledon comments that he wished to take an extended break from the game. America’s young hopes Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz played a semi-final in Toronto, before Shelton took the title against the stateless Khachanov; however, neither Shelton nor Fritz seem to be in the league of Alcaraz and Sinner

Djokovic, still nursing his injury-prone body, has not played in either tournament, but Sinner and Alcaraz are currently playing in Cincinnati. No doubt the fans are hoping that they will be able to reprise their Roland Garros and Wimbledon heroics in another final this weekend.

On the distaff side of the draw, Coco Gauff continues her mercurial run.  She, Sabalenka and Swiatek will fight for the Cincinnati crown with the winner heading to Flushing Meadow with a psychological advantage.

Now, for the betrayal of Western values that has been writ large in England, Canada, France and now, by hideous incrementalism, in  Australia.

The decision of these states to give their support to the creation of a Palestinian State at a forthcoming meeting of the United Nations is as breathtaking as it is, ultimately, pointless.

The two-State solution has been the preferred resolution of the Middle East crisis for decades. Most recently, in 2000 and 2008 the Palestinian people have been offered a State. Both offers were rejected. Why? Because the Palestinian leadership, of whatever variety, consistently refuse to recognise the right of Israel to exist.

The Albanese government has primarily disappointed me because of its indolence and lack of vision. Albanese’s only recurring vision is that all Australians will be saturated with a safety net of socialised medicine. Look how well that has worked in England! His is the modus operandi of the economically illiterate left: promise everything and place the people in debt to pay for it. For those of us who prefer more self-reliant and productive societies, who, by the way, generate the revenues needed for Albanese’s welfarism, this government is aimless and its policies counter-productive.

Regrettably, like many Prime Ministers in their second term, Albanese has sought to make his mark on the international stage.

Whether the leaders of Hamas have genuinely sent words of appreciation for Albanese’s decision is not the issue.

The issue is that Albanese has taken Australia on a path from moral relativism to moral revulsion. He has endorsed the perverse in the most naïve way possible. Incredulously, he has a ridiculous hope that the leader of the Palestinian authority will replace Hamas and orchestrate peace and virtue. Fat chance. Hamas are the demented leaders of the Palestinian people. They orchestrated the unprovoked killings and associated horrors of October 2023. They believe that Albanese’s endorsements along with others is a victory for their nihilistic terrorism. All in the West are their enemies.

In one especially foul swoop, Albanese has alienated our most important ally in America and abandoned any sense of moral reality about the Gazan conflict.  

How ironic that when he has finally chosen to act, our Prime Minister’s  only accomplishment has been to shamefully sacrifice so much at his misguided ideological altar: historic, hard-won essential values of legitimacy, democracy and a commitment to destroy terrorist enemies of freedom.

Today is the  anniversary of one of Albanese’s Labor heroes, Ben Chifley, celebrating victory over the tyrannical Japanese government in World War 2. How ignoble the comparison with 1946 is. Australia’s latest diplomatic decision is nothing but a wholesale defeat for our nation’s decency and reputation. We all want peace in the Middle-East, Anthony; however, not at any cost and certainly not for  the price you are willing to pay.

As always, we must turn to nature for consolation. Recently, when walking to a concert, I captured this image of man-made lights reflecting on Melbourne's Yarra, yet paling against the splendour of a full moon. A colleague alerted me that a man-made sign also illuminated the night and was offering a very wise suggestion about the days ahead: Proceed with Caution!