One day about 20 years ago, an abrupt, almost preternatural silence descended on The Times newsroom in London.
The normal bustle instantaneously gave way to a mute hesitancy. Rambunctious reporters, myself included, were reduced to nervous smiles at the arrival of an awesome, almost physically intimidating presence.
In Pictures: The formidable Wendi Deng, wife of Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch's wife, Wendi, became a Twitter and internet sensation after leaping to the defence of her husband when he was hit by a pie of shaving foam during a Commons hearing about the News International phone hacking scandal.
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Rupert Murdoch had walked into the room.
Now fast-forward a couple of decades to Tuesday. That same man walked into the Wilson Room at Portcullis House in Parliament to give evidence to the culture and media select committee over the phone-hacking scandal.
His global empire is now much greater than it was when he dropped in to The Times. He remains an extraordinary power, not just in the UK, US and Australia but, increasingly, in many other parts of the world.
Yet the awe and that air of intimidation have gone. A combination of age - he is 80 now - and the hacking scandal has taken its toll to a quite unnerving degree.
His wife Wendi helped him to sit at the table before the committee of MPs and whispered words of encouragement as she poured him a glass of water.
For the next three hours, the frail, elderly gent was hesitant, uncertain of his answers and ever ready to put the blame for what had gone wrong on "trusted" lieutenants.
Nick Robinson, the BBC's political editor, commented: “It was hard to equate the man sitting a few feet away from me with the global media mogul feared by political leaders throughout my adult lifetime.”
And then someone thrust a plate of shaving foam in Mr Murdoch's face. What had been billed as the most dramatic piece of political theatre in a generation had descended into farce.
Wife Wendi, having slapped the assailant, sat on the table in front of her husband and wiped away the foam from his face, only stopping to embrace his bald head in her arms.
Many people, myself included, experienced feelings towards Rupert Murdoch we never considered possible: we actually felt sorry for the old fella.
One friend of mine, who writes for a newspaper not in the Murdoch stable, reckoned it was all an act and pointed to the media baron's Uriah Heep-like opening remark that it was "the most humble day of my life".
Others considered his seemingly limitless lack of knowledge of what was happening at his British newspapers to be not so much a failure of corporate governance but a reflection that, these days, it is the US that preoccupies him.
There was, of course, another Murdoch in the room: 38-year-old son James, the overseer of News Corp's interests in Europe and Asia.
He answered all the questions fired at him with a confident slickness that matched his haircut. Perhaps one should expect nothing less from a Harvard graduate.
The playwright Lucy Prebble, who wrote a colour piece on the hearing for The Guardian, was not impressed. "James Murdoch has a face like a Sky TV schedule," she wrote. "In contrast to his father, he seemed almost robotic in his mid-Atlantic delivery.
"One of a corporate generation shorn of character, he was allowed to speak in long, meandering business-speak that obfuscated as much as it bored."
That, though, seems to be the way of it these days. The contrast between the two Murdochs was symbolic not just of the old giving way to the new, but of a fundamental shift from a time when newspaper proprietors could be as maverick as their reporters, to the modern era when business models are more important than underwear ones.
Just to go back 20 years again and another of Rupert Murdoch's visits to The Times newsroom: on this occasion, I was the only one unaware of his presence because I was in the midst of a heated and foul-mouthed tirade against a government press officer who was withholding information.
It was only when I had slammed down the phone that I became aware of the awful silence that had descended. A colleague sitting opposite nodded behind me.
I swivelled round to find the great man, arms folded, scowling at me. Then the scowl morphed into a broad smile. "Well done, young man," he said and walked off.
Somehow, I could not see James Murdoch doing that. Somewhat sadly, I could not see his old dad doing it these days, either.
dsapsted@thenational.ae
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Three-day coronation
Royal purification
The entire coronation ceremony extends over three days from May 4-6, but Saturday is the one to watch. At the time of 10:09am the royal purification ceremony begins. Wearing a white robe, the king will enter a pavilion at the Grand Palace, where he will be doused in sacred water from five rivers and four ponds in Thailand. In the distant past water was collected from specific rivers in India, reflecting the influential blend of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology on the coronation. Hindu Brahmins and the country's most senior Buddhist monks will be present. Coronation practices can be traced back thousands of years to ancient India.
The crown
Not long after royal purification rites, the king proceeds to the Baisal Daksin Throne Hall where he receives sacred water from eight directions. Symbolically that means he has received legitimacy from all directions of the kingdom. He ascends the Bhadrapitha Throne, where in regal robes he sits under a Nine-Tiered Umbrella of State. Brahmins will hand the monarch the royal regalia, including a wooden sceptre inlaid with gold, a precious stone-encrusted sword believed to have been found in a lake in northern Cambodia, slippers, and a whisk made from yak's hair.
The Great Crown of Victory is the centrepiece. Tiered, gold and weighing 7.3 kilograms, it has a diamond from India at the top. Vajiralongkorn will personally place the crown on his own head and then issues his first royal command.
The audience
On Saturday afternoon, the newly-crowned king is set to grant a "grand audience" to members of the royal family, the privy council, the cabinet and senior officials. Two hours later the king will visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred space in Thailand, which on normal days is thronged with tourists. He then symbolically moves into the Royal Residence.
The procession
The main element of Sunday's ceremonies, streets across Bangkok's historic heart have been blocked off in preparation for this moment. The king will sit on a royal palanquin carried by soldiers dressed in colourful traditional garb. A 21-gun salute will start the procession. Some 200,000 people are expected to line the seven-kilometre route around the city.
Meet the people
On the last day of the ceremony Rama X will appear on the balcony of Suddhaisavarya Prasad Hall in the Grand Palace at 4:30pm "to receive the good wishes of the people". An hour later, diplomats will be given an audience at the Grand Palace. This is the only time during the ceremony that representatives of foreign governments will greet the king.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
TERMINAL HIGH ALTITUDE AREA DEFENCE (THAAD)
What is THAAD?
It is considered to be the US's most superior missile defence system.
Production:
It was created in 2008.
Speed:
THAAD missiles can travel at over Mach 8, so fast that it is hypersonic.
Abilities:
THAAD is designed to take out ballistic missiles as they are on their downward trajectory towards their target, otherwise known as the "terminal phase".
Purpose:
To protect high-value strategic sites, such as airfields or population centres.
Range:
THAAD can target projectiles inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere, at an altitude of 150 kilometres above the Earth's surface.
Creators:
Lockheed Martin was originally granted the contract to develop the system in 1992. Defence company Raytheon sub-contracts to develop other major parts of the system, such as ground-based radar.
UAE and THAAD:
In 2011, the UAE became the first country outside of the US to buy two THAAD missile defence systems. It then stationed them in 2016, becoming the first Gulf country to do so.
INDIA SQUAD
Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Vijay Shankar, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami
Listen to Extra Time
Jurassic%20Park
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESteven%20Spielberg%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Sam%20Neill%2C%20Jeff%20Goldblum%20and%20Richard%20Attenborough%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%205%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates
Race card
6.30pm: Handicap (TB) $68,000 (Dirt) 1,200m
7.05pm: Meydan Cup – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (Turf) 2,810m
7.40pm: UAE 2000 Guineas – Group 3 (TB) $125,000 (D) 1,600m
8.15pm: Firebreak Stakes – Group 3 (TB) $130,000 (D) 1,600m
9.50pm: Meydan Classic – Conditions (TB) $$50,000 (T) 1,400m
9.25pm: Dubai Sprint – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (T) 1,200m
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
Zayed Sustainability Prize
