One-liner apology: Albanese shuts down the story

Anthony Albanese issued a single-sentence apology on Monday for podcast comments about Kylie Minogue—'I apologise unequivocally for the comments'—then got on a plane to Fiji. The statement, released while he was overseas at bilateral meetings, was deliberately bare: no explanation, no room for follow-up questions, nothing to keep the story alive. A studied choice in containment.