I don't know if it's a new phenomenon but there's enough interesting detail in that story to make it on topic for HN, in my opinion, plus the thread quality supports that interpretation. Of course these are all judgment calls.

Prince Andrew on Epstein is guaranteed to produce a flamewar, especially because it overlaps with the celebrity gossip genre.

Epstein stories have been discussed in detail on HN (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...), and "royal denies wrongdoing" is not significant new information: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...