Cook Islanders elect all 24 seats of Parliament amid a cost-of-living crisis and argument over a partnership agreement with China. Why tiny constituencies change how politics works, what free association actually means, and what voters are deciding.
Kiribati, Palau and Papua New Guinea have detained four Chinese and Indonesian vessels in a coordinated Pacific enforcement operation. Why small island states police an area the size of a continent, what “illegal fishing” actually covers, and why licence fees are national budgets.
South Australia has too many koalas, and researchers warn the forests cannot feed them. How a threatened species becomes overabundant, why leaving it alone means starvation, and what each of the four available options actually costs.
Hundreds of migrants tried to cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta this weekend. Moroccan authorities fended them off this time — raising the same question as before about how much these events are decided at the fence.
Nauru is now the Republic of Naoero, matching the national language. Where the island is, and why countries from Türkiye to Eswatini have changed their official names.