Stories the international news cycle missed, or undercovered, or moved past too quickly. The ones that deserved more attention than they got.
Everyone reported that China warned Australia over the new Nakamal Agreement. Underneath the headline sat three things the wires skipped: the softer terms Vanuatu won, the climate case it took to the world court, and a clause quietly binding it to police its own passport scheme.
The race to dominate artificial intelligence is also a race for the minerals and the power that run it — and that contest is being fought, largely unwatched, in places like Tanzania. A first-in-fifty-seven-years visit to Moscow is one visible thread of it.
When the Iran war pushed global oil markets, the consequences reached Tuvalu — a country of 10,000 people, twenty-six square kilometres of land, and an ocean territory the size of Texas. Two weeks of emergency. Three sets of consequences. And a country preparing to host the world.
For three decades the Pacific has been treated as the calm centre of the world. It is now the centre of the contest between the United States and China — and Australia, New Zealand, and the smaller island states find themselves caught between forces none of them can balance alone.
Sudan's civil war has produced the world's largest humanitarian catastrophe and continues. Next door, Ethiopia voted on Monday in an election expected to consolidate one-party rule. Two of Africa's most populous countries are pulling in opposite political directions while their region holds.
The waters off Chile, Peru, and Ecuador are among the most productive fishing grounds in the world. They are also among the most heavily exploited by distant-water industrial fleets
A long-form investigation published by NPR on 22 May, reported by Emily Feng, documented the community of ethnic Uyghur militants who fought against the Assad regime in northern Syria
Papua New Guinea is positioning the 2026 Melanesian Ocean Summit as a regional governance platform for the four Melanesian states — PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji — plus a participating French-
More than 1.5 million international pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia for the 2026 Hajj. The spiritual peak — the gathering at Mount Arafat — took place on Tuesday. Almost no Western front page led with it.
The Indonesian archipelago holds 75 percent of the world’s coral species. UNESCO designated it a Biosphere Reserve in September 2025. The government promised to revoke its mining permits in June. The revocation letters were never issued.