Nauru, a tiny island nation in the central Pacific measuring just 21 square kilometers, has become an extreme yet revealing case study of how far the contemporary redefinition of sovereignty can go. Once, this atoll represented the epitome of Polynesian paradise: a circle of white sand and palm trees where life unfolded with almost biblical self-sufficiency. Today, however, that Eden is a memory buried beneath layers of extractive history, financial corruption, and, ultimately, a disturbing redefinition of what it means to be a sovereign state in the 21st century. Nauru is no longer known for what it produces—it no longer produces anything—but for its role as a dumping ground for the crises that major powers prefer to ignore.

While the causes that led Sijeed and Naveed Akram to shoot into the crowd celebrating Hanukkah in Sydney And after the murder of fifteen people, the political pressure on Anthony Albanese has become suffocating. Amid a media and political storm from political rivals and pro-Israel organizations, the prime minister has announced new measures to reduce the number of weapons, as well as the approval of a controversial plan to combat antisemitism.

Australia began holding its first funerals on Wednesday, under heavy police guard, to bid farewell to the victims of the earthquake.The mass shooting on Sunday at Bondi Beach in eastern Sydney, targeting a Jewish Hanukkah celebration, in which 16 people died.

The authors of the shooting at a Jewish celebration on Bondi beach, In Sydney, they may have been inspired by the Islamic State, specifically following a recent trip to the Philippines taken by the father and son, according to Australian authorities. Police also revealed that homemade explosives and two Islamic State flags were found in the son's car. Until now, Canberra had maintained that there was no indication of radicalization among the perpetrators, beyond a 2019 investigation that was later dropped.

The shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney It left an epic image: a civilian disarmed one of the attackers by grabbing him from behind, and, as authorities admitted, saved many lives. The hero is Ahmed al-Ahmad, a 43-year-old fruit vendor of Syrian origin, a father who had lived in Australia for 20 years. Several pedestrians filmed the scene, which has gone viral and already accumulated 22 million views on social media. The man was later shot four or five times in the shoulder and is recovering in the hospital, his parents, Mohamed Fateh al-Ahmad and Malakeh Hasan al-Ahmad, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

8:09 p.m.: "There was a mass shooting in Bondi. The attackers opened fire on the crowd in a park where the Jewish community was celebrating the first day of Hanukkah." 8:10 p.m.: "Becca, Jake, and Tash are okay." During the hours after the murder of 15 people on Bondi beach From Sydney, thousands of messages circulated throughout the city. 10:40 p.m.: "Maurice, are you okay? I can't believe what's happened." 10:42 p.m.: "Yes, but I'm in shock." 10:45 p.m.: "And all your loved ones?" 10:50 p.m.: "Immediate family, yes, but I'm afraid of perhaps meeting someone who has died."

Jessica, 14, admits her account still works because she said she was born in 2009: "I use it to talk to my friends, if I'm interested in something, to see what people are doing..." "And you send me recipes to cook!" adds her mother, Ruth Walker. Elsa, 14, even uses Snapchat for a work group: "At my age, you start high school, you can get a job, or you can end up in juvenile detention, but you can't talk to your friends on Instagram," she complains.

Sixteen people, including a 10-year-old girl, were killed and 38 others were injured on Sunday at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. One of the shooters was among the dead, and the other was hospitalized in critical condition, police said. The target was a crowd of about 1,000 people celebrating Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday that begins with candle lighting at sunset. Counterterrorism officers are investigating the attack. Police said the attackers, who fired into the crowd from a pedestrian bridge using long guns, were a 50-year-old man (killed by police) and his 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram, who lived in Bonnyrigg, southwest of Sydney. Authorities said one of the suspects was known to intelligence services but was not considered an "imminent threat." Shortly after the attack, several improvised explosive devices were found in a nearby vehicle.

Australia has just become the first country in the world to ban access to social media for those under 16. The diagnosis is clear: mainstream social networks have become toxic because they only seek profit at any cost, even at the expense of the physical, mental, and relational health of their users. What we reject is the business model, based on addiction and data exploitation. And therein lies the Australian mistake: instead of attacking this gravitational model that traps users, they have expelled the users themselves.

In the midst of the COP30 sessions, South Korea announced that it aims to shut down the country's 61 thermal power plants, responsible for 33% of energy production, within 15 years. The world's fourth-largest coal importer, accounting for 8% of total exports, has set closure dates for 40 power plants, with the remaining 21 slated for closure by early 2026. Kim Sung-hwan, South Korea's Minister of Climate, Energy, and Environment, stated from Brazil that the closures are not only for climate reasons but also to increase competitiveness and create thousands of jobs. South Korea is the second Asian country, after Singapore, to join the Powering Past Coal Alliance, an initiative that brings together some sixty countries, mostly developed nations. An hour after the announcement, the minister participated in an event in Belém with his Australian counterpart, Chris Bowen. Australia has seen its presence in the South Korean market reduced by competitors such as Russia and Indonesia, but it still exports almost 10% of its coal to the Asian country, with a value of around AU$2.3 billion (approximately €1.3 billion) in 2025, according to the auditor.

A balancing act between a guilty conscience, the United Kingdom's eternal interests, more closely tied than ever to the United States, and an increasingly rebellious public opinion against the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Keir Starmer formally announced this Sunday, in a pre-recorded video, the recognition of the State of Palestine, an announcement made at the same time as his counterparts from Australia and Canada, members of the Commonwealth. The announcement is part of a wave of similar pronouncements from Israel's traditional allies, which seek to halt the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu's policy of wiping the Palestinians off the map, while seeking to isolate Hamas and force it into an unconditional surrender of Gaza. Currently, 147 UN member states, including Spain, recognize Palestine. Portugal has now joined the party, and France (the other former colonial power in the Middle East), Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, and possibly New Zealand and Liechtenstein will also be added.

"We have the resources and intelligence to build a more sophisticated and sustainable economy, but we're addicted to that easy life," Australian writer Tim Winton writes via email. "It's painful for me to watch," he adds. Considered a living treasure of Australia—so much so that even a species of fish bears his name—Winton criticizes the economic model of his country's western state, which has experienced a cycle of mining-based expansion since the early 2000s.

Last Friday, Australian police reported the rescue of a German tourist who had been missing for twelve days in Western Australia, a remote area teeming with wild animals and freezing temperatures at night. A hiker found the 26-year-old traveler, identified as Carolina Wilga, on a forest road in a nature reserve and contacted authorities. Once rescued, she was taken to a Perth hospital for evaluation.

In a radio interview, the Prime Minister is asked to choose an all-time hit. Anthony Albanese responds that "there is no other anthem than Am And ever gonna see your face again? ("Will I Ever See Your Face Again?" by The Angels). No one expected this response in the studio. Albanese laughs. "I'm sure almost all the listeners got the joke," he concludes confidently, "it's obvious who it's aimed at."

There's no special day for slot machines; any day is good. It's a Monday in February, and at the Seaford Hotel in Frankston—a suburb about fifty kilometers south of central Melbourne—a handful of regulars are playing after dinner. The machines are stacked in rows, each with a stool in front of them. The floor is carpeted, there are no windows or clocks, just four tables to keep the game going until late.

Apparently, the packages loaded onto the commercial planes contained thermal sheets and latex gloves, medical supplies that had to be urgently sent to Australia. But it was all a ploy to avoid ladders and checkpoints. Inside the packages, in fact, were kilograms and kilograms of powdered cocaine. If they arrived in Australia, the deal was done: there, the price of this drug increases by 1,000%. But they were caught before they sent the last shipment.

"This is nonsense, it's madness," Senator David Pocock asserted. "A country that's proud to be among the world's largest gas exporters, and yet we collect more money from students repaying their loans than from companies with the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT)."

A total of 157 whales have died or will be euthanized after being stranded on a beach in the northwest of Tasmania, an island south of Australia. Specifically, according to local authorities, they are false killer whales, a species of cetacean known for being the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. Once located, different teams made up of veterinarians expert in wild animals and marine conservationists have moved to them to try to save about 90 whales that were still surviving in the sand.

The New South Wales government (with Sydney as its capital) commissioned a report last June from the Productivity and Equality Commissioner on the housing crisis, where demand does not match supply, and rents have risen by more than 40% since 2019. In his response, Peter Achterstraat.