In Timor-Leste, floods and landslides after cyclone Seroja, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, have created a dangerous dynamic. The next stage of the crisis will be hard to navigate as poverty-stricken Timorese struggle with fresh water, health services, and sufficient nutrition. 

Deportation policy is a regional dilemma that won’t be solved by Australia and New Zealand trading diplomatic insults. Both nations must recognise their complicity in a system of regional dislocation and their joint responsibility to address it.

With the threat of right-wing extremism accelerating due to the pandemic, understanding the gendered element of the threat is essential countering radicalisation. Misogynist rhetoric is not only pushing men to the far right, but women too.

Also discussed in this episode: the humanitarian crisis in Papua New Guinea after a devastating outbreak of COVID-19 and what makes the defence minister portfolio so uniquely challenging for the newly appointed Peter Dutton.

This week in Australian foreign affairs: sharing Australian-made AstraZeneca doses with our Pacific neighbours; supporting PNG and Timor-Leste; diplomatic appointments; the latest Five Country Ministerial Meeting; and more.

This week Raúl Castro resigned as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.  This changing of the guard is provoking local and global reflection on his performance and how it has positioned Cuba for the future.

What is unfolding in Xinjiang is the largest detention of an ethnic group since the Holocaust. Australia has a responsibility to increase pressure on Beijing to cease its large-scale human rights abuses of the Uyghur minority.

The Sino-Iranian Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is another move by Beijing to extend its power across the globe. For Iran, it is about further strengthening the country’s position in the Middle East.

Biden’s first 100 days as President have seen a noticeable change regarding foreign policy to that of Trump. A renewed commitment to the Indo-Pacific, the US aims to enhance cooperation with allies to respond to growing challenges in the region.

Since tightening Section 501 of the Migration Act in 2014, Australia has cancelled the visas of  over 2000 Australian-resident New Zealanders. Doing so mandates their deportation, but many such deportees have little connection to the country that issued their passport.