High Seas Treaty & seabed mining: The new High Seas Treaty protects oceans outside national borders, but deep-sea mining is exempt from key environmental impact assessment rules under the deal—raising fresh worries that the International Seabed Authority’s current safeguards are too thin. Pacific security & China’s missile test: China’s submarine-launched ballistic missile test in the Pacific—fired near the South Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone and with a dummy warhead—has triggered alarm across the region, with Taiwan tracking the flight path and Australia and others warning it highlights gaps in air and missile defence readiness. AUKUS pressure on defence: Australia’s secret Woomera missile-defence live fire details have surfaced as critics argue bases and key infrastructure are “dangerously exposed” to longer-range threats. Space and surveillance build-up: Reporting says China deployed high-tech space surveillance ships across the Pacific ahead of the test, including a vessel that reached Fiji shortly before a defence treaty signing. Coral reefs under heat stress: New analysis flags how El Niño can worsen already-stressed reefs in Asia and the Pacific, with severe bleaching risk rising as warming drives more frequent heat stress. Nauru health snapshot: A roundup highlights Nauru’s extreme obesity burden—linked to decades of economic and food-system shifts—showing how local conditions can dwarf global averages. Regional fisheries diplomacy: The PNA Office CEO made a courtesy call to Papua New Guinea’s fisheries authority, reaffirming cooperation on sustainable tuna management.