This week saw a report detailing a plan by the West to disarm the ‘gas weapon’ used by Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, against independent Ukraine and its supporters. Meanwhile despite Putin’s plea to Ukraine’s separatists to call off their autonomy vote, the New York Times reports they will go ahead. And they have. The BBC’s Richard Galpin reports from inside the separatists’ decisive meeting.

The United States accuses Israel of alarming levels of spying targeting anything and everything it can get its hands on.

Former US Treasurer Tim Geithner talks in detail on why there was no choice but to save the banks during the height of the Global Financial Crisis.

The World Economic Forum lists the ten African cities that it believes are ready for take off and explains why.

The Jakarta Post suggests that the recent thaw in Australia-Indonesian relations is at an end because of the latest boat people incident.

Under a somewhat extravagant headline, The Diplomat suggests that people in Singapore are “up in arms” against Filipino residents holding Independence Day celebrations.

The Lowy Institute for International Policy analyses the lessons learned from Australia’s costly intervention in the Solomon Islands.

I have left the good news until the end. The OECD finds that Australians are still among the happiest people on the planet. The Paris-based think-tank cannot have been watching the nightly news!

Colin Chapman, a writer and broadcaster, is President of the AIIA NSW