Nearly 98% of valid votes in Bougainville’s self-determination referendum have been in favour of independence from Papua New Guinea. Turnout has stood at 87.5 per cent of those registered to vote. The referendum was not binding, but the clarity of the result adds pressure on the PNG government to negotiate anything other than independence. Keep reading

Brexit and its consequences sit at the centre of the UK election campaign, as citizens are being called to vote on 12 December to all 650 seats in the House of Commons, the lower house of the UK Parliament. The expected victory of the Conservative Party makes an orderly exit of the UK from the EU more likely, but at the same time it may increase calls for greater autonomy and independence in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Keep reading

Surrounded by five countries and connected to the rest of India by a tiny corridor between Bhutan and Bangladesh, the Northeast symbolizes the distant and forgotten periphery of New Delhi. Known as the “seven sisters,” the region is an amalgam of tribal communities, castes and identity-based political antagonists. From the plains of Assam, Tripura and Manipur, to the mountains of Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, the history of the Northeast is insurgency and response to the narrative of “one nation” by an Indian centre that portrays it as a homogeneous territory. Keep reading