They arrived there as refugees from a genocide almost one century ago, and they are about to disappear now from there, again in a violent way. The Assyrian community in the Khabour Valley, in Kurdish-controlled Rojava in northern Syria, is currently unable to recover from the forced flight of most of its members in 2015, when ISIS occupied their territory. A new report warns of the destruction of its tangible and intangible heritage, and says it will be difficult to rebuild the community if conditions are not created for people to be able to return. Keep reading

When Bougainville held its independence referendum in December 2019, one of the unresolved doubts was how it could financially sustain itself if it seceded from Papua New Guinea. With 80% of its annual budget stemming from the PNG government, the Autonomous Bougainville Government has a difficult decision on the table: how to reopen the Panguna mine, which could provide it with significant economical injection, but nothing risk-free. A recently released report by an Australian human human rights group recalls the social, economic, and ecological disaster caused by the exploitation of the mine in the surrounding communities. Keep reading

The Mongolian government is seeking to spread the official use of the traditional Mongolian alphabet by 2025. The Mongolian script is expected to coexist with Cyrillic, which has been used to write the Mongolian language since 1941. An effective introduction of the Mongolian writing system into digital environments will be an immediate challenge. Keep reading