Global explainer reporting from the Daily Network world desk.
World
A group of 17 metals most people have never heard of sit at the centre of modern technology and a high-stakes contest between nations.
The Daily World · 6 March 2026
/world/why-rare-earth-elements-are-a-geopolitical-weapon-b4-02
World
The pandemic exposed how fragile the world's just-in-time logistics networks really were, and countries are still reshaping them today.
The Daily World · 4 March 2026
/world/how-global-supply-chains-rerouted-after-pandemic-b4-01
World
Some of the world's smallest countries own stakes in some of the world's largest companies, because they turned a windfall into a permanent endowment.
The Daily World · 1 March 2026
/world/sovereign-wealth-funds-why-small-nations-hold-trillions-b3-10
World
Fish do not respect national borders, which is why managing them requires international cooperation that is notoriously difficult to achieve.
The Daily World · 27 February 2026
/world/why-the-worlds-fish-stocks-are-a-shared-problem-b3-09
World
Three private companies issue judgements that affect how much every government on earth pays to borrow money, yet most people have never heard of them.
The Daily World · 25 February 2026
/world/what-credit-rating-agencies-are-and-why-they-rate-countries-b3-08
World
India now has more people than any other country and an economy growing faster than almost any other, yet its path to great-power status is neither straight nor guaranteed.
The Daily World · 23 February 2026
/world/indias-rise-the-worlds-most-populous-democracy-b3-07
World
For the first time in human history, the number of older people is outpacing the number of children, and the economic consequences are only beginning to show.
The Daily World · 21 February 2026
/world/why-the-worlds-population-is-ageing-and-what-it-means-b3-06
World
Two ocean temperature patterns on the other side of the world drive Australia's cycles of drought, flood, and fire with remarkable regularity.
The Daily World · 19 February 2026
/world/why-el-nino-and-la-nina-decide-australias-weather-b3-05
World
Almost everything you do online travels through cables on the ocean floor, yet this infrastructure is largely invisible and surprisingly fragile.
The Daily World · 17 February 2026
/world/undersea-cables-the-invisible-backbone-of-the-internet-b3-04
World
The AUKUS partnership is the most consequential defence commitment Australia has made in generations, yet its details remain largely unknown to most Australians.
The Daily World · 15 February 2026
/world/aukus-what-australia-actually-signed-up-for-b3-03
World
Australia is one of the world's largest LNG exporters, yet most Australians could not explain what LNG is or how it reaches customers across Asia.
The Daily World · 13 February 2026
/world/liquefied-natural-gas-australias-quiet-export-giant-b3-02
World
The WTO is not a world government, but the rules it sets touch almost every product you buy.
The Daily World · 11 February 2026
/world/what-the-world-trade-organization-actually-does-b3-01
World
Most countries hold a large portion of their savings in a currency that is not their own, and for most of them, that currency is the US dollar.
The Daily World · 7 February 2026
/world/what-a-reserve-currency-is-and-why-the-dollar-rules-b2-10
World
Coffee travels through more hands, more borders, and more stages of transformation than almost any other everyday product, and the economics of that journey determine who profits and who struggles.
The Daily World · 5 February 2026
/world/the-global-coffee-supply-chain-explained-b2-09
World
Central banks raising rates in Washington and Frankfurt can make groceries more expensive in Australia, through a chain of effects that is less obvious than it first appears.
The Daily World · 3 February 2026
/world/how-global-interest-rates-ripple-into-your-supermarket-b2-08
World
The American presidential election is not a single national vote but a sequence of overlapping processes that can, and sometimes does, produce a winner who received fewer total votes than the loser.
The Daily World · 1 February 2026
/world/how-the-united-states-elects-a-president-b2-07
World
Getting a vaccine from a laboratory to an arm on the other side of the world involves a chain of manufacturing, cold storage, and logistics that most people never see.
The Daily World · 30 January 2026
/world/the-global-vaccine-supply-chain-explained-b2-06
World
Governments and companies now buy and sell the right to emit carbon dioxide, creating a market designed to make pollution expensive enough to stop.
The Daily World · 28 January 2026
/world/how-the-global-carbon-market-works-b2-05
World
The most strategically important manufactured objects on Earth are smaller than a fingernail, and most of the world depends on a handful of factories to make them.
The Daily World · 26 January 2026
/world/the-global-chip-war-why-semiconductors-move-nations-b2-04
World
The term 'Indo-Pacific' did not appear in official policy a generation ago. Now it is the central organising concept of global strategy, and Australia is at its heart.
The Daily World · 24 January 2026
/world/the-indo-pacific-why-worlds-gravity-moved-b2-03
World
A group of oil-producing nations meets a few times a year and decides, between them, how much crude oil the world gets to buy.
The Daily World · 22 January 2026
/world/what-opec-is-and-how-a-cartel-sets-fuel-price-b2-02
World
No other country shapes Australia's economic fortunes as directly as China, and understanding why reveals how exposed the Australian economy really is.
The Daily World · 20 January 2026
/world/why-chinas-economy-matters-more-to-australia-b2-01
World
Wheat is one of the most traded commodities on Earth, and the price set in Chicago or on the Black Sea coast turns up, months later, in what Australians pay for bread and pasta.
The Daily World · 17 January 2026
/world/how-world-trades-wheat-distant-harvest-sets-bread-price-b1-10
World
The Australian dollar rises and falls for reasons that are partly domestic and partly global, and the direction it moves determines a surprising amount about everyday prices.
The Daily World · 15 January 2026
/world/why-exchange-rates-move-weak-australian-dollar-b1-09