Damien Cave, our Australia bureau chief, shares insights on global news, local recommendations and feedback from readers in this weekly newsletter. To receive it in your inbox, sign up here.

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When the Papua New Guinea immigration officers knocked on our hotel door and asked for our passports, I knew that Adam Ferguson, an Australian photojournalist for The Times, and I were no longer welcome on Manus Island.

“It’s time to go,” one of the men in uniform said after asking whom we worked for. “You’ve got what you need.”

He was right. After nearly a week in Manus investigating the standoff involving hundreds of asylum seekers who had refused to leave the detention camp that Australia tried to shut down on Oct. 31, I had three notebooks full of interviews with detainees, local leaders and outside experts.