Damien Cave, our Australia bureau chief, shares insights on Australia, news of the world and feedback from readers in this weekly newsletter. Want to receive it by email? Sign up here.

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Journalism often relies on serendipity.

Earlier this week, for example, I went out to Parramatta, one of western Sydney’s most vibrant and diverse areas, to talk to people about Australia Day. And within minutes of arriving, I saw a familiar face walking toward me: Acuoth Achol.

A gentle giant with a smile that makes you want to talk to him, he’s one of the coaches of the Savannah Pride, the South-Sudanese-Australian basketball team I wrote about soon after arriving in Australia. His office, where he works on refugee resettlement, was just a block away.

“Things have been going really well,” he said as we shook hands. Since the article was published, he said, more American scouts have been visiting, and support for the team has been rising.