Realm talks in Auckland: New Zealand PM Christopher Luxon met with Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau leaders for the first “foursome” discussion ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum in Palau, with Mark Brown pushing a shift from pledges to deliverables. Deep-sea mining risk: A new Pacific report warns investor-state dispute settlement rules could let foreign miners sue governments over tougher environmental or regulatory moves, flagging exposure for the Cook Islands and others. Forum agenda pressure: Leaders heading to Palau are set to tackle geopolitics, transnational crime, economic strain and regional integration, with energy security highlighted as fossil-fuel dependence bites. Cook Islands banking outage: Customers of a regional bank in the Cook Islands reported online banking lockouts and security concerns after a manual password reset error; the bank says funds are safe. Local governance & jobs: Three Permanent Secretaries were sworn in, including David Teika Dennis to Finance and Treasury, Trevor Unusu to Police/National Security/Corrections, and Bunyan Sivoro to Culture and Tourism. Business support on the outer islands: BTIB’s free Mangaia workshop returns in September, focusing on soft loans, UCI branding, business planning, costing/pricing, forecasting and bookkeeping. Security update: Police arrested two people after a weekend crime spike involving burglaries and stolen motorbikes across Rarotonga.