They also lost most of their sovereign wealth fund investing in Leonardo the Musical.

The more I hear about Nauru, the more it feels like a made-up place. Most of the wealth of the nation came from mining bird poo for phosphates.

This tickles my inner geography enthusiast. Straight onto Maps to see what the deal is.

What is this Naoero spelling?

some interesting trivia from the article: Nauru is one of the world’s smallest countries, with a mainland measuring just 20 square kilometres (7.7 square miles).

Unusually pure phosphate deposits -- a key ingredient in fertiliser -- once made Nauru one of the wealthiest places, per capita, on the planet.

But those supplies have long dried up, and researchers today estimate 80 percent of Nauru has been rendered uninhabitable by mining.

As an amateur linguist this is happy news

Important information for me. I maintain the companies' list of languages for our interpretation systems. People are pissed if the name of their native language has a typo, or (in the native rendition) has a point or stroke or whatever wrong.

BTW, has anyone a native script rendition of Klingon? The transcription is "tlhlngan Hol", but i have no native script version in the database.

Good to hear

But those supplies have long dried up, and researchers today estimate 80 percent of Nauru has been rendered uninhabitable by mining.

Bad to hear

7.7 square mile nation that's 80% uninhabitable due to mining phosphates with approximately 10,000 people in the middle of nowhere finally makes the news again after decades of nothing happening.

It is especially vulnerable to climate change and has high rates of unemployment and health issues, a recent World Bank assessment said.

Unusually pure phosphate deposits -- a key ingredient in fertiliser -- once made Nauru one of the wealthiest places, per capita, on the planet.

But those supplies have long dried up, and researchers today estimate 80 percent of Nauru has been rendered uninhabitable by mining.

Nauru would change its name to “Naoero”

Naoero does sound way better.