[ISL] Five islands links: Qatar, Boracay, Vanuatu, Shetlands, CocoCay

[rfmcdonald]

• Saudi Arabia is planning to dig a canal the length of its border with Qatar, making that peninsular polity and island one. That is ... intense. Gulf News reports.


• The Filipino resort island of Boracay has been declared off-limits by President Duterte, at least until its environment is rehabilitated. The National Post reports.


• The establishment of a Chinese base in Melanesian Vanuatu would upset geopolitical calculations in Australia. The Sydney Morning Herald reports.


• The Map Room Blog notes that some supporters of Scotland's Shetland Islands are opposed to the idea of putting the archipelago, so far from the mainland, in inset maps.


• Royal Caribbean is making an island in the Bahamas, CocoCay, into a custom-designed resort at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. Bloomberg reports.