Results for Pacific Islands

The Chinese President Xi Jinping had a phone conversation with King Tupou VI of Tonga last week on 24 September. “Tonga will continue to firmly support China on issues concerning its core interests,” stated a report posted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China.

New research into the effect of drinking kava on driving has revealed it has a significant impact on temporal order judgement - or how well the brain is able to keep track of the order of events. Dr Apo Aporosa says the research findings will assist with kava drink-driving cases in court, but there is more work to be done.

New York Times News Analysis: When Scott Morrison became Australia’s prime minister three years ago, he insisted that the country could maintain close ties with China, its largest trading partner, while working with the United States, its main security ally. “Australia doesn’t have to choose,” he said in one of his first foreign policy speeches. On Thursday, Australia effectively chose. Following years of sharply deteriorating relations with Beijing, Australia announced a new defense agreement in which the United States and Britain would help it deploy nuclear-powered submarines, a major advance in Australian military strength.

In New Zealand, the University of Waikato, in support of increased Covid-19 vaccination rates among Māori and Pacific communities, will host a vaccination clinic and drive on September 16 to mark Kīngitanga day. There is concern that vaccination rates among the Māori and Pacific communities are lower when compared to the New Zealand national average, while some studies also suggest that Pacific people are three times more likely to need hospitalisation when infected with the virus than non-Pacific people.

Seasonal workers from Tonga, Samoa, and Vanuatu will be able to travel to New Zealand quarantine-free starting in October, announced New Zealand’s COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor yesterday, September 14. The arrangement will help New Zealand’s horticulture industry for the upcoming picking season.

Heads of Customs in the Pacific, including Tonga, have agreed that they need to work together with national security to ensure the region is more secure from transnational crimes. Despite border closures because of COVID-19, they say threats in the Pacific remain high from illegal activities, which are often facilitated by trusted insiders.

Eight Pacific Islands Nations, members of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) met virtually last week to address the regions’ most urgent climate change policy priorities. They are at the frontline of climate change impacts, with sea level rise, droughts, flooding, salt water intrusion, cyclones and ocean acidification causing significant difficulties to the livelihoods of their people.

Just as tourists were starting to return to Guam, the island has reported a record number of new COVID cases, a surge that is filling up hospital beds and dashing hopes of an economic recovery despite a successful vaccination campaign.

Legislation to introduce the death penalty for the most serious illicit drugs offences stirred vociferous debate in the Tongan parliament yesterday evening, 26 August 2021. Although a majority of members were unhappy with death penalty clauses, they proceeded to pass the bill without the changes they wanted being written. From the House by Pesi Fonua.