Results for Pacific Islands

A stunning and unusual moon rising high to the north of Nuku'alofa was clearly observable tonight in Tongatapu. The partial eclipse of the moon, ko e mate ʻa e māhina, began at 7:02pm, Friday 19 November, and ends at 01:03 Saturday morning Tonga time - a duration of 6 hours and 2 minutes.

The dangerous effects of climate change continue to threaten Tonga's environment as well as the livelihoods and future existence of our people, Tonga's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, H.E. Hon. Fanetupouvava'u Tu'ivakano told the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, Wednesday, in presenting Tonga's National Statement.

A day after Tongatapu's one-week lockdown was lifted on Monday night, November 2, over 3,900 senior students began sitting their National Examinations throughout Tonga.

Tonga’s first COVID-19 positive case is believed to be a historical case, after testing a weak positive today in a third test, “we believe he is not infectious,” said Ministry of Health CEO Dr Siale ‘Akau‘ola this afternoon. By Eleanor Gee.

Australian telecommunications company, Telstra, announced today it will acquire Digicel Pacific for US$1.6 billion, in partnership with the Australian Government. Telstra plans to retain the same Digicel brand and the current Digicel Pacific management team will continue to lead the business.

The Pacific is likely to experience a rare occurrence of what is called a double dip La Niña in the coming months, Climate models and predictions tools used by Pacific National Meteorological and Hydrological services (NMHSs) show. As a result, Pacific Island countries in the Central Pacific region such as Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu may experience below normal rainfall during this period, while islands in the South West Pacific will experience higher than normal rainfall, such as Fiji, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.

Life in Fiji is starting to return to normal as businesses re-open at 70 percent capacity starting from today but only for people who have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19. There are currently 12,828 active COVID-19 cases in Fiji. Since the COVID-19 outbreak that started in April 2021, there have been 51,132 cases and 631 deaths there.

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.