New York Times reporting: More than 50,000 New Zealanders have flocked home during the pandemic, offering the country a rare opportunity to win back some of its best and brightest. The question is how long the edge will last. The Ardern government has announced no specific measures aimed at retaining citizens who return. But it is using its border shutdown as a moment to “reset” its immigration priorities, saying last week that it would loosen controls for wealthy investors while curtailing temporary visas for the migrants the country has long relied on as citizens moved away.
You are here
Results for Pacific
Wednesday 26 May 2021
Premium content
Wellington, New Zealand
Premium content
Tuesday 25 May 2021
Premium content
New York, USA
New York Times reporting: Fiame Naomi Mata’afa walked toward Samoa’s beehive-shaped Parliament House on Monday morning intending to be sworn in as the first female prime minister in the Pacific Island nation’s 56-year history. What she and her fellow party members found instead were locked doors. The speaker of parliament had issued orders to keep them out. And so deepened a constitutional crisis that has convulsed this long-stable nation and thrown into doubt whether Mata’afa, whose party won the April 9 election, would actually take office.
Premium content
Thursday 20 May 2021
Premium content
Melbourne, Australia
New York Times reporting: When Australian officials announced last week that the country was unlikely to fully reopen its borders until mid-2022 because of the coronavirus, the backlash immediately began building. Critics warned that Australia risked becoming a “hermit nation.” Members of the Australian diaspora who had been struggling to return home for months saw it as another blow. The announcement drew dire warnings from business, legal and academic leaders. But polls show that keeping the borders shut is a popular idea.
Premium content
Thursday 4 March 2021
Premium content
Shepparton, Australia
New York Times reporting: With the Australian borders closed to the backpackers who do much of the country’s farm labour, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the shaky labour foundation of the country’s agriculture industry, spurring calls for an immigration overhaul. Right now, farmers are contending with national borders that were closed in March 2020 and are unlikely to reopen until 2022.
Premium content
Tuesday 23 February 2021
Premium content
Christchurch, New Zealand
New York Times reporting: First the houses and cars vanished. Fences, driveways and the other remaining markers of suburban life followed. Now, only stretches of green remain — an eerie memorial to two earthquakes that leveled Christchurch, New Zealand’s second-largest city, 10 years ago. The undulating expanse, which begins 2 miles from downtown Christchurch, was deemed uninhabitable after the quakes, the second of which killed 185 people on Feb. 22, 2011. The 8,000 properties it encompassed were bought by the government and razed, the remnants swept away.
Premium content
Friday 19 February 2021
Sydney, Australia
New York Times reporting: A digitally savvy nation, Australia woke up Thursday to a shock on Facebook: the news was gone. The social network’s decision to block journalism rather than pay for it erased more than expected, leaving many outraged and debating what should happen next.
Tuesday 26 January 2021
Premium content
Sydney, Australia
New York Times reporting: In a major escalation, Google threatened Friday to make its search engine unavailable in Australia if the government approved legislation that would force tech companies to pay for journalism shared on their platforms. Australia’s assertive challenge to the online giants has placed it in the vanguard of a movement to bolster a traditional news media ecosystem that America’s trillion-dollar tech companies threaten with extinction. For Google and Facebook, their intense pushback has become a focal point of their global efforts to limit regulation, as governments around the world look to rein them in. Here’s a summary of the fight... By Damien Cave
Premium content
Monday 7 December 2020
Premium content
New York, USA
New York Times reporting: Unilever New Zealand said it would begin a one-year experiment to allow all 81 of its employees to earn their full salaries while working one day fewer per week, a move the company said might actually boost productivity and improve employees’ work-life balance. Some business and productivity experts say the concept may finally get a serious look amid a pandemic that has altered how billions live and work around the globe.
Premium content
Monday 30 November 2020
Premium content
Geneva, Switzerland
New York Times reporting: An unexpected contest over the 2021 presidency of the U.N. Human Rights Council is pitting some of the United Nations' most powerful member states against tiny Pacific Island nations and is playing out as U.N. members jockey for influence in anticipation of a new, more engaged U.S. administration.
Premium content
Wednesday 11 November 2020
Premium content
New York, USA
New York Times reporting: The voter fraud, perpetrated Monday in New Zealand, was real. And the contenders were, er, fowl. As the citizens slept, a hacker slipped more than 1,500 fake votes into an election database, sending one flightless bird to the top. The scandal has roiled Bird of the Year 2020, an online popularity contest among the native birds of New Zealand. ...
Premium content
Tonga weather forecast from yr.no, delivered by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the NRK. See also Fua'amotu Weather Forecasting Center, Tonga, for latest local weather bulletin.