Coronavirus restrictions have been reintroduced across New Zealand after four new Covid-19 cases were diagnosed in Auckland
Continue reading...Category Archives: Pacific islands
Pacific states face instability, hunger and slow road to Covid recovery: Dame Meg Taylor
While the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic has so far spared the Pacific, its economies are in free-fall, the region’s chief diplomat warns
Beyond the health and economic crises of Covid-19, the global pandemic has the potential to cause political instability and undermine state security across the Pacific, the region’s chief diplomat has warned.
Dame Meg Taylor, secretary general of the Pacific Islands Forum, said the region’s economies were struggling with the virus-induced shocks, and a prolonged crisis could worsen existing problems of hunger, poor healthcare, and state fragility.
Continue reading...New Guinea has greatest plant diversity of any island in the world, study reveals
The tropical island edges out Madagascar as botanists estimate that 4,000 new species could be discovered in the next 50 years
New Guinea is home to more than 13,500 species of plant, two-thirds of which are endemic, according to a new study that suggests it has the greatest plant diversity of any island in the world – 19% more than Madagascar, which previously held the record.
Ninety-nine botanists from 56 institutions in 19 countries trawled through samples, the earliest of which were collected by European travellers in the 1700s. Large swathes of the island remain unexplored and some historical collections have yet to be looked at. Researchers estimate that 4,000 more plant species could be found in the next 50 years, with discoveries showing “no sign of levelling off”, according to the paper published in Nature.
Continue reading...SOS message in sand saves sailors stranded on Pacific island – video
Footage from the US Coast Guard shows the rescue of three missing sailors from the tiny Pikelot Island in the Pacific. The men were stranded there when their boat ran out of fuel and strayed off course but were saved after a rescue team spotted their giant SOS message written in the sand
Continue reading...Missing sailors stranded on Pacific island saved by giant SOS in the sand
Three men stuck on tiny Pikelot island after their boat ran out of fuel and strayed off course spotted by Australian and US military aircraft
Three Micronesian sailors stranded on a remote Pacific island have been found alive and well after a rescue team spotted their giant SOS message written into the sand on a beach.
Australian and US military aircraft found the three men on tiny Pikelot island, nearly 200km west of where they’d set off. Rescuers said they were “in good condition” with no significant injuries.
Continue reading...Without seasonal workers, Australia may face a hungry summer | Michael Rose
With not enough workers to pick the upcoming harvest, Australia faces potential food shortages, and its farmers face economic devastation
As Victoria’s Covid-19 outbreak threatens to spiral out of control and beyond its borders, Australia faces another pandemic-related crisis.
We are sailing into a food shortage and few are talking about it. This needs to change.
Continue reading...Two cruise ships hit by coronavirus weeks after industry restarts
Outbreaks of Covid-19 recorded on MS Roald Amundsen in Norway and the Paul Gauguin in Tahiti
Covid-19 has been detected on at least two cruise ships – one in the Arctic and one in the Pacific – just weeks after cruising holidays restarted.
At least 40 passengers and crew from the MS Roald Amundsen have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and authorities are trying to contact trace hundreds of passengers from two recent Arctic voyages the ship took.
Continue reading...Jenelyn Kennedy’s death was senseless – we must all ensure she did not die in vain
The teenager’s violent death has inspired a broader movement against PNG’s endemic domestic abuse
For six full days 19-year-old Jenelyn Kennedy suffered. Her legs and arms were chained, witness statements to police say, her mouth gagged.
They allege she died from being beaten, locked in her room. Her young children in a room down the hall.
Continue reading...‘Job-killer of the century’: economies of Pacific islands face collapse over Covid-19
The region is largely coronavirus-free, but pandemic shutdowns and loss of tourism dollars are devastating its economies
The Covid-19 pandemic is the “job-killer of the century”, Fiji’s prime minister has said, as economies across the Pacific face collapse from economic and travel shutdowns, exacerbating existing illnesses, and potentially driving people into hunger.
While the number of cases across the Pacific remains low – several countries across the Pacific remain Covid-free and continue to enforce strict border closures – the economic impacts have devastated tourism- and import-dependent economies.
Continue reading...Indigenous Americans had contact with Polynesians 800 years ago, DNA reveals
- Study shows groups crossed vast ocean in about the year 1200
- Proof of encounter found in DNA of present-day populations
Indigenous Americans and Polynesians bridged vast expanses of open ocean around the year 1200 and mingled, leaving incontrovertible proof of their encounter in the DNA of present-day populations, new studies have revealed.
Whether peoples from what is today Colombia or Ecuador drifted thousands of kilometres to tiny islands in the middle of the Pacific, or whether seafaring Polynesians sailed upwind to South America and then back again, is still unknown.
Continue reading...‘No one told me’: Samoan man serves five more years in prison than he had to
Sio Agafili was given concurrent sentences and should have got out in 2015. But he served them consecutively until a judge spotted the mistake
A Samoan man has spent nearly five extra years in prison because neither he, nor prison authorities realised that his two sentences should have been served concurrently, not consecutively.
Sio Agafili, 45, should have been released in December 2015, but he remained in jail until a judge spotted the error when he appeared in court on another matter.
Continue reading...‘Escape the pandemic in paradise’: Fiji opens its borders seeking billionaires
Prime minister looks to attract ‘VIPs’ to help restore country’s battered economy which is heavily dependent on tourism
After months of strict Covid-19 lockdowns and resolutely closed borders, Fiji is open – for billionaires.
The prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, has announced the country is looking to attract “VIPs” to help restore Fiji’s paralysed tourism-dependent economy.
Continue reading...Papua New Guinea chiefs call for halt to plan for country’s largest ever mine
Locals say the Sepik river region must be protected from ‘exploitation and destruction from outsiders’
Chiefs from 28 haus tambarans – “spirit houses” – representing 78,000 people along Papua New Guinea’s remote Sepik river have formally declared they want a proposal for the country’s largest ever mine halted.
PanAust, an Australian-registered miner ultimately owned by the Chinese state-owned Guangdong Rising Assets Management, has proposed building a gold, silver and copper mine on the Frieda river, a tributary to the Sepik.
Continue reading...Coronavirus in the Pacific: weekly briefing
Covid-19-related developments throughout the Pacific Islands
The total number of Covid-19 cases across the Pacific stands at 314, with new cases reported this week in New Caledonia, Northern Mariana Islands and Guam.
New Zealand is under increasing pressure, both internally and from across the region, to consider Pacific countries as part of its proposed travel ‘bubble’, alongside, or even in place of, Australia. The foreign minister, Winston Peters, initially rejected including Pacific island nations, but later backtracked.
Continue reading...New Zealand to relax borders for essential workers – and US America’s Cup team
With no active Covid-19 cases, NZ to open borders to certain migrants but the move will also help team American Magic for March 2021 competition
New Zealand is relaxing its borders to grant exemptions for certain workers – including America’s Cup sailors – and partners of New Zealand citizens to enter the country.
The move comes after 21 days with no new Covid-19 cases across the country and no current live cases.
Continue reading...Pacific countries plead for inclusion in ‘trans-Tasman bubble’ as travel restrictions ease
Many Pacific nations are Covid-free but have been devastated by the economic impacts of the virus
Pacific Island nations are urging Australia and New Zealand to include them in a planned travel “bubble”, as flights across the region resume.
Pacific governments face a delicate balancing act, weighing the devastating economic impact of border closures and travel restrictions on their tourism-dependent economies, with the risk of widespread and uncontrollable Covid-19 infections if the virus is introduced.
Continue reading...Australia’s Pacific minister called Black Lives Matter protests ‘self-indulgent’. He couldn’t be more wrong | Watna Mori
Surely Alex Hawke must realise that he represents Australia to a region of largely black and brown Indigenous peoples
On Friday, as the world was gripped by Black Lives Matter protests, Alex Hawke, Australia’s minister for the Pacific criticised those who attended the protests in Australia, because of health concerns due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
“No one should risk the good position Australia is in, especially to attend a self indulgent ‘protest’ about matters in other countries,” he tweeted.
Continue reading...‘Leave that lady alone’: rugby star’s domestic violence video sparks outcry in Papua New Guinea
Debbie Kaore who has represented the Pacific nation in rugby and boxing shared a video of alleged attack from partner
A shocking video that appears to show a Papua New Guinean sports star being beaten by her partner has sparked outrage across the country and prompted calls for the government to take urgent action to address high rates of violence against women.
Graphic photographs and a video that appear to show a man repeatedly head-butting a woman and hitting her across the face with a hot clothing iron were widely shared across social media in Papua New Guinea over the weekend, sparking outrage.
Continue reading...The Vanuatu island in the eye of the storm
Pentecost Island, devastated by Cyclone Harold in April, has been left a silent shadow of its former self. But its people endure
Touching down on the island of Pentecost in Vanuatu, it takes hours to notice the silence. After a while it hits you: there’s no birdsong, no insects buzzing and chittering. There is no wind in the trees.
You don’t register the silence at first because your eyes are overwhelmed with the magnitude of the destruction. The eye of category 5 Cyclone Harold passed directly over the central and southern half of this remote and mountainous island on April 5.
Continue reading...‘Fear will always be there’: Covid-free island prepares to bring home stranded citizens
Pacific nation of Palau tries to balance citizens’ right to return, with protecting its coronavirus-free status
For 143 Palau citizens trapped overseas by coronavirus travel restrictions, the journey home, always long, will be especially tortuous. To reach their Pacific island home they face six long weeks of quarantine – two in Guam, two in a hotel in Palau, and then another two weeks of self-isolation at home. They will also face at least five Covid-19 tests.
But some Palauans fear that even these measures will not be enough.
Continue reading...