PINA

Vanuatu Opposition Leader Bob Loughman Thursday said they still have enough numbers to oust the Prime Minister and form the next government. The Speaker of Parliament adjourned the no confidence session to Wednesday next week because there was no quorum. The Opposition side turned up with 25 members while the government boycotted the session. Previously, the Opposition Bloc claimed it has...

A search of the wildfire devastation on the Hawaiian island of Maui on Thursday revealed a wasteland of obliterated neighborhoods and landmarks charred beyond recognition, as the death toll reached at least 36 and survivors told harrowing tales of narrow escapes with only the clothes on their backs. A flyover of historic Lahaina showed entire neighborhoods that had been a...

By Biman Chand Prasad The Pacific Islands are now at a cliff edge. As a region, as countries and as peoples, we face some of the hardest and cruellest choices. First is the growing burden of the climate crisis. The climate crisis impacts on all areas of life, on livelihoods and on human security. It is doing so with fierceness not...

The Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Leaders Meeting later this year in Rarotonga is expected to adopt and approve the redesigned Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF) after it was endorsed by the Forum Economic Ministers Meeting (FEMM) in Suva this week. Forum Chair and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown told journalists, this initiative has been regionally led and developed and is...

For the first time in decades, foreign and defence policy are in the electoral spotlight in New Zealand, as opinion surveys show public concern about the security environment and the major parties wrestle with how to respond to an assertive China. The first part of the country’s defence review, released last week, said that New Zealand's military capabilities had fallen...

Solomon Islands leader of Opposition Matthew Wale has revealed weaknesses in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Act. Speaking in Parliament in Honiara this week, Wale said firstly there is a lack of a specified timeframe for the implementation of the TRC recommendations. Wale said this has led to a delay of over a decade, an indication of a lack of...

Fiji recorded 245 new cases of HIV infections in 2022 compared to 151 new cases in 2021 which is an increase of almost 100 per cent. Highlighting this while receiving Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) drugs from the Indian Government at the Ministry of Health headquarters in Suva Thursday, Minister Dr Antonio Lalabalavu said it is also very worrying to note that...

By Cyril Ip Beijing submitted a searing working paper to the United Nations opposing Tokyo’s plans to release treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean, which could begin as soon as the end of August. “If the so-called treated water is really safe and harmless, why does Japan not dispose of it within its own territory...

Tonga ran in four tries and survived a sending off early in the second half en route to a 28-3 rugby win over Canada on Wednesday. The 15th-ranked Pacific Islanders are gearing up for next month's World Cup in France. No. 23 Canada, which failed to qualify for the rugby showcase for the first time ever, was seeing its first...

Australia coach Eddie Jones has named La Rochelle second-row Will Skelton as captain of a young Wallabies squad for Rugby World Cup 2023. Three uncapped players, Issak Fines-Leleiwasa, Max Jorgensen and Blake Schoupp have been included in the 33-player squad, but there is no room for Michael Hooper or Quade Cooper. Only eight of the 33 players called up by Jones...