PINA

Since opening borders after the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia and New Zealand have been aggressively sourcing for Pacific Islander workers to help fill a severe labour shortage in their countries. In the meantime, with investments from Asia, especially China and Korea, increasing in the region, Asian workers have been slowly filtering into the island nations, especially Fiji. This month (18-20 April), the...

The U.S will provide US$1 billion to the UN’s flagship climate fund – its first such contribution in six years. Joe Biden made the commitment as he hosted a virtual meeting of world leaders last Thursday to spur high-level leadership to limit global warming to 1.5C. This is the first time since 2017 the U.S has pledged cash to the Green...

The sheer environmental degradation and considerable loss of life that followed Rio Tinto’s running of Bougainville’s Panguna gold and copper mine must rank it as one of the world’s greatest mining debacles. Seven years after Rio transferred its majority shareholding to the Papua New Guinea and Bougainville governments, and 25 years after the end of the civil war sparked by...

Four Pacific nations plan to mine the ocean for high-value metals, but seven other Pacific countries oppose deep sea mining, saying the untested industry could have catastrophic environmental consequences. By Lucy Murray Hundreds of billions of dollars is sitting in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, but the decision about whether to extract them is pitting neighbour against neighbour. Nuggets containing metals...

Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) President Ian Chesterman has been elected to the Executive Board of the Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC). Chesterman secured the position after beating three other candidates in a vote at the ONOC General Assembly in Australian city Brisbane. The annual meeting came at the end of a busy week in Brisbane where representatives from 17 National Olympic...

South Africa women and Tonga men took one step closer towards promotion by winning the opening tournament of the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series 2023 on Saturday at Markötter Stadium. Following three days of energy-sapping action in Stellenbosch, hosts South Africa dug deep to turn in an impressive performance in the women’s final, coming from behind to beat Belgium 17-10...

As James Cleverly took the rutted gravel road from the main airport of the Solomon Islands that leads to the prime minister’s residence, he passed under a flag bearing the red background and yellow stars of the People's Republic of China. It fluttered prominently on Thursday above the motorcade passing the construction site of a US$50 million (£40 million) stadium...

The United Kingdom's commitments to upholding human rights came under question on Monday over the West Papua issue, resulting in a heated exchange between a government representative and five members of the House of Lords in the Upper Chamber of the British Parliament. The exchange occurred after Minister of State for the United Nations, Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon responded...

If governments continue with the same environmental policies currently in place, the world will become 2.8°C hotter by the end of the century, which would be “a death sentence”, warned the UN chief on Thursday. Antonio Guterres was addressing via videolink, the fourth meeting of the Major Economies Forum, convened by the United States President Joe Biden, which is designed...

Papua New Guinea is sitting on a ticking bomb regarding the selling and consumption of synthetic drugs, says a senior policeman in charge of the fight against drugs. Donald Yamasombi, head of the illicit and narcotics investigations team, said the recent seizures of 500kg of cocaine, 245kg of methamphetamine, K11,400 (US$3,237) in demonetised fake money and the presence of an...