PINA

Australia's foreign minister announces education funding of at least $20 million (US$12.6 million) over five years in Nauru focusing on “long term change”. Minister Penny Wong who is visiting Nauru for the day, first meeting with President Russ Kun and Cabinet, announced the news to students of Nauru Secondary School, 14 October, saying Australia is committed to another decade and...

The unofficial results of some constituencies have revealed that most former Vanuatu Members of Parliament (MPs) in the last legislature have booked their seats for the 13th legislature. According to the unofficial results of the snap election received by Daily Post, at least 25 of the 51 former MPs have managed to secure their seats. According to the unofficial results, Christophe...

A new report from the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) published on Thursday, warns that half of the world’s countries are not protected by multi-hazard early warning systems. Coinciding with the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction , the numbers in the report are even worse for developing countries on the front...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) recommends raising to two metres, instead of the existing one metre, the imaginary waterline demarcation for projects in the Asia Pacific region to improve the resilience of structures against rising sea levels. An ADB report presented during the bank’s annual board meeting (26-30 September) warns that sea levels in the Asia-Pacific could exceed two metres...

Pacific climate change activists will be pushing for the establishment of a Loss and Damage funding facility at the UN's annual climate change summit “to advance climate justice for grassroots communities” in the region. With less than a month to go before the 27th Conference of Parties or COP27 in Egypt, civil society groups and other stakeholders met last week...

Images of Tagaloa, the giant Samoan creation God show him balancing on two islands and beaming with a smile. The islands were stepping stones for his Polynesian people that have always been on the move. He would be proud of this Samoan rugby league team who are looking to make history and write the final chapter of the Pacific Revolution...

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has refused to admit his visit to Papua New Guinea is about deterring relationships with China amid its growing influence in the Pacific. China has moved to improve its relationships with several Pacific nations in recent years including a landmark security partnership with the Solomon Islands which caused great concern over the possibility of...

By Makereta Komai, PACNEWS Editor in Taipei Taiwan ranks sixth out of 163 countries around the world in overall gender equality and the first in Asia. And women, account for more than 42 percent of the nation’s legislators, well above the world average. “I very much look forward to the day when phrases like “female president” and “woman president” are things...

By Dorothy Wickham; Associate Professor Tarcisius Kabutaulaka, University of Hawaii at Mānoa; Dean Wickham Latrobe University; Hunhak Matt Gale; Dr Debra McDougall, University of Melbourne Last week, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and Australia’s Anthony Albanese met in Canberra for the first time, less than a month after Australia offered to fund Solomon Islands’ elections to avoid delay. Since...

By Anthony Bergin and Grant Newsham When it comes to Australia’s policy in the Pacific islands, what’s first needed is a changed mindset. We need to recognise that the region is key terrain. It’s essential for U.S and Australian defence; it’s not a secondary theatre where we do ‘just enough to keep the locals calm and on side’. What...