PINA

Palau is supporting Japan’s plan to proceed with hosting the Tokyo Olympics next month, despite calls to cancel the games. President Surangel Whipps Jr told the local reporters last week that the athletes competing in Tokyo Olympics together with their coaches “can participate safely.” Whipps also said the team going to the Olympics are all vaccinated. “I believe that our Ministry of...

New Zealand is exporting 13 tonnes of shark fins each year despite the practice being banned in the country's waters since 2014. New figures obtained by the Herald from Seafood NZ show that nine tonnes of shark fins were sent to Singapore last year, destined to be used in shark fin soup. A further four and a half tonnes were exported...

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the government has agreed to make an official apology for the dawn raids targeting Pasifika people in the 1970s. The formal apology will be held at a commemoration event on 26 June at the Auckland Town Hall. It was a defining era, Ardern said at today's post-Cabinet press conference, with impacts still felt today...

Fiji's Ministry of Health is working on greater contingency measures after the COVID-19 cases soared to 105 Sunday. This is Fiji's biggest daily toll since the second wave of the pandemic began mid-April. The majority of these cases are linked to the existing clusters, but Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong, says they are watching these numbers with a concern. Dr...

Polynesian seafarers likely reached Antarctica hundreds of years before the Western explorers usually credited with discovering the frozen continent, a new study has concluded. New Zealand researchers scoured so-called "grey literature" -- including oral records, historic indigenous artworks and non-academic sources -- looking for links between Maori people and Antarctica. “When you put it together, it's really clear, there's a very...

President of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM)David W Panuelo Monday sent a letter of congratulations to Naftali Bennett, the newly sworn-in Prime Minister of Israel. In addition to the congratulatory remarks, President Panuelo reaffirmed the nations’ commitment to standing with the People and Government of Israel on matters that are “right and just.” Citizens may recall that, while it is...

Samoa caretaker Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi says it is supporters’ encouragements and pleads not to concede that is keeping him in office. Speaking on the state-owned Radio 2AP, Tuilaepa he could drop everything in a second but “what then?” The Human Rights Protection Party(HRPP) leader who has been in power for 22 years said his conscience would not let him...

By Michael Field Since long before the steel-hulled fishing boats from foreign countries arrived in the South Pacific its people have had their own systems for sharing the ocean’s catches. In the New Zealand colony of Tokelau, in the middle of the region, the 1,400 people living on its three atolls practise a system called inati, which ensures every household...

Leaders identify pandemic recovery, climate change, sustainable development as top priorities The leaders of 11 nations and territories across the Pacific have issued a group communiqué following a two-day online gathering of the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders, or PICL. During the June 1-2 summit, a new group of Pacific Island leaders recommitted to the important regional role of the...

The Marshall Islands launched Covid-19 vaccinations for commercial fishermen temporarily in port Majuro this past week — possibly the first Pacific island to vaccinate fishermen. With the country vaccination programme nearing 80 percent completion for the two urban centres, and public health teams now conducting vaccinations for remote outer islands, the Ministry of Health and Human Services announced earlier in...