PINA

A deal to provide more than $1.5 billion (US$1.1 billion) in taxpayer money to help Telstra buy telecommunications assets in the Pacific is weeks away from being sealed. Senior officials in Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s department and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have been discussing the prospect of the Australian telco giant buying Digicel Pacific, owned by Irish...

Many developing nations remain unprotected against disaster, even though it is accepted that building community resilience has many benefits, beyond saving lives and livelihoods. That’s the alert from UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who on Wednesday – the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) – urged greater international solidarity for the many countries that are unable to protect themselves. “Weak governance, growing...

The inaugural Women’s International Network for Disaster Risk Reduction (WIN DRR) Leadership Awards have been granted to Vasiti Soko, Director of the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) in Fiji, and Dr Nuraini Rahma Hanifa, an earthquake scientist who founded U-INSPIRE Alliance which brings together young professionals in science, engineering and technology to reduce disaster risk. The prestigious awards, which come...

Fiji reported 391 new cases of COVID-19 in the past seven days. Ministry of Health permanent secretary Dr James Fong said 163 cases were recorded in the Central division, 211 new cases in the Western division, and 17 new cases in the Eastern division. He said since the last update on Monday, 11 October, they had recorded 63 new cases on...

Although COVID-19 deaths continue to decline, vaccine inequity persists, the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday, again calling for greater support for developing countries. Agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reported that the death toll from the disease is now at its lowest level in almost a year. “But it’s still an unacceptably high level – almost 50,000...

Fiji is likely to be hit by one to three tropical cyclones from November 2021 to April 2022, one of which will be a severe system, stated the Fiji Meteorological Service in its 2021/22 Tropical Cyclone outlook released this week. And the Western Division will face an “elevated risk”. “Average tropical cyclone activity for Fiji is likely this season, with one...

Tuvalu, a small atoll island nation in the Central Pacific Ocean, is one of few countries in the world to have so far evaded the pandemic. But, while it has achieved a milestone with no recorded cases of COVID-19, its population of about 11,931 continues to battle food uncertainties and poor nutrition. These challenges, present long before the pandemic...

By Ronald Toito'ona The dual impacts of over-fishing and climate change appear to have resulted in the depletion of fish stocks on various common fishing grounds used by local fishermen from Titiana village, in the Western province of Solomon Islands. Titiana is a coastal community of Micronesian decent, situated at the southern shore about 2 miles west of Gizo, the...

The Small Island Developing States (SIDS)are on a mission to demand more ambitious actions from major emitters and the restoration of the health of the global ocean and more importantly, an increase in climate financing for those affected by climate change. With about three weeks away from the 26th Session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled to be...

Two international statistics organisations have written to Fiji’s Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama to express their concern over the dismissal of the Fiji statistician, Kemueli Naiqama, as CEO of the Fiji Bureau of Statistics from office. Naiqama’s contract was terminated over the release of data desegregated by ethnicity and religious belief in the Fiji Household and Income Survey (HIES) last month. At...