Black mist across the desert

Yami Lester was ten years old when a British atomic weapon, codenamed Totem 1, was detonated at Emu Field on 15 October 1953. The isolated test site in the desert of South Australia was downwind from his home at

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Patriot missile plan stirs debate in Palau

Stationing a U.S. missile system in Palau would be for security not aggression as the Pacific island country’s close relationship with the United States means it is already a target of possible attack, President

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COP28: Boiling Point

It’s taken 70 years but some of the life is slowly coming back around Bikini atoll, ravaged by the United States’ nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands immediately after World War Two.  For a team from the

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Movers and Shakers

The Pacific Community (SPC)'s Land Resources Division Director, Karen Mapusua, has been recognised with the Global Moana Agriculture and Community-Based Development Award during the recent Stars of Oceania awards

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Briefs

American Samoa A new interactive tool allowing stakeholders to assess the vulnerability to sea-level rise in American Samoa was launched on September 25. Samoa News reported The American Samoa Relative Sea Level Rise

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U.S. groping for contingency plan amid expiration of COFA’s economic provisions

The U.S. economic provisions for the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Marshall Islands under the Compacts of Free Association expired on 30 September without being renewed as the U.S. Congress continued to

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Opinion: Government shutdown threatens key U.S. effort to counter China in Pacific

A looming government shutdown threatens to upend a major multibillion-dollar diplomatic initiative between the United States and three Pacific Island nations that the Biden administration views as a cornerstone of its

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Opinion: U.S. under pressure to conclude compact agreements in the North Pacific

Little information has emerged about how negotiations for the renewal of the Compact of Free Association (COFA) between the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and the United States are progressing. The United States

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Climate Resilient Water Solutions for Pacific Island Countries

Pacific Island Countries vary in size, elevation and the availability of water resources. Large volcanic islands like Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Solomons Islands have abundant surface and groundwater resources while

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Opinion: U.S. claims to Central Pacific flout International law

In defiance of international norms and rules, U.S. officials are laying claim to the large oceanic area in the central Pacific Ocean that is home to the compact states. Now that they are renewing the economic provisions

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Movers and Shakers

Dr Filimon Manoni has assumed his new role as the Pacific Ocean Commissioner after serving the Pacific region as Deputy Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum since May 2020.  Vanuatu's Minister of Climate

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Opinion: What happens now that MEPC80 is behind us?

Next year the delegates of the 6PAC Plus will be back in London to determine the basket of measures that will accompany the newly adopted strategy to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of international shipping. The

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