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Know what’s happening across Oceania—before your coffee’s cold.
TODAY IN OCEANIA
Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day
Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day is observed on the first Thursday of May and focuses on early support, access to care, and reducing stigma around mental health in children. It calls for families, schools, and communities to recognise signs early and provide safe support — listening and support can make a real difference in a child’s life.
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OCEANIA MARKETS
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S&P/ASX 200
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8,793.60
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+1.30%
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S&P/NZX 50 Index Gross
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13,145.19
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+0.84%
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SPX STRI Fiji
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9837.61
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+1.02％
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ASX 200 and NZX 50 Data Provided By:
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*Market index data sourced from official exchange publications and financial data aggregators. ASX and NZX data reflect end-of-day figures from the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges respectively. SPX (South Pacific Stock Exchange) figures reflect the most recent published data. Note: NZX and SPX figures include dividends (total return), while the ASX figure reflects share price movement only.
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REGIONAL NEWS
Port Vila will bring together regional governments, private sector, and researchers to address climate solutions
Vanuatu to Host Pacific Innovation Forum on Climate in July 2026
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Vanuatu will host the Pacific Innovation Forum on Climate and the Environment (PIFCE) in Port Vila in July 2026, following Council of Ministers endorsement and national budget allocation. The three-day event, organized with the Pacific Climate Change Centre at SPREP and Vanuatu-based association V-Lab, aims to connect governments, entrepreneurs, civil society, researchers, youth, and development partners across the region to showcase practical climate and environmental solutions. The initiative emerged from a proposal by Climate Change Minister Ralph Regenvanu and V-Lab, seeking to establish a Pacific-led platform for climate action.
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Acanthophora spicifera discovered at Midway Atoll in 2022, likely transported via ship hull fouling despite federal biosecurity protocols requiring hull inspections. Photo credit: Hawaii Public Radio
Prickly Seaweed Reaches Papahānaumokuākea, 70 Years After Arriving in Hawaii
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Researchers detected Acanthophora spicifera at Midway Atoll in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in 2022, marking the first confirmed presence of Hawaii's most abundant invasive macroalgae in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The species arrived at Pearl Harbor in 1952 through biofouling on vessel hulls and spread to all eight main Hawaiian Islands within a decade. The seaweed reproduces both sexually and through fragmentation, allowing individual pieces to establish new populations, and thrives across varied habitats from shallow reef flats to deeper waters. Federal authorities responded by implementing quarantine protocols, restricting vessel movements between islands, and deploying environmental DNA sampling techniques that can detect the algae's presence in seawater without visual confirmation—a method proving more accurate than traditional survey approaches.
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Technology-driven agriculture systems now operating across more than 30 schools and 10 outer islands, addressing food security gaps in Pacific region. Photo credit: Go Global AgriTech
Hydroponics Reaches 90 Percent of Fiji's Resorts
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Go Global AgriTech has deployed climate-adapted farming systems across Fiji at a scale that includes roughly 90 percent of the country's resort properties, more than 30 educational institutions, and operations spanning 10 outer islands. The company reports completing 20 projects with non-governmental organizations focused on local food supply chains and skills development. The systems combine hydroponics with solar power, coco peat growing media, and automated irrigation to produce vegetables year-round in conditions where traditional agriculture faces mounting challenges from saltwater intrusion, soil degradation, and extreme weather events.
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PRESENTED BY LANI MOKOSOI
FILMING IN FIJI?
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I’ve spent more than two decades working in Fiji’s film industry, and I know how to get things done on the ground. Whether you need locations, approvals, transport, or crew, I’ll make sure your production runs seamlessly.
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I’m here to take the stress out of filming in Fiji — so you can focus on the creative work.
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Starlink went live in Papua New Guinea on 2 May 2026 — nearly two years after an Ombudsman Commission directive froze the licensing process. Photo Credit: PNG Haus Bung
PNG Clears Starlink to Operate After Two-Year Legal Hold-Up, as Media Summit Puts AI on the Agenda
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At the PNG Media Summit 2026, ICT Secretary Steven Matainaho confirmed that NICTA had formally issued a Starlink operator licence, with the service going live on 2 May 2026. NICTA granted Starlink authorisations covering network, gateway, applications, and spectrum — including KA and KU bands — following assessment of the company's technical capability, financial capacity, and consumer protection commitments under the National ICT Act 2009. The path to licensing was not straightforward: the process had been halted by an Ombudsman Commission directive in March 2024, which legally restrained NICTA from issuing the licence until court proceedings resolved the matter.
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The upgraded pact covers security, the economy and people-to-people ties, with AU$30 million in immediate fuel crisis support — as Australia's parallel bid with Vanuatu collapses under Chinese pressure. Photo credit: Fiji Government
Australia and Fiji Sign Up to 'Vuvale Union' Security and Economic Treaty
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Australia and Fiji have agreed on a new security and political treaty, the "Vuvale Union," building on an earlier partnership first signed in 2019. Vuvale is a Fijian word for family. Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka held talks with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Pacific Minister Pat Conroy in Suva on Wednesday, describing security as "a central pillar" of the partnership. The agreement has three pillars — security, the economy, and people — though few specifics have been confirmed, with Wong saying negotiations were still ongoing. Rabuka also said the union would operationalise the Pacific Islands Forum-endorsed 'Ocean of Peace' declaration, which aims to keep the region free from militarisation. Australia separately announced AU$30 million in targeted budget support to help Fiji manage the ongoing global fuel crisis, with Wong noting Fiji's role as a supply and storage hub for many Pacific nations.
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The RMI's Office of Commerce, Investment and Tourism has no existing destination brand to speak of — RUN will develop one, funded by the US Economic Development Administration. Photo credit: RMI Office of Commerce, Investment & Tourism
Marshall Islands Commissions New Zealand Agency to Build Its Tourism Brand from the Ground Up
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The Republic of the Marshall Islands has engaged Auckland-based creative agency RUN to develop its first formal tourism brand, funded in full by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. RUN's co-founders — Raymond McKay (Chief Creative Officer) and Laura Cibilich (Design Director) — are leading the work, with early creative concepts already produced and an on-site visit planned for research, photography, and filming. The brief covers not just visual identity but community engagement, with local perspectives intended to shape the final brand rather than be added after the fact. RUN's previous Pacific work includes a region-wide campaign to phase out single-use plastics in tourism, run in partnership with the Pacific Tourism Organisation and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme.
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PRESENTED BY VONU STUDIOS
Children's Book: Vonu and the Druas Play Hide and Seek
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Join Vonu the turtle and the stingray twins, the Druas Vai and Fai, in an exciting game of hide and seek! A heartwarming story filled with fun and adventure, perfect for young readers. Get your copy today!
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Without a recycling system, waste oil in Vanuatu has been stored indefinitely or dumped into the ground — a new facility on Efate aims to change that. Photo credit: VBTC
Vanuatu's First Pyrolysis Plant to Convert Ship Waste Oil into Reusable Fuel
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A pilot pyrolysis plant is being established at Melek Tree on Efate by Andrew Bohn, who runs Ocean Logistics, a shipping agency in Vanuatu, through a new company called Oceans Environmental Solutions. Bohn says Vanuatu currently has no system to manage waste oil from ships, leaving operators with two options: indefinite storage or dumping into the ground. The pyrolysis process works by heating waste oil in a vacuum — without burning it — so that it evaporates, and the vapours are then cooled and condensed back into reusable fuel. Pyrolysis is a thermal decomposition of organic materials in the absence of oxygen that produces gaseous, liquid, and solid compounds, and research published in scientific literature shows the resulting oil can carry a calorific value close to conventional liquid fuels derived from fossil sources. Bohn describes the facility as operating similarly to a distillation plant and says it would be the first of its kind in Vanuatu and possibly the wider Pacific.
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The Kanoa Lodge Moorea will open at Haapiti — on the island's less-developed west side — with 18 rooms, a pool and restaurant, and a commitment to source produce from local fishers and farmers. Photo credit: Tahiti Infos
Moorea Gets Its First Two-Star Hotel, Targeting the Gap Between Luxury Resorts and Family Guesthouses
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The government of French Polynesia approved tax incentives on 29 April for the construction of the Kanoa Lodge Moorea, a two-star hotel to be built at PK 34.5 in Haapiti on the west side of Moorea. The property, run by Jérôme Fernandez through the company Kanoa Lodge Moorea, will sit on a 3,500 square metre plot and offer 18 keys — five two-bedroom bungalows and two four-bedroom bungalows — along with a pool and restaurant bar. The total investment cost is close to 290 million francs CFP. The project was selected under French Polynesia's call for expressions of interest (AMI) for tourism investment, which in 2025 had a total budget envelope of seven billion francs across all selected projects. Moorea's accommodation options are heavily skewed toward either five-star overwater bungalow resorts such as the Sofitel, Hilton and Manava — where nightly rates start around $500 USD — or small family-run guesthouses (pensions de famille), leaving a thinly served middle market, particularly on the island's less-touristed western coast.
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OCEANIANS MAKING WAVES
Wāhine Māori Joins All-Women Crew Sailing South Pacific to Trace Ocean Plastic to Its Source
 Ten women depart Auckland on a voyage that will take them from Great Barrier Island to Tonga as part of a ten-leg global study. Photo credit: RNZ
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An international crew of 10 women, including one New Zealander, set off from Auckland's Westhaven Marina on a sailing expedition to trace plastic in the South Pacific. The New Zealander on board is Rāwinia Wikaira (Ngāti Wai, Ngāi Takoto, Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Te Rangi), a recent Otago University graduate who studied Māori Studies and Ecology, and who was the recipient of eXXpedition's bursary for a wāhine Māori to join the crew. The expedition is led by British environmental organisation eXXpedition and ocean advocate Emily Penn, with the aim of producing the first global study mapping ocean plastic pollution back to its sources on land. The global voyage consists of 10 legs, visiting the Arctic, Antarctica, the Caribbean and the North Pacific through 2026 and 2027.
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PACIFIC INITIATIVES
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Pacific Dynamics Call For Papers
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Share your research with the Pacific community and help expand Pacific scholarship.
Pacific Dynamics invites work that centres the perspectives of Pacific peoples, and welcomes submissions from both emerging and established scholars. All articles are open access and do not entail article processing fees.
View guidelines: Pacific Dynamics: Call for Papers (2026 Issue).
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UNDP Fiji Call for Proposals
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The UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme Fiji is inviting local non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society organisations (CSOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs) to submit project concepts for grant support focused on chemicals and waste management. Important note: This call is specifically focused on chemicals and/or waste management, aligned with Strategic Initiative IV of the Country Programme Strategy (CPS). Grants of up to US$50,000 are available for innovative projects that demonstrate clear impact and sustainable practices. Only selected project concepts will be invited to complete a more detailed proposal application form. Deadline: Thursday, 11 June 2026. For inquiries, application templates and guidance, please email akisi.bolabola@undp.org and losana.mualaulau@undp.org
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Guam Women’s Chamber of Commerce to Host 13th Annual Golf Par-Tee Tournament
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The 13th Annual Golf Par-Tee Tournament, hosted by the Guam Women's Chamber
of Commerce (GWCC), is set to tee off on Friday, May 8, 2026, at the Country Club of the
Pacific (CCP). The tournament kicks off with a Shotgun Start at 1:00 PM and promises a day of
sport and celebration under the dazzling Disco Fever theme. Registration is now open. Teams and individuals can register online at
guamwomenschamber.com/events. Spots are limited, and early registration is strongly
encouraged to secure your place on the course.
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Event Details:
Date: Thursday, May 8, 2026
Time: Shotgun Start at 1:00 PM
Venue: Country Club of the Pacific (CCP), Guam
Format: 2 Person – Modified Calloway
Divisions: Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed
MEDIA CONTACT
Administrative Director, Guam Women’s Chamber of Commerce
Danica Guerrero
+1 (671) 488‐1300
Website:
guamwomenschamber.com
Events:
guamwomenschamber.com/events
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QUICK TAKES
- The Solomon Islands government plans to extend the runway at Honiara's Henderson International Airport from 2,200 metres to 3,000 metres and upgrade the terminal with two aerobridges and two baggage carousels.
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