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☆ He ran out of countries to visit, so he created his own
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Richard Collett | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —“I like to put it simply,” says Randy “R Dub!” Williams, a late-night “slow jams” DJ from San Diego who’s also known as “the Sultan of Slowjamastan.” “I ran out of countries, so I created my own.”A broadcaster by night, Williams has spent his life attempting to visit every country in the world. The Republic of Slowjamastan even claims over 500 registered citizens, while 4,500 more are said to have been conditionally approved or are waiting in line for citizenship. Williams was inspired to create his own country after visiting various “micronations” – self-declared territories often run by eccentric leaders – on his world travels. Republic of Slowjamastan Ministry of CommunicationsWilliams says he is working on creating diplomatic ties with other countries, and he’s had his Slowjamastan passport stamped by 16 different countries on his recent travels, including South Africa, New Zealand, Vanuatu, and the United States. The next stage is for the sultan to gain recognition of his micronation’s secession from the United States, although that might be a little far-fetched even for Williams.

Persons: CNN —, ”, Randy “, ” Williams, San Diego who’s, ” “, Williams, Slowjamastan, that’s, Slowjamastan Williams, I’m, –, “, Kevin Baugh, We’re, we’ll, Williams ’, he’s, He’s, he's, Republic of Slowjamastan Ministry of Communications Williams, Republic of Slowjamastan, Biden Organizations: CNN, Republic of Slowjamastan Ministry of Communications, UN, The Sovereign, Democratic People’s, Independence, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace Locations: San Diego, Slowjamastan, California, United States, America, Dublândia, Republic of, Republic, Turkmenistan, United Territories, People’s Republic, Nevada, East Germany, Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, South Africa, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Montevideo

☆ New Zealand and Fiji finalising defence agreement - Fiji PM
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Lucy Craymer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins hold a press conference in Wellington, New Zealand June 7, 2023. REUTERS/Lucy CraymerWELLINGTON, June 7 (Reuters) - New Zealand and Fiji are finalising a defence agreement that will increase engagement between the two countries militaries and help build capacity and skills in the Fiji Defence Force, the Fijian prime minister said on Wednesday. Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka told media in Wellington, where he is meeting senior New Zealand government officials including the prime minister and opposition leader, that the agreement would be finalised next week. “The agreement will allow defence officials to undertake engagement in different areas including capacity building and upskilling and exposure to new technologies interoperability and technical support among other,” he said. In May, the U.S and Papua New Guinea signed a defence cooperation agreement and a maritime surveillance deal.

Persons: Sitiveni Rabuka, Chris Hipkins, Lucy Craymer WELLINGTON, ”, Rabuka, “, ” Hipkins, Lucy Craymer, Michael Perry Organizations: Fiji Prime, Zealand, REUTERS, Fiji Defence Force, Fiji’s, New Zealand, New, U.S, NZ, Thomson Locations: Wellington , New Zealand, New Zealand, Fiji, Wellington, Australia, China, Solomon Islands, U.S, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu

☆ Australia security pact 'stigma' must be removed -Vanuatu PM
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Kirsty Needham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SYDNEY, June 7 (Reuters) - Vanuatu Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau said his government "must remove the stigma" from a security agreement with Australia and work toward having it ratified by parliament, local media reported on Wednesday. The Pacific Islands nation signed a security treaty covering disaster relief, defence, policing and cyber security with Australia in December, but during a visit by Australia Defence Minister Richard Marles on Tuesday, Vanuatu officials said the document was still being examined. Some Vanuatu politicians who favour ties with China, a major infrastructure lender, have expressed concern over the deal. "We must remove the stigma that the agreement is one-sided and does not reflect Vanuatu’s sovereignty," Kalsakau said in a speech, the Vanuatu Daily Post reported on Wednesday. China's navy sent a ship with humanitarian supplies to Vanuatu in April after two cyclones hit in March.

Persons: Ishmael Kalsakau, Richard Marles, Kalsakau, Kirsty Needham, Editng, Gerry Doyle Organizations: SYDNEY, Vanuatu, Australia, Australia Defence, Vanuatu Daily Post, Australian Defence Force, HMAS Canberra, Thomson Locations: Australia, China, Vanuatu, Washington, United States, Papua New Guinea

☆ Two cargo vessels collide off Greek island, near Turkey
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/4] A Hellenic Coast Guard helicopter flies over Vanuatu-flagged ship ANT during a rescue operation after two cargo vessels collided off the Greek island of Chios, Greece, June 2, 2023. Hellenic Coast Guard/Handout via REUTERSATHENS, June 2 (Reuters) - Two cargo vessels collided off the Greek island of Chios near the Turkish cost on Friday, authorities said, adding that there were no injuriesThe Singapore-flagged cargo vessel Potentia with 19 crew members and the Vanuatu-flagged ship ANT with 13 crew collided in the eastern Aegean Sea nine miles north of Chios. "There are no injuries, there is no risk of pollution", a coast guard official told Reuters on condition of anonymity, adding that the ships were not loaded with cargo. Greek authorities have deployed seven vessels and a search and rescue helicopter to the site. Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Editing by Kirsten DonovanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Lefteris Papadimas, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: Hellenic Coast Guard, REUTERS, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Vanuatu, Chios, Greece, REUTERS ATHENS, Turkish, Singapore

☆ Modi, Blinken to meet Pacific Island leaders in Papua New Guinea
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Kirsty Needham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 22 (Reuters) - India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken have arrived in Papua New Guinea ahead of meetings with Pacific Island leaders to discuss trade, climate change and regional security on Monday. Modi, who was met at the airport on Sunday evening by PNG Prime Minister James Marape, will hold a bilateral meeting on Monday morning, before hosting a regional summit with 14 Pacific Island leaders. Blinken is expected to sign a Defence Cooperation Agreement between the United States and PNG, and also hold a Pacific Island leaders meeting in the afternoon. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, Samoa Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa, Vanuatu Prime Minister Alatoi Ishmael Kalsakau, and New Caledonia President Louis Mapou were among the Pacific island leaders to arrive on Sunday. New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Australia's Pacific Minister Pat Conroy will also join the meetings.

☆ Magnitude 7.7 quake off New Caledonia triggers tsunami warning in South Pacific
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

View of Ouvea Island, one of the Loyalty Islands, in New Caledonia. Tsunami warnings were issued to countries in the South Pacific on Friday after a 7.7 magnitude struck southeast of the Loyalty Islands in the French territory of New Caledonia. Potential tsunami threats were issued for Vanuatu, Fiji and New Caledonia, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said, while Australia's meteorology bureau said there was a threat for Lord Howe Island off its east coast. The United States Geological Survey said the quake hit at a depth of about 38 km (24 miles). New Zealand said it was still assessing if the quake posed any tsunami threats to its coasts.

Climate change drove heat in the city to a record-breaking 48C (118F) in 2016. While traditional insurance can take months to pay, with so-called "parametric" insurance there is no need to prove losses. At annual climate talks in Egypt last year, nonprofits urged richer nations to help finance parametric insurance as a way of compensating victims of worsening weather extremes. At the moment, insurance schemes in the developing world are largely subsidized by nonprofit groups, national governments, or wealthy countries. Insurance payouts allow them to buy things like gloves to protect their hands from scorching hot metal tools, or fans to stay cool and avoid heat exhaustion.

☆ Six Pacific countries at high risk of debt distress - World Bank
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

To match Feature PACIFIC-JUSTICE/ REUTERS/Lincoln FeastWELLINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) - Six Pacific countries are at a high risk of debt distress in part due to government spending to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, the World Bank said in a report on Thursday. Among other countries in the region, Vanuatu is rated at medium risk, while Palau and Nauru’s debt is sustainable, the report noted. The World Bank last month said that Fiji must also take urgent action to reduce its debt burden. Stephen Ndegwa, World Bank Country Director for Papua New Guinea & the Pacific Islands, said reducing debt, strengthening revenue and improving the quality of government spending are critical areas for Pacific countries to address. It also said that Pacific countries should allocate more to social assistance and protection measures.

Hong Kong CNN —A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the South Pacific on Friday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, triggering a tsunami warning for nearby nations including Vanuatu, Fiji and Kiribati. The US National Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami alert for coasts located within 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of the epicenter which lay between Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. Tsunami waves reaching up to 1 meter are possible along some coasts of Vanuatu, according to the US National Tsunami Warning Center, downgrading an earlier assessment that said waves could be 3 meters high. Smaller waves below 0.3 meters could be expected in Fiji, Kiribati and New Zealand’s remote Kermadec Islands, the warning center added. New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency tweeted that it is assessing whether the quake “poses any tsunami threat to New Zealand.”The quake was earlier reported to be at 7.7-magnitude but has since been revised up.

☆ US opens embassy in Tonga amid Chinese increasing influence in the region
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Brad Lendon | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —The United States opened an embassy in the Pacific island nation of Tonga on Tuesday, Washington’s latest move to broaden its diplomatic footprint in a region where China has been increasing its influence in recent years. “These actions advance the Biden-Harris administration’s ongoing efforts to strengthen the US-Pacific Islands partnership and to support Pacific regionalism,” the White House said in a statement at the time. The embassy in the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa is the second Washington has opened in the Pacific islands this year, following the reopening of one in the Solomon Islands in February. Plans are also underway to open an embassy in Vanuatu, the State Department said in March. Analysts say the Pacific island nations have a strategic military value for the US and its ally Australia.

☆ Exclusive: Biden to sign defence pact in Papua New Guinea, with eyes on China
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Kirsty Needham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Washington is seeking to deter Pacific island nations, which span 40 million kilometres of ocean, from security ties with China, a rising concern amid tensions over Taiwan. Biden will visit PNG capital Port Moresby on May 22 on his way to a summit of the Quad countries - the United States, Japan, India and Australia - in Sydney, the White House has confirmed. There he will meet 18 Pacific island leaders. Biden's meeting in person with Pacific leaders is seen in the region as a major step in restoring trust. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was told by Pacific leaders in Fiji last year: "We have felt at times, to borrow an American term, like a flyover country.

☆ Biden to become first sitting US president to travel to Papua New Guinea
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Betsy Klein | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —President Joe Biden will travel to Papua New Guinea during a trip to the Indo-Pacific region this month, the White House announced Tuesday, marking the first visit of a sitting US president to the Pacific country. The visit will take place between stops in Japan and Australia, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who called the partnership between the US and Pacific Island countries “critical.”Jean-Pierre touted “deep historical and people-to-people ties” between the US and Pacific Island countries. Biden will meet with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape and other Pacific Island Forum leaders, Jean-Pierre said. The Biden administration has worked to deepen its engagement with Pacific Island nations, including the announcements of new embassies in the Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Vanuatu. Biden is set to attend the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, May 19-21, and will later attend the Quad Leaders’ Summit in Sydney, Australia, on May 24, where he will be joined by heads of state from Australia, Japan and India.

☆ US opens embassy in Tonga in new pushback against China in Pacific
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, May 9 (Reuters) - The United States has opened a new embassy in Tonga, the State Department said on Tuesday, part of efforts to step up the U.S. diplomatic presence in the Pacific region to counter China. The United States "officially opened the U.S. Embassy in Nuku'alofa on May 9, 2023," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. Miller said the embassy would allow Washington to deploy additional diplomatic personnel and resources, including the potential appointment of a resident ambassador to Tonga, with which the United States has had diplomatic relations since 1972. Despite the diplomatic push, the Solomon Islands announced in March it had awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara. The United States and regional allies Australia and New Zealand have had concerns that China has ambitions to build a naval base in the region since the Solomon Islands struck a security pact with Beijing last year.

☆ I work for a nude cruise. It's liberating — but there are rules. Passengers can't get too excited, and clothes must be worn to dinner.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Brooke Morton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

I'm a cruise organizer for Bare Necessities Tour and Travel, a nudist cruise company. I spend all year as part of a team planning our two sailings: a February trip aboard a big cruise ship called our Big Nude Boat, which has 3,000 passengers, and a smaller cruise in summer. Now I'm vice president of sales for the two Bare Necessities cruises. Entertainers and staffers on a Bare Necessities cruise wear clothes. On our Big Nude Boat with a little more than 2,100 passengers, about 70% of guests on board are repeat guests.

☆ World Bank raises 2023 growth outlook in developing East Asia as China reopens
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Xinghui Kok | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

(Reuters) - Growth in the developing economies of East Asia and the Pacific will accelerate in 2023 thanks to China’s reopening and economic rebound, but high inflation and household debt will weigh on consumption in some countries, the World Bank said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: A participant stands near a logo of World Bank at the International Monetary Fund - World Bank Annual Meeting 2018 in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, October 12, 2018. The stronger forecast was due to China’s reopening, which the World Bank expects will help its economy rebound to 5.1% from 3% last year. Countries in developing East Asia and the Pacific include Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Mongolia, plus island nations like Fiji, Vanuatu and Palau. “While still small compared to the advanced economies like the U.S., China has become an increasingly important source of knowledge for innovation in other East Asia and Pacific countries,” said the report.

☆ After twin cyclones leave thousands homeless, Vanuatu takes climate plea to world stage
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Kirsty Needham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Pacific island nation's Minister of Climate Change, Ralph Regenvanu, said 119 governments have co-sponsored Vanuatu's resolution, which seeks legal clarity on the obligation of states to take climate change action, and draws attention to the vulnerability of small islands states hit by worsening storms and rising seas. Vanuatu hopes more nations will sign-on before the general assembly debate begins on Wednesday, and it will be passed by consensus, he said. More than 3,000 people are still in evacuation centres three weeks after two category-four cyclones hit Vanuatu, which has a population of 319,000 spread across 80 islands. Vanuatu took up the challenge to seek a legal opinion from the United Nation's top court after a group of Pacific islands university students in 2019 petitioned governments with the idea. Cynthia Houniuhi, President of the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, said it was the most ambitious action they could think of.

☆ Fossil fuels are the new nukes: Pacific island nations at risk from rising sea levels support a nonproliferation treaty for oil and gas
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Leaders from Pacific island nations at risk from the climate crisis gathered last week in Vanuatu. The nations of Vanuatu and Tuvalu support a treaty to limit fossil-fuel use. Public and private financing for fossil fuels is also still greater than investment in climate adaptation and mitigation. Developing countries need financing to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, Berman said. "A fossil-fuel treaty could shift the social norm and make expansion unacceptable within foreign policy," Berman said.

☆ Exodus of healthcare workers from poor countries worsening, WHO says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Emma Farge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Baz RatnerGENEVA, March 14 (Reuters) - Poorer countries are increasingly losing healthcare workers to wealthier ones as the latter seek to shore up their own staff losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes through active recruitment, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. "Health workers are the backbone of every health system, and yet 55 countries with some of the world's most fragile health systems do not have enough and many are losing their health workers to international migration," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general. He was referring to a new WHO list of vulnerable countries which has added eight extra states since it was last published in 2020. Some 115,000 healthcare workers died from COVID around the world during the pandemic but many more left their professions due to burnout and depression, he said. Asked which countries were attracting more workers, he said wealthy OECD countries and Gulf states but added that competition between African countries had also intensified.

☆ Magnitude 7.2 earthquake strikes near Vanuatu - USGS
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Jan 8 (Reuters) - A 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck 40 km (25 miles) west of Vanuatu's town of Port-Olry, United States Geological Survey said on Sunday. The earthquake was at a depth of 10 km, USGS said. "Tsunami waves reaching 0.3 to 1 meters above the tide level are possible for some coasts of Vanuatu," said the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. Reporting by Jyoti Narayan in Bengaluru Editing by Raissa KasolowskyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Larry Page, Sergey Brin Post-Google Lives: Investments, Yachts, Islands
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Hugh Langley | Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +33 min

Even before their retirement from Google, Page and Brin relied heavily on their respective family offices to bring order to their worlds. The Bay Area headquarters of Koop, Larry Page's family office, is nondescript and gives little indication of the billionaire's empire. Insider; Marianne Ayala/Insider Show less Bayshore Global Management, Sergey Brin's family office, is based in Palo Alto and has a bit more of a public face. Insider; Marianne Ayala/Insider Show lessThe difference in styles holds true for Brin's family office, Bayshore Global Management. The CEO of Page's family office is Wayne Osborne, a former elder in the Presbyterian Church who attended Princeton Theological Seminary.

☆ Australia's Wong to visit Pacific in bipartisan effort to boost ties
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The group comprises Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, senior government minister Pat Conroy, and their opposition counterparts, the politicians said in a joint statement on Sunday. Discussions would cover development objectives, the "existential threat" of climate change, and key regional security issues, the politicians said in their statement. The group, while in Vanuatu, would attend a ceremony for the handover of a new wharf and police boat "as part of Australia’s enduring cooperation on shared regional security interests". "I am pleased we are ... demonstrating Australia’s enduring commitment to strengthening our Pacific partnerships and addressing regional challenges,” Wong said. It is the first government-led bipartisan visit to Pacific island countries since 2019, they said.

☆ Island nation Vanuatu sends climate resolution to UN for court opinion
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Valerie Volcovici | Moushumi Basu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The island nation Vanuatu and 17 other countries on Wednesday published a draft resolution asking the world's top court to clarify what responsibilities governments around the world have to protect future generations from climate change. ICJ advisory proceedings involve a series of hearings, which give a platform to all countries to provide evidence. An advisory opinion would not request compensation or reparations, the Vanuatu government said. A vote at the U.N. General Assembly to request the ICJ advisory opinion would only require a majority to proceed. An opinion by the ICJ could bring about greater climate action, campaigners said.

☆ New Zealand increases funding for Vanuatu wharves
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Lucy Craymer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta speaks during a session of the UN Human Rights Councill in Geneva, Switzerland February 28, 2022. New Zealand's Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said in a statement on Wednesday that building climate-resilient wharves and establishing reliable and regular shipping services would help the prosperity and wellbeing of the people of Vanuatu. The project is part of the Vanuatu Inter-Island Shipping Support Project, which has among a number of projects, has completed two wharves. New Zealand, alongside the government of Vanuatu and the Asian Development Bank, has been a co-financier of the project since 2012. Foreign investment in wharves in Vanuatu came into the spotlight in 2018 following media reports China wanted to establish a military base in Vanuatu after funding a wharf big enough to handle large warships.

☆ China holds policing discussion with officials of Pacific island nations
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SYDNEY, Nov 23 (Reuters) - China said it held a video meeting to discuss police cooperation with several Pacific island nations on Tuesday, with at least two nations telling Reuters their ministers and police commissioners were unavailable to attend. read moreThose concerns were first sparked when Solomon Islands struck a security pact with China in April. The video meeting, co-chaired with Solomon Islands Minister of Police Anthony Veke, took place after two powerful earthquakes struck Solomon Islands on Tuesday. A photograph posted to the Twitter account of the Chinese embassy in Fiji showed Veke as the only Pacific islands minister at the video meeting. read moreAt a White House summit in September, the United States pledged to boost aid and step up FBI training for Pacific islands including the Solomon Islands.

☆ US reverses position and agrees to put money towards a fund that would help poorer nations address climate change
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Developed countries at the UN COP 27 summit agreed to create a "loss and damage" climate change fund. The fund would compensate less developed countries bearing the brunt of climate change. It also adds a stipulation that developing countries cannot sue developed countries for these payments. COP 27, or the Conference of the Parties, is an annual summit put on by the UN to address the adverse impacts of climate change. Since the 1992 convention, developing countries have demanded that a "loss and damage fund," facilitated by the UN, be implemented.

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