- The Walkley Foundation launched the Sean Dorney Grant for Pacific Journalism, which aims to encourage more and imporved journalism about the Pacific islands region by Australian media professionals and outlets.
- The Financial Times has produced a great data visualisation video showing how China has stepped up its marine surveys in the West Pacific over the past year, fostering its scientific understanding of the region possible resources, but also pushing its strategic interests.
- Coincidently, the US is about to send 200 soldiers to Palau next week as part of military exercises.
- Lanelle Tanangada and Freda Tuki are the two women elected out of 25 who stood for this month’s general election in the Solomon Islands. There is still a long way to go towards achieving equal representation of women in decision-making, particularly at the national level in the country.
- Gorethy Kenneth reports on the fact that the PNG Parliamentary Bipartisan Committee on Bougainville was told on Monday that none of the 14 recommendations from a 2017 committee report presented to Parliament before the General Elections have been implemented. The referendum is supposed to be held in October this year.
- Fiji has reportedly revoked the approval of a Chinese resort project on Malolo Island.
- Throughout the Pacific, people are coping with myriad health conditions that cause serious suffering. In a new research, Jo Spratt looks at the lack of palliative care in the region, and what needs to be done.
- After three years working in the Australian aid-funded Solomon Islands Resource Facility (SIRF), Erin Anderson assesses the good and bad, especially focusing on the flexibility that these structures offer with respect to development issues.
- Martha Macintyre reflects on her 25 years of research into health service delivery and the health status of women and children in PNG, and comes to the harsh realisation of the catastrophic failures in services for women and children.
