Tonga - El Nino
Tonga's meteorology department has put the Kingdom under an El Nino alert.
The Pacific region is forecast to experience an El Niño event, while some scientists have already said it has started.
Tonga's meteorology service said the likely El Nino impacts for Tonga include cooler temperatures at night, less rainfall over the next six to 12 months, and more tropical cyclones next season.
The next tropical cyclone season runs from November this year to April 2024.
The meteorology service has made recommendations for the next several months, including using rainwater wisely and the agriculture sector preparing for drought.
French Polyneisa - plan
French Polynesia's department of agriculture has proposed a draft food transition plan.
During an inter-ministerial meeting, the agriculture minister emphasised the priority nature of the Polynesian food transition project, which was aimed at amplifying the development and transformation of the agri-food system in order to provide healthy, affordable and sustainable food using more local products.
Minister Taivini Teai underlined the country's ambition to better control and secure its food production covering the needs of its population.
Teai said French Polynesia needed to profoundly change eating habits so its society could heal from the pathologies of "junk food".
The government is aiming to transmit this plan to the legislative institutions before the end of this year.
Cook Islands - heritage
One of the last artefacts of pre-Christianity life in the Cook Islands is expected to become the country's first world heritage site.
According to Cook Islands News, the UN's cultural organisation UNESCO has been surveying Maungaroa to determine how much of the 205-acre site will be added to its World Heritage List.
The bid for the Highland Paradise site to become UNESCO-accredited has been building for a few years.
Highland Paradise mataiapo Daniel Mataroa said the 600-year-old mountain village has been well preserved.
Mataroa said the land contained several marae, one of which has been maintained, and was being used to tell the story of the village.
But the others were overgrown with trees and bush.
Fiji - nightclubs
Fiji's Parliament has voted in a new law to reduce nightclub opening hours.
The Liquor Amendment Bill was passed with 29 MPs voting for while 23 voting against it on Friday.
The change in law means the selling of alcohol will be illegal after 1am and nightclub operations will need to close at that time.
According to the government, the law is a response to address concerns about "brawls, robberies and attacks" that take place around nightclub operations.
The government is yet to confirm when the law will come into effect.
Pacific - sharks
A shark species previously thought to inhabit only as far south as Taiwan has been spotted for the first time in the waters of Palau and Solomon Islands.
The Pacific sleeper shark was observed to the east of Palau's largest island during research undertaken in 2021, the Pacific Island Times reported.
And during a 2015 expedition, a large sleeper shark was observed in Solomon Islands, east of Kavach.
Sleeper sharks (Somniosus pacificus) are large deep-water sharks that live at depths of up to 2,000 meters.
A paper recently published in the Journal of Fish Biology, presented the first observation of the shark species in the Western Pacific tropics.
The authors said the observations provided much-needed information on the range of the species and can help guide future management and conservation actions.
Solomon Islands - China
The Solomon Islands government says its police cooperation implementation plan with China is to improve its own police force.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare was in China last week.
Concerns had been raised about the nature of nine agreements he signed while there - particularly the one focusing on police cooperation.
The government said the implementation plan merely set out how the Police Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding was going to be carried out, and the scope of areas of assistance.
It said it fails to see how the improvement of Solomon Islands traffic control and management system in Honiara, provision of police equipment or the completion of the Forensic Autopsy Lab, was a threat to Pacific regional peace and security.
Solomon Isands PM Sogavare held high-level bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Photo: Facebook.com/SIBC
Samoa - assistance
Samoa's Cabinet has approved financial assistance for 20 schools in Savai'i affected by flash floods last month.
A Cabinet directive stated Saipipi Primary School and Amoa College would be $6,000 tālā each to repair the rooms and facilities, the Samoa Observer reported.
A further $4,000 tālā was allocated for the repair of electricity wires that were damaged in the Laumoli Primary School's hall, with the rest of the 17 schools each receiving $2,000 tālā to clean up their compounds and repair damage.
The assistance would be funded from money allocated for emergencies by the Ministry of Finance Budget for the 2022/2023 financial year.
The Ministry of Education will monitor and supervise the disbursement of the funds for the schools but there has been no indication when the funds will be disbursed.
Torrential rain in June this year caused flash flooding in parts of Savai'i forcing the closure of some affected schools for a few days to allow for clean ups.
