Tagata o te Moana for 17 August 2019

The Pacific Islands Forum summit ended in confusion last night, with disagreement over the strength of commitments to combating climate change. The day-long leaders' retreat again highlighted the chasm between Australia and the region on climate, as 18 leaders met on one of the most vulnerable places in the world; Leaders of Pacific Islands Forum countries and territories want Indonesia to allow a team from the UN Human Rights Commissioner's office to visit West Papua, and soon; While Forum Leaders made a joint call for immediate action in ocean health another recent regional meeting agreed that indigenous Pacific knowledge should inform the science to save the world's oceans; The President of World Meteorological Office Regional Association 5 say a lot more investment should go into dealing with extreme weather events; Growing threats to Pacific countries posed by the illicit drug trade and climate change were the focus of heads of maritime forces meeting in Fiji this week; Tonga's government is expected to decide by the end of the month whether to ban Facebook in the kingdom; A cancer specialist spearheading efforts to improve cancer treatment in the Pacific says they got a positive reception from Pacific Health Minister last week, and; Otago's medical school has implemented the latest stage of its Pacific strategy with the opening of a new office focussed on its Pasifika students and faculty.