Author: TMC Palau

Northern Mariana Islands tennis standout Carol Young Suh Lee is headed to the US Open after earning a main-draw singles wild card into the final Grand Slam tournament of the year.Lee, 24, clinched the women’s US Open Wild Card Challenge after a strong run on the professional circuit, highlighted by qualifying for and winning the WTA 125 tournament in Warsaw, Poland.She also qualified for and reached the second round of the WTA 250 tournament in Prague during the four-week challenge.”I am incredibly grateful and excited for the opportunity to compete at the US Open,” Lee said.”Playing in a Grand Slam…

The Fiji Bati’s campaign at the 2026 Rugby League World Cup later this year has been dealt a tough blow with the sudden retirement of captain Tui Kamikamica.The 32-year-old announced his immediate retirement on medical grounds on Thursday.His club, Melbourne Storm, confirmed the retirement of their long-serving prop, who ends his rugby league career with 142 National Rugby League appearances and 23 Test matches for the Fiji Bati.Kamikamica has not been able to recover fully from a stroke he suffered on 30 March, two days after he had played for the Storms against North Queensland Cowboys.He needed emergency surgery to…

At the end of July, New Zealand’s Immigration Minister Erica Stanford took the stage at the annual Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) conference to announce a series of scheme changes. The RSE scheme, launched in 2007, lets New Zealand horticulture and viticulture employers recruit workers from nine Pacific Island and seven Asian countries for seasonal jobs (planting, maintaining, harvesting and packing) when there are not enough New Zealanders available. The reforms — which are the result of a sporadic, multi-year policy review — were framed as practical housekeeping. The RSE scheme “has been a standout success for nearly 20 years”, stated…

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Governor David Apatang says protecting Pacific waters and island communities must come first as the United States moves ahead with plans that could eventually open a vast area of seabed around the Mariana Trench to mineral development.The US Marine Minerals Administration, formerly the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, has issued a proposed leasing notice which has triggered a 60-day review by the governor.Apatang said his administration would approach the proposal with “extreme caution”.He said the territory wants safeguards in place before any final leasing decisions were made.Apatang’s administration is seeking independent, peer-reviewed…

Samoa’s main hospital was running low on oxygen supplies earlier this week, which reportedly resulted in the cancellation of surgeries, including those for breast cancer and kidney conditions.According to the Samoa Observer, patients “awaiting critical surgeries” at Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital (also known as Moto’otua Hospital) were demanding answers from health authorities.The newspaper reported that patients it spoke to were alerted by hospital staff just before they were scheduled to undergo their operations that there were insufficient oxygen supplies.However, a staff member from Samoa’s Health Ministry told RNZ Pacific on Thursday that the issue had been resolved after “lots of…

Eleven “safeguarding” cases, ranging from bullying to sexual harrasement, were officially recorded at last year’s Pacific Mini Games in Palau.The cases were reported to the Team Up ‘Safe Games’ team that was despatched to the event before, during and after the Games.This was revealed by Team Up safeguarding advisor Roshika Deo in an interview with RNZ Pacific.Deo said there could have been more cases that were unreported.The eleven cases were part of the 16 initially reported to the Safe Games team on the ground, which was the first time that safeguarding was integrated at a Pacific Games event.”It was systemised…

Tokelau has lost more than 60 percent of its fishing revenue between February and June, according to New Zealand officials, following its expulsion from a key Pacific fisheries agreement.The small self-governing territory was expelled from the Vessel Day Scheme (VDS) of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA), which allows Pacific member countries to license fishing time in their waters, but no clear reason for the decision has yet emerged.Correspondence released under the Official Information Act (OIA) revealed that Tokelau had been forced to revise its government budget “following significant loss of revenue” since the expulsion.Offshore fisheries are Tokelau’s only…

Extreme weather patterns continue to hit the Pacific region with some of the highest parts of New Guinea experiencing snow this week.Reports from West Papua say parts of the highlands region have been blanketed by snow and ice in recent days.This includes parts of Lanny Jaya regency – Go, Balum Kuyawage, and West Wano districts. In the case of Kuyawage, the snowfall follows a pattern of drought and frost over recent weeks.Snow is not unusual for West Papua’s Jayawijaya mountains, where the world’s only glacier in a tropical region exists.However, snowfall is rare in other parts of this region and…

The president of the Methodist Church in Fiji wants all lay pastors and ministers to refrain from the over-consumption of kava (yaqona) and stop smoking cigarettes.In Fiji, nearly 70 percent of the population is Christain. The Methodist Church is the largest denomination and is especially dominant among indigenous iTaukei Fijians.The Methodist Church is the largest denomination in Fiji.123RF / Rafael Ben-AriSpeaking at the opening service of the 2026 annual conference in Suva, Reverend Dr Semisi Turagavou said he wants greater discipline among ordained ministers and lay pastors.He spoke candidly about the excessive consumption of yaqona within the ministry, stressing that…

The United Auckland Gospel Choir has cemented its place among the world’s leading choirs after winning gold at the 2026 World Choir Games in Sweden, an event once known as the “Choir Olympics”.”No one can beat us at being us,” Seumanu Seuoti Simon Matāfai JP, who is the choir master and pianist, said.”We are the best at being ourselves, as indigenous, Pasifika, Māori, and Oceania as a region.”United Akld Gospel choir receives gold at world competitionThe 50-strong group, who are predominantly Māori and Pasifika, was the only New Zealand and Pacific team to compete in a competition traditionally dominated by…