Pacific News Minute

In Paris earlier this week, President Obama warned of tens of millions of climate migrants from the Asia Pacific if the nations of the world fail to reach agreement at the UN climate change conference.  Now, a new report finds that the migration is already underway.  Details from Neal Conan in Paris with today's Pacific News Minute.

In Paris, delegates continue to work on a draft of an agreement at the UN Conference on Climate Change.  They hope to resolve most of the outstanding disputes by the end of this week and finalize a deal next week.  As the world's largest economy and its second largest emitter of carbon - the United States has both enormous influence and enormous responsibility.  But many underestimate just how large an area it controls in the Pacific.  More from Neal Conan, who reports from Paris in the Pacific News Minute.

On his last day at the UN Climate Conference, President Obama met with six leaders from small island states. "Their populations are among the most vulnerable to the ravages of climate Change," he said afterwards.  We have more from Neal Conan in Paris, with today's Pacific News Minute.

In Paris, France hosts a summit of Pacific Island leaders ahead of the UN Climate Conference that gets underway next week. Details, from Neal Conan in Paris, in the Pacific News Minute.

As we reported yesterday, Pacific Island Nations hope to be a major factor at the United Nations Climate Conference that begins next week.  They are among the most seriously affected by global warming, and among those least responsible for the problem.  But, as we hear from Neal Conan in Paris in today's Pacific News Minute - several delegations will arrive under circumstances that may limit their effectiveness.

The nations of the world are gathering in Paris, ahead of the United Nations Conference on Climate change which gets underway next week. News analyst Neal Conan is also there, to cover the conference with a focus on Pacific Island Nations.  As we hear in today's Pacific News Minute, countries which have contributed very little to the problem face enormous challenges as a result of it.

After Turkey and the Philippines, Malaysia is the final stop on President Obama's current tour - and after the G20 in Antalya and APEC in Manila, it's another major multilateral meeting.  This time, ASEAN: the Association of South East Asian Nations.  As the current chair - Malaysia hosts the meeting, but, as we hear from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minutes, its president is enmeshed in scandal.

The Governor of American Samoa is asking the Interior Department for money to explore a review of the territory's political status. The biggest employer - the Starkist Tuna cannery says a minimum wage hike and federal restrictions on fishing could force the company to relocate.  A frustrated local government says those policies are outside its control.  We have more from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

Earlier today, President Obama arrived in the Philippines to attend the APEC summit.  While his earlier visit to Turkey and the G-20 summit was dominated by the ISIS attack in Paris, this next stop is more likely to focus on the disputes over the South China Sea.  More from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

Inmates took over parts of an Australian detention camp for three days this week.  The high security facility on remote Christmas Island houses both asylum seekers and convicted criminals awaiting deportation (this is the Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, not the one that's part of Kiribas).  More from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

Ninety seven years ago: the guns fell silent on the Western Front on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.  The First World War transformed Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa - and while the Pacific was a minor theatre in the conflict, it did play a part, including, as we hear from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute - the first naval battle of the conflict.

State media in China reported positively on this weekend's historic meeting between the Presidents of China and Taiwan - the first such summit since 1949.  Reaction on Taiwan was mixed, particularly on a sore subject: Chinese missiles.  More from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

Asked about the multitude of ballistic missiles on China's side of the Taiwan Strait - President Xi Jinping replied “the missiles weren't aimed at Taiwan,” a claim that might be charitably described as a diplomatic fiction.

The National Weather Service just upgraded the current El Niño from moderate to strong - which could mean hurricanes here in Hawaii even after the official end of the season on November 30th.  Farmers and ranchers are already being warned to expect hotter and drier weather this winter.  But nothing like the problems the weather pattern is causing in Pacific nations to the south and east.  More from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

The governments of three Pacific countries face removal, through a parliamentary procedure called a motion of no confidence.  Opposition parties in Vanuatu, The Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea have issued the challenges.  If the Prime Minister's party loses the vote - the whole government changes without an election.  We have an explanation, from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

In a speech in London this week, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that Europe should respond to its migrant crisis the same way Australia did: turn away the boats and close the borders.  Abbott was forced out of office last month and this is his first major speech since. More from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

As expected, the United States sent a destroyer into waters claimed by China yesterday.  The freedom of navigation patrol challenges China's claims around artificial islands it's constructed in the South China Sea.  At the same time - another major power is extending military muscle in the Pacific.  Details from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

For some time, now - we've been reporting on the political crisis in Vanuatu.  About a quarter of that country's parliament is in prison, after 14 Members of Parliament were convicted of bribery and the Supreme Court resolved a constitutional crisis. The latest, from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

Australia's government has approved what will be one of the biggest coal mines in the world.  An Indian conglomerate plans to dig up and export about 60-million tons of coal per year - a plan that Australian environmentalists denounced as grossly irresponsible.  Details from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

Over the past few days, the US Navy has displayed its power from the Western Pacific to the Indian Ocean, sending aircraft carrier battle groups to exercise with its allies in Tokyo Bay and the Bay of Bengal.  As we hear from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute - the demonstrations come amid widespread expectation of a patrol to challenge Chinese claims in the South China Sea.

And now an update on the political crisis in Vanuatu.  Last week, we reported that the speaker of parliament there used a constitutional loophole to pardon himself and thirteen other MPs who had just been convicted on charges of bribery.  As we hear from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute - the pardons have now been reversed.

A twenty year effort to relocate a US Marine airbase on the Japanese Island of Okinawa hit a new snag this week.  The island's governor revoked a construction permit and, as we hear from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute, the result will likely be a court case that could take years to resolve.

Yesterday, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said the United States will sail and fly wherever international law allows - and made a point to add, the South China Sea is no exception.  The US and its allies have been in discussions about an appropriate response to China's construction of artificial islands in the disputed area and, as we hear from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute, it looks like a decision has been made.

A series of unprecedented developments has left the government of Vanuatu in chaos.  On Friday, the speaker of the national parliament was among 16 MPs convicted of bribery.  But with the President out of the country on a visit, he then used his position as acting president to pardon his fellow defendants, and himself.  Neal Conan traces the story in the Pacific News Minute.

At the Our Oceans Conference in Valparaiso, Chile this week - President Michelle Bachelet announced a huge new ocean sanctuary around Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island.  Last month, we reported on a slightly smaller marine reserve established by New Zealand.  Britain, Kiribati, Palau, the US and other countries also declare vast stretches of the Pacific off limits to illegal fishing.  But the problem is how to monitor such enormous areas.  In today's Pacific News Minute, Neal Conan reports on two new systems which may begin to change that.

Accepting that sea level rise is happening and getting worse, atoll nations from around the world meet in Kitibati this week to work on plans to migrate when the time comes, a prospect that one participant described as cultural genocide.  More from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

Akka Rimon, Secretary of Foreign Affairs for Kiribati, described the dilemma: "What do we do, and where do we go, and what do we do from here if the times comes for us to go."

As of yesterday, conditions at Australia's notorious detention camp on the Pacific Island Nation of Nauru have been eased.  Hundreds of asylum seekers now have freedom of movement - anywhere on the island, 24 hours a day.  Though critics charge, it's not much of an improvement.  More from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute. 

Protests in West Papua this week, after Indonesian Police shot two 17 year old boys - one of whom died. This is the fifth time this year that civilians have been fired on by soldiers or police in the restive province, with now eight reported killed.  We have more from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

When he was in The US last week, Chinese President Xi Jing Ping cited an Ancient Greek historian to argue that conflict with the United States is not inevitable - at the same time, China completed an air field on its new headquarters in the South China Sea.  More from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

As the United Nations General Assembly opened yesterday in New York, most attention focused on speeches by Presidents Obama and Putin and the meeting later in the day between the leaders of the United States and Russia.  But New Zealand caused a stir as well, when Prime Minster John Key announced an enormous new maritime ocean sanctuary.  Details from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.