Australia & Pacifics

WELLINGTON, Jun 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) – New Zealand reported 4,404 community cases of COVID-19 today, said the Ministry of Health in a statement.

The Ministry reported 4,404 community cases, 356 current hospitalisations, and 11 deaths from COVID-19 today.

Of the 4,404 community cases of COVID-19, 1,318 cases were from the largest city Auckland.

In addition, there were 50 new cases of COVID-19 reported at the New Zealand border today, according to the ministry.

New Zealand reported 1,263,333 confirmed cases, since the beginning of the pandemic.

CANBERRA, Jun 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) – A potentially devastating banana disease, has been found in northern Australia, prompting concerns for the local industry.

Banana freckle disease, Phyllosticta cavendishii, has been found in the Northern Territory (NT). It is the first outbreak of the fungal disease since Australia was declared free of it in 2019.

Banana freckle disease causes spots to form on cavendish banana plants and their fruit. The fruit remains safe and edible but fungus inhibits the plant’s ability to photosynthesise, reducing productivity.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s new foreign minister visited the Solomon Islands on Friday to assure the South Pacific island nation it does not need a security pact with China.

The Solomons is the fifth Pacific nation that Foreign Minister Penny Wong has visited since her center-left Labor Party came to power in May 21 elections.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s new government on Thursday formally committed to a more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target of 43% by the end of the decade in fulfillment of a key election pledge.

The previous conservative government was dumped by voters at the May 21 election after it stuck to a seven-year-old pledge to reduce Australia’s emissions by only 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2030.

WELLINGTON, May 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) – New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, is leading a trade mission to the U.S. this week, as part of the government’s reconnection strategy to support export growth and the return of tourists in the post-COVID-19 era.

The business delegation will promote trade and tourism opportunities in New Zealand’s third largest export and visitor market, according to an official statement today.

Ardern will also deliver a commencement address at Harvard University, during her visit this week.

SYDNEY (AP) — Australians awoke on Sunday to a new prime minister in Anthony Albanese, the center-left Labor Party leader whose ascension to the nation’s top job from being raised in social housing by a single mother on a disability pension was said to reflect the country’s changed fabric.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s Prime Minister-elect Anthony Albanese is a politician molded by his humble start to life as the only child of a single mother who raised him on a pension in gritty inner-Sydney suburbia.

He is also a hero of multicultural Australia, describing himself as the only candidate with a “non-Anglo Celtic name” to run for prime minister in the 121 years that the office has existed.

He has promised to rehabilitate Australia’s international reputation as a climate change laggard with steeper cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — At Lautoka harbor in the heart of Fiji’s sugar cane region, five U.S. federal agents boarded the Russian-owned Amadea, a luxurious superyacht the length of a football field.

“They want to take 20 crew and sail east!” the ship’s captain wrote in a frantic May 5 WhatsApp message to lawyer Feizal Haniff, who represents the company that legally owns the superyacht.

“When?” Haniff wrote back, court documents obtained by The Associated Press show. “Please hold. Please hold. Can you hold. I need a judge. I am dialing everyone.”

WELLINGTON, May 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) – New Zealand recorded 32 more deaths and 9,570 new community cases of COVID-19, the Ministry of Health said today.

The ministry said in a statement that, the total number of publicly reported deaths with COVID-19 in New Zealand is 1,017.

Among the new community infections, 3,297 were reported in the largest city, Auckland, the ministry said.

In addition, 91 new cases of COVID-19 were detected at the New Zealand border.

SYDNEY, May 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Australian researchers have made a breakthrough in renewable energy technology, proving that solar power can be generated at night.

The research, published in ACS Photonics and unveiled to the public yesterday, was conducted by a team of researchers from Australia’s University of New South Wales (UNSW). The team claimed the findings were the first step in making more efficient devices, that could one day capture energy at a much larger scale.