Pacific Beat

A major crackdown on international scam centers in Timor-Leste has resulted in 350 arrests. Police raided multiple heavily secured call centre compounds over the past week in a major crackdown against what experts say is a growing trade in the developing nation.  

Papua New Guinea police are hunting for a group of men who tortured and attacked two elderly women, accused of sorcery in Enga Province. The incident, captured on video and shared widely on social media has helped police identify those behind the attack.

More than 250 people have been apprehended in Timor-Leste following a sweep of raids on alleged scam centers. While details about what the alleged scams are is still unclear, these raids follow on from a major bust last year in the Timorese region of Oe-Cussee where authorities raided a hotel detaining 30 foreign nationals and seizing phones and starlink units.

In Timor-Leste, police have raided suspected scam centres around the capital Dili, with more than 90 foreign nationals arrested.

Australia has offered stronger support for a regional security pact across the Pacific, in the wake of a Chinese ballistic missile test last week.

The President of Palau, Surangel Whipps Jr, has accused Beijing of intimidating Pacific Island nations with this week's test firing of a nuclear-capable ballistic missile into the Pacific.

Tuvalu's leaders say they are gravely concerned about a Chinese missile test that landed in waters near the small Pacific nation. 

Former Kiribati President Anote Tong has condemned the Nuclear Ballistic test by China and says it undermines foreign relations between Beijing and the Pacific region.

A category 5 Super Typhoon Bavi has rocked the island of Rota in the Mariana Islands. The mayor Aubrey Hocog says respondents have reported extensive damage to infrastructure.

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in Fiji today, where he's expected to sign a major new security agreement with the Pacific nation. The pact is intended to upgrade the Vuvale Partnership first signed in 2019.

Solomon Islands' new Prime Minister Mathew Wale is in Fiji for a state visit. He says there's a "growing consensus" in the region in support of his idea for a regional security agreement. 

Papua' New Guinea's Enga Province Governor, Sir Peter Ipatas is urgently calling for more Australian police officers to be deployed to his province ahead of the 2027 election. The push comes after violence and killings in Enga overshadowed the last national vote.

It's 80 years to the day since the US nuclear testing program in the Marshall Islands began with Operation Able, when a 23 kiloton atomic bomb was detonated in the atmosphere over Bikini Atoll in July, 1946.

Australia and Vanuatu have signed The Nakamal Agreement. The landmark deal states Vanuatu will consult Australia on proposed third party engagement in Vanuatu's critical infrastructure, and which was must be free from militarisation and foreign influence. 

Crucial provincial elections have taken place in New Caledonia, and results could lay the foundations of the territory's future.

Samoa's Prime Minister La'auli Schimdt says his government will draft legislation requiring Members of Parliament to undergo drug testing. 

The Australian government has refused to release internal documents about Tuvalu's trust fund after an investigation by French international news agency AFP found that funds have been invested into fossil fuels. 

Thousands of people have turned out at Dili's international airport to honour the late former president of Timor-Leste Francisco Guterres as his body was flown in from Malaysia.

A 100-metre cargo ship, suspected of being involved in transporting more than three tonnes of illicit drugs to Australia, has been intercepted by Solomon Islands authorities.

Bougainville's leaders have condemned a move by Papua New Guinea's parliament to impose a three-quarters majority for any vote to ratify Bougainville's independence referendum.

Fiji police have confirmed 26 parcels of cocaine have washed up on shores in the Lau Group of islands over the past few weeks.

The Samoan government's controversial plan to set up an airline and buy planes using financial support from citizens and the diaspora has dominated proceedings in the country’s parliament this week.

Tune in each morning and afternoon to keep-up-to-date on the happenings in the Pacific.

As calls for deep sea mining grow louder, dozens of research vessels are on a quest to map the sea floor in strategically vital regions. While some of the surveying is for mineral deposits and fishing grounds, there's fears it might also be done for military purposes.

Tonga's Electoral Commission is facing questions over a 20-year $1.5 million dollar software agreement signed with a UK-based company with claims from former officials that the system has never been used.

Civil society groups in Timor-Leste say paedophile and ex-priest Richard Daschbach should be taken off the list of offenders put forward for a presidential pardon after being knocked back a second time this year.

Solomon Islands PM Matthew Wale has returned from trips to Australia and New Zealand that he said were designed to reset Solomon Islands' relations with the two countries.

Some argue that the 8% increase to the minimum wage in Samoa is still insufficient to meet the rising cost of living and unlikely to stem the flow of people seeking seasonal work abroad.

Locals could be unable to fish or travel by boat for weeks as a floating layer of volcanic pumice rock surrounds the islands of Manus province.

One of the West Papuans featured in the controversial documentary 'Pig Feast', has changed her stance on the film and even laid a complaint with police.

Fiji's Environment Ministry has delivered a damning critique of the environmental impact assessment report submitted by the proponent of the controversial waste-to-energy project.

Solomon Islands and Australia will start negotiations for a new security and bilateral treaty in a reset for the relationship between the countries.

A PNG parliamentary vote on whether to ratify Bougainville's desire for independence, is the final step in the Bougainville Peace Agreement, which brought the-decade long conflict known as "The Crisis" to an end in 2001.

The case of a Fijian man living under a bridge in Sydney after arriving in Australia under the PALM scheme only to disengage and become homeless isn't an isolated one.

Over the weekend police announced that the search operation for a boat carrying 10 passengers was being scaled down, after fuel tanks and items believed to be from the boat washed ashore.

Authorities in Samoa have bank accounts frozen and have prevented some from leaving Samoa in an effort to investigate potential local connections to the murder of an Australian crime figure in Vietnam by to Samoan nationals.

Samoan police say they're investigating whether any crimes may have been committed locally in connection with a murder committed by two Samoan nationals in Vietnam.

A parliamentary resolution will be discussed in Tahiti today over the government’s controversial strategy of dumping tonnes of seized cocaine into the ocean.

The United Nations body that regulates deep sea mining in the high seas is cautioning Pacific countries not to get swept up in the renewed race to exploit the ocean floor.

Pacific leaders have signed off on a multi-national, regional taskforce to look into fuel supply as the war in Iran continues to disrupt global supply chains.

Leaders and activists from across the Pacific have hailed what's being called an historic vote at the United Nations to accept the international court of justice's advisory on climate change.

The United Nations General Assembly has voted to pass a resolution on a landmark advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on climate change.

A Vanuatu man is on trial at the Supreme Court in Cairns, having pleaded not guilty to murder over the amputation and death of an Australian man in 2022. John Yalu told the Cairns Supreme Court that the victim had asked him to amputate his leg.

Police chiefs from around the Pacific are meeting with the Australian Federal Police this week to work on a response to one of the region's biggest problems - illegal drugs. 

For the second time in a year, survivors of sexual abuse in Timor-Leste are fighting a government proposal to pardon convicted paedophile and ex-priest, Richard Daschbach.

The political future of Solomon Islands will be decided when MPs cast their ballots for a new prime minister, with three candidates in the mix.

Fiji's Police Commissioner has knocked back questions on whether or not the police are are truly in operational command as they work with Military Forces to target drugs and organised crime.

The Australian government has handed down its 2026 budget, and it seems to be business as usual for the Pacific with little change to Pacific aid funding.

In Vanuatu, Prime Minister Jotham Napat's Cabinet has approved a new version of the Nakamal Agreement with Australia, against a backdrop of a fierce diplomatic tussle between Australia and China, who are pursuing their own pact with Vanuatu.

Solomon Islands MPs will return to parliament next week to elect a new prime minister after Jeremiah Manele was voted out of the top job following a fiery no-confidence vote