Pacific news in brief for 15 August
A round-up of news from around the region, including a figure for how many political parties are registered to contest Fiji's upcoming general elections.
Pacific news for 15 August includes the registration of the Liberation of Fiji Party (LFP) as the 11th political party in Fiji, set to hold elections by February next year. Meanwhile, Tuvalu's Prime Minister Feleti Teo invited Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to attend the Pre-COP31 Leaders Event in October to discuss climate change, regional cooperation, and other issues.
Additionally, a new satellite fire-monitoring platform, FireWatch, detected over 96,000 hotspots in Indonesia, with significant burns in South Papua, suggesting the need to assess ecological and hydrological risks before converting peatlands for development. Lastly, the US is launching a taskforce to combat birth tourism in US Pacific territories like Guam and the Northern Marianas, revoking over 600 visas so far, and the Northern Mariana Islands delegate is seeking a 50/50 split of seabed mining revenue for the territory.
Brief written by urgent.news from RNZ Pacific's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
