President Barack Obama’s Presidential Disaster Declaration (PDD) late last week has opened the doors to additional US federal aid for drought relief in the Marshall Islands. “The PDD allows us to tap into FEMA resources,” said USAID Office for Disaster Assistance Regional Advisor Dan Dieckhaus, who is based at the US Embassy in Majuro. Earlier […]
Despite ongoing concern about spread of the Zika virus, the initial emergency declaration by President Heine was allowed to expire and authorities were attempting to get it extended late last week. The expiration of the President’s declaration was noted as a problem area for ongoing Zika prevention work, said weekly Zika update reports issued by […]
President Hilda Heine joined leaders from 174 other nations Friday at the United Nations in New York City to sign the climate change agreement that was endorsed at the global climate summit in Paris last December. “The world has come together today in New York to make history,” she said Friday. “Today’s signing ceremony shows […]
HILARY HOSIA Here is more proof basketball is king in the Marshall Islands: when the Arkansas dream team paid a courtesy visit to the President’s Office last week, they were greeted by Acting President Mattlan Zackhras and Ministers Brenson Wase, Alfred Alfred, Jr, Thomas Heine and Kalani Kaneko — former basketball players in their younger […]
GIFF JOHNSON Kwajalein’s development agency is focused on delivering action on four projects over the next few months, while it plans for bigger, more costly projects going forward. “These are the low-hanging fruit we are going after immediately,” said Kwajalein Senator David Paul, who doubles as chairman of the board of the Kwajalein Atoll Development […]
HILARY HOSIA More than a hundred years ago, a man from a small Indian town in Qadian foretold of a new Islamic movement that would reach the farthest corners of the world. The man, known worldwide as Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, later founded the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, an Islamic group dedicated to peace and humanitarian services. […]
“One of the strongest El Niño events in recorded history remains entrenched across the equatorial Pacific Ocean,” said Guam-based weather officials in their latest drought update. The report said “all locations across the Marshall Islands are in a severe or extreme drought.” They also predict that there will likely be “severe damage to food crops […]
Xavier High School in Chuuk announced earlier this week it would accept eight upcoming freshmen from Marshall Islands following an entrance test that was given to over 200 eighth graders in Majuro, Ebeye and Jaluit. Although the same test was given to the three atolls, only eight from Majuro passed. Majuro Middle School made history […]
As the El Niño-caused drought continues in the north Pacific, all three of the US-affiliated island nations have declared emergency conditions to speed government-provided relief. “Extreme drought continues across much of Micronesia” and is worsening, said Guam-based US National Weather Service officials in a bulletin last week. The Marshall Islands was first to declare a […]
A Pacific island fisheries bloc has unanimously decided to maintain a management system that has increased revenue to the islands by over 500 percent in the past six years. Despite criticism by countries outside of this western and central Pacific fishery of a management system used to regulate the tuna industry, fisheries officials from the […]
