GIFF JOHNSON The Marshall Islands signed the Treaty of Rarotonga at Monday’s Nuclear Remembrance Day nearly 40 years since the nuclear free zone agreement was initiated. “It was important for us to sign the treaty,” said Acting Foreign Minister and Finance Minister David Paul, who signed the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty Monday with […]
GIFF JOHNSON For decades, the Marshall Islands and other Pacific Islands struggled with how to generate more revenue from the commercial tuna industry. Now, a three-nation agreement signed Monday in Honiara, Solomon Islands, could be the latest game-changer for Pacific fisheries cooperation. Beginning in the 1980s, island nations for the first time began selling licenses […]
Tobolar Copra Processing Authority promoted its range of beauty products for Valentine’s Day last week. The staff put up a booth next to the processing facility and had varieties of coconut soap and coconut oil on sale. Of note is the improved labeling and packaging of the products that made them perfect as gifts for […]
The tiny RMI passport office is soon to get a new home. President Hilda Heine told the Journal that the government has approved renovating the former cafe and grocery store that sits between ELM Motors and Majuro Water and Sewer Company in order to turn it into an office for the passport program. “It’s a […]
GIFF JOHNSON The Trump administration’s aggressive action to deport illegal aliens is reverberating around the Pacific, with commentators from Papua New Guinea to Fiji to Tonga to Samoa warning that the arrival of dozens, possibly hundreds, of islanders deported from the US is likely to result in big negative consequences for these small islands. “Quite […]
GIFF JOHNSON Majuro experienced its worst year for tuna transshipment in more than 10 years. Statistics show that there were 160 tuna transshipments in 2024, according to data provided by the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority. This is below even the Covid-slowed year 2020, when only 175 transshipments were conducted in Majuro, largely due to […]
WILMER JOEL A 20-foot passenger and cargo boat sank in heavy seas near Arno Atoll just before the New Year, with four passengers still missing and presumed lost. Only three of the seven people on the small boat that sank December 30 were able to use ocean currents to swim into Majuro. The three washed […]
GIFF JOHNSON As a prelude to the 40th anniversary of the evacuation of Rongelap Islanders to Mejatto Island in Kwajalein in 1985, Radio New Zealand and ABC Radio Australia have produced a five-part podcast that details the Rongelap story — in the context of “The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior,” the name of the […]
GIFF JOHNSON Friendship and a welcoming spirit was on full display Tuesday for the visit of Taiwan President Lai Ching-te. The red carpet airport greeting — featuring a hug of welcome between Lai and President Hilda Heine, CMI students singing, Marshallese and Taiwanese holding banners and signs of welcome, and a police honor guard — […]
GIFF JOHNSON The Marshall Islands has put a downpayment of nearly $2 million for new airplanes for Air Marshall Islands. The total purchase for two new 19-seat Cessna SkyCouriers will cost the national airline close to $20 million. The purchase is part of a major effort to revamp air service in the country. “We’ve been […]
