Palau’s leader says the world needs to be working toward reducing emissions and “not dropping targets”, in response to New Zealand slashing its methane reduction goals.
Last month, the New Zealand government announced it would cut biogenic methane reduction targets to 14-24 percent below 2017 levels by 2050. The previous target was a reduction of 24-47 percent.
Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr, who is in Brazil for the annual United Nations climate change conference, COP30, said more work needed to go into finding solutions.
“[It’s] unfortunate because we all need to be working toward reduction, not dropping targets,” Whipps said.
“Countries struggle because it’s about making sure that their people have their jobs and maintain their industry. I can see the reason why maybe those targets were dropped, but that means we just need to work harder.”
Whipps said it probably meant the government needed to “step up” and help farmers reduce emissions.
Tuvalu’s climate minister also told RNZ Pacific he was disheartened by the new goal.
New Zealand Climate Minister Simon Watts previously told RNZ Pacific in a statement that methane reduction was limited by technology and the only alternative would have been to cut agriculture production.
“New Zealand has some of the most emissions-efficient farmers in the world, and we export to meet global demand,” Watts said.
“If we cut production to meet targets, we risk shifting production to countries who are not as emissions-efficient, which would add to global warming and have a greater impact on the Pacific.”
NZ ‘doesn’t care about Pacific’ – campaigner Pacific Islands Climate Action Network campaigner Sindra Sharma said she wanted to know what scientists Watts spoke with.
“I’d like to see what the data is behind New Zealand having the most emissions-efficient farmers. It blows my mind that that is something he would say.”
Sharma said it was especially disappointing given New Zealand was a member of the Pacific Islands Forum.
“I think the signal that sends is extremely harmful. It shows we don’t care about the Pacific.”
Speaking to RNZ Morning Report on Thursday, Watts said the country had not weakened its ambitions on climate change.
“We’ve actually delivered upon what has been asked of us. We’ve submitted our NDC (Nationally Determined Contributions) plan for 2035 on time,” he said.
“We’ve done what we believe is possible in the context of our unique circumstances.
“We’ve taken a position around ensuring that we are ambitious with balancing that with economic challenges.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
I sat in a cafe listening to one man telling another how to get more out of his workers — “his team”, kind of the way people talked about workhorses until some of us read Black Beauty and learned that sentient creatures have feelings, both animals and people.
I hope that people will wake up to the need to unite, to pull together. The best decluttering is decolonising.
Maybe Zohran Mamdani’s win is a sign that will herald a new era, an era when socialists can beat “the money men”. Maybe it’s time when we will all wake up to a different possibility. Maybe other values will be recognised.
Virtues do not come from wealth. Capital, capitalism (the key is in the word) is a system of exploitation. It was designed by merchants to make some rich and keep others poor. That’s the system.
Maybe you were not taught that? Of course you were not taught that. Think about it.
I listened to William Dalrymple being interviewed by Jack Tame last Sunday and I thought Jack — who I used to respect a lot before he failed to tackle genocide with Israel’s representative for genocide here in Aotearoa — I thought he, Jack, looked like a possum in the headlights when Dalrymple said that Donald Trump had a precursor in Benjamin Netanyahu and called genocide a genocide.
I like to think Jack and others like him (because I have been like them too) will learn to learn about the history of all people and not view history as an inevitable story of winners and losers.
Winners are exploiters
The winners are exploiters and if we want to save the planet we need a massive game change.
The legacy of colonisation. Video: TVNZ Q&A
Look at the stats of the land that was taken for expansion and how that expansion was used to justify the extermination of one people to prop another people up. The stats, the real statistics show who was there before, show people lived on the land with the land and the waters.
Capitalism is a system of expansion and exploitation. It flourished for a while on slavery and it flourished for a while on settler colonialism, and it flourished for a while on keeping workers believing the story that they were working for greater glory when their take home pay did not equal the value of their labour.
And there is a difference between guilt and remorse. We can learn from the latter. The former, guilt, stagnates, it leads to defence and offence.
We need to recognise that we don’t need to prop up a dying system that flourishes on making some weak and others stronger.
We need to learn to change — those of us who were wrong can admit it and go forward differently. We can realise that they system was designed to make us fail to see the threads that connect all people. We can wake up now and smell the manure among the roses.
Good shit helps things grow, bad shit is toxic contaminated waste that turns things inwards, makes them gnarly.
Monsters are connected
Unfortunately, those who behave like monsters are connected not just to some of us but all of us.
We need to open our minds and our hearts to a different our value system. We need to decolonise our senses.
If you defend a bad system because right now you are one of the few on a decent pay scale then you are part of the problem. You are the problem. You have been conned. A system is only fair if it is fair for all people.
Learning history gives us a map said Dalrymple (author of The Golden Road which tells the story of how great India was BEFORE it was stolen by Britain — how that country gave the world numbers and so much more) and we need to learn how the map was drawn.
As someone who reads history to write history, I encourage us all to read widely and deeply and to research so that we do not stop thinking and analysing, and so we can tell wrong from right.
Do not be neutral about wrongs as some historians would suggest. It is more than OK to call a wrong a wrong. In fact it is vital. Take a new lens into viewing history, not the one the masters have given you.
We miss seeing the world if we look fail to think about who drew the map, how it was drawn up by men who carved up the world for the Empires intent on creating a golden age by enslaving most of the people to prop up those at the top.
World map’s curling edges
We need to look under the curling edges of the world map drawn up by the exploiter. We need to find find the stories of those who were exploited and who had been part of the creation story of this planet before they were exploited.
Those of us who are descendants of colonisers also — many of us — descend from those who were exploited.
The stories of British workhouses, of the system of exile via banishment, of the theft of women’s rights, of the extreme brutal forms of punishment, the stories of the way the top class pushed down and down on the people of the fields and forests and forced them to serve and serve, these real stories are less well known than the myths.
Myths like the story of King Arthur are better known.
Some myths have been created as a form of propaganda. We need to unpick the stories that were told to keep us stupid, to keep us ignorant.
It is time to stop following the trail of crumbs to Buckingham Palace, or at least to see where the trail really leads — to pedophiles who preyed on others, to predators — not just one but many, to people brilliant at reconstructing themselves — creating some fall guys and some good guys and making some people villains.
That story is a lie that protects and processes dysfunction.
Acting on the truth
Blaming one part of the system prevents us from realising and acting on the truth that the whole system is one of exploitation.
This was always a horror story disguised as a fairy story. One crown could save so many poor. The monarchy is not a family that produced one disfunctional person it is the disfunction.
It promotes the lie that one group of people deserve wealth because they are better than another. What a sick joke.
So let’s back away from societies made by men who want to profit from others and get back to nature.
Let’s look on nature as a sister or mother — a sister or mother you love.
Let’s look at the so called natural disasters like climate change. Look at how they have been created by “noble men” and “noble women” and ignoble ones as well. Disasters that can be averted, prevented.
Who suffers the most in a natural disaster? Not the rich.
How do we heal?
So how do we hope and how do we heal? We see the change. We be the change.
Personally, for my mental and physical health I’ve been sea bathing, dipping in the sea. I join a group of mainly women who all have stories, and who plunge into nature for release and relief, to relieve ourselves from the debris. Uniting in nature.
I’ve learned that every day is different. The sea is always changing. No two waves are the same and they all pull in the same direction.
We are part moon, part wave, part light, part darkness. We are the bounty and the beauty.
I do have hope that we will all unite for common good. Sharing on common ground. The word Common is so much better than Capital.
If you are working for the kind of people that are discussing how to get more out of you for less, then unite.
And if you know people who are being exploited in any way at all unite with them not the exploiter. Be the change.
By helping each other we save each other. And that includes helping our friend and exploited lover: Nature.
Saige England is an award-winning journalist and author of The Seasonwife, a novel exploring the brutal impacts of colonisation. She is also a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
Greenpeace has heralded the Cook Islands delay on a decision over whether seabed mining can go ahead until at least 2032 as “evidence of the growing opposition” to the destructive industry in the Pacific.
Greenpeace Aotearoa campaigner Juressa Lee said the decision was “a win for the moana and the Pacific Peoples” and communities fighting against this emerging threat that would risk their way of life.
Resistance to seabed mining in the Cook Islands was strong and persistent, she said in a statement today.
“We are pleased to see that the government is feeling the pressure and acknowledging that a five-year exploration period is nothing more than tokenistic when it comes to understanding this industry’s impacts.
“There is no version of seabed mining that is sustainable or safe.
Lee said that alongside Greenpeace’s allies who wanted to protect the ocean for future generations, the environmental movement would continue to say “a loud and bold no to miners who want to strip the seafloor for their profit”.
The decision that companies wanting to mine in Cook Island waters would now have to apply for a five year extension to their exploration licences was announced today by the Seabed Minerals Authority, the government agency in charge of seabed mining in the Cook Islands.
Current licences expire in 2027.
Raising alarm for years
For years, multiple civil society groups in the Cook Islands have been raising the alarm about rushing into seabed mining.
Four protesters in kayaks met the ship, holding banners that read: “Don’t mine the moana”.
In September 2024, civil society groups came together to peacefully demonstrate community opposition to deep sea mining, with 150 people paddling out into Avarua port and floating a giant banner reading “Protect our ocean”.
Greenpeace is calling for a ban on deep sea mining.
“The current Cook Islands government is pushing seabed mining but we know that many people oppose this emerging industry that risks irreversible damage to ocean life,” said Lee.
“We’ve already seen evidence from a test mining site in the Atlantic Ocean that was mined in the 1970s and has never fully recovered.
Not be silenced
“Pacific Peoples will not be sidelined or silenced by corporations and powerful countries that continue to try and impose this new form of extractive colonialism where it is not wanted.
“Seabed mining is not welcome in the Cook Islands or the Pacific and we will resist.”
Seabed mining is an emerging extractive industry that has not yet started on a commercial scale anywhere in the world. Miners want to extract polymetallic nodules from the seafloor to extract metals.
Three companies — Moana Minerals Limited (a subsidiary of US company Ocean Minerals), Cobalt (CIC) Limited, and CIIC Seabed Resources Limited (a partnership between Cook Islands government and Belgian company GSR) — currently hold licences for seabed mining exploration in the Cook Island waters.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese talks to journalist Chris Hedges about her new report that examines how 60+ countries are complicit in Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity demonstrated to the world in a “livestreamed atrocity”.
INTERVIEW:The Chris Hedges Report
After two years of genocide, it is no longer possible to hide complicity in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians. Entire countries and corporations are — according to multiple reports by UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese — either directly or indirectly involved in Israel’s economic proliferation.
In her latest report, Gaza Genocide: a collective crime, Albanese details the role 63 nations played in supporting Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians. She chronicles how countries like the United States, which directly funds and arms Israel, are a part of a vast global economic web.
This network includes dozens of other countries that contribute with seemingly minor components, such as warplane wheels.
Rejection of this system is imperative, Albanese says. These same technologies used to destroy the lives of Palestinians will inevitably be turned against the citizens of Israel’s funders.
“Palestine today is a metaphor of our life and where our life is going to go,” Albanese warns.
“Every worker today should draw a lesson from what’s happening to the Palestinians, because the large injustice system is connected and makes all of us connected to what’s happening there.”
The transcript: Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on Palestine, in her latest report, Gaza Genocide: a collective crime, calls out the role 63 nations have in sustaining the Israeli genocide. Albanese, who because of sanctions imposed on her by the Trump administration, had to address the UN General Assembly from the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa, slams what she calls “decades of moral and political failure.”
“Through unlawful actions and deliberate omissions, too many states have harmed, founded and shielded Israel’s militarized apartheid, allowing its settler colonial enterprise to metastasize into genocide, the ultimate crime against the indigenous people of Palestine,” she told the UN.
The genocide, she notes, has diplomatic protection in international “fora meant to preserve peace,” military ties ranging from weapons sales to joint trainings that “fed the genocidal machinery,” the unchallenged weaponization of aid, and trade with entities like the European Union, which had sanctioned Russia over Ukraine yet continued doing business with Israel.
The 24-page report details how the “live-streamed atrocity” is facilitated by third states. She excoriates the United States for providing “diplomatic cover” for Israel, using its veto power at the UN Security Council seven times and controlling ceasefire negotiations. Other Western nations, the report noted, collaborate with abstentions, delays and watered-down draft resolutions, providing Israel with weapons, “even as the evidence of genocide … mounted.”
The report chastised the US Congress for passing a $26.4 billion arms package for Israel, although Israel was at the time threatening to invade Rafah in defiance of the Biden administration’s demand that Rafah be spared.
The report also condemns Germany, the second-largest arms exporter to Israel during the genocide, for weapons shipments that include everything from “frigates to torpedoes,” as well as the United Kingdom, which has allegedly flown more than 600 surveillance missions over Gaza since war broke out in October 2023.
At the same time, Arab states have not severed ties with Israel. Egypt, for example, maintained “significant security and economic relations with Israel, including energy cooperation and the closing of the Rafah crossing” during the war.
Francesca Albanese talks to Chris Hedges Video: The Chris Hedges Report
The Gaza genocide, the report states, “exposed an unprecedented chasm between peoples and their governments, betraying the trust on which global peace and security rest.” Her report coincides with the ceasefire that isn’t. More than 300 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israel since the ceasefire was announced two weeks ago.
The first major ceasefire breach on October 19 led to Israeli air strikes that killed 100 Palestinians and wounded 150 others. Palestinians in Gaza continue to endure daily bombings that obliterate buildings and homes. Shelling and gunfire continue to kill and wound civilians, while drones continue to hover overhead broadcasting ominous threats.
Essential food items, humanitarian aid and medical supplies remain scarce because of the ongoing Israeli siege. And the Israeli army controls more than half of the Gaza Strip, shooting anyone, including families, who come too close to its invisible border known as the “yellow line”.
Joining me to discuss her report, the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the complicity of numerous states in sustaining the genocide in Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on Palestine.
Before we get into the report, let’s talk a little bit about what’s happening in Gaza. It’s just a complete disconnect between what is described by the international community, i.e. “a ceasefire”, the pace may have slowed down, but nothing’s changed.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Yes, thank you for having me, Chris. I do agree that it seems that there is a complete disconnect between reality and political discourse. Because after the ceasefire, the attention has been forced to shift from Gaza elsewhere.
I do believe, for example, that the increased attention to the catastrophic situation in Sudan, which has been such for years now, all of a sudden is due to the fact that there is a need for, especially from Western countries and the US, Israel and their acolytes to focus on a new emergency.
‘There is the pretence that there is peace, there is no need to protest anymore because finally, there is peace. There is no peace.’
There is the pretence that there is peace, there is no need to protest anymore because finally, there is peace. There is no peace. I mean, the Palestinians have not seen a day of peace because Israel has continued to fire, to use violence against the Palestinians in Gaza. Over 230 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire, 100 of them in one day in 24 hours, including 50 children.
And starvation continues. Yes, there has been an increase in the number of trucks, but far, far below what is needed with much confusion because it’s very hard to deliver aid. All the more, Israel maintains a control over 50 percent of the Gaza Strip while the entire Gaza population is amassed in small portions, guarded portions of the territory.
So there is no peace. Meanwhile, while the Security Council seems to be ready to approve a Security Council resolution that will create a non-acronistic form of tutelage, of trusteeship over Palestine, over Gaza, the West Bank is abandoned to the violence and the ethnic cleansing pushed by armed settlers and soldiers while Israel jails continue to fill up with bodies to torture of adults and children alike. This is the reality in the occupied Palestinian territory today and so it makes absolutely no sense where the political discourse is.
CHRIS HEDGES: Two issues about Gaza. One, of course, Israel has seized over 50% or occupies over 50 percent of Gaza. And as I understand it, they’re not allowing any reconstruction supplies, including cement, in.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: This is also my understanding. They have allowed in food, water and some essential materials needed for hospitals, mainly camp hospitals, tents. But anything related to sustainability is prohibited.
There are many food items that are also prohibited because they are considered luxurious. And the question, Chris, is, and this is why I harbor so much frustration these days toward member states because in the case of genocide, you have heard yourself the argument, well, the recalcitrance of certain states to use the genocide framework saying — and it’s pure nonsense from a legal point of view — but saying, well, the International Court of Justice has not concluded that it’s genocide.
Well, it has concluded already that there is a risk of genocide two years ago, in January, 2024. But however, even when the court does conclude on something relevant like in July, 2024, that the occupation is illegal and must be dismantled totally and unconditionally, this should be the starting point of any peace related or forward-looking discussions.
Instead of deliberating how to force Israel to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territory, member states continue to maintain dialogue with Israel as Israel has sovereignty over the territory. See, so it’s completely dystopic, the future they are leading Palestinians out of despair into.
But they are also forcing the popular movement, the global movement that has formed made of young people and workers to stop. Because look at what’s happening in France, in Italy, in Germany, in the UK — any kind of attempt at maintaining the light turned on Palestine from Gaza to the West Bank is assaulted. Protests, conferences, there is a very active assault on anything that concerns Palestine.
So this is why I’m saying we are far, far beyond the mismanagement of the lack of understanding, I mean the negligence in approaching the question of Palestine, it’s active complicity to sustain Israel in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
CHRIS HEDGES: Which, as you point out in your report, has been true from the beginning despite a slight change in rhetoric recognising the two-state solution. The UK did this while only cutting back on shipments by 10 percent.
But I want to ask before we get into the report, what do you think Israel’s goal is? Is it just to slow-walk the genocide until it can resume it? Is it to create this appalling, uninhabitable, unlivable ghetto? What do you think Israel’s goal is?
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: I think that now more than ever it is impossible to separate and distinguish the goals of Israel from the goals of the United States. We tend to have a fragmented view of what happens, analysing for example the relationship between Lebanon and Israel, between Iran and Israel, or between Israel and the Palestinians.
‘One of the things that Palestine has made me realise is the meaning of “Greater Israel” because I do believe that what the current leadership in Israel has in mind and it’s supported by many willing or not in the Israeli society, many who are fine with the erasure of the Palestinians.’
In fact, do, I mean, one of the things that Palestine has made me realise is the meaning of “Greater Israel” because I do believe that what the current leadership in Israel has in mind and it’s supported by many willing or not in the Israeli society, many who are fine with the erasure of the Palestinians.
But there is this idea of Greater Israel and for a long time I have been among those who thought, who were wondering what it is, this “Greater Israel” because of course you look at the map by Israeli leaders in several occasions with this Greater Israel going from the Nile to the Euphrates and you say come on they cannot do that, they cannot occupy Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq.
But then everything changes when you look at it from a non-territorial border expansion perspective. And if you think that in fact domination can be exerted, established, other than by expanding the physical borders and through military occupation, but through domination and financial control, control from outside, power domination, you see that the Greater Israel project has already started and it’s very advanced.
Look at the annihilation of Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon. So all those who were historically considered not friends of Israel have been annihilated. And the other Arab countries that remain either do not have the capacity to confront Israel and perish the thought they explored the idea of unity among them or with others. And the others are fine with it.
Ultimately, I think that Greater Israel is the quintessential explanation of the US imperialistic design in that part of the world for which the Palestinians remain a thorn in the side not just for Israel but for the imperialistic project itself because the Palestinians are still there resisting.
They don’t want to go, they don’t want to be tamed, they don’t want to be dominated so they are the last line, the last frontier of resistance, both physically and in the imagination. And therefore, you see, the fierceness against them has scaled up, with the US now getting ready with boots on the ground to get rid of them. This is my interpretation of the general design behind Israel-United States, where Israelis are going to pay a heavy price like many in the region, not just the Palestinians.
CHRIS HEDGES:So you see the imposition of American troops in Gaza as another step forward to the depopulation of Gaza.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Yes, yes, yes, I don’t trust any promise made to the Palestinians either by Israel or by the United States because what I’ve seen over the past two years shows me, demonstrates to all of us in fact, that they don’t care at all about the Palestinians. Otherwise, they would have seen their suffering.
‘The beginning of genocide has changed my perception of the world in a way, for me personally, it’s the end of an era of innocence when I really believed that the United Nations were a place where things could still be advanced in the pursuit of peace.’
It’s just not like people like us who can really divide their life. Is it pre-genocide? Does it happen to you as well? Are you talking of pre-genocide or after genocide? Because in fact, the beginning of genocide has changed my perception of the world in a way, for me personally, it’s the end of an era of innocence when I really believed that the United Nations were a place where things could still be advanced in the pursuit of peace.
Now I don’t think so, which doesn’t mean that I think that the UN is over, but in order not to be over, in order to make sense to the people, it is to be led by dignity, principles like dignity, equality and freedom for all. And we are absolutely far from that today.
CHRIS HEDGES: And what is it that brought you to this decision? Is it the acceptance of this faux ceasefire on the part of the UN, or was it before this moment?
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: No, it’s before. It’s before. It’s the fact that for two years most states, primarily in the West, but with the acquiescence of other states in the region have supported the Israeli mantra of “self-defence”.
Sorry, it was a mantra because again, self-defence has a very, I’m not saying that Israel had no right to protect itself. Of course Israel had suffered a ferocious attack on October 7. Some say similar to the attacks it had inflicted on the Palestinians. Others say more brutal, say less brutal. It doesn’t matter.
Israel suffered a horrible, violent attack. Israeli civilians suffered a horrible attack on October 7th. But hey, this didn’t give the possibility to Israel to invoke Article 51 of the UN Charter, meaning the right to wage a war.
This is not legal. And on this I can say I’m surprised by how conservative are member states when it comes to the interpretation of international law, except on this, in the sense that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has already set the limits of the right of invoking self-defence for member states.
And it can only be done against states where there is a concrete threat that the state will attack which is not the case here. So yes, Israel could defend itself, but not wage a war. And while the war was clearly identifiable more for its crimes than not its tendency to avoid crimes, member states have continued to say nothing and it was very extreme violence against the Palestinians in Gaza but also against the Palestinians in the West Bank. And for two years they’ve not used their power to stop it.
So I’m convinced that in order to have a political shift vis-à-vis Israel, there must be a political shift at the country level, because governments are completely subdued to the dictates of the US. Of course, if the US wanted, this would stop, but the US with this constellation of figures in the government is not going to stop.
And plus look at how the West in particular has contributed to dehumanise the Palestinians. Even today you hear people saying yes, Palestinians have been killed in these numbers because they’ve been used as human shields when the only evidence that they’ve been used as human shields is against Israel because Israel has used Palestinians as human shields in the West Bank and in Gaza alike.
You see Palestinians have returned to be wrapped into this colonial tropism of them being the savages, the barbarians, in a way, they have brought havoc upon themselves. This is the narrative that the West has used toward the Palestinians. And by doing that, it has created, they have created the fertile ground for Israel’s impunity.
CHRIS HEDGES: Let’s talk about the nations that you single out in your report that have continued to sustain the genocide, either through weapons shipments, but also the commercial interests. I think your previous report talked about the money that was being made off of the genocide. Just lay out the extent of that collaboration and to the extent that you can, the sums of money involved.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Yeah, yeah, let me start with introducing generally two components, the military component and the trade and investment ones, which are quite interrelated. And states have, in general, I name 62 states, primarily Western states, but with substantive collaboration of states from the Global South, global majority, including some Arab states.
So they have altogether ignored, obscured and somewhat even profited from Israel’s violations of international law through military and economic channels. So military cooperation through arms trades or intelligence sharing has fueled Israel’s war machine during the occupation, the illegal occupation, and especially during the genocide while the United States and Germany alone have provided about 90 percent of Israel’s arms export.
At least 26 states have supplied or facilitated the transfer of arms or components, while many others have continued to buy weapons tested on the Palestinians. And this is why in my previous report, the ones looking at the private sector, I was shocked to see how much the Israeli stock exchange had gone up during the genocide.
And this is particularly because of a growth in the military industry. On the other hand, there is the trade and investment sector. Both have sustained and profited from Israel’s economy. Think that between 2023, 2024, actually the end of 2022 and 2024, exports of electronics, pharmaceuticals, energy minerals and what is called the dual-use have totaled almost US$500 billion, helping Israel finance its military occupation.
Now one third of this trade is with the European Union while the rest is complemented by North American countries, the US and Canada, who have free trade agreements with Israel and several Arab states that have continued to deepen economic ties.
Only a few states have marginally reduced trade during the genocide, but in general the indirect commercial flows, including with states that have supposedly no diplomatic relations with Israel, have continued undisturbed.
It’s a very grim picture of the reality. But let me add just one extra element. I do believe that in many respects, the problem is ideological. As I said, there is a tendency to treat Ukraine, for example, vis-a-vis Russia, in a very different fashion than Palestine versus Israel. And this is why I think there is an element of Orientalism that accompanies also the tragedy of the Palestinian people.
CHRIS HEDGES:Talk a little bit about the kinds of weapons that have been shipped to Israel. These are, and we should be clear that, of course, the Palestinians do not have a conventional army, don’t have a navy, they don’t have an air force, they don’t have mechanized units, including tanks, they don’t have artillery, and yet the weapons shipments that are coming in are some of the most sophisticated armaments that are used in a conventional war.
And as a leaked Israeli report, I think it was +972, provided, 83 percent of the people killed in Gaza are civilians.
FRANCISCA ALBANESE: Yes, yes. First of all, there are two things that are weapons, what is considered conventional weapons and dual-use. And both should have been suspended according to the decision of the International Court of Justice concerning Israel in the Nicaragua v. Germany case.
Meanwhile, there are two things: there is the transfer of weapons directly to Israel, and this includes aircraft, materials to compose the drones, because Israel doesn’t produce anything on its own, it requires components — artillery shells, for example, cannon ammunition, rifles, anti-tank missiles, bombs.
So these are all things that have been provided primarily by the United States. Germany, which is the second largest arms exporter to Israel has supplied a range of weapons from frigates to torpedoes.
And also, and then there is Italy, which has also provided spare parts for bombs and airplanes and the United Kingdom, who has played a key role in providing intelligence. And there is also the question of the UN. Not everything is easy to track because the United States have traveled … the United States are the prime provider of weapons, also because they are the assembler of the F-35 programme.
So there are 17 or 19 countries which cooperate and all of them say, well, you know, I mean, yes, I know that the F-35 is used in Israel, by Israel, but I only contribute to a small part. I only contribute to the wheels. I only contribute to the wings. I only provide these hooks or this engine.
Well, everything is assembled in the US and then sold or transferred or gifted to Israel. And it’s extremely problematic because this is why I say it’s a collective crime, because no one can assume the responsibility on their own but eventually all together they contribute to make this genocide implicating so many countries.
CHRIS HEDGES: So Francesca, Israel is the ninth largest arms exporter in the world. To what extent do those relationships have? I mean, I think one of the largest purchasers of Israeli drones is India. We’ve seen India shift its position vis-a-vis Palestine.
Historically, it’s always stood with the Palestinian people. That’s no longer true under [Narendra] Modi. To what extent do those ties affect the response by the 63 some states that you write about for collaborating with the genocide.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: So let me first expand on this. Weapon and military technology sale is a core component of Israel’s economy. And since 2024, it has constituted one third of Israeli exports. And of course, there are two elements connected to this, is that these exports enhances Israel’s manufacturing capacity, but also horribly worsens the life of the Palestinians because Israeli military technology is tested on the Palestinians under occupation or other people under other Israeli related military activities.
Now, the fact that the arms export has increased of nearly 20 percent during the genocide, doubling toward Europe. And only the trade with Europe accounts for over 50 percent of Israeli military sales, selling to so many other countries, including in the Global South, the Asia and Pacific states in the Asia-Pacific region account for 23 percent of the purchase, with India being probably the major. But also 12 percent of the weapons tested on the Palestinians are purchased by Arab countries under the Abraham Accords. So what does it tell us?
It explains what you were hinting at in the question, the fact that this is also reflected in the political shift toward Israel that has been recorded at the General Assembly level. If you see how some African countries and Asian countries, including India, are behaving vis-a-vis Israel, it’s 180 degrees turn compared to where they were in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
This is because on the one hand, Israel is embedded in the global economy, but also it’s a global economy that is veering toward ultra liberal, I mean, it’s following ultra-liberalist ideologies and therefore capital and wealth and accumulation of resources, including military power, comes first.
‘It’s very sad, but this is the reality . . . since the end of the Cold War that there has been an increasing globalisation of the system where the common denominator is force.’
It’s very sad, but this is the reality. And it’s important to know because this is a long, as I was hinting before, my sense is that this is a long term trajectory that didn’t start on October 7, 2023. I mean, probably since the end of the Cold War that there has been an increasing globalisation of the system where the common denominator is force.
I mean, there is this, not a common denominator, but the unifying factor for many is force, how the monopoly of force that comes with weapons, capital and algorithms. And yeah, this is where the world is going.
CHRIS HEDGES: Well, we’ve seen these weapons systems which of course are tested. They’re sold as bad. say the term is battle tested without naming the Palestinians, but they are sold to Greece to hold back migrants coming from North Africa. They are used along the border in the United States with Mexico.
And it’s not just that these weapons are “battle tested” on the Palestinians and we haven’t even spoken about these huge surveillance systems, but the very methods of control, the way they’re used are exported through military advisors.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Of course, because in fact, the Israeli population is made almost entirely of soldiers. Of course, there are those who do not enlist in the army for religious reasons or because they are contentious objectors, they’re a tiny minority. But the majority of the people of Israelis go through the army.
And then many of them transfer their know-how or what they have been doing into their next career steps. So the fact that Israel, as I was documenting in my previous report, Israel’s startup economy has a huge dark side to the fact that it’s connected to the military industry and to the surveillance industry.
There is a significant body of Israeli citizens who are going around providing advice, intelligence and training in the Global South both to mercenaries and states proper like Morocco. So there is an Israelisation and Palestinianisation of the international relations or rather of the relations between individuals and states.
And I think the interesting thing, this is why I’m saying Palestine is such a revealer, it’s because, as you say, eventually these tools of control and securitisation have concentrated in the hands of those who are fortifying borders at the expense of refugees and migrants.
So it’s really clear what’s happening here. There are oligarchs who are getting richer and richer and more and more protected in their fortresses where the state is providing the fertile ground to have it, but it’s not states that are benefiting from this inequality, because the majority of the people within states, look at the US, but also in Europe, are not benefiting from anything, in fact.
They’re victims. This is why you equally exploit it. This is why I’m saying it’s another degree of suffering, of course, than the Palestinians. But every worker today should draw a lesson from what’s happening to the Palestinians, because the large injustice system is connected and makes all of us connected to what’s happening there.
CHRIS HEDGES: Well, internally as well. I mean, with Sikh farmers who were protesting Modi were out on the roads, suddenly, over their heads were Israeli-made drones dropping tear gas canisters.
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Yeah, exactly. Drones are one of the most exported devices from Israel’s technology and they are in use by Frontex to surveil the Mediterranean Sea, as you were saying, the US-Mexican border. But more and more, they’re getting into people’s lives.
Also look at the way certain technologies have been perfected across borders. I remember earlier this summer, this is very anecdotal, I’ve not done research on it, but I knew that we were seeing something quite and horribly revolutionary.
This year, this summer during the protests in Serbia, where students and ordinary citizens were taken to the streets against the government and have been protesting for one year now, people in Serbia. I saw the use of these sound weapons, oxygen-fed weapons.
So there are bombs that produce such a pain in the body who finds itself in the wave that it’s excruciating. And then of course people try to flee, but they also lose senses, et cetera. And I’ve seen this in Serbia.
And now I understand that it’s being used in Gaza as well, where the bomb doesn’t produce fire, it produces a movement of air that causes pain to the body and even to internal organs. It’s incredible. And these are weapons that have been perfected through testing here and there, and Serbia keeps on selling and buying military technology to and from Israel.
CHRIS HEDGES: I just want to close with, I mean, I think your reports, the last two reports in particular, show the complete failure on the part of governments as well as corporations to respond legally in terms of their legal obligations to the genocide. What do we do now? What must be done to quote Lenin?
How, because this, as you have pointed out repeatedly, really presages the complete breakdown of the rule of law. What as citizens must we do?
FRANCESCA ALBANESE: I think that we have passed the alarm area. I mean, we are really in a critical place and I sense it because instead of correcting itself, the system led by governments is accentuating its authoritarian traits. Think of the repressive measures that the UK government is taking against protesters, against civil society, against journalists standing in solidarity with Palestine, for justice in Palestine.
In France and in Italy at the same time, conferences academic freedom is shrinking and in the same days, conferences of reputable historians and military and legal experts have been cancelled owing to the pressure of the pro-genocide groups, pro-Israel groups in their respective countries. People, including in Germany, are being persecuted, including academics, for their own exercise of free speech.
This tells me that there is very little pretense that Western states, so-called liberal democracies, the most attached to this idea of democracy are ready to defend for real. So in this sense, it’s up to us citizens to be vigilant and to make sure that we do not buy products connected or services connected to the legality of the occupation, the apartheid and the genocide.
And there are various organisations that collect lists of companies and entities, including universities that are connected to this unlawful endeavor. BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] is one, don’t buy into the occupation who profits profundo, but also students associations.
‘There is a need to speak about Palestine, to make choices about Palestine and not because everything needs to revolve around Palestine, but because Palestine today is a metaphor of our life and where our life is going to go is clearly evident in this.’
And this is something that has taught me, it’s very touching because it’s really the work of students, faculty members and staff that has mapped what each university does. And I think it gives the possibility to act, everyone in our own domain. Then of course there is a need to speak about Palestine, to make choices about Palestine and not because everything needs to revolve around Palestine, but because Palestine today is a metaphor of our life and where our life is going to go is clearly evident in this.
But also we need to make sure that businesses divest. Either through our purchase power, people have to step away and stop using platforms like Airbnb or Booking.com. I know that Amazon is very convenient, but guys, we might also return to buy books in libraries, ordering books through libraries.
Of course, not all of us can, but many do, many can. On the way to work, buy a book in a library, order a book in a bookstore. We need to reduce our reliance on the tools that have been used, that have been perfected through the slaughter of the Palestinians. And of course, make government accountable. There are lawyers, associations, and jurists who are taking government officials to court, businesses to court. But again, I do not think that there is one strategy that is going to be the winning one.
It’s the plurality of actions from a plurality of actors that is going to produce results and slow down the genocide and then help dismantle the occupation and the apartheid. It’s a long trajectory and the fight has just started.
CHRIS HEDGES: Thank you, Francesca, and I want to thank Thomas [Hedges], Diego [Ramos], Max [Jones] and Sofia [Menemenlis], who produced the show. You can find me at ChrisHedges.Substack.com
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning author and journalist who was a foreign correspondent for 15 years for The New York Times. This interview is republished from The Chris Hedges Report.
Timor-Leste Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão has paid tribute to the “courageous and determined” contribution of Australian journalist Robert Domm to the struggle of the Timorese people in gaining independence from Indonesia. He died last Friday.
Domm was remembered for meeting in secret with the then Timorese resistance leader Gusmão in an exclusive interview.
“The government and people of East Timor are deeply saddened by the passing of Robert Domm, whose courage and determination helped bring to the world the truth of our fight for self-determination,” Gusmão’s statement said.
“In September 1990, when few in the world were aware of the devastation in occupied East Timor, or that our campaign of resistance continued despite the terrible losses, Robert Domm made the perilous journey to our country and climbed Mount Bunaria to meet with me and the leadership from FALINTIL.
“He was the first foreign journalist in 15 years to have direct contact with the Resistance.
“Your interview with me, broadcast by the ABC Background Briefing programme, broke the silence involving Timor-Leste since 1975.
“He conveyed to the world the message that the Timorese struggle for self-determination and resistance against foreign military occupation was very much alive.
Merchant seaman
“Robert Domm visited East Timor in the 1970s, then under Portuguese colonial control, as a merchant seaman on a boat crossing between Darwin and Dili, transporting general cargo and fuel.
“He returned in 1989, when Indonesia allowed tourist entry for the first time since 1975.
“He returned in 1990, allegedly as a “tourist”, but was on a secret mission to interview me for the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
“Robert Domm’s journey to find me took extraordinary courage. His visit was organised by the Timorese resistance with, as he later recalled, “military precision”. He involved more than two hundred people from Timore who guided him through villages and checkpoints, running great risk for himself and the Timore people who helped him.
“He was a humble and gentle Australian who slept next to us on the grounds of Mount Bunaria, ate with us under the protection of the jungle and walked with our resistance soldiers as a comrade and a friend. I am deeply moved by your concern for the people of Timore.
He risked his own life to share our story. His report has given international recognition to the humanity and the resolve of our people.
“Following the broadcast, the Indonesian military carried out large-scale operations in our mountains and many of those who helped them lost their lives for our freedom.
Exposed complicity
“Robert continued to support East Timor after 1990. He spoke out against the occupation and exposed the complicity of governments that have remained mute. He was a co-author, with Mark Aarons, of East Timor: A Tragedy Created by the West, a work that deepened the international understanding of our suffering and our right to self-determination.
“He remained a friend and defender of East Timor long after the restoration of independence.
“In 2015, twenty-five years after his maiden voyage, Robert returned to East Timor to commemorate our historic encounter. Together, we walked to Mount Bunaria, in the municipality of Ainaro, to celebrate the occasion and remember the lives lost during our fight.
“The place of our meeting has been recognised as a place of historical importance.
“In recognition of his contribution, Robert Domm was awarded the Order of Timor-Leste in August 2014. This honour reflected our nation’s gratitude for its role in taking our struggle to the world. Robert’s contribution is part of our nation’s history.
“Robert’s soul now rests on Mount Matebian, next to his Timorese brothers and sisters.
“On behalf of the government and people of East Timor, we express our deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Robert Domm. His courage, decency and sense of justice will forever remain in the memory of our nation.”
Journalist Robert Domm with Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmão, now Prime Minister of Timor-Leste, in a jungle hideout in 1990. Image: via Joana Ruas
Timor-Leste Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão has paid tribute to the “courageous and determined” contribution of Australian journalist Robert Domm to the struggle of the Timorese people in gaining independence from Indonesia. He died last Friday.
Domm was remembered for meeting in secret with the then Timorese resistance leader Gusmão in an exclusive interview.
“The government and people of East Timor are deeply saddened by the passing of Robert Domm, whose courage and determination helped bring to the world the truth of our fight for self-determination,” Gusmão’s statement said.
“In September 1990, when few in the world were aware of the devastation in occupied East Timor, or that our campaign of resistance continued despite the terrible losses, Robert Domm made the perilous journey to our country and climbed Mount Bunaria to meet with me and the leadership from FALINTIL.
“He was the first foreign journalist in 15 years to have direct contact with the Resistance.
“Your interview with me, broadcast by the ABC Background Briefing programme, broke the silence involving Timor-Leste since 1975.
“He conveyed to the world the message that the Timorese struggle for self-determination and resistance against foreign military occupation was very much alive.
Merchant seaman
“Robert Domm visited East Timor in the 1970s, then under Portuguese colonial control, as a merchant seaman on a boat crossing between Darwin and Dili, transporting general cargo and fuel.
“He returned in 1989, when Indonesia allowed tourist entry for the first time since 1975.
“He returned in 1990, allegedly as a “tourist”, but was on a secret mission to interview me for the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
“Robert Domm’s journey to find me took extraordinary courage. His visit was organised by the Timorese resistance with, as he later recalled, “military precision”. He involved more than two hundred people from Timore who guided him through villages and checkpoints, running great risk for himself and the Timore people who helped him.
“He was a humble and gentle Australian who slept next to us on the grounds of Mount Bunaria, ate with us under the protection of the jungle and walked with our resistance soldiers as a comrade and a friend. I am deeply moved by your concern for the people of Timore.
He risked his own life to share our story. His report has given international recognition to the humanity and the resolve of our people.
“Following the broadcast, the Indonesian military carried out large-scale operations in our mountains and many of those who helped them lost their lives for our freedom.
Exposed complicity
“Robert continued to support East Timor after 1990. He spoke out against the occupation and exposed the complicity of governments that have remained mute. He was a co-author, with Mark Aarons, of East Timor: A Tragedy Created by the West, a work that deepened the international understanding of our suffering and our right to self-determination.
“He remained a friend and defender of East Timor long after the restoration of independence.
“In 2015, twenty-five years after his maiden voyage, Robert returned to East Timor to commemorate our historic encounter. Together, we walked to Mount Bunaria, in the municipality of Ainaro, to celebrate the occasion and remember the lives lost during our fight.
“The place of our meeting has been recognised as a place of historical importance.
“In recognition of his contribution, Robert Domm was awarded the Order of Timor-Leste in August 2014. This honour reflected our nation’s gratitude for its role in taking our struggle to the world. Robert’s contribution is part of our nation’s history.
“Robert’s soul now rests on Mount Matebian, next to his Timorese brothers and sisters.
“On behalf of the government and people of East Timor, we express our deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Robert Domm. His courage, decency and sense of justice will forever remain in the memory of our nation.”
Journalist Robert Domm with Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmão, now Prime Minister of Timor-Leste, in a jungle hideout in 1990. Image: via Joana Ruas
French Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou’s first visit to New Caledonia is marked by marathon political talks and growing concerns about the French Pacific territory’s deteriorating economic situation.
Moutchou arrived on Monday on a visit scheduled to last until tomorrow.
With a backdrop of political uncertainty and the economic consequences of the May 2024 riots, she has been meeting with a large panel of political and economic stakeholders over concerns about New Caledonia’s future.
French Overseas Minister Naïma Moutchou . . . growing concerns about the French territory’s economy and political future. Image: APR File
On Monday, she met a group of about 40 political, business and economic leaders.
All of them voiced their concerns about New Caledonia’s short-term future and what they term as a “lack of visibility” and fear about what 2026 could hold.
Some of these fears are related to a lack of financial support necessary for a proper recovery of the local economy, which was devastated by the 2024 riots and caused damages of over 2 billion euros (NZ$4 million) with an estimated drop of the local GDP by 13.5 percent, the destruction of hundreds of businesses and the subsequent loss of tens of thousands of jobs.
The French government last year unlocked a special loan of 1 billion euros, but it will now have to be reimbursed and has created a huge debt for the French Pacific archipelago.
Huge loan issue
A vast majority of economic and political leaders now seem to agree that the huge loan granted in 2024 should be converted into a non-refundable grant.
New Caledonia’s indebtedness rate, as a result, soared to 360 percent for debts that will have to be refunded as early as 2026, at a high interest rate of 4.54 percent.
“The urgency is about finding jobs for those 12,000 people who have lost their jobs”, employers’ association MEDEF-NC vice president Bertrand Courte told reporters after the meeting.
“We need to kick-start the economy with large-scale works and only the French State can do it”, he said, echoing a feeling of disappointment.
The fears are further compounded by looming deadlines such as the local retirement scheme, which is threatening to collapse.
A special scheme to assist the unemployed, which was extended from 2024, is also to come to an end in December 2025. There are pleas to extend it once again at least until June 2026.
“We do understand that now, from France’s point of view, it’s a give and take situation”, said Medium and Small Businesses president Christophe Dantieux.
Public spending cuts
“[France] will only give if we make more efforts in terms of reforms. But there have already been quite a few efforts made in 2025, especially 15 percent cuts on public spending, but it looks like it’s not enough.”
One of the scheduled large-scale projects was the construction of a new prison, which was announced in 2023 but has not started.
On the macro-economic scale, New Caledonia is also facing several crucial challenges.
Huge losses in terms of tax collection have been estimated to a staggering US$600 million, as well as a deficit of some US$500 million in public accounts.
Another obstacle to boosting investments or re-investments, since the 2024 riots, was that most insurance companies are continuing to exclude a “riots risk” clause in their new policies.
On the French national level, the much-disputed 2026 Budget for Overseas is scheduled to take place starting November 18 and this also includes threats such as the intention to scrap tax exemption benefits for French companies intending to invest in France’s overseas territories, including New Caledonia.
“There is an economic, financial and budget urgency”, New Caledonia government President Alcide Ponga said following the minister’s meeting with the whole Cabinet.
“The minister is well aware that our budget situation is catastrophic and she intends to help us”, Congress (Parliament) President Veylma Falaeo said after her meeting with Moutchou.
Yohann Lecourieux, mayor of the city of Dumbéa (near the capital Nouméa), also provided a telling example of the current hardships faced by the population: “Eight hundred of our students no longer eat in our schools’ canteens simply because the families can no longer afford to pay.”
Political talks: no immediate outcome On Tuesday, Moutchou focused on political talks with all parties on the local chessboard, one after the other.
The major challenge was to resume political discussions after one of the major components of the pro-independence movement, the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), mainly dominated by historic Union Calédonienne, decided to withdraw from a proposed consensual project signed in July 2025 in Bougival (in the outskirts of Paris) after a week-long session of intense talks fostered by Moutchou predecessor, Manuel Valls.
The Bougival text was proposing to create a “State of New Caledonia”, as well as a New Caledonian nationality and transfer of key powers (such as foreign affairs) from France.
Since FLNKS denounced its negotiators’ signatures, all of New Caledonia’s other parties have committed to defend the Bougival text, while at the same time urging FLNKS to come back to the table and possibly submit their desired modifications.
Since she was appointed to the sensitive portfolio last month, Moutchou, in Paris repeated that she did not intend to “do without” FLNKS, as long as FLNKS did not intend to “do without the other (parties)”.
Moutchou also said her approach was “listen first and then reply”.
Following a two-hour meeting on Tuesday between Moutchou and the FLNKS delegation, it maintained its stance and commitment to “sincere dialogue” based on a “clear discussion and negotiation method”.
‘We will not change course’ – FLNKS “We will not change course. This is a first contact to remind of the defiance and loss of trust from FLNKS with the [French] State since December 2021,” FLNKS spokesperson Dominique Fochi said.
He said the FLNKS still “wishes out of the French Republic’s fold in order to create solid ties with countries of the region or even with France”.
Saying the Bougival text was a “lure of independence”, FLNKS had previously also posed a pre-requirement that future negotiations should be held in New Caledonia and placed under the auspices of the United Nations, in a spirit of decolonisation.
Late October 2025, both Houses of the French Parliament endorsed, for the third time, that New Caledonia’s crucial provincial local elections (scheduled to be held before December 2025) should now take place no later than June 2026.
The postponement was validated by France’s Constitutional Council on November 6.
This was specifically designed to allow more time for political talks to produce a consensual agreement on New Caledonia’s political future, possibly a continuation or refining (by way of amendments) of the Bougival text.
Pro-France parties On the side of parties who want New Caledonia to remain part of France (and are opposed to independence), Les Loyalistes leader and Southern Province President Sonia Backès, said she and other pro-France parties also remained open to further discussions.
“But we’ve already made a lot of concessions in the Bougival agreement”, she said.
“[Moutchou] now has understood that New Caledonia is out of breath and that we now have to move forward, especially politically”, Rassemblement-LR leader Virginie Ruffenach said after talks with the French minister.
“We can no longer procrastinate, or else New Caledonia will not recover if we don’t have an agreement that carries prospects for all of our territory’s population,” Ruffenach said.
“We are still hopeful that, by the end of this week, we can move forward and find a way… But this cannot be the theory of chaos that’s being imposed on us.”
The ‘moderate’ pro-independence parties Two former pillars of FLNKS, now described as “moderates” within the pro-independence movement, the PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and UPM (Progressist Union in Melanesia), who have distanced themselves from FLNKS since August 2024, after the riots, are now staunch supporters of the Bougival project.
“We are committed to (the Bougival) accord… Our militants said some improvements could be made. That’s what we told the minister and she said yes”, UNI Congress caucus president Jean-Pierre Djaïwé told local media after discussions with Moutchou.
He said those possible amendments could touch on the short-term handing over of a number of powers by France, but that this should not affect the Bougival project’s fragile “general balance”.
They say the text, although not perfect because it is a compromise, still makes full sovereignty achievable.
PALIKA held its important annual congress over the weekend and says it will announce its main outcomes later this week.
A strong faction within PALIKA is currently pushing for the “moderate” line (as opposed to the hard-line FLNKS) to be pursued and therefore a formal divorce with FLNKS should be made official.
On the “pro-Bougival” side, currently re-grouping all pro-France parties and the pro-independence moderates PALIKA and UPM, grouped into a “UNI” (Union Nationale pour l’Indépendance) caucus at the local Congress, some of the mooted possible future options could be to place all bets on the local referendum to be held early 2026 and its possible outcome pronouncing a vast majority for the July 2025 text.
They believe, based on the current party representation at the Congress, that this Bougival text could gather between 60 and 80 percent of local support.
Another party, Wallisian-based Eveil Océanien and its vice-president Milakulo Tukumuli told public broadcaster NC la 1ère on Sunday another option could be to just “agree to disagree” and base the rest of future developments on the outcomes of New Caledonia’s provincial elections.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Israeli soldiers have revealed that Palestinian civilians were killed inside Gaza in a free-for-all at the wish of army officers amid a collapse of legal and military norms during Tel Aviv’s two-year brutal war on the besieged enclave, reports Anadolu Ajensi.
“If you want to shoot without restraint, you can,” Daniel, the commander of an Israeli tank unit, said in a documentary, Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War, set to be aired in the UK on ITV on Monday.
The Israeli army has killed more than 69,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded over 170,000 in Gaza and left the enclave uninhabitable since October 2023.
Israeli soldiers, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, said Palestinian civilians were used as human shields during the conflict, The Guardianreported.
Captain Yotam Vilk, an armored corps officer, said soldiers did not apply the long-standing army standard of firing only when a target had the “means, intent and ability” to cause harm.
“There’s no such thing as ‘means, intent and ability’ in Gaza,” he said. “It’s just suspicion – someone walking where it’s not allowed.”
Another soldier, identified only as Eli, said: “Life and death isn’t determined by procedures or opening fire regulations. It’s the conscience of the commander on the ground that decides.”
‘Hanging laundry’
Eli recounted an officer ordering a tank to demolish a building where a man was just “hanging laundry,” resulting in multiple deaths and injuries.
The documentary also presents detailed accounts of Israeli soldiers opening fire unprovoked on civilians running toward food handouts at militarized aid distribution points operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Film maker talks about Israeli ‘shoot to kill’ policies in Gaza Video: LBC
A contractor identified only as Sam, who worked at GHF sites, said he saw Israeli soldiers shooting two unarmed men running to get aid.
“You could just see two soldiers run after them,” he recalled. “They drop onto their knees and they just take two shots, and you could just see . . . two heads snap backwards and just drop.”
Sam also described a tank destroying “a normal car . . . just four normal people sat inside it.”
According to UN figures, at least 944 Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli fire near such aid points.
Extremist rhetoric
The film also highlights the spread of extremist rhetoric inside Israel, including statements from rabbis and politicians depicting all Palestinians as legitimate targets after the October 7 events.
“You hear that all the time, so you start to believe it,” Daniel said.
Rabbi Avraham Zarbiv, who served more than 500 days in Gaza, defended large-scale home demolitions by the Israeli army in Gaza.
“Everything there is one big terrorist infrastructure . . . We changed the conduct of an entire army.”
In September, a UN commission concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, where a ceasefire came into force on October 10 after two years of Israeli bombardment.
“I feel like they’ve destroyed all my pride in being an Israeli — in being an IDF (army) officer,” Daniel says in the programme. “All that’s left is shame.”
Israeli Minister Haskel speaks to RNZ on Pacific visit Video: RNZ
“It was an important message for our people and it was a great opportunity for me to thank them in person and to see how we can strengthen our friendship.”
The countries were “strategic allies” who worked together in the areas of agriculture, water technology and cybersecurity, Haskel said.
She pointed to the agricultural industry in PNG.
“They used to import almost all of their products, vegetables, fruits,” she said.
Agricultural help
“There are a few Israeli companies that went into the industry, developing a lot of the agricultural aspect of it to the point where all of the products they’re eating are local and they’re even exporting some of these products.”
Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on 17 September 2025. Image: RNZ Pacific/Fiji govt
Israeli farms there had also helped with the growth of the local dairy industry, she said.
“This is part of the collaboration that we want to do,” she said. “I came with a delegation of businessmen coming from those industries to see how can continue and develop it, it’s a win-win situation.”
Also while in Fiji, Haskel signed a memorandum of understanding on cybersecurity.
She said that came after three hacking attacks on the Fiji government’s system.
“[The MOU] starts a dialogue between our cybersecurity agency and between the proper agencies in Fiji as well,” she said.
Cybersecurity experience
““This is something that they’re starting to build, we’ve got a lot of experience with it and I think the dialogue can give them and lot of advice and also to connect them to quite a few Israeli companies.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel . . . “We have a lot of cybersecurity systems so it’s a start of a building of a relationship.” Image: RNZ/Nick Monro
A representative from Israeli defence and security company Elbit was among the delegation.
“They have a lot of cybersecurity systems so it’s a start of a building of a relationship,” Haskel said.
Israel’s relationships with PNG and Fiji had been going for many decades, and were not about the amount of aid given, she said.
“Israel is not a major economic power that has a lot of money to spend, especially during times of war,” she said.
“It’s not about the amount of money that we can invest but the quality and the things and how it affects the people.”
Commitments honoured
Asked about aid projects that had been cancelled, Haskel said Israel had honoured any commitments it made. It was not responsible for changes to United States policy that had seen trilateral agreements cut, she said.
“There were many projects that were committed in many different countries, together Israel and the Americans, some are continuing and some are cancelled,” she said.
“This is part of [US President Donald] Trump’s policy. We can’t predict that.”
Haskel also met with people from indigenous, Christian and farming communities while in Fiji and PNG and she said Israel is also hoping to become and observer of the Pacific Islands Forum next year.
The PNG government said it continued to regard Israel as a valuable partner in advancing shared development goals.
Meanwhile, Fiji’s government said the “historic” visit between the nations would foster continued cooperation, innovation and friendship.
‘Strategic step’
Prime Minister Rabuka said the cybersecurity agreement was “a strategic step forward to strengthen Fiji’s security framework and promote deeper cooperation across sectors”.
Oliver Nobetau, a Papuan development expert at the Australian Lowy Institute, told RNZ Pacific that Israel wanted to lock in UN support for the future.
“I think they have demonstrated their support, but also may have an ability to sort of sway between votes,” he said.
“We’ve seen it, between the switching from recognition from China to Taiwan. And this can be another instance now where they can be persuaded to vote in a different way.”
On aid, Nobetau said there would now be a hope that Israel increased its aid to the region.
“I would say there’s an expectation on Israel to carry on or fill in that funding gap,” she said.
“The question now falls on the Pacific governments themselves, if this is something that’s worth pursuing . . . they would prefer, if the USA are now is out of the picture, if Israel can continue to fill that.”
Nobetau expected Israel to look at bringing its military and intelligence services closer to the Pacific.
“From what I recall, when I was working with the government, there were institutional exchanges with the Mossad: internal capabilities to collect intelligence is something that’s that’s needed within Pacific countries,” he said.
“So I think that could be another area as well.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Pacific nations are at the world’s biggest climate talks making the familiar plea to keep global warming under 1.5C to stay alive, as scientists say the world will now certainly surpass the limit — at least temporarily.
At the opening of the COP30 climate summit in Belém Brazil, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made the same call that Pacific nations have for years.
“Let us be clear, the 1.5-degree limit is a red line for humanity. It must be kept within reach and scientists also tell us that this is still possible,” Guterres said.
“If we act now at speed and scale, we can make the overshoot as small, as short and as safe as possible.”
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) confirmed in its State of the Climate update that greenhouse gas emissions, which are heating the planet, have risen to a record high, with 2025 being on track to be the second or third warmest year on record.
“It will be virtually impossible to limit global warming to 1.5C in the next few years without temporarily overshooting this target,” WMO secretary-general Celeste Saulo said.
“But the science is equally clear that it’s still entirely possible and essential to bring temperatures back down to 1.5C by the end of the century.”
Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) climate justice campaigner India Logan-Riley said the world was now in “deeply unstable territory” with the “very existence” of some Pacific communities now at risk.
COP31 – a Pacific COP? As this COP starts, there is still uncertainty over where COP31 in 2026 will be hosted.
Both Australia — in conjunction with the Pacific — and Türkiye have bid to host the event.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has written twice to his counterpart looking for a compromise to break the deadlock.
Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr, who is in Belém, said it was important for Australia to be successful in its bid.
“We’re here in Brazil and the Amazon, and the focus next year needs to be a ‘Blue COP’, we need to focus on the oceans,” President Whipps said.
“One of the things I always tell people is, in some countries they only face droughts, or they may face a storm but in the Pacific we suffer from all of them; sea-level rise, storms, droughts, extreme heat.
“Other people, they can’t relate or they think it may be unreal.”
One of those people, US President Donald Trump, told the UN last month the climate crisis is “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”.
Palau has a particularly close relationship with the US as one of the Compact of Free Association (COFA) nations. The agreement gives the US military access to Palau, which in return is given financial assistance and for Palauans the right to work in the US.
Whipps said Trump’s comments were unfortunate, and more reason for COP to come to the Pacific.
“I would invite President Trump to come to the Pacific. He should visit Tuvalu, and he should visit Kiribati and Marshall Islands.”
Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr, who is in Belém . . . the renewable energy transition “gives us energy independence”. Image: UN Photo
100% renewable Pacific
The Pacific is aiming to be the first region in the world to be completely reliant on renewable energy, a campaign which being led by Whipps.
“Leading the energy transition not only helps the planet by reducing our carbon footprint, but also gives us energy independence, [it] allows us to create jobs locally, and it keeps the money circulating.”
Whipps wants Palau to be running completely off renewable energy by 2032.
Meanwhile, the UN emissions gap report shows the world is on track for 2.3C to 2.5C global warming, if nations stick to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
However, it is an improvement from last year’s report, which predicted 2.6C to 2.8C of warming.
Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN) policy advisor Sindra Sharma said the report laid bare the fact that global ambition is nowhere near where it needs to be.
“[The new forecast] still is quite unacceptable for vulnerable communities and small island states in particular, because we’ll feel the effects the fastest with crossing anywhere beyond 1.5 even 1.51 it’s going to have significant implications.
“We’ve always had all the solutions to be able to do so and it’s just a lack of political will. It’s a choice that’s being made consistently and that choice is going to affect every single one on this earth.”
Sharma is hopeful there will be positive outcomes at this year’s COP, despite ongoing geopolitical tensions, which are in part driven by it being hosted close to the Amazon Rainforest — often referred to as the lungs of the earth — and marking 10 years since the Paris Agreement was signed.
It is also the first time Pacific nations have confirmation from the world’s top court that failing to protect people from the effects of climate change could violate international law.
“The advisory opinion that we have now is the first time that we’re going into COP with this kind of legal clarity and the legal clarity is telling us that there’s due diligence in terms of limiting warming to 1.5C.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
The Freedoms Committee of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate says the Israeli occupation forces have killed 44 Palestinian journalists inside displacement tents in the Gaza Strip.
The committee said that these journalists were among 254 media workers who had been killed since the beginning of the Israeli assault on Gaza in October 2023 until the end of October 2025, reports Middle East Monitor.
According to the report, the attacks were systematic, targeting displacement tents located around hospitals and UNRWA shelters, in addition to direct sniper shootings inside displacement areas.
It added that the victims were working for local and international media outlets, and most of them were killed while covering the humanitarian situation in the displacement camps.
The syndicate affirmed that such targeting reflects a deliberate attempt to silence the Palestinian press and prevent the truth from reaching the world.
It also stressed the need to hold the Israeli occupation accountable for its crimes against journalists and to ensure international protection for media crews working in Gaza.
Israel’s audiovisual media bill ‘a nail in coffin of editorial independence’
Meanwhile, the Paris-based media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has sounded the alarm following the first reading of a bill sponsored by Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi that would strengthen the executive branch’s control over the audiovisual media, despite opposition from the Attorney General and the Union of Journalists in Israel.
The bill includes measures that RSF condemned a year ago.
Although the rest of the legislative process is likely to be difficult, Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, has managed to get a foot in the door. On the evening of November 3, around midnight, his media broadcasting bill was adopted after its first reading, as part of a voting pact with ultra-Orthodox MPs.
The bill calls for the creation of a Broadcast Media Authority largely composed of members appointed by the Communications Minister himself. His ministry would also be entrusted with calculating television audiences, a measure approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation a year ago that was condemned by RSF.
Legal and legislative barriers are already being put in place in response to this attempt to strengthen the Israeli government’s control over the media landscape.
Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, who is responsible for advising the government on legislative matters, is opposed to the bill, which has been deemed unconstitutional by the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament.
Two petitions against the bill have also been filed with the Supreme Court. One was submitted by the Union of Journalists in Israel, which represents around 3000 media professionals. The other was instigated by the NGO Hatzlacha (meaning “success” in Hebrew), which promotes social justice.
“This first reading vote is the first nail in the coffin of broadcast media’s editorial independence in Israel,” said RSF editorial director Anne Bocandé.
“Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi is openly attacking a pillar of democracy. Against a backdrop of war and an upcoming election campaign, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is seeking to silence voices that are critical of the far-right coalition in power.
“RSF reiterates the warning it issued a year ago: these legislative attacks will have lasting, negative consequences on Israel’s media landscape.”
Incorporating the ‘Al Jazeera’ ban on foreign broadcasters into common law In parallel with his legislative attack on the editorial independence of the country’s broadcast media, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi is also continuing his battle against international broadcasters operating in Israel.
Although his so-called “Al Jazeera law” — which allowed Israeli authorities to shut down any foreign broadcasters perceived as undermining national security and was condemned by RSF in April 2024 — expired on October 27 with the end of the state of emergency, the minister informed the National Security Council — which is attached to the Ministry of National Security — that he now intended to turn the measure into common law.
After the missile exchanges between Israel and Iran in June 2024, the Prime Minister’s party had already attempted to amend the “Al Jazeera law” in an attempt to give additional powers to the Minister of Communications to stop the broadcasting of foreign channels in the country.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.
As the Iwi Chairs Forum fought fruitlessly to keep Te Pāti Māori together last week, spokesperson Bayden Barber offered a warning: a split tōtara is only good for the fire.
This is a party ousting a third of its caucus, citing “irreconcilable differences” and “serious breaches” of its constitution.
Fronting reporters today, co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi wished their former colleagues “all the best of luck” and waved them on their way.
“We had to bring this to a close, and we must move on.”
But that seems overly hopeful. Both Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris were quick to declare the move “unconstitutional” and are threatening to challenge it “in all respects”.
Waka-jumping provision
The party’s National Council has also yet to consider whether to invoke the waka-jumping provision and eject the MPs from Parliament altogether.
Te Pāti Māori co-leaders announce MPs’ expulsion Video: RNZ News
That would require agreement of the two other remaining MPs — Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke and Oriini Kaipara. It’s unclear yet where they stand in all this.
Either outcome is ugly. If the “rogue” MPs remain, they will serve as a constant reminder of division. If they are booted, two byelections loom, sure to be bitter and bruising.
At least a public contest might shed more clarity on what’s behind the weeks of infighting, with voters so far largely left in a cloud of smoke.
Asked to clarify on Monday exactly what the MPs had done to deserve expulsion, the co-leaders refused: “You’re not going to get that detail here in this press conference.”
From what has dripped out over the past six weeks, it seems the feud is driven more by personality than principle.
Party president John Tamihere has accused the two MPs of plotting a failed coup. Kapa-Kingi and Ferris have declared no confidence in Tamihere, with their supporters decrying toxic dictatorial leadership.
Past wave of unity
Supporters are right to feel aggrieved. A year ago, Te Pāti Māori was riding a wave of unity and purpose, as a driving force behind the historic Toitū Te Tiriti hikoi.
“Rogue” MPs Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris . . . the roots of the recent crisis lie in Te Pāti Māori’s rapid expansion. Photo: RNZ/Liam K. Swiggs
It boasted its largest-ever caucus, having swept six of the seven Māori electorates in a dominant 2023 result.
Ironically, the roots of the recent crisis lie in that rapid expansion.
The co-leaders went from being a dynamic duo to overseeing a more assertive caucus and competing egos.
Tamihere, Ngarewa-Packer and Waititi are all dominant personalities, used to steering their own course.
But both Kapa-Kingi and Ferris regard themselves as electorate MPs first, answerable to their own people, not to the central hierarchy.
Add in the whānau ties on either side, and the conflict shifts from political to personal.
Party’s brand damaged
The co-leaders admit the recent disunity has damaged the party’s brand. The enthusiasm of a year ago has turned to disillusionment, with voters now forced to pick sides or to look elsewhere.
When Hone Harawira split from the Māori Party in 2011 to form Mana, both sides eventually vanished. Harawira was sent packing by voters in 2014, and the rest of the Māori Party followed in 2017.
For the wider opposition, there is good and bad here.
The Labour Party will see an opportunity to win over those disenchanted voters and to retake the Māori electorates amidst a more divided race.
But the wider picture is riskier. Centrist voters may well look at the turmoil on the left and decide to stick with the status quo.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has yet to publicly declare whether he would welcome Te Pāti Māori as part of a future Cabinet.
Those questions will only grow louder now — expanding to include the “rogues”. Where do they stand in any coalition calculation?
The Iwi Chairs Forum had arranged “peace talks” this week, bringing together the two factions at a Wellington marae.
Bayden Barber still thinks that would be beneficial and the co-leaders agree it could still go ahead. But few expect much to come of it now.
The next moment of reckoning may come on December 7, when members gather in Rotorua for the party’s AGM — and confront how Te Pāti Māori can piece itself together from the ashes.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Pacific Media, a new regional research journal, made its debut today with a collection of papers on issues challenging the future, such as independent journalism amid “intensifying geostrategic competition”.
The papers have been largely drawn from an inaugural Pacific International Media conference hosted by The University of the South Pacific in the Fiji capital Suva in July last year.
“It was the first Pacific media conference of its kind in 20 years, convened to address the unprecedented shifts and challenges facing the region’s media systems,” said conference coordinator and edition editor Dr Shailendra Singh, associate professor in journalism at USP.
The cover of the first edition of Pacific Media. Image: PM
“These include pressures arising from governance and political instability, intensifying geostrategic competition—particularly between China and the United States—climate change and environmental degradation, as well as the profound impacts of digital disruption and the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Topics included in the volume include “how critical journalism can survive” in the Pacific; “reporting the nuclear Pacific”; “Behind the mic” with Talking Point podcaster Sashi Singh, the “coconut wireless” and community news in Hawai’i,; women’s political empowerment in the Asia Pacific; “weaponising the partisan WhatsApp group in Indonesia; and “mapping the past to navigate the future” in a major Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) publishing project.
Other contributors include journalists and media academics from Australia and New Zealand featuring a “Blood on the tracks” case study in investigative journalism practice, and digital weather media coverage in the Pacific.
This inaugural publication of Pacific Media has been produced jointly by The University of the South Pacific and the New Zealand-based Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN), with Dr Amit Sarwal, one of the conference organisers, joining Dr Singh as co-editor.
APMN managing editor Dr David Robie welcomed the new publication, saying “this journal will carry on the fine and innovative research mahi (work) established by Pacific Journalism Review during a remarkable 30 years contributing to the region”.
Associate Professor Shailendra Singh (left) and Dr Amit Sarwal. Image: PM
The new journal will open up some new doors for community participation.
Both the PJR and PM research archives are in the public domain at the Tuwhera digital collection at Auckland University of Technology.
Khairaih A Rahman has been appointed by APMN as Pacific Media editor and her first edition with a collection of papers from the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) conference in Vietnam last October will also be published shortly.
Published with permission from Asia Pacific Media Network.
Pacific civil society groups say 2025 has been a big year for the ocean.
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) representative Maureen Penjueli said the Pacific Ocean was being hyper-militarised and there was a desire for seabed minerals to be used to build-up military capacity.
“Critical minerals, whether from land or from the deep ocean itself, have a military end use, and that’s been made very clear in 2025,” Penjueli said during the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) 2025 State of the Ocean webinar.
“They’re deemed extremely vital for defence industrial base, enabling the production of military platforms such as fighter aircraft, tanks, missiles, submarines.
“2025 is the year where we see the link between critical minerals on the sea floor and use [in the] military.”
PANG’s Joey Tau said one of the developments had been the increase in countries calling for a moratorium or pause on deep sea mining, which was now up to 40.
“Eight of which are from the Pacific and a sub-regional grouping the MSG (Melanesian Spearhead Group) still holds that political space or that movement around a moratorium.”
Deep-sea mining rules
Tau said it came as the UN-sanctioned International Seabed Authority tried to come to an agreement on deep-sea mining rules at the same time as the United States is considering its own legal pathway.
“It is a bad precedent setting by the US, we hope that the ISA both assembly and the council would hold ground and warn the US.”
He said unlike US, China spoke about the importance of multilateralism and it for global partners to maintain unity within the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) agreement which has not been ratified by the United States.
Also in February was the deep sea minerals talanoa, where Pacific leaders met to discuss deep sea mining.
“Some of our countries sit on different sides of the table on this issue. You have countries who are sponsoring and who are progressing the agenda of deep-sea mining, not only within their national jurisdiction, but also in the international arena,” Tau said.
In May, UN human rights experts expressed concern about the release of treated nuclear wastewater.
Japan’s government has consistently maintained the release meets international safety standards, and monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency shows there is no measurable impact beyond Japan’s coastal waters.
Legal and moral problem
However, Ocean Vision Legal’s Naima Taafaki-Fifita said as well as being an environmental issue, it was also a legal and moral problem.
“By discharging these radioactive contaminants into the Pacific, Japan risks breaching its obligations under international law,” she said.
“[The UN special rapporteurs] caution that this may pose grave risks to human rights, particularly the rights to life, health, food and culture, not only in Japan, but across the Pacific.”
Taafaki-Fifita said it was a “deeply personal” issue for Pacific people who lived with the nuclear legacy of testing.
In September, what is known as the “High Seas Treaty” received its 60th ratification which means it will now be legally effective in January 2026.
The agreement allows international waters — which make up nearly two-thirds of the ocean — to be placed into marine protected areas.
Taafaki-Fitita said it was important that Pacific priorities were visible and heard as the treaty became implemented.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
In an open letter released at the Belém Climate Summit, special envoys for strategic regions have expressed their support for the COP30 presidency and for all leaders committed to advancing climate crisis action.
Former New Zealand prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern, the “voice” for Oceania, was among the seven climate envoys signing the letter.
The document acknowledges the progress achieved through the Paris Agreement and the Dubai Consensus, while underscoring the need for further advances “in light of the Global Stocktake” and warning of the growing challenge posed by climate disinformation.
The text calls for unity and concrete action to bridge the “triple gap” between climate finance, adaptation, and mitigation.
These bottlenecks, it emphasised, could not be resolved solely through revisions to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), but required tangible policy measures.
The Baku to Belém Roadmap is highlighted as a vehicle for developing innovative solutions to unlock large-scale investments while reducing financing costs.
In addressing the spread of climate disinformation, the special envoys underlined the need for coordinated responses, collective strategies, and reinforced regulatory frameworks.
The letter was signed by Special Envoys Adnan Z. Amin (Middle East), Arunabha Ghosh (South Asia), Carlos Lopes (Africa), Jacinda Ardern (Oceania), Jonathan Pershing (North America), Laurence Tubiana (Europe), and Patricia Espinosa (Latin America and the Caribbean).
The open letter to leaders in Belém and to the COP30 presidency from the special envoys for strategic regions
We, the Special Envoys for our respective regions, wish to express our strong support for the Brazilian Presidency and all leaders committed to climate action at Belém.
COP30 presents both a significant opportunity and a profound challenge. To remain aligned with the ambition of the Paris Agreement amidst an increasingly complex geopolitical environment, we must demonstrate decisive progress. Multilateralism, grounded in international law and guided by the Paris Agreement, remains our most effective framework.
A clear signal from COP30 that the international community stands united in its determination to confront climate change will resonate globally. Our shared commitment to fully implement the Paris Agreement is the strongest collective response to a crisis that is disproportionately affecting vulnerable households and countries, devastating lives, livelihoods, and the ecosystems upon which we all depend.
We should also recognise the progress achieved since the Paris Agreement in 2015. The rapid growth of clean solutions is bending the trajectory of global emissions; where we had been on track to exceed a devastating temperature increase of more than 4°C, we are now able to project a level of less than 2.5°C.
But we need greater progress. We are not on track to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, and in particular, we are taking insufficient action to keep 1.5°C within reach, or even enough to keep warming well below 2°C. And every tenth of a degree of additional warming will mean harsh consequences for the world.
COP30 must acknowledge and address the “triple gap” in mitigation, adaptation and finance. Doing so requires an accelerated effort across the next decade, mobilising the full range of tools, resources, and partnerships available to us. This is at the heart of the goal of COP30: to advance the full implementation of both the Paris Agreement and the UAE Consensus, informed by the Global Stocktake presented at COP28 in Dubai.
To accelerate progress, we must maintain a laser focus on concrete, coordinated action.
The Action Agenda is a powerful reservoir of those actions, which must be structured, monitored, and supported for effective delivery. Addressing the gap should not be understood solely as revising Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), but rather as translating ambition into policies that enable each country to overperform on its existing commitments. And the policies we take, as has been amply demonstrated in our successes to date, can marry not only climate benefits, but also contribute to growing our economies, promote our national security, improve the welfare of our citizens, and promote a healthy environment.
Tripling global renewable energy capacity is a goal within reach. Collectively, we have the technology and resources: what is required now is scaled investment in all regions. The Baku to Belém roadmap to mobilise US$1.3 trillion annually for developing countries outlines both established and innovative solutions to deliver investment at scale at reduced costs of finance. To operationalise it, clear milestones, mandates, and responsibilities are needed.
Ministers of finance should take the lead in defining the priorities. Creating fiscal space, minimizing debt burdens, effectively mobilising domestic and international finance, and ensuring enabling policy environments, alongside increased investment in the Global South, are all essential to making this roadmap credible and implementable.
Strengthening resilience and adaptation are equally critical. Climate impacts are increasingly a major barrier to sustainable economic and social development. We must work together to define the indicators that do not impose resource-intensive reporting burdens but instead help our economies and societies adapt to their local circumstances and become resilient.
We must engage the insurance sector, central banks, and private investors to close the protection gap that threatens long-term developmental gains.
Countries pursuing the transition away from fossil fuels should define roadmaps, in line with their national circumstances, while fostering dialogue between producers and buyers of fossil fuels. Roadmaps to end deforestation and restore ecosystems are equally necessary. Taken together, these pathways can allow countries to implement the long-term strategies submitted in previous years.
For the first time, COP30 will also confront the challenge of climate disinformation: a growing threat that undermines public trust and policy implementation. Combatting this challenge requires coordinated approaches, shared strategies, and strengthened regulatory cooperation. We must shine the spotlight on our collective progress, in general, but also cases in particular where countries have met their climate targets ahead of schedule, demonstrating a positive bias for action.
Lastly, we need an evolution of the climate regime that makes implementation more effective and inclusive. Progress depends on joining forces with the local authorities, economic sectors, governments, and civil society. Subnational leaders, from governors, to regional authorities, mayors, and community representatives, must be empowered to reinforce and complement NDCs and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). COP30 is the moment to have them at the table and to craft a new approach that brings all relevant actors together in a global effort to safeguard our common future.
It is the moment to remind ourselves of the need for solidarity, and to recognise our agency — we have it within our power to change the future for the better.
Signed:
Adnan Z. Amin (Special Envoy for Middle East), chair, World Energy Council; CEO of COP28; former director-general, International Renewable Energy Agency
Arunabha Ghosh (Special Envoy for South Asia), founder-CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water
Carlos Lopes (Special Envoy for Africa), chair, Africa Climate Foundation; former executive
secretary, UN Economic Commission for Africa
Jacinda Ardern (Special Envoy for Oceania), former Prime Minister of New Zealand
Jonathan Pershing (Special Envoy for North America); former US Special Envoy for Climate Change
Laurence Tubiana (Special Envoy for Europe), dean, Paris Climate School; CEO, European
Climate Foundation; former French Special Envoy for Climate Change
Patricia Espinosa (Special Envoy for Latin America and the Caribbean), former executive
secretary, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
A Pacific people’s mission to Kanaky New Caledonia was repeatedly confronted with a “profound sense of distrust” in the French state’s role in the decolonisation process, a new report released this week has revealed.
“This scepticism, articulated by Kanak representatives, is rooted in the belief that France is not a neutral arbiter but a key actor in perpetuating the conflict,” said the mission, which concluded that the French management of the territory continued to undermine the Kanak right to self-determination and breached international commitments on decolonisation.
As one speaker cited in the report explained:”France is acting like a referee, but instead they are the main perpetrator.”
The mission — led by the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) and the Protestant Church of Kanaky New Caledonia (Église protestante de Kanaky Nouvelle-Calédonie, EPKNC) — was conducted on April 10-19 this year following invitations from customary and church leaders.
Its findings, released last Wednesday by PANG, reveal persistent inequality, systemic discrimination, and political interference under the French administration. The report said that France’s role in Kanaky’s long-delayed decolonisation process had deepened mistrust and weakened the foundations of self-rule.
“The Pacific Mission in Kanaky New Caledonia is a reminder of our Pasifika connection with our families across the sea,” said Pastor Billy Wetewea of the EPKNC.
“It shows that we never exist alone but because of others, and that we are all linked to a common destiny. The journey of the Kanak people toward self-determination is a journey shared by every people in our region still striving to define their own future.”
The delegation included Anna Naupa (Vanuatu — the mission head), Lopeti Senituli (Tonga), Dr David Small (Aotearoa New Zealand), Emele Duituturaga-Jale (Fiji), with secretariat support by PANG and Kanak partners.
The team met community leaders, churches, women’s groups and youth networks across several provinces to document how the effects of French rule continue to shape Kanaky’s political, economic and social life.
Key findings
The Pacific Peoples’ Mission Report identifies four main areas of concern:
France is not a neutral actor in the transition to independence. The state continues to breach commitments made under the Accords through election delays, political interference and the transfer of Kanak leaders to prisons in mainland France.
Widening socio-economic inequality. Land ownership, employment, and access to public resources remain heavily imbalanced. The 2024 unrest destroyed more than 800 businesses and left 20,000 people unemployed.
A health system in decline. About 20 percent of medical professionals left after the 2024 crisis, leaving rural hospitals and clinics under-resourced and understaffed.
Systemic bias in the justice system. Kanak youth now make up more than 80 percent of the prison population, a reflection of structural discrimination and the criminalisation of dissent.
Kanak writer and activist Roselyne Makalu said the report documented the lived experiences of her people.
“This support is fundamental because, as the Pacific family, we form one single entity united by a common destiny,” she said.
“The publication of this report, which constitutes factual evidence of human-rights violations and the denial of the Kanak people’s right to decide their future, comes at the very moment the French National Assembly has voted, against popular opinion, to postpone the provincial elections.
“This Parisian decision is nothing short of a blatant new attack on the voice of the Caledonian people, intensifying the political deadlock.”
Tongan law practitioner and former president of the Tonga Law Society, Lopeti Senituli, who was a member of the mission, said the findings confirmed a deliberate system of control, adding that “the deep inequalities faced by Kanak people — from land loss and economic marginalisation to mass incarceration — are not accidents of history”.
“They are the direct outcomes of a system designed to keep Kanaky dependent,” he added.
‘Politics of revenge’
Head of mission Anna Naupa said France could not act as both referee and participant in the decolonisation process.
“Its repeated breaches, political interference and disregard for Kanak rights expose a system built to protect colonial interests, not people,” she said.
“The mission called for immediate action — the release of political prisoners, fair provincial elections, and a Pacific-led mediation process to restore trust and place Kanaky firmly on the path to self-determination and justice.”
The mission also confirmed that the May 2024 crisis was an uprising by those most affected by France’s flawed governance and economic model.
It described France’s post-crisis policies — including scholarship withdrawals, fare increases, and relocation of public services — as “politics of revenge” that had further harmed Kanak and Oceanian communities.
Recommendations The mission calls for:
• Free and fair provincial elections under neutral international observation;
• A new round of negotiations to be held to find a new political agreement post Nouméa Accord; and
• Pacific-led mediation through the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).
The report further urges Pacific governments to ensure Kanaky remains on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories and to revitalise regional solidarity mechanisms supporting self-determination and justice.
“The world is already in the fourth international decade of decolonisation,” the report concludes.
“Self-determination is an inalienable right of colonised peoples. Decolonisation is a universal issue — not a French internal matter.”
The full report, Pacific Peoples’ Mission to Kanaky New Caledonia, is available here through the Pacific Network on Globalisation.
Supporters of Kanak self-determination hold aloft the flags of Fiji and Kanak independence in Suva. Image: PANG
A Pacific people’s mission to Kanaky New Caledonia was repeatedly confronted with a “profound sense of distrust” in the French state’s role in the decolonisation process, a new report released this week has revealed.
“This scepticism, articulated by Kanak representatives, is rooted in the belief that France is not a neutral arbiter but a key actor in perpetuating the conflict,” said the mission, which concluded that the French management of the territory continued to undermine the Kanak right to self-determination and breached international commitments on decolonisation.
As one speaker cited in the report explained:”France is acting like a referee, but instead they are the main perpetrator.”
The mission — led by the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) and the Protestant Church of Kanaky New Caledonia (Église protestante de Kanaky Nouvelle-Calédonie, EPKNC) — was conducted on April 10-19 this year following invitations from customary and church leaders.
Its findings, released last Wednesday by PANG, reveal persistent inequality, systemic discrimination, and political interference under the French administration. The report said that France’s role in Kanaky’s long-delayed decolonisation process had deepened mistrust and weakened the foundations of self-rule.
“The Pacific Mission in Kanaky New Caledonia is a reminder of our Pasifika connection with our families across the sea,” said Pastor Billy Wetewea of the EPKNC.
“It shows that we never exist alone but because of others, and that we are all linked to a common destiny. The journey of the Kanak people toward self-determination is a journey shared by every people in our region still striving to define their own future.”
The delegation included Anna Naupa (Vanuatu — the mission head), Lopeti Senituli (Tonga), Dr David Small (Aotearoa New Zealand), Emele Duituturaga-Jale (Fiji), with secretariat support by PANG and Kanak partners.
The team met community leaders, churches, women’s groups and youth networks across several provinces to document how the effects of French rule continue to shape Kanaky’s political, economic and social life.
Key findings
The Pacific Peoples’ Mission Report identifies four main areas of concern:
France is not a neutral actor in the transition to independence. The state continues to breach commitments made under the Accords through election delays, political interference and the transfer of Kanak leaders to prisons in mainland France.
Widening socio-economic inequality. Land ownership, employment, and access to public resources remain heavily imbalanced. The 2024 unrest destroyed more than 800 businesses and left 20,000 people unemployed.
A health system in decline. About 20 percent of medical professionals left after the 2024 crisis, leaving rural hospitals and clinics under-resourced and understaffed.
Systemic bias in the justice system. Kanak youth now make up more than 80 percent of the prison population, a reflection of structural discrimination and the criminalisation of dissent.
Kanak writer and activist Roselyne Makalu said the report documented the lived experiences of her people.
“This support is fundamental because, as the Pacific family, we form one single entity united by a common destiny,” she said.
“The publication of this report, which constitutes factual evidence of human-rights violations and the denial of the Kanak people’s right to decide their future, comes at the very moment the French National Assembly has voted, against popular opinion, to postpone the provincial elections.
“This Parisian decision is nothing short of a blatant new attack on the voice of the Caledonian people, intensifying the political deadlock.”
Tongan law practitioner and former president of the Tonga Law Society, Lopeti Senituli, who was a member of the mission, said the findings confirmed a deliberate system of control, adding that “the deep inequalities faced by Kanak people — from land loss and economic marginalisation to mass incarceration — are not accidents of history”.
“They are the direct outcomes of a system designed to keep Kanaky dependent,” he added.
‘Politics of revenge’
Head of mission Anna Naupa said France could not act as both referee and participant in the decolonisation process.
“Its repeated breaches, political interference and disregard for Kanak rights expose a system built to protect colonial interests, not people,” she said.
“The mission called for immediate action — the release of political prisoners, fair provincial elections, and a Pacific-led mediation process to restore trust and place Kanaky firmly on the path to self-determination and justice.”
The mission also confirmed that the May 2024 crisis was an uprising by those most affected by France’s flawed governance and economic model.
It described France’s post-crisis policies — including scholarship withdrawals, fare increases, and relocation of public services — as “politics of revenge” that had further harmed Kanak and Oceanian communities.
Recommendations The mission calls for:
• Free and fair provincial elections under neutral international observation;
• A new round of negotiations to be held to find a new political agreement post Nouméa Accord; and
• Pacific-led mediation through the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).
The report further urges Pacific governments to ensure Kanaky remains on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories and to revitalise regional solidarity mechanisms supporting self-determination and justice.
“The world is already in the fourth international decade of decolonisation,” the report concludes.
“Self-determination is an inalienable right of colonised peoples. Decolonisation is a universal issue — not a French internal matter.”
The full report, Pacific Peoples’ Mission to Kanaky New Caledonia, is available here through the Pacific Network on Globalisation.
Supporters of Kanak self-determination hold aloft the flags of Fiji and Kanak independence in Suva. Image: PANG
As the homes of Gaza’s families lie in ruins, its farmlands and water supply now also pose lethal risks in environmental and health catastrophe.
SPECIAL REPORT:By Elis Gjevori
Israel’s war on Gaza has not only razed entire neighbourhoods to the ground, displaced families multiple times and decimated medical facilities, but also poisoned the very ground and water on which Palestinians depend.
Four weeks into a fragile ceasefire, which Israel has violated daily, the scale of the environmental devastation is becoming painfully clear.
In Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, what was once a lively community has become a wasteland. Homes lie in ruins, and an essential water source, once a rainwater pond, now festers with sewage and debris.
For many displaced families, it is both home and hazard.
Umm Hisham, pregnant and displaced, trudges through the foul water with her children. They have nowhere else to go.
“We took refuge here, around the Sheikh Radwan pond, with all the sufferings you could imagine, from mosquitoes to sewage with rising levels, let alone the destruction all around. All this poses a danger to our lives and the lives of our children,” she said, speaking to Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim Alkhalili.
The pond, designed to collect rainwater and channel it to the sea, now holds raw sewage after Israeli air attacks destroyed the pumps. With electricity and sanitation systems crippled, contaminated water continues to rise, threatening to engulf nearby homes and tents.
Grave impacts
“There is no doubt there are grave impacts on all citizens: Foul odours, insects, mosquitoes. Also, foul water levels have exceeded 6 metres high without any protection; the fence is completely destroyed, with high possibility for any child, woman, old man, or even a car to fall into this pond,” said Maher Salem, a Gaza City municipal officer speaking to Al Jazeera.
Local officials warn that stagnant water could cause disease outbreaks, especially among children. Yet for many in Gaza, there are no alternatives.
Gaza contaminated water risk Video: Al Jazeera
“Families know that the water they get from the wells and from the containers or from the water trucks is polluted and contaminated … but they don’t have any other choice,” said Al Jazeera journalist Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City.
Palestinian Ambassador to Brazil Ibrahim al-Zeben at COP30 . . . “the deliberate destruction of sewage and water networks has led to the contamination of groundwater and coastal waters.” Image: SBS TikTok screenshot APR
Destroyed water infrastructure At the COP30 Climate Summit in Brazil, described the crisis as an environmental catastrophe intertwined with Israel’s genocide.
“There’s no secret that Gaza is suffering because of the genocide that Israel continues to wage, a war that has created nearly a quarter of a million victims and produced more than 61 million tonnes of rubble, some of which is contaminated with hazardous materials,” he said.
“In addition, the deliberate destruction of sewage and water networks has led to the contamination of groundwater and coastal waters. Gaza now faces severe risks to public health, and environmental risks are increasing,” al-Zeben added.
Agricultural land ‘destroyed’
Israel’s attacks have also “destroyed” much of the enclave’s agricultural land, leaving it “in a state of severe food insecurity and famine with food being used as a weapon,” he said.
In September, a UN report warned freshwater supplies in Gaza are “severely limited and much of what remains is polluted”.
Piles of Gaza garbage have bred many pests and spread diseases. Image: AJ screenshot APR
“The collapse of sewage treatment infrastructure, the destruction of piped systems and the use of cesspits for sanitation have likely increased contamination of the aquifer that supplies much of Gaza with water,” the report by the United Nations Environment Programme noted.
Back in Sheikh Radwan, the air hangs thick with rot and despair. “When every day is a fight to find water, food, and bread,” journalist Mahmoud said, “safety becomes secondary.”
A New Zealand pro-Palestine protester with a watermelon “Free Palestine” placard at traffic lights in a West Auckland rally yesterday. Image: Asia Pacific Report
New Zealand Pro-Palestine protesters gathered at West Auckland’s Te Pai Park today, celebrating successes of the BDS movement against apartheid Israel while condemning the failure of the country’s coalition government to impose sanctions against the pariah state.
“They’ve done nothing,” said Neil Scott, secretary of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA), noting that some 35 protests were taking place across the motu this weekend and some 4000 rallies had been held since Israel began its war on Gaza in October 2023.
He outlined successes of the global BDS Movement and explained now New Zealanders could keep up the pressure on the NZ government and on the Zionist state that had been “systematically” breaching the US-brokered “ceasefire” in Gaza.
The criticisms followed the condemnation of New Zealand’s stance last week by the secretary-general of the global human rights group Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, who said the government had a “Trumpian accent” and had remained silent on Gaza.
“Internationally, we don’t hear New Zealand. We haven’t heard New Zealand on some of the fundamental challenges that we are confronting, including Israel’s genocide, Palestine or climate,” she said in a RNZ radio interview.
Te Atatu MP Phil Twyford also spoke at the Te Pai Park rally, saying that the government was “going backwards” from the country’s traditional independent foreign policy and that it was “riddled with Zionists”.
After the rally, protesters marched on the local McDonalds franchise. McDonalds Israel is accused of supporting the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) genocidal crimes in Gaza by supplying free meals to the military, prompting a global BDS boycott.
Türkiye arrest warrants for Israelis
Meanwhile, Türkiye has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and 36 other suspects over Gaza genocide charges
Israel, under Netanyahu, has killed close to 69,000 people, mostly women and children, and wounded more than 170,600 others in the genocide in Gaza since October 2023.
PSNA secretary Neil Scott speaking at today’s Te Pai Park rally in West Auckland. Image: Asia Pacific Report
TRT World News reports that the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said yesterday it had issued arrest warrants for 37 suspects, including Netanyahu, on charges of “genocide” in Gaza.
In a statement, the Prosecutor’s Office said the warrants were issued after an extensive investigation into Israel’s “systematic” attacks on civilians in Gaza, which it described as acts of genocide and crimes against humanity.
The probe was launched following complaints filed by victims and representatives of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civilian humanitarian mission, that was recently intercepted by Israeli naval forces while attempting to deliver aid to Gaza.
A “Free Gaza now” placard at today’s Te Pai Park rally in West Auckland. Image: Asia Pacific Report
The statement said evidence gathered from victims, eyewitnesses, and international law provisions indicated that Israeli military and political leaders were directly responsible for ordering and carrying out attacks on hospitals, aid convoys, and civilian infrastructure.
Citing specific incidents, the Prosecutor’s Office referred to the killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab by Israeli soldiers, the bombing of al-Ahli Arab Hospital that killed more than 500 people, and the strike on the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, among other atrocities.
Turkiye has issued arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials, accusing them of ‘genocide and crimes against humanity’ over Israel’s war on Gaza https://t.co/ijOfz1wZSFpic.twitter.com/34UJIQosKR
Additional war crimes The office said that the investigation determined Israel’s blockade of Gaza had “deliberately prevented humanitarian assistance from reaching civilians,” constituting an additional war crime under international law.
The suspects, including Netanyahu, Defence Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi, and Navy Commander David Saar Salama, were accused of “genocide” and “crimes against humanity.”
As the individuals are not currently in Türkiye, the Prosecutor’s Office requested the court to issue international arrest warrants (red notices) for their detention and extradition.
The investigation is being carried out with the cooperation of the Istanbul Police Department and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), and it remains ongoing.
The statement concluded that Türkiye’s legal actions are based on its obligations under international humanitarian law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, affirming the country’s commitment to accountability for war crimes and justice for the victims in Gaza.
Last November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave and Türkiye has joined South Africa and other countries in bringing the allegations.
A fragile ceasefire has been in force in the devastated Palestinian territory since October 10 as part of US President Donald Trump’s regional peace plan.
The Islamist militant group Hamas welcomed Türkiye’s announcement, calling it a “commendable measure [confirming] the sincere positions of the Turkish people and their leaders, who are committed to the values of justice, humanity and fraternity that bind them to our oppressed Palestinian people”.
The Te Pai Park pro-Palestinian rally in West Auckland today. Image: Asia Pacific Report
New Zealand Pro-Palestine protesters gathered at West Auckland’s Te Pai Park today, celebrating successes of the BDS movement against apartheid Israel while condemning the failure of the country’s coalition government to impose sanctions against the pariah state.
“They’ve done nothing,” said Neil Scott, secretary of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA), noting that some 35 protests were taking place across the motu this weekend and some 4000 rallies had been held since Israel began its war on Gaza in October 2023.
He outlined successes of the global BDS Movement and explained now New Zealanders could keep up the pressure on the NZ government and on the Zionist state that had been “systematically” breaching the US-brokered “ceasefire” in Gaza.
The criticisms followed the condemnation of New Zealand’s stance last week by the secretary-general of the global human rights group Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, who said the government had a “Trumpian accent” and had remained silent on Gaza.
“Internationally, we don’t hear New Zealand. We haven’t heard New Zealand on some of the fundamental challenges that we are confronting, including Israel’s genocide, Palestine or climate,” she said in a RNZ radio interview.
Te Atatu MP Phil Twyford also spoke at the Te Pai Park rally, saying that the government was “going backwards” from the country’s traditional independent foreign policy and that it was “riddled with Zionists”.
After the rally, protesters marched on the local McDonalds franchise. McDonalds Israel is accused of supporting the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) genocidal crimes in Gaza by supplying free meals to the military, prompting a global BDS boycott.
Türkiye arrest warrants for Israelis
Meanwhile, Türkiye has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and 36 other suspects over Gaza genocide charges
Israel, under Netanyahu, has killed close to 69,000 people, mostly women and children, and wounded more than 170,600 others in the genocide in Gaza since October 2023.
PSNA secretary Neil Scott speaking at today’s Te Pai Park rally in West Auckland. Image: Asia Pacific Report
TRT World News reports that the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said yesterday it had issued arrest warrants for 37 suspects, including Netanyahu, on charges of “genocide” in Gaza.
In a statement, the Prosecutor’s Office said the warrants were issued after an extensive investigation into Israel’s “systematic” attacks on civilians in Gaza, which it described as acts of genocide and crimes against humanity.
The probe was launched following complaints filed by victims and representatives of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civilian humanitarian mission, that was recently intercepted by Israeli naval forces while attempting to deliver aid to Gaza.
A “Free Gaza now” placard at today’s Te Pai Park rally in West Auckland. Image: Asia Pacific Report
The statement said evidence gathered from victims, eyewitnesses, and international law provisions indicated that Israeli military and political leaders were directly responsible for ordering and carrying out attacks on hospitals, aid convoys, and civilian infrastructure.
Citing specific incidents, the Prosecutor’s Office referred to the killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab by Israeli soldiers, the bombing of al-Ahli Arab Hospital that killed more than 500 people, and the strike on the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, among other atrocities.
Turkiye has issued arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials, accusing them of ‘genocide and crimes against humanity’ over Israel’s war on Gaza https://t.co/ijOfz1wZSFpic.twitter.com/34UJIQosKR
Additional war crimes The office said that the investigation determined Israel’s blockade of Gaza had “deliberately prevented humanitarian assistance from reaching civilians,” constituting an additional war crime under international law.
The suspects, including Netanyahu, Defence Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi, and Navy Commander David Saar Salama, were accused of “genocide” and “crimes against humanity.”
As the individuals are not currently in Türkiye, the Prosecutor’s Office requested the court to issue international arrest warrants (red notices) for their detention and extradition.
The investigation is being carried out with the cooperation of the Istanbul Police Department and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), and it remains ongoing.
The statement concluded that Türkiye’s legal actions are based on its obligations under international humanitarian law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, affirming the country’s commitment to accountability for war crimes and justice for the victims in Gaza.
Last November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave and Türkiye has joined South Africa and other countries in bringing the allegations.
A fragile ceasefire has been in force in the devastated Palestinian territory since October 10 as part of US President Donald Trump’s regional peace plan.
The Islamist militant group Hamas welcomed Türkiye’s announcement, calling it a “commendable measure [confirming] the sincere positions of the Turkish people and their leaders, who are committed to the values of justice, humanity and fraternity that bind them to our oppressed Palestinian people”.
The Te Pai Park pro-Palestinian rally in West Auckland today. Image: Asia Pacific Report
The current New Zealand government has a “Trumpian accent” that should be a red flag for the people, one of the world’s leading human rights voices says.
Amnesty International secretary-general Agnès Callamard spoke this week on 30 with Guyon Espiner during her first official visit to New Zealand.
Once a country that was seen internationally as “punching above its weight” in terms of human rights, Callamard said it was not currently seen as having a strong voice.
“New Zealand has always been a country that, what is the expression, punched above its weight. In human rights terms, in solidarity terms, you know, by holding the line on a number of very fundamental questions.
“Right now, this is not what is happening.”
This led to the government having a “certain Trumpian accent”, she said.
Amnesty’s top official says New Zealand is losing its reputation as a human rights leader Video: RNZ News
“These are red flags, I think, for the New Zealand people, because, you know, the shift can happen very quickly.
“At Amnesty International, we are worried about this evolution. Internationally, we don’t hear New Zealand. We haven’t heard New Zealand on some of the fundamental challenges that we are confronting, including Israel’s genocide, Palestine or climate.”
Critical of Trump
Callamard was critical of United States President Donald Trump — saying she would not give him any credit for his actions regarding the Gaza ceasefire.
“For the last 10 months of power, he has shielded Israel,” Callamard said.
“Everyone agrees that this ceasefire, this deal, could have been made in March. This deal could have been made in June.
“Okay, it’s being made now. But why did we have to wait so long? Israel would never have been able to do what they’ve done without the support of the US.”
She said she was “super happy” the bombing had stopped but she would not thank the US for waiting “24 months” to act.
New Zealand’s silence on issues, including the war in Gaza, was being noticed internationally, she said, with “dwindling voices coming from the Western world”.
‘Speak loud. We need you’
It was something she had raised with the government itself, although not resonating in a positive way.
“They don’t see it that way. I see it that way. We just have to leave it at that.
“We have different views on how New Zealand stands right now, and it is a critical juncture for the world and any voice that we don’t hear any more for the protection of the rules-based order is dramatic.
“I want to invite the New Zealand people and New Zealand leaders to really please speak up. Speak loud. We need you.”
The Prime Minister’s Office has been contacted for comment.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The current New Zealand government has a “Trumpian accent” that should be a red flag for the people, one of the world’s leading human rights voices says.
Amnesty International secretary-general Agnès Callamard spoke this week on 30 with Guyon Espiner during her first official visit to New Zealand.
Once a country that was seen internationally as “punching above its weight” in terms of human rights, Callamard said it was not currently seen as having a strong voice.
“New Zealand has always been a country that, what is the expression, punched above its weight. In human rights terms, in solidarity terms, you know, by holding the line on a number of very fundamental questions.
“Right now, this is not what is happening.”
This led to the government having a “certain Trumpian accent”, she said.
Amnesty’s top official says New Zealand is losing its reputation as a human rights leader Video: RNZ News
“These are red flags, I think, for the New Zealand people, because, you know, the shift can happen very quickly.
“At Amnesty International, we are worried about this evolution. Internationally, we don’t hear New Zealand. We haven’t heard New Zealand on some of the fundamental challenges that we are confronting, including Israel’s genocide, Palestine or climate.”
Critical of Trump
Callamard was critical of United States President Donald Trump — saying she would not give him any credit for his actions regarding the Gaza ceasefire.
“For the last 10 months of power, he has shielded Israel,” Callamard said.
“Everyone agrees that this ceasefire, this deal, could have been made in March. This deal could have been made in June.
“Okay, it’s being made now. But why did we have to wait so long? Israel would never have been able to do what they’ve done without the support of the US.”
She said she was “super happy” the bombing had stopped but she would not thank the US for waiting “24 months” to act.
New Zealand’s silence on issues, including the war in Gaza, was being noticed internationally, she said, with “dwindling voices coming from the Western world”.
‘Speak loud. We need you’
It was something she had raised with the government itself, although not resonating in a positive way.
“They don’t see it that way. I see it that way. We just have to leave it at that.
“We have different views on how New Zealand stands right now, and it is a critical juncture for the world and any voice that we don’t hear any more for the protection of the rules-based order is dramatic.
“I want to invite the New Zealand people and New Zealand leaders to really please speak up. Speak loud. We need you.”
The Prime Minister’s Office has been contacted for comment.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Doctors initially explored the possibility transferring them to Australia for specialist care, but the plan fell through. They have now said surgery is too dangerous and the twins should not travel overseas.
However, sponsors are hoping to fly the twins to Germany, where a major university hospital in Freiburg is assessing their case.
Mayday call
On Thursday, the parents initiated a world-wide mayday via text, which said:
“While communications with a hospital in Germany are progressing well, we are running out of time. Would anyone know anyone globally who can take on the twins swiftly?
“We continue to reach out to hospitals and specialists in Asia, Europe, America and beyond. If the reader of this mayday can assist or connect us to those who can help, please act now.
“This is not just a plea, but a call for support, compassion and action. Lets unite to give the twins the chance they deserve. Please contact us if you want to help them through this journey on (675) 72242188 or jruh@mamamedevac.org.”
Port Moresby General Hospital’s medical director Dr Kone Sobi said multiple discussions led to their final decision.
“The underlying thing is that both twins present with significant congenital anomalies and we feel that even with care and treatment in a highly specialised unit, the chances of survival are very very slim,” Dr Sobi said.
“In fact, the prognosis is extremely bad.”
Tom and Sawong are joined at the abdomen and are being treated in Port Moresby General Hospital’s neonatal unit. Image: Port Moresby General Hospital/RNZ Pacific
Surgery dangerous
The twins have spina bifida — a neural tube defect that affects the development of newborn’s spine and spinal cord – and share a liver, bladder and portions of their gastrointestinal tract.
Sobi said the medical complications made surgery dangerous.
“One of the twins has a congenital heart defect, the same twin also has only one kidney and we believe malformed lungs,” he said.
“So one of the twins is doing a lot of the work in terms of supplying oxygen for the heart for the other one.”
The twins’ future was unpredictable, he said.
“It’s a precarious condition for both, they both depend on each other really, where they go from here is anyone’s guess.
“In our view, as long as we provide support to them in terms of feeding them, that one of our priorities, and guarding against infection, because they are in a very difficult situation at this point in time,” he said.
Parents desperate
Jurgen Ruh, the helicopter pilot and sponsor who initially flew the newborns to Port Moresby, said the parents were getting desperate.
“They’re just trusting that something will happen for the children, they’re looking forward to care in a better facility.”
“They are aware that one or both could be lost during the operation, but they just feel at least they will have tried,” Ruh said.
He said the twins have so far battled the odds.
“The children are doing well, they’ve got minimal support, like supplementary oxygen, and they’re being fed.
“Considering that they’re not on life support and they’ve lived for one month, they have a will to live and they’ll continue living,” he said.
Air Niugini has offered to fly them as far as Singapore, but another airline willing to take them to Germany still has to be found.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Keeping a line of sight to the challenges of both COP30 in Brazil next week and also the subsequent Pacific’s COP31. A Pacific perspective.
COMMENTARY:By Dr Satyendra Prasad
As Pacific’s leaders and civil society prepare for the United Nations Climate Conference in Brazil (COP30) next week, they also need to keep a line of sight to the subsequent Pacific’s COP31.
As they engage at COP30, they will have in their thoughts the painful and lonely journey ahead in Jamaica and across the Caribbean as they rebuild from Hurricane Melissa.
The Blue Pacific needs to build a well-lit pathway to land Pacific’s priorities at COP30 and COP31. The cross winds are heavy and the landing zone could not be hazier.
At the recent Pacific Islands Forum Meeting in Honiara, Pacific leaders called for accelerating implementation of programmes to respond to climate change. They said that finance and knowhow remained the binding constraints to this.
The Pacific’s leaders were unanimous that the world was failing the Pacific.
Climate-stressed infrastructure Pacific leaders spoke about their infrastructure deficit. The region today needs well in excess of $500 million annually to maintain infrastructure in the face of rising seas and fiercer storms.
There are more than 1000 primary and secondary schools, dozens of health centres across coastal areas in Solomon Islands, PNG, Vanuatu and Fiji that need to be repaired rehabilitated or relocated.
The region needs an additional $300-500 million annually over a decade to build and climate proof critical infrastructure — airports, wharves, jetties, water and electricity and telecommunications.
The Blue Pacific’s infrastructure distress is a cocktail that poisons its human development progress. This has lethal consequences for our elderly, for children and the most vulnerable.
As a region has fallen short in convincing the international community that the region’s infrastructure distress is quintessentially a climate distress. This must change.
Fiji’s former ambassador to the UN Dr Satyendra Prasad . . . “the ball may be in the Pacific’s court on how successfully we can harness this rare opening.” Image: Wansolwara News
The constant cycle of catastrophe, recovery and debt are on autoplay repeat across the world’s most climate vulnerable region. The heart-braking images coming out of Jamaica and the Caribbean in the wake of Hurricane Melissa makes this same point.
The Blue Pacific as a region attracts a woefully insufficient share of existing climate finance. Less than 1.5 percent of the total climate finances reaches the world’s most climate vulnerable region today. This is unacceptable of course.
Is our planet headed for a 3.0C world? At COP30, the world will see what the new climate commitments (NDCs) add up to. Our best estimates today suggest that the planet is headed for a 3.0C plus temperature rise. Anything above 1.5C will be catastrophic for the Blue Pacific.
Life across our coral reef systems will simply roast at 3.0C temperature increase. The regions food security will be harmed irreparably. This will have massive consequences for tourism dependent economies. Bleached reefs bleach tourism incomes.
The health consequences arising from climate change are set to worsen rapidly. As will the toll on children who will fall further behind in their learning as schools remain inaccessible for longer periods; or children spend long hours in hotter classrooms.
For Pacific’s women, the toll of runaway temperature increase will be heavy — on their health, on their livelihoods and on their security. It will be too heavy.
A deal for the Pacific at COP30 The world of climate change is becoming transactional. Short termism and deal making have become its norm.
As Pacific leaders, its civil society, its science community and its young engage at COP30 in Brazil, they are reminded that the Blue Pacific needs more than anything else, a settled outlook climate finance that will be available to the region. Finance must be foremostly predictable.
The region should not feel like it is playing a lottery — as is the case today. Tonga must know broadly how much climate finance will be available to it over the next five years and so must Papua New Guinea.
At Bele’m, the world will need to agree to a road map for how the climate financing short fall will be met. This is a must to restore trust in the global process.
The weight on the shoulders of host Brazil is extraordinarily heavy. Brazil is the home of the famous Rio Conference in 1992 where the small island states first succeeded in placing climate change, biodiversity loss on the global agenda.
The Small Islands States grouping is chaired by Palau. President Whipps Jnr will lead the islands to Brazil. He will no doubt remind the host that the world has failed the small states persistently since that moment of great hope at the Rio Conference in 1992.
Belém hosts the UN Climate Summit, an international meeting that will bring together heads of state and government, ministers, and leaders of international organisations on 10-21 November 2025. Image: Sergio Moraes/COP30/Wansolwara News
Pace of climate finance There are three principal reasons why climate finance must flow to the Pacific at speed.
First, is that most countries in our region have less than a decade to adapt. Farms and family gardens, small businesses, tourist resorts, villages and livelihoods need to adapt now to meet a climate changed world.
Second, if adaptation is pushed into the future because of woefully insufficient finances — the window to adapt will close.
As more sectors of our economy fall beyond rehabilitation, the costs of loss and damage will rise. Time is of the essence. And on top of that loss and damage remain poorly funded. This too must change.
The Pacific needs to do many things concurrently to build its resilience. Everything for the Blue Pacific rests on a decent outcome on financing.
The region needs to make its clearest argument that its share of climate finance must be ring-fenced. That its share of climate finance will remain available to the region even if demand is slow to take shape.
The Pacific’s rightful share of climate finance over the next decade is between 3-5 per cent of the total across all financing windows. This is fundamentally because based the adaptation window is so short in such a uniquely specific way.
This should mean that the Blue Pacific has access to a floor of US$1.5 billion annually through to 2035. This is very doable even if global currents are choppy.
TFFF and Brazil’s leadership Brazil has already demonstrated that it can forge large financing arrangements through its leadership and creativity. It will launch the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) at COP. PNG’s Prime Minister has played an important role on this. We hope that forested Pacific states will be able to access this new facility to expand their conservation efforts with much higher returns to landowners.
Beyond Bele’m COP30 in Brazil is an opportunity for the Pacific to begin to frame a larger consensus — well in time for COP31. It is my hope that Australia and Pacific’s leaders will have done enough to secure the hosting rights for COP31.
A ‘circuit-breaker’ COP31 Fiji’s former Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad and Australia’s Climate Minister Chris Bowen recently said that COP31 must be “a circuit breaker moment” for the Blue Pacific.
The reversals in our development story arising from the climate chaos have become too burdensome. Repeated recoveries means that every next recovery becomes that much harder.
Ask anyone in Jamaica and Caribbean today and you will hear this same message. Their finance ministers know too well that in no time they will be back at the mercy of international financial institutions to rebuild roads and bridges that have been washed away and water systems that have been destroyed by Hurricane Melissa.
Climate finance by its very nature therefore must involve deep changes to the architecture of international development and finance. The rich world is not yet ready to let go of privilege and power that it wields through an archaic financial international system.
But fundamental reform is a must. Fundamental reform is necessary if small states are to reclaim agency and begin to drive own destinies.
Future proofing our societies The risks arising from climate change are so multi-faceted that economic, social and political stability cannot no longer be taken for granted.
Conflicts over land lost to rising seas, the strain on education, health and water infrastructure, deepening debt stress take their toll on institutions through which stability is maintained in our societies.
The Blue Pacific needs to work with this elevated risk of fragility and state failure. This reality must shape the Blue Pacific expectations from a Pacific COP.
Building on the excellent work underway in climate ministries in Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa, PNG and across the region through the SPC, SPREP, OPOC, I have outlined what the Pacific’s expectations could be from a Pacific COP31.
COP31 must be about transformation and impact. The Blue Pacific’s leaders should seek a consensus that includes both the rich industrial World and large developing countries such as China and India in support of a Pacific Package at COP31.
A Pacific COP 31 package The core elements of a Pacific package at COP31 are:
Ensuring that the Loss and Damage Fund has become fully operational with a pipeline of investment ready projects from across the Blue Pacific.
Securing the Pacific Regional Infrastructure Facility (PRIF) as a fully funded and disbursement ready financing facility with a pipeline of investment ready projects.
Securing ring-fenced climate finance allocations for the Blue Pacific at the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and across international financial institutions.
Securing support for Blue Pacific’s “lighthouse” multi-country (region wide) transformative programs to advance marine and terrestrial biodiversity protection and promote sustainability across the Blue Pacific Ocean.
A COP decision that is unambiguous on quality and speed of climate and ocean finance that will be available to small states for the remainder of the decade.
Securing sufficient resources that can flow directly to communities and families to rapidly rebuild their resilience following disasters and catastrophes including through insurance and social protection vehicles.
Ensuring that knowhow, resources and mechanisms for disaster risk reduction are in place, are fully operational and are sustainable.
An Ocean of Peace for a climate changed world Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has championed the Blue Pacific as an Ocean of Peace. Its acceptance by Pacific leaders opens up opportunities for the region’s climate diplomacy.
The Pacific’s leaders accept that the Ocean of Peace anchors its stewardship of our marine environment to the highest principles of protection and conservation. An Ocean of Peace super-charges the Pacific’s efforts to take forward transboundary marine research and conservation, end plastic and harmful waste disposal, end harmful fisheries subsidies and decarbonise shipping.
It boosts the Pacific’s efforts to main-frame the ocean-climate nexus into the international climate change frameworks by the time a Pacific COP31 is convened.
A window of hope Between COP30 and COP31 lies a rare window of hope. The Blue Pacific must leverage this.
Both a Brazilian and an Australian Presidency offer supportive back-to-back opportunities and spaces to take forward the regions desire to project a solid foundation of programs that are necessary to secure its future.
Uniquely the ball may be in the Pacific’s court on how successfully we can harness this rare opening in the international environment.
Dr Satyendra Prasad is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Fiji’s former ambassador to the UN. He is the Climate Lead for About Global. This article was first published by Wansolwara Online and is republished by Asia Pacific Report in partnership with USP Journalism.
Newly appointed French Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou has now rescheduled her first visit to New Caledonia, which was postponed last week due to urgent budget talks in Paris.
In the latest version of her schedule for next week, Moutchou now has earmarked the date November 8 as her take-off for the French Pacific territory.
Taking into account the duration of her trip, local political sources have refined her travel dates from 10 to 14 November 2025.
The visit was initially scheduled from 3 to 7 November 2025, with high on the agenda a resumption of talks regarding New Caledonia’s institutional and political future.
According to her initial detailed schedule, she was supposed to hold a series of political meetings with all stakeholders, as well as visits on the ground.
As French Parliament last week endorsed an “organic” bill to postpone New Caledonia’s provincial elections (originally scheduled to be held not later than 30 November 2025) to not later than 28 June 2026, one of the aims was to re-engage one of the main components of the pro-independence movement, the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front).
In August, the FLNKS rejected the latest outcomes of political talks in Bougival, near Paris, which envisaged granting New Caledonia the status of “State” within the French realm, a dual “New Caledonian nationality” and the transfer of some key powers (such as foreign affairs) from Paris to Nouméa.
All of the other parties (both pro-France and pro-independence) agreed to commit to the Bougival text.
Bougival mentions removed
In the modified (and endorsed in the French Parliament) version of the text to postpone the key provincial elections, all previous mentions of the Bougival agreement were removed by the French Parliament.
This was described as a way of allowing “more time” for talks in New Caledonia to be both conclusive and inclusive, without rejecting any component of the political chessboard.
“We can’t do without the FLNKS. As long as the FLNKS does not want to do without the other (parties)”, Moutchou told Parliament last week.
The provincial elections in New Caledonia are crucial in the sense that they determine New Caledonia’s political structure with a trickle-down effect from members of the three provincial assemblies — North, South and the Loyalty Islands — and, proportionally, the make-up of the local Parliament (the Congress) and then, also proportionally to the makeup of the Congress, the local “collegial” government of the French Pacific territory.
Under the same proportional spirit, a president is elected and portfolios are then allocated.
As Moutchou’s earlier visit postponement has left many local politicians doubtful and perplexed, she reassured “New Caledonia remains at the heart” of France’s commitment.
Since he was elected Prime Minister in early September, Sébastien Lecornu also stressed several times that, even at the national level, New Caledonia’s pressing political issues were to be considered a matter of priority, in a post-May 2024 riot atmosphere which left 14 dead, hundreds of businesses destroyed, thousands of jobless, damage estimated to be in excess of 2 billion euros (NZ$4 million) and a drastic drop of its GDP to the tune of -13.5 percent.
Lecornu was Minister for French Overseas between 2020 and 2022.
Since the riots, the French government committed increased financial assistance to restore the ailing economy, including 1 billion euros in the form of a loan.
Controversial loan
But a growing portion of local parties is opposed to the notion of loan and wants, instead, this to be converted into a non-refundable grant.
“This is essential for our public finances, because when (France) lends us €1 billion, in fact we’ll have to repay 1.7 billion euros. New Caledonia just cannot bear that,” pro-France politician Nicolas Metzdorf told public broadcaster NC la 1ère on Sunday.
“But first, there will have to be a political agreement between New Caledonian politicians.”
France, on its side, is asking for more genuine reforms from the local government.
Even though all references to the Bougival agreement project were removed from the final text to postpone New Caledonia’s local elections to June 2026, if talks do resume, any future outcome, in the form of a “consensual” solution, could either be built on the same “agreement project”, or result from talks from scratch.
“So we’ll have to see whether we can find a way forward with FLNKS. If they come back to the table to discuss, let’s discuss”, Metzdorf commented on Sunday.
“But we’ll not start all over (negotiations). Bougival is the most advanced negotiation we’ve had until now. We just can’t wipe that out, we have to take it from there”, he said, adding the text can be further amended and rectified.
All of the political parties who have remained committed to the Bougival text (including pro-France parties, but also pro-independence “moderates” such as PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and UPM (Progressist Union in Melanesia) have since called on FLNKS to join back in the talks.
A new ‘super-minister’ for budget and finance When she sets foot in New Caledonia, Moutchou will find a reshuffled government: on Wednesday, New Caledonia’s crucial portfolios of budget and finance have been reattributed to Christopher Gygès, making him the most powerful item in the local cabinet.
This followed the resignation of Thierry Santa last week. Santa was one of the key ministers in the local government.
New Finance Minister Christopher Gygès (left) and Naïa Wateou (second left) at New Caledonia’s collegial government meeting yesterday. Image: Gouvernement de la Nouvelle-Calédonie/RNZ Pacific
On top of budget and finance, Gygès also keeps his previous portfolios of energy, digital affairs and investor “attractiveness”.
He remains in charge of other crucial sectors such as the economy.
“It may seem a lot, but it’s consistent”, Gygès, now regarded as a “super-minister” within the local government led by pro-France Alcide Ponga, told local media on Wednesday.
He will be the key person for any future economic talks with Paris, including on the sensitive 1 billion euro French loan issue and its possible conversion into a grant.
Even though Santa’s seat as government member was filled by Naïa Wateou (from Les Loyalistes [pro-France] party), New Caledonia’s collegial government on Wednesday re-allotted several portfolios.
In the eleven-member Cabinet, 41-year-old Wateou’s arrival now brings to two the number of female members/ministers.
She is now in charge of employment, labour (inherited from Gygès), public service, audiovisual media and handicap-challenged persons.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ
The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) National Media Section usually campaigns for journalists’ rights and industrial agency in Australia — but today, we join hands with the IFJ — International Federation of Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Reporters sans frontières — Reporters Without Borders, to make a stand against the global assault on press freedom.
The past few years have been particularly hostile for journalists around the world.
From the press briefing rooms in the White House to the streets of Gaza, journalists have been in the crosshairs.
Shortly after assuming office in January 2017, US President Donald Trump accused the press of being an “enemy of the American people”. He has doubled down in his second term.
We have seen newsroom after newsroom fall foul of White House press secretaries; we saw bans on CNN, The New York Times, the LA Times and Politico back in 2017, and now, the Associated Press for simply refusing to fall in line with the so-called renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.
Three weeks ago, the world watched Pentagon journalists exit en masse, after rejecting Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s latest edict.
Another White House rule
Just last week, we saw the declaration of another White House rule — this time, restricting credentialed journalists from freely accessing the Press Secretary’s offices in the West Wing.
These attacks on US soil are complemented by an equally invidious assault on media outlets on a global scale.
Funding freezes and mass sackings have all but silenced Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Middle East Broadcasting Networks and Radio Free Asia — the latter of which employed several of our colleagues here in Queensland and the Pacific.
We have seen Trump’s verbal attack on the ABC’s John Lyons, and how that presidential tantrum led to the ABC being excluded from the Trump–Starmer press conference in the UK.
Apparently, they simply didn’t have space for the national broadcaster of the third AUKUS partner — and all this with barely a whimper from the Australian government.
But then, why would our Prime Minister leap to journalism’s defence when he sees fit to exclude Pacific journalists from his Pacific Island Forum press conference — in, you guessed it, the Pacific.
This enmity towards journalism, has been a hallmark of the Trump presidency.
Blatant ignorance, hubris
His blatant ignorance, hubris, and perfidy — indulged by US allies — has emboldened other predators and enemies of the press around the world.
As at December 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) listed 376 journalists as being imprisoned in various countries around the world — it was the highest number three years running, since the record started in 1992.
China topped the list with 52 imprisoned journalists, with Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory a close second with 48.
Myanmar had 35, Belarus 33, Russia 30 and the list continues.
Among this group are 15 journalists arrested in Eritrea more than two decades ago, between 2000 and 2002, who continue to be held without charge.
And it gets worse.
The same CPJ database records 2023, 24 and 25 as the worst years for the deaths of journalists and media workers — worse than the years at the height of the US and allied invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the war against the Islamic State.
Killed journalists
The war in Gaza accounts for a significant number of these deaths.
A staggering 185 journalists and media workers have been killed directly because of their work in the past 25 months — on a small strip of land just 2.3 per cent the size of Greater Brisbane.
I urge you to read the ICRC case study on the legal protection of journalists in combat zones. It clearly explains how Protocol 1 of the Geneva Convention protects journalists, even when they engage in producing “propaganda” for the conflicting parties.
Since our vigil 12 months ago, the CPJ has recorded the deaths of 122 journalists and media workers around the world. These are deaths the CPJ has confirmed as being directly linked to their work — such as those killed while reporting in combat zones or on dangerous assignments.
Of those, 33 were confirmed murders — meaning those journalists were deliberately targeted.
A staggering 61 of those 122 were killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory — in Israel’s war on Gaza. Another 31 were killed in a single day during targeted Israeli airstrikes on two newspapers in Sana’a in Yemen. And three more were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a compound housing journalists in Lebanon — meaning Israeli defence forces were responsible for 78 percent of last year’s killings.
We talk of Israel’s attack on journalists because it is unprecedented, but Israel is by no means the only perpetrator of such crimes — there was the Mozambique journalist murdered during a live broadcast; a video journalist tortured and killed in Saudi Arabia; and a print journalist tortured and killed in Bangladesh.
Today we read the names of 122 fallen comrades and remember them one by one.
More than 700 academics have this week sent an open letter demanding the university retirement savings scheme UniSaver immediately divest from companies directly linked to Israel and genocide.
This latest letter, organised by University Workers for Palestine (UW4P), has been signed by 715 people – almost double the number of 400 staff in a similar plea in August 2024.
UniSaver failed to respond to the previous letter.
The default retirement scheme for most university staff has come under mounting scrutiny for investing in companies complicit in human rights violations.
UW4P is a nationwide collective of university staff, including academics and administrators.
Its letter argues that any investment in Israeli companies renders UniSaver complicit in Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide in Palestine.
“Our research shows such companies include weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, ICL Group, linked to highly-toxic white phosphorus supply chains, Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard, and Palantir Technologies,” Dr Amanda Thomas of Te Herenga Waka Victoria University, spokesperson for the collective, said in a statement.
Israeli bonds and banks
Distinguished Professor Robert McLachlan of Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University, strongly supported the call: “Profiting from companies known to be complicit in genocide is wrong and shameful.”
UniSaver is also understood to have investments in Israeli government bonds and Israeli banks which finance illegal settlements.
Dr Rand Hazou, a Palestinian senior lecturer at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University, said: “With the destruction of Gaza’s 12 universities and killing of hundreds of academics and students, global solidarity is urgent.
“This call is a nonviolent, rightsbased approach to pressure Israel to abide by international law.”
The declaration, issued by Britain, the colonising power, unilaterally — and without
consultation — advocated the imposition of a Zionist state in historic Palestine.
Professor Richard Jackson, who holds the Leading Thinker Chair in Peace Studies at
Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka Otago University, said: “It is deeply troubling that Aotearoa
New Zealand’s universities are participating in a pension scheme profiting from
genocide.
Academic boycott ended apartheid
“Academic boycott helped end apartheid in South Africa: we must follow that
example.”
The letter asks for a response by end November on two demands that UniSaver:
Immediately divests from all companies complicit in the genocide of Palestinians; and
Develops a divestment policy to prevent future unethical investments.
Professor Virginia Braun, Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland psychologist and co-author of the world’s third most cited academic paper this century, said: “Continued investment in funds that support Israel’s genocide is unconscionable.
“Other pension funds, like Norway’s, have divested; UniSaver must follow suit.”
The open letter warns: “If you don’t withdraw our funds from genocide, we will support a campaign to get universities in Aotearoa New Zealand to sever ties with you and seek an ethical alternative retirement scheme.”
‘Morality where our mouths are’
Tertiary Education Union incoming presidents Ti Lamusse and Garrick Cooper have endorsed the letter.
Dr Lamusse, of Te Herenga Waka Victoria University, said: “We need to put our morality where our mouths are — that means ensuring our savings scheme isn’t funding an illegal occupation.”
Associate Professor Garrick Cooper (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Whanaunga) of Te Whare
Wānanga o Waitaha Canterbury University, said: “We must hold our own financial institutions accountable to stop this genocide by reducing the flow of money to the Israeli economy and military-industrial complex.”
Drawing on composite data from Palestine government sources and the media, estimates indicate almost 200 academics have been killed since the escalation of genocidal tactics in October 2023.
More than 700 academics have this week sent an open letter demanding the university retirement savings scheme UniSaver immediately divest from companies directly linked to Israel and genocide.
This latest letter, organised by University Workers for Palestine (UW4P), has been signed by 715 people – almost double the number of 400 staff in a similar plea in August 2024.
UniSaver failed to respond to the previous letter.
The default retirement scheme for most university staff has come under mounting scrutiny for investing in companies complicit in human rights violations.
UW4P is a nationwide collective of university staff, including academics and administrators.
Its letter argues that any investment in Israeli companies renders UniSaver complicit in Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide in Palestine.
“Our research shows such companies include weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, ICL Group, linked to highly-toxic white phosphorus supply chains, Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard, and Palantir Technologies,” Dr Amanda Thomas of Te Herenga Waka Victoria University, spokesperson for the collective, said in a statement.
Israeli bonds and banks
Distinguished Professor Robert McLachlan of Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University, strongly supported the call: “Profiting from companies known to be complicit in genocide is wrong and shameful.”
UniSaver is also understood to have investments in Israeli government bonds and Israeli banks which finance illegal settlements.
Dr Rand Hazou, a Palestinian senior lecturer at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University, said: “With the destruction of Gaza’s 12 universities and killing of hundreds of academics and students, global solidarity is urgent.
“This call is a nonviolent, rightsbased approach to pressure Israel to abide by international law.”
The declaration, issued by Britain, the colonising power, unilaterally — and without
consultation — advocated the imposition of a Zionist state in historic Palestine.
Professor Richard Jackson, who holds the Leading Thinker Chair in Peace Studies at
Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka Otago University, said: “It is deeply troubling that Aotearoa
New Zealand’s universities are participating in a pension scheme profiting from
genocide.
Academic boycott ended apartheid
“Academic boycott helped end apartheid in South Africa: we must follow that
example.”
The letter asks for a response by end November on two demands that UniSaver:
Immediately divests from all companies complicit in the genocide of Palestinians; and
Develops a divestment policy to prevent future unethical investments.
Professor Virginia Braun, Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland psychologist and co-author of the world’s third most cited academic paper this century, said: “Continued investment in funds that support Israel’s genocide is unconscionable.
“Other pension funds, like Norway’s, have divested; UniSaver must follow suit.”
The open letter warns: “If you don’t withdraw our funds from genocide, we will support a campaign to get universities in Aotearoa New Zealand to sever ties with you and seek an ethical alternative retirement scheme.”
‘Morality where our mouths are’
Tertiary Education Union incoming presidents Ti Lamusse and Garrick Cooper have endorsed the letter.
Dr Lamusse, of Te Herenga Waka Victoria University, said: “We need to put our morality where our mouths are — that means ensuring our savings scheme isn’t funding an illegal occupation.”
Associate Professor Garrick Cooper (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Whanaunga) of Te Whare
Wānanga o Waitaha Canterbury University, said: “We must hold our own financial institutions accountable to stop this genocide by reducing the flow of money to the Israeli economy and military-industrial complex.”
Drawing on composite data from Palestine government sources and the media, estimates indicate almost 200 academics have been killed since the escalation of genocidal tactics in October 2023.
The Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP) repeatedly warned its minister that replacing the traditional population-wide survey with administrative data would have negative consequences for data on Pasifika communities.
They cautioned that this change would undercount Pacific people and lead to poor policy decisions, yet the changes proceeded.
In records obtained under the Official Information Act (OIA) by PMN News, Pacific Minister Dr Shane Reti was advised in February that the alteration to data-collection methods would have adverse effects on information relating to Pacific people.
Reti was warned that this could lead to flawed decisions based on that data.
Despite these warnings, the government announced in June that it would replace the conventional paper-based census with a new approach that relies on administrative data, supported by a smaller annual survey and targeted data collection. The new system is set to begin in 20230.
Reti, who is also the Minister of Statistics, says the new approach aims to save time and money.
Pacific Minister Dr Shane Reti . . . “Relying solely on a nationwide census day is no longer financially viable.” Image: RNZ/Mark Papalii
“Relying solely on a nationwide census day is no longer financially viable. In 2013, the census cost $104 million. In 2023, costs had risen astronomically to $325 million and the next was expected to come in at $400 million over five years,” Reti says.
“Despite the unsustainable and escalating costs, successive censuses have been beset with issues or failed to meet expectations.”
Data expert concerns
The response letter from the MPP expressed concerns raised by data experts who believe the reforms could further degrade data quality for Pacific people.
“Administrative data are largely based on who can access services and are therefore known to undercount Pacific peoples,” the letter states.
The MPP stresses that the proposed changes by Stats NZ are likely to further damage the quality of data on Pacific people, households, and populations.
It pointed out that Pacific people have unique family characteristics and public service needs that are not adequately captured in administrative data.
The letter goes on to say that the transformation could shift the burden of data compliance and costs to other government agencies, which may not be well-equipped to manage these changes.
It also warned that costs associated with collecting population data might increase rather than decrease due to the new approach.
In a statement to PMN News, a spokesman for Reti defended the changes, saying, “By using information already collected by the government, we will deliver more relevant, useful and timely data to help inform quality planning and decision making, which will deliver benefits for Pacific communities.”
PMN News video report.
Working with communities
Alongside the new annual sample survey, Stats NZ plans to work with communities, including Pacific people, to develop tailored solutions, such as targeted surveys, that address their specific data needs.
Administrative data will also be improved to include variables such as ethnicity, age distribution (younger and older people), and new immigrants to New Zealand.
Advancements will be made in other areas, such as languages spoken, housing quality, and family data.
“Data accuracy, detail, and coverage will improve over time, as admin data improvements are implemented, and more data is collected through the annual survey and tailored data collection solutions.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ and with PMN permission.
A People’s Mission to Kanaky New Caledonia says the French Pacific territory remains in a fragile political and social transition nearly three decades after the signing of the Nouméa Accord.
It says the pro-independence unrest in May last year has “left visible scars” — not only in a damaged economy but in trust between the territory’s institutions and the communities being served.
The mission is launching its report at a media event in the Fiji capital Suva tomorrow.
“France cannot act as both referee and participant in the decolonisation process. Its repeated breaches and political interference have eroded trust and prolonged Kanaky’s dependency,” said mission head Anna Naupa, a Pacific policy and development specialist, in a pre-launch statement.
“The Pacific must now take a principled stand to ensure the right to self-determination is fulfilled.”
The mission — organised by Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), Eglise Protestante de Kanaky Nouvelle-Calédonie (EPKNC) and the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) — said regional observers had noted that the situation now hinged on whether France and Pacific leaders could “re-establish credible dialogue” that genuinely included Kanak perspectives in shaping the territory’s future.
Five key findings
According to the report, the Pacific Peoples’ Mission to Kanaky New Caledonia had identified five interlinked findings that defined the current crisis:
Political trust has collapsed. Communities no longer view the decolonisation process as impartial, citing France’s dual role as both administrator and arbiter;
Reconciliation remains incomplete. Efforts to rebuild unity after the 2024 unrest are fragmented, with limited Kanak participation in recovery planning;
Youth exclusion is fuelling instability. Young Kanaks describe frustration over limited education, employment, and representation opportunities;
Economic recovery lacks equity. Reconstruction support has disproportionately benefited urban and non-Kanak areas, widening social divisions; and
Regional leadership is missing. Pacific solidarity has weakened, leaving communities without consistent regional advocacy or oversight.
The People’s Mission to Kanaky New Caledonia report will be launched tomorrow in Suva. Image: PANG
Together, said the mission, these findings underlined an urgent need for a renewed, Pacific-led dialogue that would restore confidence in the independence process and focus on Kanak agency.
A New Zealand academic and activist who was part of the mission, Dr David Small, said: “What we witnessed in Kanaky is not instability; it is resistance born from decades of broken promises.
“The international community must stop treating this as an internal French matter and
recognise it for what it is — an unfinished decolonisation process.”
The People’s Mission report will be launched at the Talanoa Lounge, Itaukei Trust Fund Board, Nasese, Suva, 3-5pm, Wednesday, November 4. More information.
“France cannot act as both referee and participant in the decolonisation process.” Image: PANG
