Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The national rugby team of Samoa has pulled out of its Northern Hemisphere tour due to "significant financial challenges" and to "avoid embarrassment of being the first small union to go bankrupt".

In a letter, dated July 11, 2024, seen by RNZ Pacific, Lakapi Samoa board chair, Tu'ilaepa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi, wrote to World Rugby's chairman Sir Bill Beaumont that the decision "is a direct result of the significant financial challenges currently facing Lakapi Samoa".

The former Samoa prime minister said: "Our commitment to the sport of rugby and our desire to compete at the highest level remains resolute. However, the financial realities we face necessitate a more cautious approach to our international engagements to ensure the long-term sustainability and stability of Lakapi Samoa.

He added: "This is a crucial decision to prevent a recurrence of the circumstances that has previously impacted Lakapi Samoa, and avoid an embarrassment of being the first small union to go bankrupt."

Lakapi Samoa "tried very hard" to follow good governance practices, but a lack of financial backing has hindered their efforts, the letter said.

"…the lack of sponsorships in small economies is the greatest challenge stifling our efforts in growing and sustaining the sport."

Rugby is Samoa's national sport with an estimated 5,000 active rugby players from a country total population of 200,000.

The Samoa national rugby team or Manu Samoa is ranked 13th in the world.

(RNZ Pacific)

OLYMPIC SURFING CHAMPION

French Polynesia's homeboy Kauli Vaast has won the Olympic gold medal in the men's shortboard finals of the Paris 2024 surfing event and in the process made history in Teahupo'o.

Radio 1 reports Vaast 22, a Tahitian native, beat Australia's Jack Robinson to become the first French Olympic surf champion.

Vaast, who grew up in Mahina (near Teahupo'o) and started surfing there when he was four years old, was immediately dubbed "the King of Teahupo'o".

He becomes the first ever French Polynesian sportsman to win an Olympic gold medal for France — and adding to the Paris Olympics hosts tally to make it 13 gold medals.

"When I was a kid, I knew I want to do a lot of stuff on this wave," Vaast told Olympics.com before the competition started.

"It was a dream for me. I always dreamed about doing a contest here, winning a contest there. It's still in my mind, a dream. And I'm going to work for it," he was quoted as saying.

As fans and supporters were starting to celebrate in Tahiti, Vaast's mother, Natou, told local media she usually does not watch her son compete because of the associated stress.

"But when he's competing in Tahiti, I just go gardening in the backyard and then I know when I hear the neighbors cheers".

Earlier on Tuesday (Monday Tahiti time), in the women's category, France's Johanne Defay secured a bronze medal and also entered history in winning the first medal ever at an Olympic surfing event.

(RNZ Pacific)

GUAM PRIMARY ELECTION

Guam held its primary elections on Saturday.

Voter turnout had been low, with just over 31 percent casting their ballots - despite there being over 60,000 registered voters.

Polling sites were situated across 19 villages in the US territory.

According to the Guam Electoral Commission's unofficial results, the top candidates under the Democratic ticket were Therese Terlaje (9321), Chris Barnet 8405), Joe San Agustin (8183) and Tina Muna Barnes (7851).

While the Republican candidates who received the most votes include Tony Ada (3533), Sabrina Salas Matanane (3174), Frank Blas Jr (3099), and Jesse Lujan (3068)

Indigenous Chamorro voter Larry Dahilig told RNZ Pacific that veteran care influenced the way he voted.

"I have been voting right after I retired from US Navy, I put in 20 years, but it is always good to come out and vote because there is always problems," he said.

He said healthcare in Guam is poor and veterans have to go off-island to Hawaii for better care.

Guam's general election will be held on 5 November where voters chose their governor, non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives, attorney general, and all fifteen members of the territorial legislature.

The purpose of the primary election is to reduce the number of Democrats and Republicans for the general election ballot — and that makes it a party selection.

(RNZ Pacific)

FIJI CONSTITUTION

The Fijian government has started laying the groundwork to amend the country's constitution, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has reportedly confirmed.

The 2013 Constitution has been criticised by political commentators and opponents of the previous FijiFirst administration, including Rabuka, as being "imposed on the people".

It was a notion strongly brushed off by the former leader Frank Bainimarama - currently serving a one-year jail term for abuse of office - who maintained that the document all Fijians to share "the same rights, the same votes of equal value, and the same national identity".

However, Rabuka's People's Alliance Party (PAP) stated in its 2022 election manifesto that the constitution was "dotted with limitations that render them non-compliance with international human rights laws".

"Government is putting in place legislation or brining a bill to Parliament to enable the [amendment] process to begin," the Prime Minister quoted in a Fiji Sun report on Monday.

He told the newspaper the constitution gave the country's prime minister and the attorney-general "unusual" powers.

Fiji has had four constitutions; 1970, 1990, 1997, and 2013.

In a public lecture at the Fiji National University on Thursday last week, Australian academic Anthony Regan said the Fijian government could pursue legal options to make changes to the 2013 Constitution, suggesting a review was necessary.

"I know of now country in the world that's had so many constitutions and reflects a lack of constitution on what's the best way ahead is," Regan said.

Rabuka told the Fiji Sun he welcomed Regan's comments.

"It was an eye-opener for many, but it is something most of us have been considering," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

An editorial in The Fiji Times on Sunday said Regan's remarks that the 2013 Constitution needed a review will "no doubt stimulate discussions on this important topic".

"So we have what he considers a constitution that is vulnerable to potential abuse by future governments if it is left like this," the newspaper's editor Fred Wesley wrote.

(RNZ Pacific)

MAUI WILDFIRES

With the one-year anniversary of the Maui wildfires this week, the county announced a series of events to honor the 102 victims and the two who remain missing.

The four-day event — Kuhinia Maui — takes place August 8 through 11.

It will host an array of community-driven activities in hopes of bringing the people of Maui together to pay tribute and mourn their loss.

“Kuhinia Maui takes its name from a line in a traditional Maui chant that proudly speaks of the unequaled beauty and richness of Maui, highlighting that Maui and its people will rebound from tragedy,” said Maui Mayor Richard Bissen.

Some highlights on the agenda include musical performances at local schools and civic centers, prayer groups, luncheons and a paddle out off the coast of Lahaina.

“Our community is strongest when we’re able to support each other,” said Bissen. “I’m grateful for those involved who are helping to put together a remarkable number of gatherings that will give our community a chance to be among each other in care and aloha during a week of remembrance.”

(Hawaii News Now)

EARTH’S ANIMALS

Research from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology and Smithsonian Institution is pitching an out-of-this-world idea to preserve Earth’s animals in the event of a global disaster — storing their cells on our lunar companion.

A paper published in BioScience outlines a roadmap for the creation of a biorepository on the moon.

“Initially, a lunar biorepository would target the most at-risk species on Earth today, but our ultimate goal would be to cryopreserve most species on Earth,” said lead author Mary Hagedorn, an Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology affiliate faculty member and research cryobiologist at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. “This is meant to help offset natural disasters and, potentially, to augment space travel.”

The study was authored by Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology and Smithsonian scientists in collaboration with researchers from the National Ecological Observatory Network, University Corporation of Atmospheric Research, University of Minnesota and Harvard Medical School.

The idea was inspired by the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, which contains more than 1 million frozen seed varieties and serves as a backup for Earth’s crop biodiversity.

Preserving animal cells requires temperatures that don’t naturally occur on Earth, down to -320 degrees.

The team successfully cryopreserved skin cells from a reef fish known as the starry goby found (Asterropteryx semipunctatus), which is found in Hawaiian waters. These are the first samples created for the lunar biorepository and are now being stored at the Smithsonian.

The idea was inspired by the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, which contains more than 1 million frozen seed varieties and serves as a backup for Earth’s crop biodiversity.

The samples could be stored underground or inside a structure with thick walls made of moon rock to block out the DNA-damaging radiation in space.

The researchers envision the lunar biorepository as a public entity to include public and private funding sources, scientific partners, countries and public representatives, with mechanisms for cooperative governance like that of the Svalbard Global Seed Bank.

(Big Island News Now)