Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — In the Marshall Islands, between 1946 and 1958 the United States detonated 67 nuclear tests and the brutal impacts are still being felt today.

The radiation spread to the US Pacific territory of Guam and while Washington settled a compensation deal with the Marshallese, Guam survivors have never been acknowledged or compensated.

Now the remaining cancer survivors are still pleading that the wrong be made right.

Sharing their stories for the first time, they want the world to know how it has devastated their lives and their families.

Linda Perez has won the battle against cancer twice.

But her family and extended family, did not make it.

"My sister passed from ovarian cancer. I was diagnosed with uterine cancer. The last two years I was diagnosed with colon cancer," Linda told RNZ Pacific.

"My first cousins — all in 2022 — five of us at the same time diagnosed with cancer, and then four of them passing.

"I have to tell that story.

"The federal government acknowledging what they have done would be a start for healing for all of us, the compensation is going to help."

"Please help us, because we are just a tiny island,” she said.

(RNZ News)

PACIFIC CLIMATE MIGRANTS

Pacific Islanders hoping to flee the consequences of climate change and migrate to Aotearoa currently need to pay $1385 for the visa application, pass a health test, be under 45, and have a job offer.

And they must also be lucky enough to have their name drawn from a ballot.

World Vision advocacy and research advisor Dr Olivia Yates says Aotearoa's current immigration settings are not suitable for people migrating for climate-related reasons; termed "climate mobility."

"Our immigration is set up to cater more for employment pathways than to address climate mobility."

The Pacific Access Category visa provides residency to 500 people from Fiji, 150 from Kiribati, 500 from Tonga, and 250 from Tuvalu annually. Although known as a humanitarian visa, applicants must also be able to read, write, and speak English.

"The costs associated with securing a visa and setting up a life here are having the opposite effect of humanitarian," Yates said.

"Instead of supporting people's well-being, they're seeing many Pacific families lose their life savings and sense of dignity."

Workers are also at risk of exploitative employment conditions as they need a job to secure a visa. The other available route for migration is a seasonal worker visa.

(RNZ Pacific)

MISS UNIVERSE FIJI CROWNING CONTROVERSY

In what was supposed to mark Fiji's grand return to the Miss Universe pageant later this year, the organizers of the Miss Universe Fiji have revealed they crowned the "wrong winner" after a "controversial decision by judges".

On Friday, twenty-four-year-old Manshika Prasad was announced Miss Universe Fiji at a gala event in Pacific Harbor, marking Fiji's return to the global stage after four decades.

However, in a statement on Monday, Miss Universe Fiji said the judges had "incorrectly awarded the wrong winner at the Gala Top Ten finalists" event held at the Pearl Resort.

The "actual winner", they said, was the runner up on the night, Nadine Roberts.

Miss Universe Fiji said the "rushed announcement and error" resulted in Roberts being announced as second-best "twice now".

"It's not the first time this has happened in the beauty pageant world, but could have been easily avoided, if the contracted organizer had followed correct procedures in the event," the statement said the Miss Universe Fiji website said.

"The 8 votes had led to a tie, meaning the licensee holder must then decide on the winner, not the contracted organizer, who wanted a Fiji Indian winner to leverage potential Global Business deals."

"A failure to count the licensee vote, to ensure only the Fiji Indian contestant would win by the judges, against a local Fiji non- Indian contestant winning.

"7 judges plus one vote by licensee holder, left the two girls with 4 votes each, an internal review revealed, after concerns were raised by the local licensee representative on the night, sent to ensure transparency in voting calculations."

According to the statement, the contracted organizer failed to count the licensee vote, and failed to then consult in the event of a tie, who has the determining vote to decide who is best to represent Miss Universe Fiji at the finals in Mexico in November.

"Despite concerns raised on the night by the local licensee representative that was in attendance, that the Licensee vote must be counted, and then consulted in the event of a tie, to then decide on the winner, the contracted organizer rushed to announce their favorite candidate as the winner on the night, creating unnecessary confusion and controversy.

However, in another media statement on Monday, Grant Dwyer, who is the contracted organizer of the event, doubled down that Prasad is the "official winner".

Dwyer said Prasad "was judged fairly, amongst the 9 finalists, at the live crowing event on Friday."

"The 7 x official winners voted Manshika Prasad winner of the title. One of the 7 judges was a Lux Property Bali (Miss Universe Fiji license holder) representative while the other 6 judges were all independent, confirmed and presented on the official website originally."

(RNZ Pacific)

CHINA DEMANDS TO EXCLUDE TAIWAN

The Pacific Islands Forum has submitted to China's demand to remove the mention of Taiwan from the final communique of the leaders' summit that concluded in Tonga this week.

Kiribati wants to see consequences for whoever is behind the Taiwan communique bungle, after Beijing's special envoy to the region cried foul at the inclusion of Taipei in the outcomes document.

On Friday, China's Ambassador to the Pacific, Qian Bo, was furious after the PIF Secretariat released the final communique which included a section in which Pacific leaders "reaffirmed" their relations with Taiwan.

Qian told journalists that affirming reference to Taiwan "must be a mistake" and "must be corrected", and soon after the document was taken down from the PIF website.

The moment Qian asks the PIF past chair and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown to remove the Taiwan reference has been caught on camera by RNZ Pacific.

"We'll remove it, I'll talk to you about it later," Brown can be heard saying to Beijing's top diplomat.

Qian's outburst has since been reported widely with some Pacific political commentators suggesting it demonstrates how Beijing throws its weight to exert its influence the region.

The Forum Secretariat has "re-issued" a new version of the communique, which according to a PIF spokesperson is "correct version of the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Communique".

This new version has removed the following section: "Relations with Taiwan/Republic of China: 66. Leaders reaffirmed the 1992 Leaders decision on relations with Taiwan/Republic of China."

(RNZ Pacific)