Vanuatu left reeling after deadly December earthquake
The earthquake has exposed the consequences of the mass poverty and lack of basic infrastructure endemic throughout the Pacific Islands.
•John Braddock
Vanuatu
Impoverished countries ask world court to rule on climate change disaster
As the hearings closed for the largest ICJ case in history, the major capitalist powers displayed their indifference to the impact of climate change on impoverished countries.
•Mark Wilson
Race to find survivors following devastating Vanuatu earthquake
A week on from the powerful Pacific earthquake, Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila is a scene of “absolute carnage” and could produce a major tragedy.
•John Braddock
Mass casualties feared from Vanuatu earthquake
Social media videos showed rescue efforts through the night trying to reach some people yelling under the rubble, including in a three-storey structure that collapsed onto its lower floors.
•Mike Head
Solomon Islands and Vanuatu PMs visit Beijing amid escalating Pacific tensions
Intensifying diplomatic manoeuvring involving strategically placed Pacific states portends vast preparations for looming wars and police-state repression across the region.
•John Braddock
Australia to train specialized Pacific police intervention force
The Canberra-led, anti-China policing initiative is being launched as a new wave of popular unrest is exploding across the Pacific.
•John Braddock
Biden intensifies pressure on Pacific leaders over confrontation with China
As Washington ramps up its “engagement” in the Pacific, the region is being dragged into the US-led drive to war against China that threatens to erupt in catastrophic world war between nuclear-armed powers.
•John Braddock
Vanuatu embroiled in political crisis over Australian security pact
The impasse, centering on the signing of a security pact with Australia, highlights the escalating tensions across the Pacific caused by the US-led confrontation with China.
•John Braddock
Pacific Island of Vanuatu devastated by twin cyclones
The two cyclones which hit within days of each other have affected 80 percent of the population and left thousands homeless.
•John Braddock
Australia steps up anti-China campaign in the Pacific
Labor signed a security pact with Vanuatu directed against China, and met with Micronesian leaders who made provocative comments about the Beijing regime.
•Oscar Grenfell
COVID-19 deaths escalate across the Pacific
With COVID-19 cases continuing to surge across the Pacific, four of the region’s vulnerable island states have recorded their first deaths from the virus.
•John Braddock
Vanuatu inquiry into Australia’s exploitative seasonal worker scheme
The seasonal worker schemes established by Australia and New Zealand continue to exploit impoverished Pacific peoples as a source of cheap labour, despite repeated complaints and media exposures over the years.
•John Braddock
Geo-political conflicts overshadow Vanuatu election
Next month’s election will take place amid deepening tensions across the Pacific as Washington and its allies ramp up preparations for war with China.
•John Braddock
Australian media stokes fears of Chinese military base in Vanuatu
The escalating propaganda war is another sign of deepening tensions across the Asia Pacific that threaten to embroil the entire region into a major war.
•John Braddock
Unstable government in Vanuatu following snap election
Deepening popular opposition to the political elite has left no single party able to form a government.
•John Braddock
Vanuatu cyclone relief efforts grossly inadequate
Four days after Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu and other Pacific countries, tens of thousands of people have received no assistance.
•Tom Peters
“Super cyclone” Pam hits South Pacific islands
While the full scale of the destruction is yet to emerge, the storm has flattened entire villages in Vanuatu, with unconfirmed reports of dozens killed.
•Will Morrow
Vanuatu government expels Australian police
The move was in retaliation for the highly provocative arrest of one of Prime Minister Sato Kilman’s secretaries in Sydney airport.
•Patrick O’Connor
Australian High Court prepares to hear Julian Moti appeal
The High Court will next week hear the appeal of the former Solomon Islands attorney general, who has waged a five year battle against the Australian government’s attempt to prosecute him on what he alleges are “politically motivated” statutory rape allegations.
•Patrick O’Connor