Tagata o te Moana

I'm Don Wiseman and today the Pacific Islands Forum summit, the next stage of the Kiribati election process. Deep sea mining drawing closer, there's upset in PNG after a journalist is shut out of a visit by the incoming president of Indonesia., and a call for spiritual leaders to be sent to NZ with RSE workers.

Malo e lelei in Tagata o te moana today - The impasse over New Caledonia, we hear from a new woman MP in Kiribati and what can we expect from the Forum summit in Tonga and Palau claims that China is weaponising tourism.

At the midway point in the Kiribati election newcomers to parliament could hold significant sway. Concerns are being raised on Guam about a build up in US military assets. Winston Peters visits the North Pacific, and later on an all-female Pacific-crewed research vessel arrives in Tonga.

The Kiribati election is drawing close; Fiji's soaring drug issues; The people of Guam are not happy as the US plans its new missile architecture; Google is keen to translate more Pacific languages; RNZ Pacific gets a new shortwave transmitter, and Tahiti's waves rein in Olympic surfers.

More violence in PNG; France says it will talk about New Caledonioa in September; Is mining the ocean floor now very close? A media operator in Solomons unjustly targetted by Facebook; How to save the forests of PNG; Is divorce in Fiji putting kids on the street? What Pacifika abuse victims now expect.

Today, the problems with a lack of land for homes in Papua New Guinea. France ships out armoured cars for the securiity forces in New Caledonia, and questions are raised about invoking custom practice as mitigation in court trials in Samoa.

On Tagata o te Moana this week: Still no clear path forward for New Caledonia a month after crippling unrest in the French Territory; We check in on the situation for New Zealand hostage Phillip Mehrtens in West Papua; New research looks at the cost of service for Pacific communities in Aotearoa; And there is stiff competition in the Micronesian Games underway in Majuro.

The focus in PNG's Enga is on relocating survivors and the surrounding communities; The role of slush funds in the PNG no confidence saga The people of Vanuatu back a constitutional reform its advocates say will end the persistent political instability.

The search for bodies stops at PNG landslide site; The PNG opposition again fails with a push for a vote of no confidence; Rising concern in Guam over missiles; Who are the Pacifica who recognised in the King's Birthday Honours.

Tensions persist in New Caledonia; The scramble to find the victims of the landslip in Papua New Guinea; The New Zealand Budget comes up short for Pasifika; Some landowners in Bougainville are suing Rio Tinto over the Panguna mine, and Tonga's parliament says no to the death penalty for drug crimes.

We go behind the causes of the New Caledonian violence, ....highlight the commemorations of the arrival of the first indentured Indian labourers in Fiji 145 Years ago...the building of the biggest double hulled waka in Fiji ....these and other stories on Tagata o te Moana.

The FijiFirst Party says Frank Bainimarama will remain party leader despite his custodial sentence; The Director of Fiji's biggest sporting event has said they will consider dropping the name and branding of it's sponsor Coca-Cola for next years' 50th anniversary; A new project aims to close the existing gap on Pacific Ocean data.New Zealand Geographic and the Cawthron Institute have launched Citizens of the Sea, aiming to map the health and biodiversity of the Pacific at a larger scale than before; A new Climate Change documentary follows a crew of Pacific climate activists and Australian school students visiting the lands of the Gomeroi people in New South Wales.

Dengue in Samoa; a new approach to elections mooted in Solomon Islands; PNG to look to Africa on how to contain illegal guns; and containing emissions from plastics.