The Biden administration is seeking to shore up ties with countries in the Indo-Pacific in its waning days in office by sending to Congress three key agreements that would cement relations with critical allies and partners in the region, which is increasingly dominated by China.

Two reports on protecting biodiversity were released at a major UN summit on global biodiversity underway in Cali, Colombia.

Helen Reef, a 40-square-mile atoll at the southern edge of Palau, is one of Earth's most remote and biologically diverse reefs.

Palau's President Surangel Whipps Jr. says Beijing weaponizes tourism to the Pacific Island archipelago in an effort to force it to sever ties with Taiwan.

The United States will resume a long-suspended Peace Corps program in the North Pacific island of Palau as the Biden administration continues moves to counter growing Chinese influence in the region.

Alarmed by China's success in wooing Pacific island nations, the Biden administration is proposing to spend billions to keep three of those countries in the U.S. orbit.

The Biden administration is nearing deals with two Pacific Island nations to extend their special ties with the United States, as U.S.-China rivalry for influence in the region heats up.

Australia has signed a new security deal with Oceania island country Vanuatu as part of an ongoing competition with China for influence in the Pacific.

Palau’s vice president and her eight-member delegation have been quarantined in Taiwan after two of them tested positive for the coronavirus.

The first community outbreak of the coronavirus in the Solomon Islands is spreading rapidly through the largely unvaccinated population.

Unsurprisingly, the coronavirus pandemic was THE talking point at the United Nations General Assembly this week — serving as projection, promotional tool and proxy for other pressing issues put forward by world leaders in their signature annual addresses.

(AP Photo/Marianne Armshaw, File)PORTLAND, Ore. – Luis Palau, an evangelical pastor who was born in Argentina and went on to work with Billy Graham before establishing his own powerhouse international ministry, died Thursday. The Luis Palau Association said he died at his home in Portland, Oregon. “This is hard news, but Luis is experiencing the beauty of the Lord face to face.”Born to an affluent family in Buenos Aires, Palau rose from obscurity to become one of the most well-known international Christian evangelists. How many people we’ve reached with the Gospel.”His radio programs, including the international Spanish-language “Luis Palau Responde,” are broadcast on 3,500 stations in 48 countries, and his Portland-based Luis Palau Association organizes dozens of events each year on five continents. “Luis Palau was the Apostle Paul to the Spanish-speaking world.

(UNTV via AP)TANZANIA – As one of the smallest countries on earth, the Pacific island nation of Palau doesn't always get to command the world's attention. He also pressed environmental issues and made the point that no nation is an island unto itself in the international system, especially during a pandemic. While Palau has been free of the virus, “we are certainly not free of the consequences of this pandemic,” Remengesau said by video at a global gathering gone virtual because of the scourge. Palau, like the U.S., is one of only 15 states with official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as its own territory. Palau also recently made almost all its coastal waters a marine sanctuary, where no fishing or mining is allowed.

FILE - In this June 20, 2009 file photo, the Palau Capital building is seen in Melekeok, Palau. Defense Secretary Mark Esper plans to fly nearly halfway around the world this week to tiny Palau, which no Pentagon chief has ever visited. More broadly, Klinck said in an interview, Esper wants to reinforce the U.S. commitment to a long-term relationship with Palau. The United States administered Palau under U.N. auspices after World War II and is responsible for its defense until 2044 under the Compact of Free Association. In a speech in February spelling out the U.S. approach to China, Esper highlighted his concern for smaller countries.