PHOTO FILE – Miyu Kato, of Japan, right, serves behind her partner Aldila Sutjiadi, of Indonesia, as they play against Beatriz Haddad Maia, of Brazil, and Laura Siegemund, of Germany, in a doubles semifinal match at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament Friday, March 17, 2023, in Indian Wells, Calif. French Open doubles player Miyu Kato and her partner Aldila Sutjiadi have been forced to forfeit a match when Kato accidentally hit a ball girl in the neck with a ball after a point during their match against Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo on Sunday, June 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
By HOWARD FENDRICH (AP Tennis Writer)
PARIS (AP) — French Open doubles player Miyu Kato and her partner were forced to forfeit a match when Kato accidentally hit a ball girl in the neck with a ball after a point on Sunday.
In the second set on Court 14 at Roland Garros, Kato took a swing with her racket and the ball flew toward the ball kid, who was not looking in the player’s direction while heading off the court.
At first, chair umpire Alexandre Juge only issued a warning to Kato. But after tournament referee Remy Azemar and Grand Slam supervisor Wayne McEwen went to Court 14 to look into what happened, Kato and her partner, Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia, were disqualified.
That made Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain the winners of the match.
“It’s just a bad situation for everyone,” Bouzkova said. “But it’s kind of something that, I guess, is taken by the rules, as it is, even though it’s very unfortunate for them. … At the end of the day, it was the referee’s decision.”
Bouzkova said she did not see the ball hit the ball girl, but “she was crying for like 15 minutes.” She said one of the officials said the ball “has to do some kind of harm to the person affected” and that “at first, (Juge) didn’t see that.”
Bouzkova said she and Sorribes Tormo told Juge “to look into it more and ask our opponents what they think happened.”
During Coco Gauff’s 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-1 singles victory over Mirra Andreeva on Saturday, Andreev swatted a ball into the Court Suzanne Lenglen stands after dropping a point in the first set. Andreev was given a warning by the chair umpire for unsportsmanlike conduct but no further penalty.
“I heard about that. Didn’t see it,” Bouzkova said. “I guess it just depends on the circumstances and the given situation as it happens. … It is difficult, for sure.
In the quarterfinals, Bouzkova and Sorribes Tormo will face Ellen Perez of Australia and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States.
ARGYLE, N.Y. (AP) — Seth Jacobs has about 100 bins packed with marijuana flower sitting in storage at his upstate New York farm.
And that’s a problem. There aren’t enough places to sell it.
The 700 pounds (318 kilograms) of pungent flower was harvested last year as part of New York’s first crop of legally grown pot for recreational use. He also has roughly 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of distillate.
Months later, there are only a dozen licensed dispensaries statewide to sell what Jacobs and more than 200 other farmers produced.
Now, another growing season is underway and farmers still sitting on much of last year’s harvest are in a financial bind.
“We are really under the gun here. We’re all losing money,” Jacobs recently said at his farm on rolling land near the Vermont border. “Even the most entrepreneurial and ambitious amongst us just can’t move much product in this environment.”
New York pot farmers aren’t the only ones struggling with difficult economic conditions. Marijuana growers in western states have also complained that low prices, tough competition from the black market, high state taxes and federal banking and exporting restrictions have made it tough for legal growers to make money.
But the farmers’ plight in New York is directly tied to the bumpy launch of the state’s recreational pot market.
State leaders had always planned to gear up the market in stages, giving a chance for a diverse set of participants to get a toe-hold. The state’s process for licensing new dispensaries, however, has moved at a far slower pace than expected.
Last fall, Gov. Kathy Hochul foresaw 20 new shops opening every month or so to start this year. Instead, one store was open by the start of the year, with 11 more opened since.
Unlicensed shops rushed in to fill the void, especially in New York City, but those outlets aren’t a legal market for the state’s farmers. Federal law prohibits the New York farmers from transporting their crop across state lines.
That means limited shelf space to sell the 300,000 pounds (136,000 kilograms) of cannabis grown in the state last year, much of the product meant to be processed for items like gummies and vapes.
Statewide, there is estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars worth of unsold cannabis, about 80% in the form of cannabis oil, according to the Cannabis Association of New York, a trade group. There are concerns the smokable flower will eventually become too old to sell.
Jacobs keep his bins of buds at Slack Hollow Organics in secure, temperature controlled units. More valuable still is the distillate at various processors he’s waiting to sell. Elsewhere in rural New York, Brittany Carbone, co-founder of Tricolla Farms, said the stock they’re sitting on includes 1,500 packs of pre-rolled joints and about 2,000 packs of edibles.
“What we really need to see is more retailers get open, and that’s going to actually give us the sustainable solution,” Carbone said.
The lack of sales is a particular problem for small farmers who stretched themselves thin financially to produce last year’s crop and now need capital for their second year.
Jacobs, whose brand is Bud & Boro, said he won’t grow plants for distillate this year because of the backlog. Carbone said they are planting on less than the acre they’re legally allowed and are holding off on infrastructure investments, like hoop houses to help with growing.
In New York, many critics blame missteps by state officials in their well-intentioned effort to open the market to a diverse array of entrepreneurs. That meant reserving the first legal pot harvests for struggling hemp farmers. And people with past marijuana convictions were given the chance to open some of the first dispensaries.
Critics say the process has been cumbersome for dispensary applicants. And there have been issues with a planned $200 million fund to help “social equity” dispensary licensees with the costly task of setting up shops.
The fund was supposed to consist of up to $150 million in private investment. But state Dormitory Authority spokesperson Jeffrey Gordon declined to say whether any private money had been invested yet, saying in an email only that “work to raise private capital is ongoing.”
Gordon noted New York’s “complex and unprecedented” effort to create a new statewide enterprise from scratch, which included evaluating 10,000 commercial properties for dispensary locations and arranging for banking, training and other services for the licensees.
The retail rollout also was hobbled by a federal judge’s ruling in November that temporarily barred New York from issuing dispensary licenses in parts of the state, including Brooklyn and Buffalo. The injunction was later narrowed to the Finger Lakes region before a settlement was reached this week.
The Office of Cannabis Management has taken recent steps to boost demand, including the provisional approval last month of 50 new dispensary licenses. And plans are in the works for that would allow groups of growers to join with retail licensees to sell their cannabis at places other than stores, like at a farmers’ market or a festival.
“We know these cultivators are worried about how to sell last year’s harvest as they decide whether to plant a cannabis crop in 2023, and we will continue to support them as more adult-use dispensaries open to sell their products,” cannabis office spokesman Aaron Ghitelman said in an email.
On a separate track, Hochul and the Legislature approved a new law giving regulators broader power to seize weed from the illicit shops competing with the legal shops.
Though frustrated, farmers like Jacobs and Carbone are hanging on. Carbone has gotten her farm’s brand, TONIC, into six dispensaries. Jacobs has received some intermittent payments and hopes the farmers market policy being devised will give him a new avenue to sell his marijuana.
“This all will get worked out,” Jacobs said. “And I want to be there when it does.”
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday received one of New Zealand’s highest honors for her service leading the country through a mass shooting and pandemic.
Ardern was made a Dame Grand Companion, the second-highest honor in New Zealand, as part of King Charles III’s Birthday Honors. It means people will now call her Dame Jacinda. Royal honorees are typically chosen twice a year in New Zealand by the prime minister and signed off by Charles, the British king who is also recognized as New Zealand’s king.
Ardern was just 37 when she became prime minister in 2017, and was seen as a global icon of the left. She shocked New Zealanders in January when she said she was stepping down as leader after more than five years because she no longer had “enough in the tank” to do it justice.
She was facing mounting political pressures at home, including for her handling of COVID-19, which was initially widely lauded but later criticized by those opposed to mandates and rules.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, who succeeded Ardern, said she was being recognized for her service during “some of the greatest challenges our country has faced in modern times.”
“Leading New Zealand’s response to the 2019 terrorist attacks and to the COVID-19 pandemic represented periods of intense challenge for our 40th prime minister, during which time I saw firsthand that her commitment to New Zealand remained absolute,” Hipkins said in a statement.
Fifty-one Muslim worshippers were killed during Friday prayers in the 2019 attack at two Christchurch mosques by a white supremacist gunman.
Within weeks of the attack, Ardern led major changes to New Zealand’s gun laws by banning assault weapons. More than 50,000 guns were handed over to police during a subsequent buyback scheme.
Ardern said she was in two minds about whether to accept the award because much of what she was being recognized for were experiences that were collective to all New Zealanders.
“So for me this is about my family, my colleagues and all those who supported me to do that incredibly rewarding job,” she told 1News.
Ardern will be temporarily joining Harvard University later this year after she was appointed to dual fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School. She has also taken on an unpaid role combatting online extremism.
Also recognized in the King’s Birthday Honors list was rugby coach Wayne Smith, who helped lead both men’s and women’s rugby teams representing New Zealand to World Cup victories.
In keeping with tradition, Britain’s Queen Camilla was given the top award by being appointed to the Order of New Zealand.
PHOTO FILE: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers his speech at the Helsinki City Hall, Finland Friday, June 2, 2023. (Emmi Korhonen/Lehtikuva via AP)
By SUSIE BLANN and MATTHEW LEE (Associated Press)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday the United States won’t support peace talks in the war in Ukraine until Kyiv holds the upper hand, possibly after a Ukrainian counteroffensive that appears to be taking shape.
Blinken said heeding calls from Russia and others, including China, for a ceasefire and negotiations to end the war now would result in a “Potemkin peace” that wouldn’t secure Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity or enhance European security.
“Potemkin Village” was a tactic Russia’s 18th century government minister Grigory Potemkin used to build brightly painted village fronts to create an illusion of prosperity for Russia’s empress.
In a speech in Finland, which recently joined NATO and shares a long border with Russia, Blinken repeated the U.S. view that “a cease-fire that simply freezes current lines in place” and allows Russian President Vladimir Putin “to consolidate control over the territory he has seized, and rest, rearm, and re-attack — that is not a just and lasting peace.” Allowing Moscow to keep the one-fifth of Ukrainian territory it’s occupied would send the wrong message to Russia and to “other would-be aggressors around the world,” according to Blinken.
Blinken’s position is similar to that of Ukrainian officials, including his statement that Russia must pay for a share of Ukraine’s reconstruction and be held accountable for the full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
Ukrainian officials have given confusing signals about whether a counteroffensive is coming or already underway. Some have suggested it will not be a barrage of simultaneous attacks across the entire front line, rather a series of more targeted, limited strikes, first to weaken Russia’s supply lines and infrastructure, then broaden and intensify.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy weighed in again on Friday.
“This is not a movie,” he told reporters in Kyiv. “It is hard to say how you’ll see the counteroffensive. The main point here is for Russia to see it. And not just see but feel it. Especially, we speak about the troops that have occupied our territories. De-occupation of our territories – this is the result of our counteroffensive. When you see this, you’ll understand that it has started.”
Zelenskyy has said his goal is to drive Russian troops out of the four territories it has partially occupied and illegally annexed last fall, as well as from the Crimean Peninsula the Kremlin illegally seized in 2014.
Putin has said two of his goals in invading Ukraine were to improve Russia’s security and prevent Ukraine from joining NATO but the Kyiv government has applied to join the alliance, and Sweden is hoping to be accepted as a member in July. That would leave Russia surrounded by NATO countries in the Baltic Sea.
Blinken described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a catastrophic strategic failure for Moscow that had strengthened, not weakened, NATO, the European Union and Ukraine. Russia has become more isolated, he said, shackled to China as a junior partner in a relationship that Beijing has increasingly come to resent, and no longer able to use energy as a political tool in countries it once counted as its own or satellites.
For its part, Russia wants any talks to address Ukraine’s request to join NATO.
“Naturally, this (issue) will be one of the main irritants and potential problems for many, many years to come,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
Blinken said Washington was ready to support peace efforts by other countries, including those by China and Brazil but that any peace agreement must uphold the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.
China, which says it is neutral and wants to serve as a mediator but has supported Moscow politically, on Friday urged countries to stop sending weapons to Ukraine. The United States is a leading Western ally and supplier of arms to Kyiv.
In Kyiv, in Moscow’s sixth air attack in six days, Ukrainian air defenses late Thursday and early Friday intercepted all 15 cruise missiles and 21 attack drones targeted at the capital, Ukraine’s chief of staff, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said. The Ukrainian capital was simultaneously attacked from different directions by Iranian-made Shahed drones and cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea region, senior Kyiv official Serhii Popko wrote on Telegram.
A 68-year-old man and an 11-year-old child were wounded in the attack, in which falling debris damaged private houses, outbuildings and cars, according to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office.
Moscow’s recent focus on aerial attacks in Kyiv could backfire, however, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank. The air campaign aims to “degrade Ukrainian counteroffensive capabilities, but … the Russian prioritization of Kyiv is likely further limiting the campaign’s ability to meaningfully constrain potential Ukrainian counteroffensive actions,” it said.
Elsewhere, several explosions occurred in the Azov Sea port of Berdyansk Friday in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, one of the four provinces Russia illegally annexed. Russian-appointed officials blamed Ukrainian rocket attacks and said nine people were wounded. Videos posted on social media appear to show a rising column of smoke in the port area. Ukrainian officials acknowledged their forces were responsible and claimed Russian ships were evacuating the port.
The Moscow-appointed governor of Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk province, Denis Pushilin, claimed Friday that Ukrainian strikes had killed three people and wounded four, including a 3-year-old-girl.
Border regions of Russia once again came under fire from Ukraine in what could be a Ukrainian strategy to disperse Russian forces before a counteroffensive. “Russian commanders now face an acute dilemma of whether to (strengthen) defenses in Russia’s border regions or reinforce their lines in occupied Ukraine,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said.
In the cross-border attacks Friday: —Two women died in Ukrainian shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Gladkov reported two people were wounded in attacks that hit cars in the village of Maslova Pristan, 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the Ukrainian border. The Freedom of Russia Legion, one of the groups that has claimed responsibility for prior attacks on Belgorod, blamed the Russian military for the deaths. The group alleged that the Russian army had mistakenly believed one of the cars belonged to the paramilitary group. According to the Freedom of Russia legion, the incident occurred near a different village than Gladkov cited, Novaya Tavolzhanka. —Air defense systems shot down several Ukrainian drones in Russia’s southern Kursk region, Gov. Roman Starovoit reported. —In Russia’s Bryansk region, Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said Ukrainian forces shelled two villages, with no reported casualties. —Two drones also attacked energy facilities in Russia’s western Smolensk region, which borders Belarus, officials said.
Matthew Lee reported from Oslo, Norway. Karl Ritter contributed from Stockholm and Andrew Katell from New York.
PHOTO FILE: People make their way in a strong rain in Kochi, southern Japan Friday, June 2, 2023. A weakened Tropical Storm Mawar brought heavy rains to Japan’s main southern islands Friday after passing the Okinawan archipelago and causing injuries to several people. (Kyodo News via AP)
By JOHNSON LAI and HIROYUKI KOMAE (Associated Press)
NAHA, Japan (AP) — Heavy rains intensified by Tropical Storm Mawar fell on Japan’s main archipelago Friday, halting trains and triggering floods and mudslides in central and western regions where residents were urged to use caution or evacuate.
Up to 25 centimeters (10 inches) of rain was forecast in parts of western and central Japan through Saturday evening. More than 1.27 million residents in vulnerable areas, including in Mie, Wakayama, Aichi and Shizuoka prefectures in central Japan, were warned of possible flooding and mudslides and advised to go to evacuation centers as of Friday afternoon, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
Television videos showed swollen rivers in residential areas of Wakayama city, including one where brown water rose as high as the bottom of a bridge. There were reports of two people swept away by the swollen rivers, NHK public television said.
In Tokyo, the few pedestrians on the rainy streets clutched umbrellas as winds blew tree branches. Roads were flooded in the city’s western district of Setegaya. Afternoon classes were canceled at some schools, and ferry operations in Tokyo Bay were halted for the rest of Friday.
Heavy rain and mudslide warnings were also issued in the nearby city of Yokohama, where a number of evacuation centers were opened. A mudslide in a residential area blocked part of a street in Kawasaki city. In the central city of Toyohashi, fire and disaster authorities received more than 200 reports of flooding, NHK said.
Shinkansen super-express trains were suspended between Tokyo and Shin Osaka in western Japan due to heavy rain, according to Central Japan Railway Co. Flights and ferries in southern Japan were also canceled due to continuing strong winds. More than 17,500 homes in seven of the nine prefectures served by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings lost power.
Mawar remained well offshore in the Pacific Ocean, but its winds were strong enough as it passed Okinawa to cause injuries. An older woman who fell had a serious head injury in Nishihara city, while the injuries to seven other people were slight.
The tropical storm had sustained winds of up to 82 kph (51 mph) Friday afternoon and was blowing east-northeast at 25 kph (15 mph), the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It was near Amami-Oshima Island, about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) southwest of Tokyo.
The warm and damp air from the tropical storm was intensifying seasonal rains, and a band of heavy rain was hovering over the islands, the meteorological agency said.
Mawar largely skirted Taiwan and the Philippines earlier this week. It sent waves crashing into Taiwan’s east coast and brought heavy rains to the northern Philippines, though no major damage was reported.
Mawar was the strongest typhoon to hit Guam in more than two decades. As of Wednesday, only 28% of power had been restored and about half the water system was operational, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
There have been long lines for gas, and officials estimate it will be four to six weeks before power is fully restored. FEMA did not yet know exactly how many homes were destroyed.
Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka — Afghanistan won the toss in the series-opening one-day cricket international and decided to bowl first against Sri Lanka on Friday despite the absence of Rashid Khan. The star legspinner was ruled out with a lower-back injury but is expected to be back in action for the last game of the three-match series.
Sri Lanka also had injury concerns, with legspinner Wanindu Hasaranga ruled out because of a foot problem. As expected, Sri Lanka handed an ODI debut to fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana after his breakout performances in the Indian Premier League and also gave legspinner Dushan Hemantha his first ODI cap. Sri Lanka is using the series against Afghanistan to prepare the World Cup qualifying tournament after failing to secure an automatic spot based on its ICC ranking.
Lineups: Sri Lanka: Dasun Shanaka (captain), Kusal Mendis, Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Dushan Hemantha, Matheesha Pathirana, Lahiru Kumara, Kasun Rajitha Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Rahmat Shah, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazal Haq Farooqi, Farid Ahmad Malik.
Papua New Guinea police have launched an international bribery probe after OCCRP and partners revealed questionable offshore dealings by Australian businessman Don Matheson. The country’s prime minister has sought to distance himself from Matheson. But reporters found evidence that both the PM and a key minister had closer ties to the Australian than previously disclosed.
In public, Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape has taken a hard line on Don Matheson, an Australian consultant at the center of a multi-million-dollar offshore payments scandal that caused an uproar in the Pacific country.
A joint investigation by OCCRP and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in March revealed that Matheson played a central role in suspicious offshore payments to senior officials at the time they awarded major international contracts to operate the country’s biggest ports.
The report made headlines in Papua New Guinea (PNG), and prompted Marape to order official probes of the state-owned PNG Ports. Under pressure, the prime minister also denied claims made by Matheson that he enjoyed close ties to Marape and his family.
Asked by the country’s opposition leader in March about his links to Matheson, Marape told parliament that he had merely played “one or two rounds” with the Australian businessman at a golf course in the capital, Port Moresby.
“[I] play anyone who walks into that club, who’s a visitor or new person, I invite them. ‘You wanna have a golf with me?’ I invite everyone [to] come for a walk at the golf course. Part of my health regimes anyway. So Mr. Matheson plays one or two rounds of golf with me,” Marape said.
But new evidence shows the relationship was closer than the prime minister has claimed. Marape and Matheson appear to have made high-level introductions for each other in both PNG and Australia, according to interviews and official documents obtained by OCCRP, the ABC, and Inside PNG.
One newly obtained series of letters appears to show that in early 2021, Marape personally introduced Matheson to PNG’s powerful State Enterprises Minister William Duma — the same man the prime minister has now tasked with looking into the current scandal.
Duma then sent a letter of recommendation to help Matheson pitch for lucrative contracts to develop state-owned land in Port Moresby. It is unclear if Matheson was successful in obtaining the business.
Duma told an ABC journalist that he would not answer any media inquiry from the Australian public broadcaster unless it was accompanied by written permission from Australia’s communications minister “to inquire into domestic issues of another country.”
“The alleged notion of conflict of interest which you have assumed does not arise here,” Duma wrote in an email.
Reporters also found that, the following year, Matheson attempted to arrange a meeting between Prime Minister Marape and a senior Australian politician, Queensland state opposition leader David Crisafulli, during a 2022 visit to Australia.
Neither Marape nor Matheson responded to questions sent by reporters.
The head of the PNG chapter of Transparency International, Peter Aitsi, said evidence of previously undisclosed ties between Matheson, Marape, and his senior minister Duma, could undermine public confidence in the government’s review into the offshore scandal.
“If there is proof that there is a relationship between [Matheson and Duma], then, rightfully so, Mr Duma should be removed” from overseeing any government review, he said.
“Investigating Other Engagements”
The new evidence that Marape and his key minister had undisclosed contact with Matheson comes as PNG police have launched an international investigation into the Australian businessman and dealings at PNG Ports, OCCRP and partners have learned.
Joel Simatab, the criminal investigations chief of the PNG police, told OCCRP and partners that national authorities have launched a wide-ranging criminal probe with the assistance of Australian law enforcement and Interpol.
“As part of the investigation, PNG Police will be investigating other engagements involving Don Matheson in PNG, apparently due to him allegedly paying bribes to PNG Ports Corporation officials,” Simatab said.
Australian Federal Police declined to comment. Interpol did not respond to questions.
OCCRP and ABC’s previous investigation revealed that a Singapore company owned by Matheson had received roughly US$4.35 million in unexplained payments from a Manila-based global ports operator, International Container Terminal Services (ICTSI), around the time it secured a lucrative contract to run PNG’s two busiest freight terminals. The company’s account was then used to pay for apparent benefits for two senior officials at the state-owned ports operator, PNG Ports, including a racehorse and medical equipment.
One of those officials, PNG Ports CEO, Fego Kiniafa, was murdered last September. Police are treating the killing as unrelated to the corruption investigation. The revelations about Kiniafa have prompted questions for Australia, which had negotiated a $434 million ports funding deal with the late CEO as part of its efforts to counter China’s growing assertiveness in the region.
The Pandora Papers files also contain information on nine other contracts that Matheson said he had secured in Papua New Guinea. OCCRP and partners found signs that one of those contracts, a master plan for a new provincial capital, was won via a bidding process that may have been tilted in Matheson’s favor.
“The Best Piece of Real Estate in the South Pacific”
Official letters obtained by OCCRP and partners show that Prime Minister Marape apparently boosted Matheson’s business prospects in PNG by introducing him to State Enterprises Minister Duma.
Matheson wrote to Duma on May 3, 2021, to express interest in his company, CSG International, playing a role in the commercial redevelopment of an old wharf site in Port Moresby belonging to PNG’s state holding company, Kumul Consolidated Holdings.
“I would like to take this opportunity to formally acknowledge and thank you for making time available to meet me on Tuesday April 29, 2021 following my introduction to you by the Prime Minister, Hon. James Marape, MP about my role in town planning and design,” Matheson wrote to Duma.
Duma forwarded the letter on to Kumul Consolidated Holdings’ managing director at the time, Isikeli Taureka, in early June. In a cover note, Duma described the contents of the letter as “self-explanatory.”
“I suggest that Kumul Consolidated Holdings enter into discussions with CSG in relation to the proposal,” he wrote in the note.
Taureka wrote back to Matheson shortly afterwards. He did not commit to working with CSG, but said he was open to further discussions with Matheson.
Records obtained by OCCRP do not show whether Matheson obtained the contract, and Kumul Consolidated Holdings did not respond to reporters’ questions about the project. Taureka was dismissed as head of the holding company in October 2021 for what the prime minister said was poor performance.
Taureka confirmed to OCCRP that he had received the letter from Duma suggesting a discussion with Matheson, but believed he needed to first find out more about the Australian businessman.
“I asked Don to present himself to receive his credentials but he didn’t show up,” he said, adding that he did not know if Matheson was ultimately given the contract.
However, in two separate interviews with the ABC last year, Matheson implied that he had indeed won the contract. He called the old wharf site “probably the best piece of real estate in the South Pacific at the moment.”
“We’ve got a lot of Australian government departments that if we could get them as tenants in some of the buildings we can have created here, that would underpin the development.”
Matheson said he had met with the managing director of Kumul Consolidated Holdings, David Kavanamur, to discuss “our planning report and… we’ve nailed it.”
“He’s thrilled, the PM’s thrilled, our challenges will be to get it through density planning,” he said.
He said he had “nearly completed” his work on the old wharf site and “after I complete my contract there, I’m entitled to talk” about it.
Matheson also attempted to carry out at least one high-level introduction for Marape in Australia. He told the ABC last year that he attempted to set up a meeting for Marape with Queensland Opposition Leader Crisafulli during a visit to Brisbane in October.
A spokesman for Crisafulli, Rob Morrison, confirmed that Matheson did contact his office seeking a meeting for Marape. But he said that the meeting did not take place because of a clash in their schedules.
Matheson “sent [Crisafulli] a text saying the PNG PM is in town and is keen to meet,” Morrison said, but “their diaries never lined up.”
‘We Didn’t Tender for It’
Police did not specify which of Matheson’s other PNG projects they were examining in their probe, and the country’s government agencies typically do not publish details of public contracts.
However, OCCRP and partners found records in the Pandora Papers of at least nine other contracts the businessman said he had won from PNG state companies and government agencies between 2013 and 2019. The details of the deals were contained in documents Matheson filed when becoming a client of Asiaciti Trust, one of 14 offshore service providers whose internal data was leaked as part of the Pandora Papers.
The contracts included plans for a new hospital outside of Port Moresby, the redevelopment of an old military barracks, a housing estate and industrial area for PNG Ports, and master plans for two towns. OCCRP is not alleging any wrongdoing in those projects.
However, reporters did find evidence that a third town master planning contract — a 4.9-million-kina (roughly US$1.4 million) deal to design a new provincial capital city in PNG’s remote highlands — was won via a tender process in which his competitors say they didn’t even know they were taking part.
Signed bid documents filed by Matheson with Asiaciti show that the tender board of Hela, then a newly created province, awarded a contract in September 2016 to CSG International to produce a master plan for the town of Tari. The town sits in a national electoral district held by Prime Minister Marape since 2007, but there is no evidence he played a role in the deal.
On paper, CSG won the bid by offering a cheaper price than two other Australian bidders. EJE Architecture, a firm based in the Australian city of Newcastle, is listed as having bid 5.4 million kina (around $1.5 million). MG Group, a property consultancy on Australia’s Gold Coast, was put down for 6.1 million kina (around $1.7 million).
Both companies had worked as subcontractors for CSG on other projects in PNG. But they denied to reporters that they were involved in the Tari bid.
“We didn’t tender for it,” said Matthew Grbcic, the principal of MG Group. “I don’t even think… I did any work on that particular job.”
Michael Rogers, a director of EJE who worked on the company’s PNG projects with Matheson, said that he doesn’t recall bidding, although he said there was a small chance that any records of a bid may have been thrown out as part of a regular purge of office files.
“I’m 95% certain that [the bid] won’t be ours and it sounds like it’s dodgy,” Rogers said.
“So everything points to being that it wasn’t ours and it was falsified.”
William Bando, the former provincial administrator who signed off on the contract with CSG, said he did so “based on advice from my technical staff.”
Bando, who now serves as the MP for a nearby electorate, said that it was Matheson who had “provided the bids from overseas bidders.”
He said he was later “instructed to terminate Matheson’s contract” when there was a “change of political leadership” in the province. He did not elaborate.
Hela province paid CSG International for at least some of the project, Pandora Papers files show. In November 2016, CSG invoiced Hela Province for 330,000 kina (around $94,000) for an initial “desktop report” for the city plan. The invoice appears to have been paid by the following February: a copy of CSG’s bank statement for that month shows the provincial administration made a payment of 330,000 kina on February 6, 2017.
An estimated 106 million Kina (around USD 46 million), and counting, is the cost of damages, from what is being called the evil twin cyclones that hit Vanuatu in less than a week, beginning with tropical cyclone Judy on the 2nd of March, followed by cyclone Kevin on the 4th, coupled with a magnitude 6.5 and 5.4 earthquakes, the following day.
Sources on the ground say, the figure is sure to rise as communications are restored and a more detailed assessment becomes possible.
The extent of devastation by these historical back-to-back category 4 cyclones have extremely affected the peri-urban poor, living in squatter communities in informal housing.
According to sources, several of these communities experienced widespread damage.
Port Vila, Vanuatu’s capital is slowly reconnecting its electricity, and sources say it will take at least another week for a total power restoration.
Prime Minister of Vanuatu, in an interview on Vanuatu Broadcasting Television Corporation this morning, said despite the extent of the damages, food security and supply, sufficient drinking water supply and accessibility of necessary medicine is the government’s priority at this time.
The PM anticipates Vanuatu has a couple of weeks before the problem of food security becomes critical.
The International community under the FRANZ agreement including France, Australia and New Zealand are already on the ground in Vanuatu through quick deployment of military assets.
A French coast guard ship is already in Tanna; several planes from the three countries are delivering supplies and conducting aerial assessment operations.
The HMAS Canberra from Australia is due to arrive in Port Vila tomorrow with helicopters, relief supplies and 600 ADF personnel.
Local utility companies have imported teams from overseas to help speed the return of water, power and telecommunications.
While restoration is underway, it is becoming more apparent that Vanuatu’s traditional cultural social safety net is fraying as a result of the disaster.
Many locals who are dependent on the cash economy can no longer rely on family or the land to help them in this current time of need.
Sources say, Vanuatu has always taken pride in being a place without the scarcity of food and shelter.
However, after this double disaster, that is no longer true for some.
The Autonomous Region of Bougainville was featured on Korean Television channel KBS, a public broadcasting station of the Republic of Korea for the first time.
A special documentary titled ‘Reading Culture in Young Koreans‘, which was aired on KBS 1TV on Friday 21st October 2022, highlighted the publication of “Bougainville, The Island Given By God“, a book that introduces the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
In this documentary, CEO, Geun-Su Kim, who currently runs BOU&KO Ltd, a public enterprise in Bougainville, appeared to explained the history, economy, society, and culture of Bougainville in detail.
After 12 visits to island of Bougainville, he wrote the book about Bougainville and had it published in Korean and English. According to writer, the book is scheduled to be released in November.
Morae-al LLC, a startup founded by university students who successfully published “Bougainville, The Island Given By God” in the Republic of Korea, said they will take the lead in promoting and spreading the potential and beauty of Bougainville to Korea and the world through various media.
PNG Boxers Neville Warupi, Arthur Lavalou and Jamie Chang have reached the boxing quarter finals of the Commonwealth Games set for this Thursday.
Heavyweight (Over 86kg-92kg) boxer, Lavalou and Chang in the Bantamweight (Over 51kg-54kg) division had byes which pushed them straight into the quarter finals.
In the Welterweight (Over 63.5kg-67kg) division, Warupi booked his spot after beating Solomon Islands’ Pemberton Lele on points (4-1) on Tuesday at the NEC.
PNG Boxer, Neville WarupiTeam Papua New Guinea’s Neville Warupi wins bout against Solomon Islands’ Pemberton Lele.PNG Boxer, Neville Warupi
An elated Warupi said there was no shortage of motivation going into the fight against Lele.
“With John Ume, Charles Keama and Allan Oaike all bowing out earlier, this is what pushed me to want the win even more. It gave me even more strength and determination,” he said.
