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Photo: Beata Zawrzel / NurPhoto via AFP Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Testa chief executive, has been invited to attend the Pacific region's premier political leaders gathering later this month. RNZ Pacific understands that Musk, who also owns the social media platform X, has been invited by the Tongan government to the 53rd Pacific Island Leaders Meeting from 26-30 August. RNZ Pacific has contacted the Tongan Prime Minister, Hu'akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni, for comment. Following the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Haapai eruption and tsunami in February 2022, Musk came to the aid of the island nation, donating internet terminals through the SpaceX and Starlink Emergency Satellite Service. The Kingdom is currently in the midst of an internet crisis after its underwater...

US Marine Force Base Camp Blaz. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Eleisha Foon The United States' plans to expand and bolster its military prowess in Guam has gripped the undivided attention of geopolitical observers, as the leader of the Western world tries to solidify its defences against perceived hostility from its enemies. But for ordinary people living in the US territory - which locals tongue in cheek call a "military recruiters paradise" - geopolitics is the least of their concerns. For Guamanians, and the indigenous Chamorro people, who are landowners and veterans, news the US is forging ahead with proposed missile testing on the island to boost its military capability only "raises suspicion…because things just aren't adding up". The federal government is spending $8.7 billion dollars on th...

By Max Matza BBC Gena Rowlands at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. Photo: FREDERIC HUGON / AFP American actress Gena Rowlands, who is known for roles including in The Notebook and Another Woman, has died at the age of 94. Rowlands, who was nominated for an Oscar for 1974's A Woman Under the Influence and 1980's Gloria, died at her home in Indian Wells, California. No cause of death was given, but she had been suffering from Alzheimer's, according to reports. She quit acting in 2015 after winning four Emmys, two Golden Globes, and earning two Oscar nominations, according to Deadline. Both A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria were collaborations with her former husband John Cassavetes. Her Emmys were for The Betty Ford Story, Face of a Stranger, Hysterical Blindness, and The Incredible...

By Ana Faguy for BBC News Priscilla Chan poses alongside the new statue in her likeness. Photo: Instagram/ Mark Zuckerberg Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg turned heads on Wednesday when he posted an image of his wife, Priscilla Chan, standing next to a large silver and blue statue sculpted in her likeness. The statue - which stands about 2.1m tall - was commissioned by the chief executive of Facebook's parent company in an effort to honour "the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife", Zuckerberg wrote on Instagram. New York-based artist Daniel Arsham crafted the sculpture, which was placed under a tree in what appears to be a residential garden. The figure's striking colour and towering size sent the internet buzzing with comparisons to the Avatar characters and jokes about Zuck...