Monday Chorus: Samoa does China deal

TLDR: In another blow to the ‘west’s hopes of containing China’s push into the Pacific, Samoa agreed a deal with visiting Foreign Minister Wang Yi over the weekend, including a plan to jointly build a fingerprint laboratory. See more on this below the paywall fold.

Western Samoa’s Government agreed over the weekend to a range of agreements with China. Photo by Vaitoga Asuisui Matafeo/SAMOA OBSERVER/AFP via Getty Images

Elsewhere in the news here and overseas this morning:

• Shanghai and Beijing eased their Covid restrictions slightly overnight in a some rare good news from China, which is battling to eliminate the virus with GDP-crunching lockdowns Reuters;

• AGL is set to call off its massive demerger plans later today after intense opposition from climate-campaigning tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes The Australian-$$$, AFR-$$$; and,

• The World Bank warned in a major report over the weekend just 4% of global emissions were subject to a carbon price deemed high enough (~US$100/t) to keep the rise of global temperatures to under two degrees, despite a near-60% increase in carbon pricing revenues to US$84b last year. See more below the paywall fold on this.

I’m still waiting on a negative RAT and will cover today’s post-Cabinet news conference with Acting PM Grant Robertson remotely if I have to.