Vanuatu's prime minister has joined the backlash over a provincial government ban against women preparing and selling food while on their period. 

As Toa Samoa prepares to take on New Zealand in the Pacific Cup rugby league final, Samoans around the world will be celebrating but in Samoa police have banned parades.

On the program: questions over Vanuatu patrol boat grounding; mixed responses to Solomon Islands defence force proposal; campaigning starts ahead of Tonga's national election; pride in Tonga as netballers play first home series; and Solomon Islands soccer stars get a taste of professional sporting life.

Pride in Papua New Guinea as Pope Leo XIV canonises Saint Peter ToRot, a layman killed for preaching the Catholic faith during World War II.

On the program:

Excitement is building in Papua New Guinea ahead of the canonization of the country's first Catholic Saint, Peter ToRot.

Pain still lingers 50 years after the murders of the Balibo Five in Timor Leste as relatives continue to call for justice. 

Micronesia's World War II shipwrecks are a magnet for divers but they're also a ticking environmental "time bomb"

Solomon Islands police say they are investigating the discovery of a low-profile semi-submersible boat found abandoned in Malaita Province.

Papua New Guinea and Australia are on track to sign a historic security treaty next week.

Angaur, a tiny island at the southern end of Palau, spans just four square kilometres, but it's overrun by thousands of invasive macaque monkeys.

With only 114 locals left, the island's human population has been squeezed into a small corner, while the monkeys run rampant.

Originally introduced by German colonists over a century ago, the macaques have multiplied through a chain of events involving war, neglect and geopolitics.

Award-winning podcaster James Nokise boards an eight-seater plane to investigate this situation. 

What he finds is a tangled tale involving WWII-era unexploded bombs, US military interests in the Pacific and a perfect monkey storm of cultural and environmental disruption.

• Presented and produced by James Nokise

Palau's president Surangel Whipps Junior says he was disappointed by Donald Trump's UN speech, which labelled climate change a scam and rubbished efforts to reduce emissions.

Papua New Guinea was the focus of attention this week as the Pacific region's largest nation celebrated 50 years of independence.