COVID-19

He also discusses reports of a $US1.9 million dollar investment into a new security office, and the banning of mutton flaps. 

A first repatriation flight to take 50 Tongans home is expected to take place next month. In the lead up, Tu'i'onetoa says they've started running drill exercises to prepare for when the Tongans arrive.

He said those taking part will be involved on the day, including: hotel staff, the Ministry of Health, armed forces, police and emergency services.

Tu'i'onetoa will assess how smooth the transition of the first flight of citizens goes.

Of those cases 180 are classified as civilians, and 42 are military service members, including the 22 confirmed by the Department of Defense on Saturday.

The government says there are 44 active cases in Guam while 173 people have been released from isolation and there have been five deaths over the course of the outbreak.

The 22 latest positive results were identified through contact tracing among service members in a unit deployed to the Andersen Air Force Base after an initial spate of cases this week. There are now 35 infected people associated with the base.

The figure, however, is believed to be higher because of insufficient testing. Only the US has had more infections.

Brazil's health ministry has confirmed 1,032,913 cases but experts say the outbreak is weeks away from its peak.

Poor communities and indigenous people have been particularly badly hit by the pandemic.

IOC President Thomas Bach met his counterpart at FIFA Gianni Infantino in person at the Olympic Museum, which reopened on Tuesday June 9, after a closure forced by the outbreak of COVID-19.

During their meeting, Presidents Bach and Infantino discussed the importance of sport during the coronavirus pandemic, and how the global situation would force sport to adapt in the short and longer term.

Infantino was elected as a member of the IOC during its 135th Session in January.

The chief executive of Tonga's Ministry of Information, Paula Ma'u, said a thousand have registered for repatriation, while a thousand stranded seasonal workers are being registered by the Ministry of Internal affairs.

The first repatriation flight for 50 Tongans was being planned from New Zealand next month and Mr Ma'u said a second could take place 14 days after the first.

But he said at one flight a fortnight it could take years to repatriate everybody.

In an update on its earnings expectations, the company said the recent move to alert level 1 has enabled the airline to slowly restart the domestic network, however revenue and earnings are significantly lower than expected prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It said it was now expecting an underlying operating loss of $120m.

But there are other significant one-off items which will boost the bottom line result.

The company is estimating re-structuring costs, including redundancies, will be between $140 and $160m

Westpac Bank's regional roundup says all areas of New Zealand are facing a rough recession over the rest of the year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, but those that rely most on international tourism, such as Otago, are likely to be particularly hard hit.

Construction activity was expected to continue to slow, while house prices were expected to fall in all parts of the country.

Wellington had the brightest outlook, supported by an increase in government spending on services.

But it's also further highlighted the difficult bind they find themselves in - risk the devastation of the coronavirus or prolong their economic suffering.

Fletcher Melvin, the head of the Cook Islands Chamber of Commerce and the Private Sector Taskforce, has been pushing hard for a travel bubble.

When Aotearoa declared zero cases a week ago, he was ecstatic, and so was the government - 87 percent of the country's economy relies on tourism, three quarters of those visitors from New Zealand.

Agreed? Agreed.

Well, fear not, because around the world some of the big-hitters are starting to re-commence production - which was of course halted by Covid-19 - in a variety of socially-distanced ways.

Here are just six of the films to keep your fingers crossed for then in 2021, when the cinemas are hopefully back in business.

Avatar 2

The long-awaited sequel to James Cameron's 2009 sci-fi blockbuster was able to re-start filming in New Zealand this week, because the country is almost coronavirus free.

New chief executive Noel Quinn gave the news to his 235,000 staff around the globe in a memo seen by the BBC and confirmed as authentic by the bank.

The lender had originally announced the plan in February, but put it on hold amid the coronavirus pandemic.

HSBC said it would try to find internal jobs for those affected but that redundancies were likely.

In April, the bank had said it would hold fire on the cuts, explaining that it did not want to leave staff unable to find work elsewhere during the coronavirus outbreak.