Sneak peek

South Korea’s budget airlines Air Busan, Jin Air and Air Seoul will merge into single carrier by March 2027. The boards of all three companies approved the merger plan and signed the agreement on Aug 21. The carrier will operate under the Jin Air name.

With the Northern Mariana Islands facing a shrinking private sector, workforce shortages, declining government revenues, and the prospect of hundreds of public-sector furloughs, the three candidates for governor are offering competing plans to rebuild an economy still struggling to regain its footing.

Faʻasao Amerika Samoa and the Conservation Council for Hawaii, represented by the environmental law organization Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit Aug. 18 challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to launch deep-sea mining off the coast of American Samoa.

On Aug. 17 (Aug. 18 CHamoru Standard Time) the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced the availability of the Proposed Leasing Notice for a proposed Northern Mariana Islands Outer Continental Shelf Mineral Lease Sale later this year.