Lately for Thursday 3 June 2021

10:20 Secret meeting between Samoa's political leaders

It's being reported that Samoa's caretaker prime minister and prime-minister-elect met today as part of secret negotiations about the transition to a new government.

The Samoa Observer quotes the leader of the Fast party, Fiame Naomi Mataafa, as saying 'This is only the beginning', after meeting with Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.

But neither leader would be drawn on the substantive details of the afternoon's discussions.

Alex Rheeney is the editor of Samoa Observer.

10:30 Cranwell science communication prize awarded

Dr Dianne Sika-Paotonu, the Associate Dean (Pacific) at the University of Otago, Wellington, has won the New Zealand Association of Scientists Cranwell Medal for science communication for 2020.

Dr Sika-Paotonu who's Scientific Lead for New Zealand's Rheumatic Fever and Penicillin Research Programme and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at the University of Otago in Wellington, is the first Pacific biomedical scentist to win the award.

She's also been awarded a 2020 Fulbright New Zealand Scholarship, which will allow her to travel to the United States to continue her research into Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease at Harvard University and the University of Oklahoma.

10:45 The Rest is History

Eighty years ago today - in 1941 - ten women entered police training  - the first women in New Zealand to do so.

The National Council of Women had been lobbying for women to be allowed to join the New Zealand police since the 1930s

It wasn't until the workforce faced pressures due to the second World War that it happened.

They were expected to be being 25 and 40 years old, and unmarried, or widowed.

Valerie Redshaw has documented womens contribution to the service - in her 2007 book Tact and Tenacity: New Zealand Women in Policing.