President Donald Trump is slated to stop in Hawaii early next month to visit Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial before traveling on to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines to “reaffirm United States leadership in promoting a free and open Indo-­Pacific region,” according to a White House statement. Former President Barack Obama had pursued a largely trade-based “Asia-Pacific pivot,” shifting strategic commitments in that direction. Trump’s military-focused follow-up travel is set to begin in Japan, with bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Presidential visits here for Obama, a Democrat and son of Hawaii, were annual vacations filled with golfing, shakas and shave ice. For Republican Trump, looks like no such leisure on his first trip here as president.

Shearwater chicks on Lehua Island get a break

There seems to be cause for cautious optimism over the state’s rat eradication effort on Lehua Island. After three rounds of rat-killing pellets were dropped on the 284-acre island in recent months, no live rats have been found on the island; meanwhile, the island was full of healthy wedge-tailed shearwater chicks. The apparent absence of negative impact from the rodenticide brings relief, particularly after 45 dead mullets and two dead juvenile boobies had been found, spurring an investigation last month.