US territories hit out at Trump plan to explore deep sea mining in the Pacific

A United States government agency has released a plan to lease millions of hectares of seabed off the coast of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam for deep sea exploration. The initiative targets areas near the Mariana Trench.

The proposal has drawn strong opposition from US territories in the Pacific, who are pushing back against the administration's strategy to explore deep sea mining in the region.