PINA

Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine has issued a call to action to address the escalating crisis of non-communicable diseases in the country. “This is no longer a future concern; this is the present, and the time to act is now,” Heine said, keynoting the Health in All Policies Conference 2024 held on 28 November at the USP Conference Hall in...

The top United Nations court will take up the largest case in its history when it opens two weeks of hearings into what countries worldwide are legally required to do to combat climate change and help vulnerable nations. After years of lobbying by island nations who fear they could simply disappear under rising sea waters, the UN General Assembly asked...

The Legislative Assembly of Tonga has postponed the session to table the motion for a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni from 03 December to 09 December 9, 2024. The postponement follows the Prime Minister’s request for an extension to submit a written reply to the motion. Originally due by 12 noon Friday, the Lord Speaker has granted...

It was a historic milestone announced with jubilance in 2022 at the end of the United Nations Assembly 5.2 in March 2022 with more than 170 governments uniting to End Plastic Pollution through an international legally binding agreement. Fast forward to 2024, the fifth and final Intergovernmental Negotiations Committee in Busan Korea where the Plastics Treaty Text was to be...

Countries representing over 2 billion people around the world are holding the line as they continue to retaliate that they will not accept a treaty that does not contain a clear, legally binding obligation to phase out the most harmful plastics and chemicals of concern. A hours left for negotiations at the fifth and final Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) to...

Samoa’s tenure as Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) is finishing at the end of 2024. The influential negotiating bloc of 39 small island developing states countries from the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean region, and the African Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean and the South China Seas, will be headed by the Republic of Palau starting in 2025,...

International rugby sevens returned to thrill the huge crowds at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai as Australia women and Fiji men ran out winners to take an early lead in the HSBC SVNS standings. Fiji beat Spain 19-5 to lift the men’s trophy and claim their first SVNS tournament victory since Toulouse in 2022, and their first in Dubai since...

The small Pacific Island country of Tuvalu purchased millions of dollars of property in Fiji from prominent Chinese Communist Party-allied businessman Zhao Fugang, just weeks after reporting by OCCRP and partners revealed that Australia had designated him as one of its top international criminal targets. Tuvalu’s High Commission in Fiji agreed on 02 May to purchase three adjoining lots of...

The Papua New Guinea Opposition has criticised the James Marape Government’s proposed amendment to Section 145 of the Constitution, describing it as a calculated move to consolidate power by restricting the Motion of Vote of No Confidence (VoNC). Hiri Koiari MP Keith Iduhu expressed strong opposition to the amendment, which was tabled in Parliament by Justice Minister Pila Niningi. Iduhu pointed...

New Caledonia's largest pro-independence party, the Union Calédonienne (UC), on Thursday unveiled the main outcome of its Congress last weekend, including its plans for the French Pacific territory's political future. Speaking at a news conference on Thursday in Nouméa, the party's newly elected executive bureau, now headed by Emmanuel Tjibaou, debriefed the media about the main resolutions made during its...