PINA

Vanuatu Parliament was not able to topple Prime Minister, Bob Loughman today due to lack of the two third of the 52 members of parliament. There was no quorum this morning due the boycott by Loughman government. Speaker Simeon Seoule has adjourned the extra-ordinary session to meet on Friday. Leader of the opposition, Ralph Regengenavu said there were 27 MPs who signed...

New Greenpeace analysis shows that since governments began discussing a new Global Ocean Treaty two decades ago, nearly 120 marine species have become critically endangered. The analysis also reveals that to protect 30% of the oceans by 2030, the minimum scientists say is needed to give them a chance to heal, 11 million square kilometres of ocean must be protected...

The intergovernmental conference to draft the first-ever treaty on the ocean’s biological diversity opened its fifth and likely final session on Monday. Amidst calls for flexibility, openness and the spirit of compromise that prevailed in 1982, when the landmark “constitution for the oceans” was adopted, the new treaty aims to codify international law around territorial waters, sea lanes and marine...

UN member states gather in New York to hammer out a long-awaited treaty that, if agreed, will govern the planet’s last, lawless wilderness: the high seas. Two hundred nautical miles beyond the territorial waters and jurisdiction of nations, the high seas have been treated “recklessly”, according to environmental groups. Warning that the outcome of the talks – which run from Monday...

Vanuatu Prime Minister Bob Loughman, said he believes some of the Members of Parliament (MPs) who moved to the Opposition side were unhappy because the government was slow to increase their allowances and allocations. Changing side and forming a motion to destroy the government because of this reason is unfair and unjustifiable, he said Monday. PM Loughman explained that the...

Security measures at the Opposition’s Island Magic Resort camp on Efate was beefed up Monday after Members of Parliament (MPs) who signed the motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Bob Loughman and the other MPs who later joined, initiate the formation of a new Government. The strict measures were obvious as last week political supporters were still allowed in...

The prime minister of Vanuatu has called for a dissolution of parliament with over a-year-and-four-months still remaining in his four-year-tenure. Bob Loughman, who was elected in April 2020, is due to face a motion of no confidence in his leadership on Tuesday 16 August with the opposition group led by, Ralph Regenvanu, claiming to have the support of 29 MPs...

Papua New Guineans have knocked out 35 Members of Parliament (MPs) in the 111-seat 10th Parliament in the just concluded General Election 2022 (GE22). They have sent 50 new faces (including seats vacated by the seven deaths of incumbents and the seven new seats) to the expanded Papua New Guinea (PNG) 118-seat 11th Parliament. North Bougainville MP late William Nakin, the...

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Simon Stiell as the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat based in Bonn, Germany. The appointment has been endorsed by the Bureau of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). From March 2013 to June 2022, Simon Stiell served as a senior minister in the Government of Grenada holding the...

For decades, United States officials have denied using a deadly chemical called Agent Orange on the islands of Guam, American Samoa and other Pacific locations. That changed last week, when President Joe Biden signed the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honouring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) act, which expands services and benefits to US veterans in the Pacific...