[Plugin:WP-PageNavi] Pagination not showing up

I am using the following loop and somehow it doesn’t show the pagination. I am using WP-PageNavi plugin, but even if I use wordpress pagination it just doesn’t show the links at all. What am I missing here?

$paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
$args = array(
	'posts_per_page'   => 2,
	'order'            => 'DESC',
	'post_type'        => 'news',
	'paged'            => $paged
);
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );

if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();

	$news_items = get_group('news_item');
	// print_r($news_items);
	foreach($news_items as $news_item){

		echo '<h2><a href="'; the_permalink(); echo '">'; the_title(); echo '</a></h2>';

		the_time('m/m/y'); echo "<br>";
		echo get_the_term_list( $post->ID, 'news_categorie', '<p>Language: ', ', ', '</p>' );

		$news_item_imgs = $news_item['news_item_image'];

		echo "1.<br>";
		foreach ($news_item_imgs as $img) {
			 print_r( $img['original'] ); echo "<br>";
		}

		echo "2. "; print_r( $news_item['news_item_copy'][1] );
		echo "<br><br>";
	}

	previous_posts_link('&laquo; Newer');
	next_posts_link('Older &raquo;');

endwhile; else:
	_e( 'Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.' );
endif;

wp_pagenavi();

wp_reset_query();