VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - Minister of Manpower, Ida Fauziyah, sent off Indonesian delegates to participate in the 13th WorldSkills ASEAN in Singapore.

"You are the best of the nation who have been chosen through a long and stringent selection, and I believe that you have prepared yourselves well, with a fighting spirit that never gives up to become a champion," the minister said in a statement released on Monday.

According to Fauziyah, WorldSkills ASEAN has an important meaning in the effort to prepare competent human resources. The success of Indonesian competitors within the event will be one of the benchmarks to measure how competitive Indonesian human resources are at the ASEAN level.

She urged participants to show proper and professional attitude as well as high sportsmanship.

"Show that, in addition to skills, we are also not lacking in terms of attitude, behavior, and personality," the minister said.

The 2023 WorldSkills ASEAN will be held from July 23–25 in Singapore. During the previous editions, WorldSkills ASEAN, also known as ASEAN Skills Competition (ASC), was a routine activity held in ASEAN once every two years.

The event was held to improve training cooperation, promote vocational training and education, and improve the quality of the young workforce in ASEAN.

The 13th WorldSkills ASEAN is being held this year after being delayed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For this year, the competition will feature 22 vocational fields and draw participation from 10 ASEAN member countries.

Indonesia has sent 36 competitors for 18 vocational fields, namely automobile technology, beauty therapy, CNC maintenance, electronics, fashion technology, graphic design technology, hairdressing, industrial automation, Internet of Things, and IT network system administration.

They also include IT software solutions for business, mechanical engineering CAD, mechatronics, mobile robotics, rapid transit systems, refrigeration and air conditioning, restaurant services, and web technologies. (Antaranews)

Global temperatures were soaring to historic highs as the world's two biggest carbon emitters, the United States and China, sought on Monday to reignite talks on climate change.

With scientists saying the target of keeping global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels is moving beyond reach, evidence of the crisis was everywhere.

A remote town in China's arid northwest, Sanbao, registered a national record of 52.2 Celsius (126 Fahrenheit).

Wildfires in Europe raged ahead of a second heat wave in two weeks that was set to send temperatures as high as 48C.

And nearly a quarter of the U.S. population fell under extreme heat advisories, partly due to a heat dome that has settled over western states.

"In many parts of the world, today is predicted to be the hottest day on record," tweeted Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation.

"The #ClimateCrisis is not a warning. It’s happening. I urge world leaders to ACT now."

Ahead of meeting Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua in Beijing, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry urged China to partner with the United States to cut methane emissions and coal-fired power.

Prolonged high temperatures in China are threatening power grids and crops and raising concerns about a repeat of last year's drought, the most severe in 60 years.

Typhoon Talim was gaining strength and due to make land at night along China's southern coast, forcing the cancellation of flights and trains in the regions of Guangdong and Hainan.

In South Korea, torrential rains left 40 people dead as river levees collapsed causing flash floods. They followed the heaviest recorded rain in the capital Seoul last year.

An anticyclone nicknamed Charon - who in Greek mythology was the ferryman of the dead - could cause Europe to break its highest recorded temperature of 48.8C, possibly on the Italian island of Sardinia, according to Italy's Air Force weather service.

'VERY SCARY'

The high temperatures are especially risky for people like teenage sisters Matilde and Angelica Aureli from Rome, who during extreme heat can only venture outside after 9 p.m. because of their albinism. The genetic condition affects the protective pigment melanin in hair, skin and eyes.

"In the summer, it is getting hotter year by year... it's actually very scary as an experience because for people with albinism, the sun keeps getting worse," Matilde said.

In Spain, temperatures could rise to as high as 44C in some regions and will not fall below 25C at night, increasing the probability of wildfires, said Ruben del Campo, a spokesperson for state weather agency AEMET.

However, a forest fire on the island of La Palma in the Canaries that forced the evacuation of 4,000 people was being brought under control as temperatures fell, local official Sergio Rodriguez said in an interview on TVE.

The heat dome across the western United States also helped to generate heavy rains in the northeast, claiming at least five lives. The heat warnings spread as far as Florida.

In California's Death Valley, tourists gathered in Furnace Creek on Sunday in anticipation of witnessing the hottest recognised temperature on earth: 134 Farenheit (56.7C) in 1913, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

They cheered as a digital display of 132F ticked up to 133 while National Park rangers stood by in case anyone succumbed to heat stroke.

"It's my first time being here so I feel it would be really cool to be here for the hottest day ever on Earth for my first time," said Kayla Hill, 24, of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Carlo Buontempo, director of the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, said there was a clear pattern of heatwaves becoming more common as predicted by scientists.

"We are already in uncharted territory, completely. We have never seen anything like this in our living memory, in our history," Buontempo said. (Reuters)

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manesseh Sogavare returned to Honiara on Monday after a week-long official visit to China, telling reporters Beijing would provide more budget support, and that criticism by Australia was "unneighbourly".

The United States, Australia, New Zealand and Solomon Islands' opposition party have called for Sogavare to publish details of a policing deal signed in Beijing last week, amid concern it will invite further regional contest. read more

Sogavare told a press conference on Monday in Honiara that Australia and the U.S. should not fear China's police support for Solomon Islands , ABC Television reported.

"Targeting China-Solomon Islands relations is ... un-neighbourly and lacks respect," he said.

China had agreed to provide budget support for Solomon Islands, he added.

Australia has historically been Solomon Islands' largest aid donor and security partner. (Reuters)

North Korea's Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said on Monday that the United States should avoid any "foolish act" that could put its security at risk and rejected offers of talks as a ploy, state media KCNA news agency reported.

Kim made her comments after White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States remains concerned that North Korea would carry out another intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test, after it last week fired an ICBM off its east coast.

"The United States should stop a foolish act that could put its security at risk by provoking us," Kim said in a statement carried by KCNA.

She criticised U.S. plans for a nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine to visit South Korea and said that such efforts to increase "extended deterrence" would only push Pyongyang further from the negotiating table.

Kim also rejected U.S. calls for unconditional talks and said that Washington is wrong if it believes North Korea's disarmament was possible.

"The United States is being delusional if it believed that it could stop our advancement and achieve irreversible disarmament by temporarily halting joint military drills, deployment of strategic assets or easing of sanctions," she said.

North Korea has in recent days accused American spy planes of flying over its exclusive economic zone, condemned a recent visit to South Korea by an American nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine, and vowed to take steps in reaction. (Reuters)