VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Mendikbudristek) reminded students to be wise in using gadgets. According to him, digital skills are not only about the ability to use gadgets, but also being smart and wise in using them.

This was conveyed by the Head of the Publication, Communication and Policy Advocacy Working Group, Directorate of SMA Kemendikbudristek, Juandanilsyah. According to him, there are four methods that students can use to use gadgets.

"First, digital security, then digital skills, digital culture, to digital ethics," said Juandanilsyah in the 2022 Nusantara Student Festival (FPN) webinar held by RRI, Tuesday (25/10/2022).

"These four pillars are what we must do because we create a technology-based learning ecosystem. So that we can produce talents that are in accordance with Indonesia's advantages later," he said.

Furthermore, Juandanilsyah assesses that currently digital technology has become global, knowledge-based internet is not limited. Therefore, teachers must also improve presentation techniques in learning methods.

"We know that students are sometimes overloaded with knowledge. Teachers must improve learning techniques, from difficult to fun, using relevant teaching materials," he said.

Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2020 in the last four years, the percentage of students aged 5–24 years in Indonesia who have internet access has increased sharply from 33.98 percent to 59.3 percent. More than a quarter of internet users (25.5 percent) are children and adolescents. (RRI)

The Ministry of Health has asked the community to continue to follow the health protocols while performing their activities and not to panic amid the detection of a new variant of COVID-19, XBB, in Indonesia.

XBB spread can be categorized as rife because so far, there are 26 countries that have reported XBB infections, ministry spokesperson Mohammad Syahril said at an online event on Monday.

For example, in Singapore, the number of cases reported has reached 8 thousand per day, he added.

Even though based on monitoring, its transmission has been found to be faster, the XBB variant is not more deadly than the Omicron variant, he informed. From the 26 countries that have reported XBB infections, no deaths have been reported so far.

Based on the experience from the two years of the pandemic, the community must have understood by now that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has continued to mutate to live, he added.

To this end, he stressed that following the health protocols and vaccinations are part of the strategy to put an end to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, government spokesperson for COVID-19, Reisa Broto Asmoro, said that with the emergence of the XBB variant in Indonesia, the coverage of vaccinations, especially booster vaccinations, must be improved.

Through vaccinations, the severity of the infection can be reduced, she added.

Earlier on Friday (October 21, 2022), Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that the XBB variant had been detected in Indonesia, and the government was monitoring the development of the case.

The government has also strengthened the public activity restrictions (PPKM) to curb COVID-19 cases. He further noted that the country is not yet safe from the pandemic.

The first case of COVID-19 in Indonesia was confirmed in March 2020. According to data from the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of October 24, 2022, the nation has recorded 6,472,664 COVID-19 cases, 6,295,525 recoveries, and 158,454 deaths. (Antaranews)

While financial markets judged the outcome of China's Communist Party Congress harshly on Monday, on China's internet the only permitted response has been full-throated support.

President Xi Jinping secured a precedent-breaking third leadership term at the Congress that wound up on Sunday, introducing a new Politburo Standing Committee stacked with loyalists and triggering a sharp slump in mainland and Hong Kong stocks as investors sold on fears that economic growth would be sacrificed for policies driven by ideology.

But no such reaction was visible on China's internet, which was already heavily policed and saw a tightening up of censorship before and during the Congress, analysts said.

Users of the WeChat and Weibo social media platforms were barred from commenting on many of the proceedings and only allowed to see select comments, invariably in praise of the party.

Some social media users voiced criticism in opaquely written posts. Some posted a terse "I disagree" shortly after Xi on Sunday unveiled the new Politburo Standing Committee.

Such posts were deleted within minutes.

Manya Koetse, editor-in-chief of the What's on Weibo website that reports on social trends in China, said the periods surrounding big political events always see heavy censorship and tighter control of social media.

"What I saw, especially after or during the closing sessions, censorship seemed to be even tighter," she said.

The Weibo account of Hu Xijin, a former editor of the state-run Global Times and an avid commentator whose articles usually support government positions and draw thousands of comments, is a rare online venue where differing views can be seen.

But over the weekend, however, it appeared authorities were taking no chances.

The comments sections on three of his five congress-related posts were disabled and on the remaining two, only a smattering of comments could be seen.

"Congratulations to the motherland," said one.

"It's all for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people", said another.

Hu declined to comment.

State and party groups across China, meanwhile, promoted the Congress energetically in their online postings, highlighting praise for Xi and the outcome of the party's deliberations.

Hashtags for state media congress coverage dominated the top of Weibo's viral topics list.

One rare online venue where opposition could be seen was on the Weibo account of Li Wenliang, the Wuhan city doctor who died in 2020 after sounding the alarm on COVID-19 and whose last Weibo post has been an online haven for many looking to vent about personal woes and public policies.

Several comments posted there on Sunday alluded to a change of season, such as "winter is coming", before being deleted.

"An absurd age," said another.

References to the outcome of the Congress trickled out on the page late into the night, though none referred explicitly to Xi.

"Dr Li, for the first time I have felt that this country is not going to be fine, feel really lost," one commenter wrote.

"Why is he like this?" asked another. (Reuters)

A U.N spokesperson said on Monday that "urgent" steps are needed to relieve a backlog of more than 150 ships involved in a deal which allows Ukraine to export grain from ports in the Black Sea.

The comments come as Kyiv accused Russia of blocking full implementation of the agreement, which was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July to ease a global food crisis and which comes up for renewal next month. Russia has threatened to pull out over its own complaints.

Vessels carrying grains and other foodstuffs to and from Ukrainian ports must be inspected by teams organised by the four-party Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) at anchorages in Turkey.

"There are currently over 150 vessels waiting around Istanbul to move and these delays have the potential to cause disruptions to the supply chain and port operations," said Ismini Palla, U.N. spokesperson for the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

She said the four-party JCC recently increased to five the number of inspection teams.

Reuters reported the backlog jumped last month, leaving anchored ships in the Marmara Sea stretching out beyond the horizon off Istanbul.

The four parties to the deal - Russia, Ukraine and brokers Turkey and the U.N. - are currently negotiating a possible extension and expansion beyond its Nov. 19 deadline.

"The U.N. convenes the parties daily and has urged full and good faith participation in the (deal) and the need for additional urgent measures to be taken so the supply chain does not get disrupted and the Initiative continues to deliver more and much needed food to the world," Palla added.

The grains-export deal paved the way for Ukraine to resume grain exports from three ports that had been shut since the Russian invasion. Moscow also won guarantees for its own grain and fertiliser exports.

Ukraine has so far exported 8.5 million metric tonnes of grain and other foodstuffs aboard 379 outbound voyages under the deal, the JCC said.

Amir Abdulla, U.N. Coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative, told Reuters this month he had asked Russia and other parties to end "full-blown" inspections of outgoing vessels to ease the backlog. (Reuters)