VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The total number of recipients of the third or booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine has reached 58.9 million as of Wednesday, the COVID-19 Handling Task Force reported.

The number of booster recipients increased by 21,001 on Wednesday, taking the total count to 58,908,239, according to task force data received here the same day.

Meanwhile, the number of fully vaccinated people, or those who have received two vaccine doses, rose by 5,459 to touch 170,549,667.

The task force's data also showed that the number of Indonesians who have received at least the first dose under the nationwide vaccination program swelled by 9,852 to reach 203,027,594 as of Wednesday.

As part of efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021. President Joko Widodo was the first vaccine recipient under the program.

Overall, the government is targeting to vaccinate as many as 234,666,020 citizens across the country.

Based on the task force's data, so far, 86.5 percent of the targeted recipients have received the first vaccine dose, 72.6 percent have received the second dose, and 25 percent have received the third dose.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, at a virtual press conference on Tuesday, affirmed that currently, the COVID-19 vaccine stock is still safe and in excess due to donations from other countries that have continued to arrive.

Based on the Ministry of Health's vaccine dashboard, currently, 13,064,161 vaccine doses are available in the country.

The sufficient stock of the vaccine has encouraged the government to start providing a fourth dose or second booster to around 4 million targeted health workers in the country.

Since its rollout on July 29, 2022, the coverage of the fourth dose vaccination for health workers has reached 269,174.  (antaranews)

The European Union urged the Taliban to change tack and uphold the rights of women, girls and minorities on Monday, one year after the Islamist group took power in Afghanistan.

In the 12 months since the chaotic withdrawal by the United States and its allies, some Afghans have welcomed improved security but struggled with poverty, drought, malnutrition and the fading hope among women that they will have a decisive role in the country's future. 

Afghanistan is physically safer than it was when the hardline Taliban was fighting against U.S.-led foreign forces and their Afghan allies but there are huge pressures on the economy, caused in large part by the country's isolation as foreign governments refuse to recognise its rulers.

Development aid upon which the country relied so heavily has been cut as the international community demands that the Taliban respect the rights of Afghans, particularly girls and women whose access to work and education has been curtailed.

"One year after the Taliban took over control of Afghanistan, the humanitarian situation has worsened, and wide-spread human rights violations are rising, in particular against women, girls and minorities," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Twitter.

"I call on those de facto holding power in Kabul to reverse these unacceptable decisions and behaviours," he added.

Roughly 25 million Afghans are now living in poverty - well over half the population, and the United Nations estimates that up to 900,000 jobs could be lost this year as the economy stalls.

Civil society and independent media have also shrunk, with many of its members leaving the country. The U.N. mission to Afghanistan said in a recent review the group was limiting dissent by arresting journalists, activists and protesters. (Reuters)

 Peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is critical to the stability of the global supply chain of high-tech products, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen told a Japanese publication, in comments published by her office on Tuesday.

Taiwan is a major producer of semiconductors. (Reuters)

The United States, South Korea and Japan participated in a ballistic missile defense exercise off Hawaii's coast last week, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, reviving combined drills with an eye on North Korea as well as China.

It was the first time the three countries have held such drills since 2017, after relations between Seoul and Tokyo hit their lowest in years in 2019 amid renewed historical disputes dating to Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative who took office in May, has vowed to improve relations with Japan and deepen the U.S. alliance to better deter North Korea, including by expanding or resuming joint drills.

The missile warning and ballistic missile search and tracking exercise took place Aug. 8-14 during the multinational Pacific Dragon drills, and demonstrated the three countries' commitment to respond to challenges posed by North Korea, protect shared security and bolster the rules-based international order, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The participants shared tactical data link information in accordance with a trilateral information sharing agreement, the statement said.

U.S.-led joint missile defence measures have been a sore point with China, which retaliated economically against South Korea's 2016 decision to host a U.S. military Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery.

Beijing says the THAAD radar can penetrate its territory and has called on Yoon to honour assurances made by his predecessor to not to increase THAAD deployments, participate in a U.S.-led global missile shield or create a trilateral military alliance involving Japan.

Yoon has said those do not represent formal agreements and that Seoul is not bound by them.

South Korea's ministry of defense also confirmed on Tuesday that its troops would resume long-suspended live field training during their joint military drills with the United States to be held from Aug. 22 to Sept. 1.

The two sides have scaled back combined military drills in recent years due to COVID-19 and efforts to lower tensions with the North, which has accused the exercises of being a rehearsal for invasion. (Reuters)