VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

FILE PHOTO: A view through a fence shows the Russian Olympic Committee headquarters in Moscow, Russia, October 13, 2023. The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) was banned by the International Olympic Committee for recognizing regional organizations from four territories annexed from Ukraine, according to the IOC. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File Photo - 

The Paris 2024 Olympics will welcome neutral Russian and Belarusian athletes at the event next year following the decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the chief of the organising committee told Reuters on Tuesday.

Russians and Belarusians who qualify in their sport for the Paris Games can take part as individual neutral athletes at the July 26-Aug. 11 event without flags, emblems or anthems, the IOC said on Friday.

"As the organising committee, we welcome and respect this decision," the head of Paris 2024 Tony Estanguet said.

"We will welcome these athletes ... to participate within the rules that have been indicated, meaning no flags, no hymns, no officials, no team sports. So these delegations will be very small but will be welcomed by Paris 2024."

The neutral athletes will compete only in individual sports, while no Russian or Belarusian government or state official would be invited to or accredited for Paris 2024, the IOC said.

Russians and Belarusians had initially been banned from competing internationally following Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year, for which Belarus has been used as a staging ground.

In March, however, the IOC issued a first set of recommendations for international sports federations to allow Russian and Belarusian competitors to return and they have since done so in most events.

Athletes who actively support the war in Ukraine are not eligible, nor are those contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military//CNA-VOI

A Blue Origin New Shepard rocket lifts off with a crew of six, including Laura Shepard Churchley, the daughter of the first American in space Alan Shepard, for whom the spacecraft is named, from Launch Site One in west Texas, U.S. Dec 11, 2021 (Photo: Reuters/Joe Skipper) - 

Jeff Bezos' space venture Blue Origin is planning to return its suborbital New Shepard rocket to flight as soon as Dec 18, the company said on Tuesday (Dec 12) as it looks to resume its space tourism business.

"We're targeting a launch window that opens on Dec. 18 for our next New Shepard payload mission," Blue Origin wrote on social network X, formerly known as Twitter. No humans, but 33 science and research payloads will be on board, the company added, referring to cargo that will support experiments in space.

New Shepard, which flies cargo and humans on short trips to the edge of space, has been grounded since a September 2022 uncrewed mission failed roughly a minute after liftoff from Texas, forcing the rocket's capsule full of NASA experiments to safely eject mid-flight.

The company in March determined that a "structural failure" in the rocket's engine nozzle caused last year's failure. No humans were aboard, though New Shepard has previously flown several missions carrying tourists, as well as Bezos, who founded Blue Origin in 2000, on the rocket's maiden flight in 2021.

The US Federal Aviation Administration closed its review of Blue Origin's New Shepard investigation in September, agreeing with the company's findings. It required Blue Origin to make 21 corrective actions, including an engine redesign and "organizational changes."

New Shepard returns to flight as Blue Origin races to get its much bigger rocket, New Glenn, off the ground for the first time, which it plans for late 2024.

While New Shepard only reaches the brim of space, New Glenn is designed to deploy heavier payloads into orbit as the centrepiece of Blue Origin's goal to rival Elon Musk's dominant SpaceX.

Bezos has shaken up the company's leadership and corporate structure in recent months, Reuters reported. Longtime Amazon executive Dave Limp started as Blue Origin's new CEO earlier this month//CNA-VOI

Three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates greet each other before the first debate begins at the KPU Building in Jakarta on December 12 2023. (ANTARA FOTO/Galih Pradipta/aww) - 

Voinews, Jakarta - Chairperson of the General Elections Commission (KPU), Hasyim Asy'ari, officially opened the first of five presidential debates for the 2024 elections in Jakarta on Tuesday.

"Ladies and gentlemen, on this occasion, we are attending the first debate of the presidential candidates," he said.

He expressed hope that each presidential candidate would share their vision, mission, and work programs during the debate.

"We hope that in this first debate, the presidential candidates will use the opportunity to convey their vision, mission, and work programs that can convince voters to elect them as president for the next five years," he said.

Asy'ari also said he hoped that through the debates, voters would get to learn about the candidates' vision, mission, and work programs.

Issues on governance, law, and human rights, as well as corruption eradication, democratic strengthening, public service improvement, and the creation of harmony among citizens, were the topics discussed in the first presidential debate.

He said that the debate, comprising six segments with commercial breaks, would last 150 minutes.

In each segment, three questions chosen randomly will be asked to the candidates, and each will get two minutes to answer them.

After one candidate answers a question, the other two will have one minute each to respond to the statement. The candidate who answers the question will be given one minute to respond again.

Thus, the total time allocated for responses would be three minutes per question.

The next four debates will take place on December 22, January 7, January 21, and February 4.

Three pairs of candidates contend for the 2024 presidential election: Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar, Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka, and Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD//ANT-VOI

[Photo caption - from left to right: UK Ambassador to ASEAN, Sarah Tiffin; UK FCDO Chief of Economist, Professor Adnan Khan; Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Political-Security Community, Michael Tene; Deputy Minister for Development Funding Bappenas RI, Scenaider Siahaan; UK Ambassador to Indonesia, Dominic Jermey]  - 

Voinews, Jakarta - Setting out re-energised agenda to accelerate progress to achieve Sustainable Development Goals by working in partnership with Southeast Asian countries and ASEAN

British Embassy Jakarta and the UK Mission to ASEAN hosted a Southeast Asia regional launch of a new UK Government approach to global development partnerships on 11 Dec 2023.

This approach is set out in a White Paper entitled “International Development in a Contested World: ending extreme poverty and tackling climate change”.

It sets out a re-energised agenda for the UK working with partners, including Southeast Asian countries and ASEAN, to accelerate progress on eliminating extreme poverty, tackling climate change and biodiversity loss, and accelerating progress on the SDGs by 2030.

The launch was hosted by the British Ambassador to Indonesia Dominic Jermey and UK Ambassador to ASEAN Sarah Tiffin and attended by senior representatives from Indonesian and regional Governments, ASEAN Secretariat, development partners, Non-Governmental Organisations and business.

According to a release received by Voice of Indonesia on Tuesday, this initiative speaks to core UK priorities in this region, which include a strong commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, and to broad-based, resilient economic growth.

It will provide a strategic framing for UK development partnerships in the region, which will include five new regional programmes in partnership with ASEAN on a range of thematic priorities for the region, in support of the Sustainable Development Goals which are a priority under the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo Pacific.

The White Paper underscores the range of approaches the UK will use to promote sustainable development, encompassing trade, investment, science, research, technology and open societies agendas. 

“Indonesia and Southeast Asia are at the heart of global progress towards sustainable, resilient growth. The UK’s new White Paper on International Development affirms that tackling today’s global challenges and getting the Sustainable Development Goals back on track requires partnership in an integrated approach: there is no way to secure broad-based economic growth without simultaneously tackling climate change and biodiversity loss.It also emphasises the importance of being innovative and creative – which relies on making sure all voices are heard, and we continue to invest in science, technology and education. The UK looks forward to revitalized collaboration with our partners in Indonesia and across the region”, British Ambassador to Indonesia and Timor-Leste Dominic Jermey said. 

Meanwhile, UK Ambassador to ASEAN Sarah Tiffin said that central to this new framework is the notion of strong partnerships founded on mutual respect and common values.

This is exactly the approach UK take with ASEAN and countries in the Southeast Asia region. UK Goverment committed to doing all they can to work with ASEAN and regional partners to catalyse progress on the Sustainable Development Goals and the vision of inclusive prosperity they set out//VOI