VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Pascal Phoa with the actors, director of Avery and audiences at the circle theatre, New York take picture after the play. (Photo : Pascal Phoa Doc) - 

VOInews, New York : A New-York-based Indonesian actor, Pascal Phoa, closed his final performance of his next show, William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, at Circle in the Square Theater in New York City. 

"I just closed the show where we performed in front of about six hundred high school students who I’ve been told are all studying Macbeth and learning Shakespeare in school. So I feel really blessed to get this opportunity firstly because it’s for them but also because I have never performed in front of so many audience members. I just hope that they could understand what we were saying and not hate Shakespeare after watching the play,” Pascal said. 

Pascal came to the United States to study computer science at the University of Notre Dame for his undergraduate degree but has always loved performing.

In college, he became involved with the student-run Shakespeare club and performed with them numerous times, where he got familiar with performing Shakespeare. He has worked as a software developer in New Jersey and taken acting classes in New York.

According to a release received by Voice of Indonesia on Monday December 16th 2024 in Jakarta, the show, directed by Mark Nelson, opened on December 9 and closed on December 13 2024. 

Sponsored by New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs, the production was seen by hundreds of New York City high school students per day to expose the youth to theater and literature.

Pascal played Macduff, a leading character in the play and main protagonist who mirrors Macbeth’s power but is loyal to his country.

The play has been produced numerous times throughout history on Broadway, the West End, and around the world as well as on the screen.

The latest film adaptation of it was by The Coen Brothers in 2021 starring Academy Award winners Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and Tony Award winner and nominee Bertie Carvel as Banquo and Corey Hawkins as Macduff respectively//VOI

Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sat, Dec. 14, 2024. (Photo: AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

VOInews, Tel Aviv : Thousands of Israelis demonstrated Saturday (Dec 14) for a deal to release the remaining hostages still held in Gaza after more than 14 months of war against Hamas in the Palestinian territory.

"We all can agree that we have failed until now and that we can reach an agreement now," Lior Ashkenazi, a prominent Israeli actor, told a crowd gathered in the commercial hub of Tel Aviv. 

Itzik Horn, whose sons Eitan and Iair are still being held captive in Gaza, said: "End the war, the time has arrived for action and the time has arrived to bring everyone home."

There has been guarded optimism in recent days that a ceasefire and hostage release deal for Gaza might finally be within reach after months of abortive mediation efforts. 

Palestinian militants abducted 251 hostages during Hamas's October 2023 attack, 96 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Qatar, a key mediator in the negotiations, said last week there was new "momentum" for talks. 

US Security of State Antony Blinken said during a visit to Jordan on Saturday: "This is the moment to finally conclude that agreement." 

In Egypt, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met on Saturday with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Middle East envoy Brett McGurk.

"The meeting addressed efforts to reach an agreement for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange in Gaza," Sisi's office said.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas's attack last year that resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,930 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable//CNA-VOI

Marines boarding a Citation Ultra aircraft at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan on May 5, 2015. (Photo: AFP/USMC/PFC Makenzie Fallon)

VOInews, Tokyo : The United States began relocating thousands of Marines from the Japanese island of Okinawa, Tokyo and Washington said on Saturday (Dec 14) after decades of mounting grievances among locals over America's military presence.

In 2012, the United States said it would redeploy 9,000 Marines from the island where communities complain bases are an unfair burden – with objections ranging from pollution to noise and helicopter crashes.

The relocation began with "a small detachment of approximately 100 logistics support Marines" transferred to the US island territory of Guam, Japan's defence ministry and the US Marine Corps said.

"Commencement of relocation to Guam signifies the first phase of relocating Marines to locations outside of Japan," said the joint statement.

There are currently around 19,000 Marines in Okinawa – strategically located east of Taiwan, which has become a flashpoint for tensions between the United States and China.

Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to bring the self-ruled island under its control.

Washington is Taiwan's most important backer and biggest supplier of arms but has long maintained "strategic ambiguity" about the prospect of backing it with boots on the ground.

The 9,000 relocating Marines are set to be moved elsewhere in the Pacific – to Guam, Hawaii or Australia, the United States has said.

Okinawa comprises just 0.6 per cent of Japan's territory but hosts more than half of the 50,000 US troops posted in the country.

The 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US soldiers in Okinawa also prompted widespread backlash, with calls for a rethink of the 1960 pact allowing the United States to post soldiers in Japan//CNA-VOI