VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) pressed for putting an immediate stop to the war between Israel and Palestine in order to avoid increasing casualties and destruction of property.

"The conflict has escalated and caused a greater humanitarian impact," he noted in a press statement regarding the current situation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that was accessed from the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube channel on Tuesday.

The head of state had called on Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi and related ministries and institutions to immediately take quick action to protect Indonesian citizens in conflict areas.

"The root of the conflict, namely the occupation of the Palestinian territories by Israel, must be resolved immediately according to the parameters agreed upon by the United Nations," he emphasized.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry has also prepared a contingency plan to evacuate Indonesian citizens from conflicted areas with several situational scenarios, including the possibility of evacuating Indonesian citizens through countries closest to Palestine, namely Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt.

"We are coordinating with Indonesian Embassies in Amman, Beirut, and Cairo, and other various parties to evacuate Indonesian citizens residing in the Palestinian territories, especially 10 Indonesian citizens, who are in the Gaza Strip," the ministry's spokesperson, Lalu Muhamad Iqbal, confirmed.

Data from the ministry recorded 45 Indonesian citizens in Palestine, with 10 of them located in the Gaza Strip that is the center of the Israeli military air attacks' target.

Moreover, 230 Indonesian citizens are on religious trips at various points in Israel. To date, no reports of Indonesian citizens becoming victims has been received.

The Hamas armed group stormed the Israel-Gaza border fence from Gaza on October 7 and killed Israeli soldiers and civilians while taking dozens of people hostage from the region.

Israel responded by launching massive strikes on Gaza and possibly followed by a ground attack into territory they abandoned almost two decades ago after 38 years of occupation.

The Hamas attack killed 800 Israelis and injured 2,500 people. On the opposite side, Israel's air attacks left 500 Palestinians dead, with more than three thousand people injured.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) stated that almost 74 thousand refugees are housed in 64 UNRWA shelters. The figure is likely to increase as heavy attacks and airstrikes continue, including in civilian areas. (Antaranews)

VOI, Jakarta - The 5th Ministerial Meeting of the Archipelagic and States (AIS) Forum, held in Badung District, Bali, on Tuesday, produced seven cooperation documents, Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi stated.

"In my opening speech of the meeting, I stated that we had chosen the right path. In the midst of global uncertainties, Indonesia chooses to prioritize the strengthening of cooperation and collaboration," she remarked after chairing the meeting in Nusa Dua, Badung.

"This is the manifestation of Indonesia's commitment and contribution to the world," she noted.

The seven cooperation documents include the document of road map for decarbonization in the tourism sector, document of blue carbon emissions profile, letter of intent (LOI) on maritime cooperation between Indonesia and Timor-Leste, and LOI on joint research involving the University of Malta.

The meeting also resulted in the document of cooperation in the development of AIS Forum's Center for Research and Development at the Imperial College of London, the memorandum of understanding between Indonesia's UNPAD and IPB and Madagascar's University of Toliara.

An LOI on joint strategic programs between the AIS Forum and the Melanesian Spearhead Group was also signed during the meeting.

Minister Marsudi expressed belief that all the agreements mirror the keenness of the AIS Forum participating countries to focus on intensifying practical cooperation and finding innovative solutions that find their roots in the countries' local wisdom.

"We reiterated the importance of solidarity to overcome common challenges. I affirmed that the AIS Forum must become a forum that produces innovative solutions and ensures sustainable maritime governance," she noted.

During the meeting, ministers of the AIS Forum also deliberated on the draft of the Joint Declaration of the Leaders of the AIS Forum before presenting and approving it in the 1st High Level Meeting (HLM) of the AIS Forum on October 11, 2023, in Nusa Dua.

According to Minister Marsudi, the HLM, which will be opened by President Joko Widodo, will serve as a milestone that is expected to encourage archipelagic and island states to bolster synergy to find solutions to deal with global challenges.

The 2023 HLM of the AIS Forum will focus on the blue economy, the future of oceans, and solidarity as well as draw participation from delegates of 30 archipelagic and island states as well as four international organizations. (ANTARA News)

VOI, Jakarta - Billions of people could struggle to survive in periods of deadly, humid heat within this century as temperatures rise, particularly in some of the world's largest cities, from Delhi to Shanghai, according to research published on Monday.

Towards the higher end of warming scenarios, potentially lethal combinations of heat and humidity could spread further including into areas such as the U.S. Midwest, the authors of the report said.

"It's very disturbing," study co-author Matthew Huber of Purdue University in the U.S. state of Indiana told Reuters. "It's going to send a lot of people to emergency medical care."

The study built on past research by Huber, George Mason University climatologist Daniel Vecellio and other scientists on the point at which heat and humidity combine to push the human body beyond its limits without shade or help from technologies such as air conditioning.

It found that around 750 million people could experience one week per year of potentially deadly humid heat if temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.

At 3C (5.4F) of warming, more than 1.5 billion people would face such a threat, according to the paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The world is on track for 2.8C (5F) of warming by the year 2100 under current policies, according to the 2022 United Nations Emissions Gap report.

While India, Pakistan and the Gulf already have briefly touched dangerous humid heat in recent years, the study found it will afflict major cities from Lagos, Nigeria, to Chicago, Illinois if the world keeps heating up.

"It's coming up in places that we didn't think about before," said Vecellio, highlighting rising risk in South America and Australia.

At 4C of warming, Hodeidah, Yemen, would see around 300 days per year of potentially unsurvivable humid heat.

WET-BULB THRESHOLD

To track such moist heat, scientists use a measurement known as "wet-bulb" temperature. This is taken by covering a thermometer with a water-soaked cloth. The process of water evaporating from the cloth mirrors how the human body cools down with sweat.

In a landmark 2010 study, Huber proposed that a wet-bulb temperature of 35C (95F) persisting for six or more hours could be the conservative limit for the human body.

Beyond this, people were likely to succumb to heat stress if they could not find a way to cool down.

A decade later, a group of American scientists co-led by Vecellio put Huber's theory to the test by placing young, healthy adults in environmental chambers with high wet-bulb temperatures.

They found the limit was lower at between 30C (86F) and 31C (88F).

Huber and Vecellio joined forces for Monday's study to apply this lower limit to the world under various future climate warming scenarios, ranging between 1.5C and 4C (2.7F and 7.2F).

"This will be a critical benchmark for future studies," said atmospheric scientist Jane Baldwin of University of California Irvine who was not involved in the research.

"Unfortunately, it's a somewhat grimmer picture than you would have gotten with the 35C limit," she said.

Monday's research adds to a growing body of concern about dangerous wet-bulb temperatures.

Another study published last month in Sciences Advances used Vecellio's threshold alongside weather station data and climate models to reach a similar conclusion: that the geographic range and frequency of dangerous humid heat will increase rapidly under even moderate global warming (Reuters)

VOI, Jakarta - Tehran was not involved in the militant Hamas group's weekend attack on Israel, Iran's top authority Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday, but hailed what he called Israel's "irreparable" military and intelligence defeat.

"We kiss the hands of those who planned the attack on the Zionist regime," said Khamenei, who was wearing a Palestinian scarf, in his first televised speech since the attack.

"This destructive earthquake (Hamas' attack) has destroyed some critical structures (in Israel) which will not be repaired easily ... The Zionist regime's own actions are to blame for this disaster," said Khamenei.

Israel has long accused Iran's clerical rulers of stoking violence by supplying arms to Hamas. Tehran, which does not recognize Israel, says it gives moral and financial support to the group, which controls the Gaza Strip.

Backing the Palestinian cause has been a pillar of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution and a way the Shi'ite-dominated country has fashioned itself as a leader of the Muslim world.

The United States said on Monday Iran was complicit in Hamas' assault on Israel, but added it had no intelligence or evidence supporting this assertion. The top U.S. general on Monday warned Iran not to get involved in the crisis, saying he did not want the conflict to the broaden.

Israel said earlier on Tuesday it had re-established control over the Gaza border and was planting mines where militants had toppled the barrier during their bloody weekend assault, after another night of relentless Israeli air raids on the enclave. (Reuters)