VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Fed Chair Jerome Powell says it needs to see more data before deciding if to cut interest rates. (Photo: AFP/Mandel Ngan) - 

VOInews, Washington, U.S : The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to keep its key lending rate unchanged again on Wednesday (Mar 20), as policymakers continue discussions over when to start rate cuts and launch the next phase in their long-running battle against inflation.

The Fed has raised interest rates to a 23-year high of between 5.25 and 5.50 per cent as it looks to return inflation firmly to its long-term target of 2 per cent.

After making significant progress against rising prices last year, 2024 has been more challenging, with the US seeing a small uptick in the pace of monthly inflation.

At the same time, the unemployment rate has remained low, wage growth has eased, and economic growth for the final quarter of 2023 came in above expectations – all indications that the US economy remains in good health despite higher rates.

After two days of discussions, the Fed will publish an updated summary of economic projections (SEP) alongside its rate decision on Wednesday, which will include policymakers' views of where they expect interest rates to be at the end of this year.

"The pace of disinflation, the slowdown in employment growth, [is] not happening as fast as we thought it did a few months ago," Wells Fargo senior economist Michael Pugliese told AFP. "And so they're gonna fine-tune their policy outlook accordingly."

In recent weeks, officials at the US central bank - led by Fed chair Jerome Powell - have urged caution about cutting interest rates too quickly, and have instead said they will follow a "data-dependent" path.

"The economic outlook is uncertain, and ongoing progress toward our 2 per cent inflation objective is not assured," Powell told lawmakers in Washington earlier this month.

He later confirmed that he still expects cuts to begin this year.

Futures traders currently assign a probability of around 55 per cent that the Fed will start cutting interest rates by Jun 12, according to data from CME Group.

This marks a significant shift from the run-up to the Fed's last rate decision in January, when traders were still widely anticipating the first would come in May//CNA-VOI

Singapore's Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan meeting his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi in Amman on Mar 16, 2024. (Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs) - 

VOInews, Singapore : Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan met his Jordanian counterpart in Amman on Saturday (Mar 16) amid Singapore’s ongoing humanitarian aid mission to Gaza.

The minister, who is visiting Amman from Saturday to Sunday, called on Jordan's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi.

Dr Balakrishnan said they had spoken two weeks ago about the dire situation in Gaza and how Singapore and Jordan can work together to provide aid.

"I thanked him for Jordan’s swift facilitation of our ongoing humanitarian aid to Gaza," the minister wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in a statement that both ministers noted that the strong bilateral relationship has allowed both sides to work closely together to organise the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s (RSAF) ongoing humanitarian aid mission for Gaza.

"They agreed on the pressing need for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and that more channels should be explored to deliver aid to Gaza," said the ministry.

Singapore is delivering its third tranche of humanitarian assistance for Gaza via Jordan.

An A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) and a C-130 transport aircraft took off from Singapore on Friday for the mission.

At the invitation of the Jordanian government, the C-130 is staying on to conduct humanitarian airdrop operations out of Jordan with support from the Jordanian Armed Forces, MFA said on Friday.

The Singapore Armed Forces' (SAF) Changi Regional Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Coordination Centre (RHCC) led efforts to coordinate and consolidate contributions of humanitarian aid supplies from agencies including the SAF, Ministry of Health (MOH) and non-governmental organisation Relief Singapore.

Both ministers also welcomed the successful outcomes of Jordan’s Crown Prince Al Hussein’s official visit to Singapore in January 2024.

“They looked forward to stronger and deeper cooperation including in the fields of capacity building, technical and vocational education and training, and strengthening business-to-business links,” said MFA.

Crown Prince Al Hussein was in Singapore from Jan 10 to Jan 12 and met several Singapore leaders, including President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Six memorandums of understanding were signed on the sidelines of that visit//CNA-VOI

Overview of the USS Gravely destroyer in the south Red Sea, Tuesday, Feb 13, 2024. (File photo: AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) - 

VOInews, Red sea : The US military said it destroyed a drone fired by the Yemeni Houthis on Saturday (Mar 16), with another presumed to have crashed into the Red Sea.

There were no reports of damage or injuries from ships in the vicinity, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.

CETNCOM also said it destroyed five unmanned surface vessels and one UAV in self-defence, in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

"It was determined these weapons presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region," the statement read.

Months of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around Southern Africa, and stoked fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread to destabilise the wider Middle East.

The US and Britain have carried out strikes against Houthi targets in response to the attacks on shipping//CNA-VOI

A boy holds waits for a meal provided by a charity, with food in besieged Gaza increasingly hard to find.(Photo: AFP/SAID KHATIB) - 

VOInews, Doha-Qatar : The main UN aid agency operating in Gaza said on Saturday (Mar 16) that acute malnutrition was accelerating in the north of the Palestinian enclave as Israel prepared to send a delegation to Qatar for new ceasefire talks on a hostage deal with Hamas. 

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said one in three children under the age of two in northern Gaza is now acutely malnourished, putting more pressure on Israel over the looming famine. 

On Friday, Israel said it would send a delegation to Qatar for more talks with mediators after its enemy Hamas presented a new proposal for a ceasefire with an exchange of hostages and prisoners. 

The delegation will be led by the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, a source familiar with the talks said, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to convene the security cabinet to discuss the proposal before the talks start.

Efforts failed repeatedly to secure a temporary ceasefire before Islam's holy month of Ramadan started a week ago, with Israel saying it plans to launch a new offensive in Rafah, the last relatively safe city in tiny, crowded Gaza after five months of war.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, starting a two-day visit to the region, voiced concern about an assault on Rafah, saying there was a danger it would result "in many terrible civilian casualties".

On Friday, Netanyahu's office said he had approved an attack plan on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million residents are sheltering, and that the civilian population would be evacuated.

It gave no time frame and there was no immediate evidence of extra preparations on the ground.

The Hamas offer, reviewed by Reuters, foresees dozens of Israeli hostages freed in return for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, during a weeks-long ceasefire that would let more aid into Gaza.

Hamas also called for talks in a later stage on ending the war, but Israel has said it is only willing to negotiate a temporary truce.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Arabic broadcaster Al Jazeera the group's proposal is so realistic that "no one can object to it" and claimed that mediators had reacted positively.

He said it consists of two stages, with a complete "cessation of aggression" at the start of the second one - something Israel has rejected, vowing to resume its goal of destroying Hamas once any temporary truce expires.

Families of Israeli hostages and their supporters again gathered in Tel Aviv, urging a deal for their release.

At the same time, anti-government protesters, estimated by Israeli media at a few thousand, called for new elections and blocked streets in Tel Aviv//CNA-VOI