VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

General view of the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, taken on February 21, 2024. Foreign ministers of the G20 group of nations open a two-day meeting Wednesday in Brazil, with a bleak outlook for progress on a thorny agenda of conflicts and crises, from the Gaza and Ukraine wars to growing polarization. (Photo by MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP)

VOInews, Jakarta- Brazil criticized the "paralysis" of the UN Security Council on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine as it opened a G20 meeting Wednesday where the international community's deep divisions were on display.

The outlook is bleak for progress on the thorny agenda of conflicts and crises gripping the planet as foreign ministers from the world's biggest economies gather in Rio de Janeiro for the Group of 20's first high-level meeting of the year.

Opening the two-day meeting, which featured US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Brazil's top diplomat, Mauro Vieira, said the explosion of global conflicts shows international institutions like the United Nations are not working.

"Multilateral institutions are not properly equipped to deal with the current challenges, as has been demonstrated by the Security Council's unacceptable paralysis on the ongoing conflicts" in Gaza and Ukraine, Vieira said, adding the situation was costing "innocent lives."

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell for his part warned multilateralism "is in crisis."

The Security Council has failed to act on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, held in check by Russian veto power, and has struggled to find a response to the war in Gaza, with Israel's ally the United States using its veto to block calls for a ceasefire, most recently Tuesday.

Brazil, which took over the rotating G20 presidency from India in December, has voiced hopes the group could be a forum to make progress on such questions.

But that likely took a hit when Lula ignited a diplomatic firestorm Sunday by accusing Israel of "genocide," comparing its military campaign in the Gaza Strip to the Holocaust.

The comments drew outrage in Israel, which declared him persona non grata, and could overshadow any bid to de-escalate the conflict via the G20.

Blinken, who met Lula Wednesday in Brasilia before heading to the G20, "made clear we disagree with (his) comments," a senior State Department official told journalists.

The secretary of state and Brazilian leader had a "frank exchange" in their more than 90-minute meeting at the presidential palace, the official said.

Source : AFP

FILE PHOTO: A woman stands in front of a Google logo during the inauguration of a new hub in France dedicated to the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, at the Google France headquarters in Paris, France, February 15, 2024. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo - 

Voinews, San Francisco - Google on Wednesday (Feb 21) released new artificial intelligence (AI) models that outside developers potentially can fashion as their own, following a similar move by Meta Platforms and others.

The Alphabet subsidiary said individuals and businesses can build AI software based on its new family of "open models" called Gemma, for free. The company is making key technical data such as what is called model weights publicly available, it said.

The move may attract software engineers to build on Google's technology and encourage usage of its newly profitable cloud division. The models are "optimised" for Google Cloud, where first-time cloud customers using them get US$300 in credits, the company said.

Google stopped short of making Gemma fully "open source," meaning the company still may have a hand in setting terms of use and ownership.

Some experts have said open-source AI was ripe for abuse, while others have championed the approach for widening the set of people who can contribute to and benefit from the technology.

With the announcement, Google did not make its bigger, premier models known as Gemini open, unlike Gemma. It said the Gemma models are sized at two billion or seven billion parameters - or the number of different values that an algorithm takes into account to generate output.

Meta's Llama 2 models range from seven to 70 billion parameters in size. Google has not disclosed the size of its largest Gemini models. For comparison, OpenAI's GPT-3 model announced in 2020 had 175 billion parameters.

Chipmaker Nvidia on Wednesday said it has worked with Google to ensure Gemma models run smoothly on its chips. Nvidia also said it will soon make chatbot software, which it is developing to run AI models on Windows PCs, work with Gemma//CNA-VOI

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong speaking with panellists on CNA's Ask the Finance Minister programme on Feb 21, 2024. (Photo: CNA/Jeremy Long) - 

Voinews, Singapore - Measures announced at Budget 2024 affecting Central Provident Fund (CPF) members are “very much in line with the purpose and intent of the CPF”, said Finance Minister Lawrence Wong on Wednesday night (Feb 21).

Mr Wong, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, was addressing the move to close the CPF Special Account and the reactions it drew online.

Those aged 55 and above will no longer have a Special Account from 2025 onwards, but they will be able to put more money into their Retirement Accounts.

The Ordinary Account holds funds that can be withdrawn for housing and earns short-term interest rates, while the Special Account is for long-term purposes and so has a higher interest rate. 

“That’s the principle,” explained Mr Wong on CNA’s Ask the Finance Minister show, a post-Budget panel discussion that saw him field questions from four panellists.

“Of course, at age 55, you also have a Retirement Account. So instead of now having Special Account and Retirement Account, we are streamlining it into just one, which is the Retirement Account, which is for the long-term, for your retirement needs.”

Under the move, CPF members who have excess funds in their Special Account can transfer it to the Retirement Account – “all the way up to the revised Enhanced Retirement Sum and still earn the same interest rate as the Special Account”, said Mr Wong.  

“The vast majority of Singaporeans will be able to do so. And if they do so, they will get more in their Retirement Account. And eventually when they retire, they will get higher CPF payouts for life.” 

The Enhanced Retirement Sum is the maximum amount that CPF members can put into their Retirement Accounts to receive payouts. It is currently set at three times the Basic Retirement Sum (BRS), but will be increased to four times the BRS next year.

Those who have remaining Special Account savings after hitting the Enhanced Retirement Sum cap will have these savings transferred to their Ordinary Account. 

Mr Wong on Wednesday also touched on how employers should help their mid-career employees, particularly those aged 40 and above, reboot their skills. 

Even though employers who embrace this new mindset may experience higher-costs in the short-term as they have to invest in their workers’ training, Mr Wong believes they will emerge “much better” as a company//CNA-VOI

Drivers try to push their vehicles on the expressway covered with snow and ice following a snowstorm in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on Feb 6, 2024. (File Photo: Chinatopix via AP) - 

Voinews, Beijing - Severe weather warnings were in place across swathes of China on Wednesday (Feb 21) as temperatures plummeted across the south and Beijing shivered in snowy conditions.

Authorities renewed an orange alert - the highest in the country's three-tier system - warning that average temperatures could fall by six to 12 degrees Celsius by Friday in the south, where they are currently around zero degrees Celsius.

In some areas, the mercury could plunge by over 20 degrees Celsius, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said on social media.

State news agency Xinhua said the NMC had "called on local governments to take precautions against the cold weather, advised the public to keep warm, and called for necessary measures to protect crops and aquatic products".

In Beijing, where temperatures hovered around freezing on Wednesday, residents awoke to find the capital blanketed in white following overnight snowfall.

Traffic slowed to a crawl on the city's highways, while snow-dusted pavements proved treacherous for commuters and cyclists.

Municipal authorities said up to 4.1cm of snow had fallen in some suburban areas and issued a warning over icy roads.

"It is recommended that residents ... stagger their travel, use public buses and subways, drive their own cars slowly and pay attention to safety," the city government said in an online statement on Tuesday evening.

Braving the cold temperatures in the capital's historic Forbidden City, visitors - some in traditional costumes - marvelled at the picturesque snowfall.

"I am very happy to be here. This snow scene and the dragon lanterns give me a sense of prosperity," Long Yan, a 55-year-old tourist from southwestern Sichuan province, told AFP.

"Auspicious snow signifies a bountiful year. This snow is a beautiful omen," she said//CNA-VOI