VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

TMII e-flyer - 

Voinews, Jakarta - Welcoming the busy period of Christmas 2023 and New Year 2024 celebrations, Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) holds various events that can be enjoyed by wide community.

The Christmas and New Year (Nataru) celebration week will start December 20, 2023 to January 2, 2024. 

One of the main events is OneThereLand which offers a unique and interesting concept starting from a 12 day music concert from December 21, 2023 to January 1, 2024 enlivened by dozens of Indonesian musicians, podcasts and stand-up comedy.

Several musicians in the first phase line up including OKAAY December 23 2023, Aruma December 24 2023, GJLS 25 December 2023, Aldi Taher 25 December 2023, Dikta 27 December 2023, Indies 28 December 2023, etc.

This line up will continue to grow as the event progresses will definitely add to the excitement of the OneThereLand event.

For culinary lovers, there is the Jakarta Crunchy Area which specializes in serving everything types of food baking/pastry products. Starting from what is currently viral to the most legend in Jakarta.

In the beverages section, in the CRUNCHY AREA it can be found various types of drinks from role model coffeeshops in Jakarta to contemporary drinks.

Besides There is also a Market Land scene which consists of a Fashion Show, 100 MSME exhibitions, playground, and stand-up comedy. 

"Apart from the 12 day concert we will also perform OneThereLand, which is enlivened by Indonesian musicians regional music and dance performances, as well as shadow puppetry as a conservation effort about traditional arts", TMII Main Director, Claudia Ingkiriwang, said. 

Regarding the Dancing Fountain Tirta Stories performance, a harmonization of the combination of multimedia shows with water screens and fountains as well lighting of 300 drones, which was previously regularly displayed every day starting at 18.30 Western Indonesia Time. 

"During Christmas and New Year Week, the Tirta Stories show will have additional hours show. If usually only once a day, now it's 5 times a day, and specifically on New Year's Eve there will be 6 performances in one day. Dancing Fountain Tirta Story
This is the biggest fountain show in Jakarta and the biggest fountain show with drone
in South East Asia”, Claudia added. 

According to a release received by Voice of Indonesia on Saturday, visitors can also enjoy a variety of other recreational activities, including visits to bird park, reptile park, cable car ride, or a relaxing picnic with the family with the availability of many green open areas. 

In providing a sense of security for tourists visiting TMII, TMII Management also collaborating with regional security elements with TNI & Polri elements as available several tent points/security service posts and health posts.

TMII management applies a special entrance ticket price during the week, namely IDR. 50,000/person. Visitors are encouraged to purchase tickets online at www.tamanmini.com to avoid long queues at the entrance.

For those who using public transportation, there is a Transjakarta Bus stop right at the TMII entrance. There is also a free shuttle service that directly transports visitors from the Station Lobby TMII LRT to TMII Tourist Information Center and vice versa//VOI

A delivery worker rides a scooter as he uses his foot to balance on a slippery street amid snowfall in Beijing, China on Dec 14, 2023. (Photo: REUTERS/Tingshu Wang) - 

BEIJING: A cold wave extended its grip over China on Friday (Dec 15) with temperatures plummeting to below freezing across most of the country, causing authorities to limit traffic flows on highways in several provinces after vehicles collided on icy patches.

Temperatures will drop to below minus 40 degrees Celsius in parts of the northeastern province of Heilongjiang and in the region of Xinjiang in the northwest, along with Inner Mongolia and the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai, according to forecasts from China's National Meteorological Centre.

The cold wave that began at the start of this week is moving through the country from north to south and is expected to drag temperatures lower into the weekend even as the Meteorological Centre says rain and snow will decrease.

The city of Yichun in Heilongjiang could see a January 1980 record of minus 47.9 degrees Celsius be broken early next week as severe weather conditions set in.

In Henan province, snowfall and icy roads along with heavy fog caused multiple accidents on several expressways leading to traffic controls.

Traffic authorities in Ningxia region said some of its highways have become unsafe and implemented temporary traffic measures as snow fell. Neighbouring Gansu also saw some highways closed and trains suspended, according to state media.

On Beijing's outskirts, authorities looking into an accident on a commuter rail line said a train carriage failed to brake while moving downhill, colliding with another car that had stopped because track conditions had deteriorated due to the snow.

Ferries and some buses were temporarily suspended early on Friday in Shanghai as the financial hub issued its first cold wave warning of the year as cold air from the north is forecast to reduce temperatures to as low as minus 6 degrees Celsius this weekend.

In the southwest, sections of many national and provincial highways in Tibetan cities such as Shigatse and Nyingchi were blocked due to snow, ice and low visibility as the skies have dumped snow since Monday.

The local government has mobilised 2,400 personnel, more than 3,300 metric tons of snow-melting agent, and more than 23,000 cubic meters of anti-skid materials for prevention measures. Photos from state media show tractors scooping up snow and people shovelling on roads against a backdrop of white mountains.

Beijing and the provinces of Jiangxi and Shanxi have also taken measures to secure vegetable and fruit harvests from freeze damage and diseases, state media said.

China lifted its warning for blizzards before dawn on Friday but said heavy snowfall is forecast in parts of Liaoning and Jilin provinces in the northeast as well as in Shandong.

In the city of Shenyang in Liaoning, authorities deployed 22,000 workers and more than 3,400 machines for snow removal operations, clearing as much as 12,800 cubic metres of snow by early Friday. Its observatory has forecast snowfall and strong winds until Saturday.

The national forecaster said the scope and intensity of freezing rain will decrease on Friday but will still appear in some higher terrains in Guizhou and Hunan.

Next week, cold air will continue to flow across the country from north to south, keeping temperatures low in central and eastern regions. Forecasters said most of the country will see lower-than-usual temperatures over the next ten days//CNA-VOI

Firefighters tackle fire in a field as forest fires ravage the Bolivian Amazon, in San Buenaventura, Bolivia on Nov 22, 2023. (Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Morales) - 

DUBAI: A deal for the world to transition away from fossil fuels was hailed as a historic achievement on Wednesday (Dec 13) at the UN climate summit in Dubai, but there's a good chance it won't achieve its ultimate goal - holding global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

For months, COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber had described that 1.5 degrees Celsius limit - first stated in the 2015 Paris Agreement - as his "North Star" or guiding principle for the summit.

Scientists say that a global temperature rise beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial average will trigger catastrophic and irreversible impacts, from melting ice sheets to the collapse of ocean currents.

But year after year, that target slips further away - with the world's planet-warming emissions still rising, and temperatures hitting new heights.

This year will be the hottest ever on record, with the global average for 2023 a sweltering 1.46 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

In terms of global warming, which is measured in terms of decades, the world has experienced nearly 1.2 degrees Celsius of warming.

The deal made in Dubai, called the UAE Consensus, would see the world commit to transitioning away from "fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner ... so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science."

But scientists said that, while the pact was unprecedented, it still wasn't enough for that outcome to be realized.

"It's a landmark result because it's the first time we've said we're going to reduce fossil fuel use," said James Dyke, an earth systems scientist at the University of Exeter in Britain.

"But you can forget about 1.5C."

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the main scientific body which informs the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, has said that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius with no or limited overshoot would require rapidly cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Specifically, the world needs to cut its emissions from 2019 levels by as much as 43 per cent in the next six years, 60 per cent by 2035 and reach net zero by 2050 in order to prevent compounding impacts, such as thawing permafrost which releases long-trapped greenhouse gases, triggering even more warming.

The IPCC declined to comment on the outcome of COP28.

The world posted record high greenhouse gas emissions in 2022, rising 1.2 per cent above 2021, according to the 2023 UN Emissions Gap Report.

The UAE Consensus does not commit the world to phasing out oil and gas, nor to near-term timelines for transitioning away from fossil fuels//CNA-VOI

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel pose for a picture during a European Union (EU) summi in Kyiv, Ukraine on Feb 3, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout) - 

BRUSSELS: European Union leaders unexpectedly agreed on Thursday (Dec 14) to open membership talks with Ukraine, something Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for weeks had vowed to block.

EU diplomats and officials said Orban agreed to leave the room, knowing the other leaders would go ahead and vote on Ukraine.

Orban confirmed that he had abstained from the vote at the EU summit on what he called a "bad decision".

Such an unusual way to approve a decision - especially such a major one - is unheard of in Brussels, even for a place where diplomats have long been very creative about how to strike deals.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the decision.

"This is a victory for Ukraine. A victory for all of Europe. A victory that motivates, inspires, and strengthens," he said.

Ukraine badly needs support from its Western allies in its nearly two-year fight against Russia's invasion. Its counter-offensive has failed to make major gains and the Biden administration has so far been unable to get a US$60 billion aid package for Ukraine through the US Congress.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said it was "a strategic decision and a day that will remain engraved in the history of our Union".

Orban had very different words to describe the decision.

"Hungary's stance is clear, Ukraine is not prepared for us to start talks on EU membership," he said, calling the decision to start talks "irrational" and "inappropriate."

"But 26 member states were adamant that this decision must be made so Hungary decided that if 26 decide so, they should go on their own path and Hungary does not wish to participate in this bad decision," he said//CNA-VOI