VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOInews, Jakarta: A total of 288 Indonesian Scouts participated in the 5th Brunei Darussalam Scout National Jamboree on December 2-7, 2023 at the Royal Grand Stand, Community Hall, Bukit Bendera, Tutong, Brunei Darussalam.

Indonesian Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam Ahmad Ubaedillah said the involvement of the Indonesian Scout contingent in the event could promote a positive image of Indonesia.

"The presence of a contingent of 288 Indonesian Scouts in this year's Brunei Jamboree shows that the Indonesian Scouts are also active in promoting Indonesia's positive image, as part of Indonesia's soft diplomacy efforts abroad," Ambassador Ubaedillah said in a statement received on Monday (11/12/2023) in Jakarta.

The 5th Brunei National Jamboree was attended by more than 800 participants from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The Indonesian Scout contingent was the largest participant, after the host Brunei Scouts, and was led by Contingent Chairman Mohammad Laiyin Nento, the National Trustee or Secretary of the Foreign Cooperation Commission of the Indonesian National Scout Movement.

The Indonesian Scout contingent came from, among others, the Regional Quarters of Jakarta, West Java, Lampung, South Sumatra, East Java, West Kalimantan, and Central Kalimantan.

The organization of the 5th Jamboree coincided with the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Brunei Darussalam Pengakap (Scouts) in 1933 in Tutong. As agreed, the next Jamboree will be held in Malaysia (6th), which will then be continued in Singapore (7th) and in Indonesia (8th).

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called Italy's joining of the Chinese Belt and Road initiative a ''mistake". (Photo: AFP/Kenzo Tribouillard) - 

Voinews, Jakarta - Italy has formally withdrawn from China’s global Belt and Road initiative that seeks to deepen relations with foreign countries through infrastructure investments, Italian media reported on Wednesday (Dec 6).

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni had previously signalled Italy's intention to withdraw from the agreement, which was up for renewal. The Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that a letter with the formal notice had been delivered to Beijing in recent days. Meloni’s office declined to comment on the report.

Italy became the first G7 country to sign on to the initiative in 2019, when the populist, anti-establishment Five Star Movement party-led government promoted it as a way of increasing trade with China while getting investments in major infrastructure projects.

Neither appeared. In the intervening years, Italy’s trade deficit with China has ballooned from €20 billion to €48 billion. Investments in Italian ports that were trumpeted in newspaper headlines were never achieved.

Meloni, in opposition at the time, was against the deal from the start. Her foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said this summer that Italy had not “obtained great results” from the pact.

Analysts said Italy had little incentive to continue in the pact, and that China can fall back on the face-saving narrative that Italy dropped out under US pressure.

The initiative involves Chinese companies building transportation, energy and other infrastructure overseas funded by Chinese development bank loans.

It has built power plants, roads, railroads and ports around the world and deepened China’s relations with Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Mideast. It is a major part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s push for China to play a larger role in global affairs.

More than 150 countries have signed Belt and Road agreements with China//CNA-VOI

Wavel Ramkalawan President of Seychelles addresses the 78th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, US, Sep 20, 2023. (File photo: REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs) - 

Voinews, Jakarta - A blast at an explosives store wrecked buildings and caused "massive damage" to an industrial zone on the Seychelles' main island Mahe, officials said, prompting the president to declare a state of emergency on Thursday (Dec 7).

The blast shook the island as heavy rains triggered flooding which killed at least two people, authorities said.

Footage broadcast on national television showed streets covered in deep mud and strewn with debris and uprooted trees.

"Following an explosion at the CCCL explosives store that has caused massive damage to the Providence Industrial area and the surrounding areas and major destruction caused by flooding due to heavy rains, the President has declared a State of Emergency for today the 7th December," President Wavel Ramkalawan's office said in a statement.

"Everyone is being asked to stay at home. All schools will be closed. Only workers in the essential services and persons travelling will be allowed free movement."

A public radio station reported that two people were killed and one injured by floods overnight on Mahe.

The government's official Visit Seychelles account on X said the international airport and ferries between its islands remained operational for tourists.

The Seychelles, a major tourist destination, is made up of 115 islands and is the least populous country in Africa with about 100,000 people//CNA-VOI

FILE PHOTO: Signage is seen for the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), the UK's financial regulatory body, at their head offices in London, Britain March 10, 2022. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo - 

Britain's banks and building societies should make sure customers can still access cash before closing a branch as more financial services move online, the country's markets regulator proposed on Thursday.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it was using powers under a new financial services law approved earlier this year to require banks, such as Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and NatWest to undertake "cash access assessments" when they are considering closing a branch.

Britain is also likely to issue a digital version of the pound in the second half of the decade, raising fears that cash will be even harder to use as some shops already insist on cards for payments.

"We know that, while there is an increasing shift to digital payments, over 3 million consumers still rely on cash – particularly people who may be vulnerable – as well as many small businesses," said Sheldon Mills, the FCA's executive director of consumers and competition.

"These proposals set out how banks and building societies will need to assess and plug gaps in local cash provision. This will help manage the pace of change and ensure that people can continue to access cash if they need it," Mills said.

In the first quarter of this year, 95.1 per cent of the UK population was within a mile of a free-to-use cash withdrawal point, the FCA said.

Separately, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said on Thursday that last year cash was used for 19 per cent of purchases at its members, who are mostly large chains that account for just over a third of UK retail spending.

The proportion of cash transactions rose last year for the first time in a decade, after falling to a low of 15 per cent in 2021 when pandemic restrictions encouraging the use of contactless card payments were still in place, the BRC said.

The FCA said that existing law allowed retailers to decide whether to accept cash or not, and that it would finalise its new rules by the third quarter of 2024//CNA - VOI