VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

WASHINGTON - US Vice President Mike Pence told reporters that he was planning a meeting with the cruise industry representatives to discuss later this week consequences of a coronavirus outbreak.
"There are unique challenges… in a closed environment of a cruise liner. We are going to talk about best practices​​​. I thought it was time to spend some time with the people in that industry as we are meeting with others in industries around the country," Pence said during a White House briefing on Wednesday.
Pence was appointed to coordinate US administration efforts to combat the disease that has already killed 11 Americans.
The meeting with the cruise industry companies is expected to take place on Saturday in Florida. Pence wants to discuss the Diamond Princess case – a cruise liner placed on a lengthy quarantine in Japan with over 700 coronavirus patients on board.
The meeting in Florida will be preceded by Pence’s visits to 3M chemical company in Minnesota, a top contractor to manufacture millions of face masks for medics, and to the state of Washington, the locality worst hit by the coronavirus in the United States. (Sputnik)

OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia needs oil to fetch around $80 a barrel to balance its state budget while cartel ally Russia needs much lower prices of around $42 per barrel [File: Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters]

VIENNA – The OPEC and the group of non-OPEC countries, which are part of the oil production cut deal, over the next two days will come up with a response to the outbreak of the new coronavirus that has brought the oil prices down.
On Thursday, the 178th (Extraordinary) Meeting of the OPEC member states will be held in Vienna, while on Friday a meeting of the OPEC+ group, which includes major oil producers such as Russia and Mexico, will take place in the Austrian capital. The participants will decide whether to extend the existing caps on oil production and if additional cuts are needed in order to boost oil prices or at least keep them at a certain level profitable for the energy producers​​​.
The OPEC+ Technical Committee, which convened on Tuesday, has reportedly recommended introducing extra cuts of between 600,000–1 million barrels per day (bpd). On the next day, it was followed by a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), tasked with assessing the oil output cut deal’s implementation and providing recommendations to keep the market balanced. Even though the final JMMC’s recommendations have not been disclosed yet, a source told Sputnik that the ministers had discussed the option of cutting the production by up to 1.5 million barrels per day on top of the existing cap of 1.7 million bpd. 
Oil producers are gravely alarmed by the outbreak of the new coronavirus as it sparked expectations of a slowdown in oil demand. As a result, Brent futures fell from a peak of $71.75 per barrel in January to a 32-month low of $48.41 per barrel on Monday. On February 12, OPEC downgraded its 2020 global oil demand growth forecast by almost 20 percent to 990,000 barrels per day.
Reaching a final decision on reducing oil production is likely to be an uneasy job for the OPEC+. The signs of internal disagreements first emerged in late January, when it was reported that some members were pushing for an earlier OPEC+ meeting in light of the coronavirus. However, it was ultimately decided to stick to the initial schedule of March 5-6. 
Saudi Arabia, a leader of the oil cartel, is reportedly in favor of reducing production by more than 1 million barrels per day as the country’s economy and state budget heavily rely on the oil prices. Russia, on the contrary, as a principal non-OPEC country, is believed to be satisfied with oil trading at some $40 to $50 per barrel as it does now.
Many experts have claimed that the Russian-Saudi relations suffered a breakdown, but Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak dismissed the claims and said that Moscow and Riyadh “have never had these differences.”
A source in the Russian delegation told Sputnik that at the JMMC meeting, Moscow proposed to extend the OPEC+ oil production cuts deal beyond June, without any additional caps for the second quarter of the year. After that, the Russian energy minister was seen leaving the OPEC headquarters while the meeting was still ongoing. However, he is expected to return Friday for the OPEC+ Ministerial Meeting.
NO HANDSHAKES AND HUGS
As the number of coronavirus infections continues to grow worldwide, OPEC had to introduce strict safety measures for this week’s meetings. First, the cartel has barred all journalists from entering the OPEC headquarters during the events. As a result, media professionals had to hunt down the energy officials at the entrance to the building, but the cartel was kind enough to provide some food and hot drinks to the journalists.
All participants of the JMMC meeting on Wednesday were screened for high temperature upon arrival, including the ministers themselves. The cartel has also installed a banner at the entrance calling on the visitors to “avoid handshakes and hugs.”
A video posted by OPEC on Twitter depicts the Cartel’s Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo jokingly greeting the Russian energy minister with “a leg”  shake even though both of them were seen doing a handshake the same day. (Sputnik)

The World Meteorological Organization Statement on the State of the Climate in 2019 will be released on Tuesday 10 March 2020 at a press conference with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas at United Nations headquarters, New York. This key UN multi-agency statement provides authoritative information on climate indicators and extreme weather, as well as impacts on socio-economic development, human health, migration and displacement, food security and land and marine ecosystems. It is based on contributions from national meteorological and hydrological services, leading international experts, scientific institutions and United Nations agencies. It is the twenty-sixth WMO Statement on the State of the Global Climate. The annual report was first issued in 1993. The 2019 edition marks sustained international efforts dedicated to measuring, analyzing and understanding the year to year variations and long-term trends of our changing climate.The report informs Member States, the United Nations system and decision-makers about the status of the climate system. It complements the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reporting cycle in producing updated information for the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) and other climate policy frameworks. It elaborates on information contained in a Provisional Statement issued at the UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid on 3 December 2019//NK(PR)

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will discuss next steps to take in Syrian Idlib to prevent crisis. It was stated by Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov Wednesday. The two leaders are set to meet in Moscow on Thursday. Peskov told reporters the plans are to discuss the crisis in Idlib​​​. He added the expectations are to reach understanding about what led to the crisis, the reasons for this crisis, the harmful impact of this crisis and a set of necessary joint steps to further prevention. (Sputnik)