Indonesia, China seal $10bn in deals on President Prabowo’s first overseas trip

Special Indonesia, China seal $10bn in deals on President Prabowo’s first overseas trip
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, center, applauds after presiding over a signing ceremony of cooperation documents between Indonesia and China during the Indonesia-China Business Forum in Beijing, on Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo)
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Updated 10 November 2024
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Indonesia, China seal $10bn in deals on President Prabowo’s first overseas trip

Indonesia, China seal $10bn in deals on President Prabowo’s first overseas trip
  • China is Indonesia’s largest trading partner and source of $7bn worth of investment
  • Prabowo will continue his first overseas tour to US, South America, UK, Middle East

Jakarta: Indonesian and Chinese companies signed business agreements worth more than $10 billion on Sunday, as the two countries agreed to strengthen ties during a state visit by President Prabowo Subianto to Beijing.

Prabowo on Sunday wrapped up the first stop of his first overseas tour since taking office last month. After China, he will head to the US before making his way to South America for the APEC and G20 summits, which will be followed by trips to the UK and the Middle East.

He and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to deepen ties on Saturday, elevating security to a fifth “pillar” of cooperation, on top of political, economic, maritime and people-to-people exchange. The two countries will hold a first-ever joint meeting of their foreign and defense ministers next year, according to a joint statement.

“Indonesia and the People’s Republic of China are committed to strengthening our friendship and furthering the prosperity of our two nations,” Prabowo wrote on X on Sunday.

Before leaving Beijing for Washington, Indonesia’s new leader presided over a ceremony between the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and top Chinese corporations, during which they inked billions of dollars worth of deals on renewable energy, and health and food security, among other issues.

“The strong participation of Chinese businesses in Asia is an important element in close cooperation between our two countries. I have met the president and prime minister, where we agreed to continue this collaboration,” Prabowo said at the Indonesia-China Business Forum in Beijing, as reported by state news agency Antara.

“This is part of our synergy across all sectors, in education, business, industries, people-to-people … we are very optimistic about the prospects,” he added.

“We must give an example that in this modern age, collaboration — not confrontation — is the way for peace and prosperity.”

China, which was also Prabowo’s initial foreign destination as president-elect in April, is Indonesia’s biggest trading partner and the source of more than $7 billion of investment.

“The visit to China is significant because China currently supports Indonesia’s ambitious economic program through investment, including industrial downstreaming programs. China also supports various infrastructure projects … Prabowo has met Xi Jinping before and this visit strengthens the ties,” Dr. Ahmad Rizky Mardhatillah Umar, an Indonesian political researcher at the UK’s Aberystwyth University, told Arab News.

Economic and defense affairs appear to be a top priority for Prabowo for his overseas tour, which includes China and the US, the world’s two biggest economies.

“He's trying to balance and hedge between two sides,” Umar said. “He is trying to maximize economic benefits with China with trade and investment, and to bolster defense ties with the US for defense modernization.”

His choice of China as the first stop on his multi-country trip is likely a strategy to lure more investment from the US, said Teuku Rezasyah, an international relations expert from Padjadjaran University in West Java.

“This development will become an ammunition for Prabowo when he speaks with American businesses,” he said. “He’ll be able to say: If you want to make a comeback in Southeast Asia and be part of the economy, this is now the time.”

Prabowo is trying to establish his own legacy early on, Rezasyah added. Though the president has said he will continue the programs started by his predecessor, Joko Widodo, those are matters related to domestic affairs.

“He wants to give the international community some confidence that they’re dealing with the right person in their language because Prabowo speaks more than one international language,” Rezasyah said, referring to Prabowo’s ability to speak English, Dutch, French and German.

“So, he can easily convince the world.”


UK’s Royal Society to discuss fellows’ behaviors amid Musk controversy

UK’s Royal Society to discuss fellows’ behaviors amid Musk controversy
Updated 18 sec ago
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UK’s Royal Society to discuss fellows’ behaviors amid Musk controversy

UK’s Royal Society to discuss fellows’ behaviors amid Musk controversy

LONDON: The Royal Society scientific academy said it would hold a meeting to discuss principles around the public pronouncements and behaviors of its fellows after thousands of scientists expressed their concerns over Elon Musk’s continued membership.
Britain’s Royal Society began in 1660 and is the oldest national scientific academy. Its fellows have included Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
Musk was elected as a fellow in 2018 for his technological achievements in space travel and electric vehicles.
More than 2,000 scientists have now signed an open letter, written by structural biologist Stephen Curry, expressing dismay at what they described as “continued silence and apparent inaction” from the Royal Society over Musk’s fellowship.
They claim Musk’s behavior, such as embracing conspiracy theories, breach the Royal Society’s code of conduct.
“The situation is rendered more serious because Mr.Musk now occupies a position within a (Donald) Trump administration in the USA that has over the past several weeks engaged in an assault on scientific research,” the letter said.
The Telegraph newspaper said on Saturday the Royal Society had summoned its fellows to a meeting next month to vote on expelling Musk.
Asked about the Telegraph’s report, a spokesperson for the Royal Society said in a statement it was “holding a meeting of the fellows to discuss the principles around public pronouncements and behaviors of fellows.” The meeting will be take place on March 3.
“Any issues raised in respect of individual fellows are dealt with in strict confidence,” the spokesperson added, without naming Musk.


Trump moves with dizzying speed on his to-do list. But there are warning signs in his first month

Trump moves with dizzying speed on his to-do list. But there are warning signs in his first month
Updated 16 February 2025
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Trump moves with dizzying speed on his to-do list. But there are warning signs in his first month

Trump moves with dizzying speed on his to-do list. But there are warning signs in his first month
  • While Trump promised to turn Washington upside down, his moves could have far-reaching implications for thousands of federal employees around the country

WASHINGTON: As President Donald Trump approaches the first-month mark in his second term, he has moved with dizzying speed and blunt force to reorder American social and political norms and the economy while redefining the US role in the world.
At the same time, he has empowered Elon Musk, an unelected, South African-born billionaire, to help engineer the firing of thousands of federal employees and potentially shutter entire agencies created by Congress.
Those efforts have largely overshadowed Trump’s crackdowns on immigration and the US-Mexico border, and his efforts to remake social policy by wiping out diversity, equity and inclusion programs and rolling back transgender rights.
The president has also imposed scores of new tariffs against US trade partners and threatened more, even as economists warn that will pass costs on to US consumers and feed inflation.
Here’s a look at the first four weeks:
Mass federal firings begin
The Trump administration fired thousands of workers who were still in probationary periods common among new hires. Some had less than an hour to leave their offices.
Those potentially losing jobs include medical scientists, energy infrastructure specialists, foreign service employees, FBI agents, prosecutors, educational and farming data experts, overseas aid workers and even human resources personnel who would otherwise have to manage the dismissals.
At the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created to protect the public after the 2008 financial crisis, employees say the administration not only wants to cut nearly the entire workforce but also erase all its data from the past 12 years. The administration agreed to pause any further dismantling of the agency until March 3, under a judge’s order.
While Trump promised to turn Washington upside down, his moves could have far-reaching implications for thousands of federal employees around the country and drive up the unemployment rate if large numbers of layoffs happen at once.
Legal challenges mount
Court challenges to Trump’s policies started on Inauguration Day and have continued at a furious pace since Jan. 20. The administration is facing some 70 lawsuits nationwide challenging his executive orders and moves to downsize the federal government.
The Republican-controlled Congress is putting up little resistance, so the court system is ground zero for pushback. Judges have issued more than a dozen orders at least temporarily blocking aspects of Trump’s agenda, ranging from an executive order to end US citizenship extended automatically to people born in this country to giving Musk’s team access to sensitive federal data.
While many of those judges were nominated by Democratic presidents, Trump has gotten unfavorable rulings from judges picked by Republican presidents, too. Trump suggested he could target the judiciary, saying, “Maybe we have to look at the judges.” The administration has said in the meantime that it will appeal, while White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt railed against the orders slowing the president’s agenda, calling each “an abuse of the rule of law.”
The administration has notched a few wins, too, most significantly when a judge allowed it to move forward with a deferred resignation program spearheaded by Musk.
The economic outlook worsens
Amid the policy upheaval, the latest economic data could prompt some White House worries.
Inflation rose at a monthly rate of 0.5 percent in January, according to the Labor Department. Over the past three months, the consumer price index has increased at an annual rate of 4.5 percent — a sign that inflation is heating up again after having cooled for much of 2024.
Trump told voters he could lower inflation, and do so almost immediately after taking office. But Leavitt, while blaming Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, acknowledged the latest inflation indicators were “worse than expected.”
More trouble signs came when the Commerce Department reported that retail sales slumped 0.9 percent on a monthly basis in January. A drop that large could signal a weakening in consumer confidence and economic growth.
The Federal Reserve’s report on industrial production also found that factory output slipped 0.1 percent in January, largely due to a 5.2 percent drop in the making of motor vehicles and parts.
These could all be blips, which means the monthly data in February will really matter.
The ‘fair trade’ Trump wants isn’t necessarily fair
After previously imposing tariffs on China and readying import taxes on Canada and Mexico, Trump rolled out what he called the “big one.” He said his administration would put together new tariffs in the coming weeks and months to match what other countries charge.
Other nations hardly find Trump’s approach fair.
From their vantage point, he is including items other than tariffs such as value added taxes, which are akin to sales taxes. That means the rates could be much higher than a standard tariff in Europe.
On top of that, Trump plans separate additional tariffs on autos, computer chips and pharmaceuticals, in addition to the 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum that he announced on Monday.
It is not clear whether these trade penalties are mainly negotiating tools or ways for Trump to raise revenues. So far, he has suggested that they are both.
Congress watches its authority erode. But there are signs of pushback
Congress finds itself confounded by the onslaught as its institutional power — as the Constitution’s first branch of government with its unmatched authority over federal spending — is being eroded in real time.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said he finds the work of Musk’s team “very exciting.” Johnson said Trump is “taking legitimate executive action.”
But even among congressional Republicans there were small signs of protest emerging — letters being written and phone calls being made — to protect their home-state interests and constituents as funding for programs, services and government contracts is being dismantled.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., urged the Homeland Security Department not to issue blanket deportations for Venezuelan migrants who fled their country and now call the Miami-area home. “I’m not powerless. I’m a member of Congress,” he said.
Democratic lawmakers have joined protesters outside shuttered federal offices, arguing Trump and Musk had gone too far. Democrats suggested legislation to protect various programs, and even filed articles of impeachment against the president over his plans to bulldoze and redevelop Gaza.
Trump wants a new world order
With his phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin this past week, Trump is hoping he initiated the beginning of the end of the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.
The leaders agreed to have their teams “start negotiations immediately.” After getting off the phone with Putin, Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss getting both sides to the negotiating table.
The Putin call is a monumental development in a war that has left hundreds of thousands dead or seriously wounded.
But the way ahead remains complicated.
Zelensky said he will not meet with Putin until a plan for peace is hammered out by Trump. Trump has gotten blowback when European leaders sharply criticized him and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for suggesting that NATO membership was not in the cards for Ukraine.
The White House faces a further quandary with Zelensky wanting the US and other countries to provide security guarantees for Ukraine, and Zelensky insisting that he and Trump iron out an agreement on the contours of any peace deal.


Thousands of pro-Palestinians march in UK against Trump’s Gaza plan

Thousands of pro-Palestinians march in UK against Trump’s Gaza plan
Updated 54 min 7 sec ago
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Thousands of pro-Palestinians march in UK against Trump’s Gaza plan

Thousands of pro-Palestinians march in UK against Trump’s Gaza plan
  • Protesters held banners that read, “Stand up to Trump” and “Mr Trump, Canada is not your 51st state. Gaza is not your 52nd”

LONDON: Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London to the United States embassy on Saturday to protest against President Donald Trump’s proposal that the US “take over” Gaza.
Waving Palestinian flags and placards saying “Hands off Gaza,” several thousand people walked from Whitehall in Westminster over the River Thames to the embassy in Nine Elms.
Earlier this month, Trump stunned the world when he suggested the US could redevelop the war-ravaged Gaza Strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
His proposal envisages resettling Palestinians elsewhere, with no plan for them ever to return.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators wearing ultra-Orthodox Jewish clothing participate in a march in opposition to U.S President Donald Trump's plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza and "take over" the territory, in London, Britain February 15, 2025. (REUTERS)

Other western leaders and the Arab world have widely condemned the idea.
Protesters held banners that read, “Stand up to Trump” and “Mr Trump, Canada is not your 51st state. Gaza is not your 52nd.”
“I think it’s completely immoral and illegal and also impractical and absurd,” 87-year-old Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos told AFP.
“You simply cannot deport two million people, especially that the surrounding countries already said that they wouldn’t take them, not out of the goodness of their heart but because it would destabilize those countries.
“So it’s not going to happen but it does a lot of damage simply stating that as an endgame,” he added.
The march, organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), was the 24th major pro-Palestinian protest in Britain’s capital since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
A heavy police presence was deployed as officers kept protesters away from a counter-march called “Stop the Hate,” where participants waved Israeli flags.
Hamas’s attack resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,264 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
On Saturday, Hamas released three Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian inmates freed by Israel, completing the latest swap of a fragile Gaza truce deal.
 

 


Syrian stabs passersby in Austrian town, killing one, police say

Syrian stabs passersby in Austrian town, killing one, police say
Updated 15 February 2025
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Syrian stabs passersby in Austrian town, killing one, police say

Syrian stabs passersby in Austrian town, killing one, police say
  • Further details, such as whether the attacker knew any of the victims, remained unclear
  • The injured were aged between 14 and 32

ZURICH: A 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker stabbed several passersby in the center of the Austrian town of Villach on Saturday, killing a 14-year old boy and injuring four other people, police said, adding that the suspected attacker had been arrested.
Further details, such as whether the attacker knew any of the victims, remained unclear, a spokesperson for the police in the southern state of Carinthia, Rainer Dionisio, said. The injured were aged between 14 and 32, he added.
Such attacks are extremely rare in Austria. A jihadist killed four people in Vienna in a shooting rampage in 2020 that was the country’s deadliest assault in decades.
Villach is known for its carnival and is in an area that is a tourist hotspot in the summer as it includes one of Austria’s most famous lakes but otherwise attracts little attention.
“I have been in the (Carinthian police) press service for 20 years and cannot recall such an act,” Dionisio told national broadcaster ORF.
A man whom Austrian media described as a Syrian food delivery driver charged into the attacker with his car and prevented him from harming more people, Dionisio said.
The attack comes at a time of political upheaval in Austria as the far-right Freedom Party, which came first in September’s parliamentary election, said on Wednesday it had failed to form a coalition government. The president is now considering whether an alternative to a snap election is available.
Railing against illegal immigration and pledging to increase deportations to countries like Syria and Afghanistan, which it is currently illegal to deport people to, are central to the Freedom Party’s platform and appeal, and the party quickly seized on the Villach attack.
“We need a rigorous crackdown on asylum and cannot continue to import conditions like those in Villach,” Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl said in a statement.


15 dead in India stampede to catch trains to Hindu mega-festival

15 dead in India stampede to catch trains to Hindu mega-festival
Updated 15 February 2025
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15 dead in India stampede to catch trains to Hindu mega-festival

15 dead in India stampede to catch trains to Hindu mega-festival
  • The rush at the train station in New Delhi appeared to break out Saturday as crowds struggled to board trains for the ongoing event
  • “I can confirm 15 deaths at the hospital. They don’t have any open injury. Most (likely died from) hypoxia,” Dr. Ritu Saxena said

NEW DEHI: At least 15 people died during a stampede at a railway station in India’s capital late Saturday when surging crowds scrambled to catch trains to the world’s largest religious gathering, a medical official told AFP.
The Kumbh Mela attracts tens of millions of Hindu faithful every 12 years to the northern city of Prayagraj, and has a history of crowd-related disasters — including one last month, when at least 30 people died in another stampede at the holy confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers.
The rush at the train station in New Delhi appeared to break out Saturday as crowds struggled to board trains for the ongoing event, which will end on February 26.
“I can confirm 15 deaths at the hospital. They don’t have any open injury. Most (likely died from) hypoxia or maybe some blunt injury but that would only be confirmed after an autopsy,” Dr. Ritu Saxena, deputy medical superintendent of Lok Nayak Hospital in New Delhi to AFP.
“There are also 11 others who are injured. Most of them are stable and have orthopaedic injuries,” she said.
Defense minister Rajnath Singh said he was “extremely pained by the loss of lives due to stampede” at the New Delhi railway station.
“In this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the bereaved families. Praying for the speedy of the injured,” Singh said in a social media post.
The governor of the capital, Vinai Kumar Saxena said disaster management personnel had been told to deploy and “all hospitals are in readiness to address related exigencies.”
Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said additional special trains were being run from the New Delhi to clear the rush of devotees.
The six-week Kumbh Mela is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, and officials said around 500 million devotees have already visited the festival since it began last month.
More than 400 people died after they were trampled or drowned on a single day of the festival in 1954, one of the largest tolls in a crowd-related disaster globally.
Another 36 people were crushed to death in 2013, the last time the festival was staged in Prayagraj.