Gunung Lewotobi Erupsi - Pengungsian disiapkan untuk 10 ribu korban

Sejumlah tempat pengungsian mulai disiapkan petugas untuk menampung sedikitnya 10.295 jiwa korban yang dilaporkan terdampak erupsi Gunung Lewotobi Laki-Laki di Flores Timur, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Senin pagi.

Kepala Pusat Pengendalian Operasi Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Nasional (BNPB) Bambang Surya Putra dalam laporan yang diterima di Jakarta, mengatakan bahwa sementara ini tercatat total ada sebanyak 2.735 keluarga atau 10.295 jiwa yang terdampak erupsi Gunung Lewotobi Laki-laki.

Petugas Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah (BPBD) Flores Timur mengkonfirmasi gedung sekolahan menjadi salah satu tempat pengungsian darurat yang disiapkan petugas gabungan, sebagaimana yang ada di Desa Lewolaga, Kecamatan Titehena.

Dari jumlah total korban terdampak ada sebanyak 207 keluarga atau 816 orang warga terdampak erupsi dari Desa Dulipali, Nobo, Nurabelen, dan Riang Rita Kecamatan Ile Bura. Korban terdampak erupsi dari Desa Dulipali saat ini disebut sedang dievakuasi menuju lokasi pengungsian di gedung sekolah di Desa Lewolaga itu.

Sebanyak 9.479 orang warga dari Desa Pululera, Nawakote, Hokeng Jaya, Boru, dan Boru Kedang di Kecamatan Wulanggitang. Selanjutnya Desa Konga, Kobasoma, Bokang, Wolomatang dan Watowara di Kecamatan Titehena.

Sementara ini menurut keterangan warga dilaporkan ada 10 orang yang meninggal dunia, delapan di antaranya merupakan warga Kecamatan Wulanggitang.

Namun belum ada laporan resmi terkait jumlah korban beserta statusnya, atau dampak kerusakan akibat erupsi Gunung Lewotobi Laki-Laki mengingat petugas gabungan masih melakukan pendataan di lapangan, untuk selanjutnya akan segera diumumkan BNPB.

Gunung Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupsi pada Senin pagi ini pukul 02.48 WITA. Erupsi tersebut terekam di seismogram dengan amplitudo maksimum 17 milimeter dan durasi kurang lebih tiga menit lima detik.

Batas zona bahaya untuk aktivitas masyarakat berada pada radius tujuh kilometer dari puncak Gunung Lewotobi Laki-Laki yang statusnya kini diumumkan meningkat dari level III menjadi level IV (Awas) oleh Badan Geologi Kementerian Energi dan Sumber Daya Mineral.

Badan Geologi secara rinci menjabarkan bahwa aktivitas vulkanik di Gunung Lewotobi meningkat secara signifikan dalam beberapa pekan terakhir, sebelumnya pada Jumat (1/11) terjadi erupsi dengan tinggi kolom erupsi mencapai 1.500-2.000 meter di puncak. Pada periode ini juga terekam gempa getaran banjir yang terjadi di Desa Dulipali, Kecamatan Ile Bura, Flores Timur.

Petugas Pos Pengamatan Gunung Api Badan Geologi di Desa Pululera, Kecamatan Walanggitang mendapati adanya tumpukan material lava pada bagian timur laut yang pergerakannya sangat lambat, dari citra satelit Sentinel 2 juga terlihat material yang berpotensi menjadi lahar di area utara dan timur kawah Gunung Lewotobi Laki-Laki.

Bahkan terbaru hasil pengukuran petugas menggunakan drone tercatat jarak aliran lava berada di sekitar 4,3 kilometer dari pusat kawah gunung api itu. Pengaruh kemiringan lereng dan suhu lava yang masih tinggi memungkinkan lava dapat bergerak meskipun sangat perlahan.

Di saat yang sama juga tercatat kenaikan gempa vulkanik dalam dan dangkal, yakni sebanyak 119 kali gempa vulkanik dalam, 19 gempa vulkanik dangkal dan 6 kali gempa tremor harmonik yang berlanjut sampai Sabtu (2/11). Sebelumnya jumlah vulkanik dalam rata-rata 10-12 kali dalam sehari. Gempa frekuensi rendah masih terekam pada periode ini mengindikasikan adanya aliran magma menuju permukaan.

Masyarakat yang berada di radius tujuh kilometer atau lebih dekat, juga patut mewaspadai potensi banjir lahar dingin pada sungai-sungai yang berhulu di puncak Gunung Lewotobi Laki-Laki, jika terjadi hujan dengan intensitas tinggi terutama daerah Desa Dulipali, Padang Pasir dan Nobo.

Pendaki Gunung Dukono di Halmahera Utara lari berhamburan saat erupsi

Sebuah video yang memperlihatkan pendaki lari berhamburan dari puncak saat Gunung Dukono meletus pada Sabtu (17/8) viral di media sosial. Pemerintah Kabupaten Halmahera Utara, Maluku Utara telah mengeluarkan larangan bagi warga untuk mendaki gunung setinggi 1.335 meter di atas permukaan laut itu, karena masih berstatus waspada atau level II. (Harmoko Minggu/Rayyan/Rijalul Vikry)Pewarta : Harmoko-Antara News

French-made howitzer destroyed by Russia kamikaze drone – Video

The Russian military has destroyed a French-made Caesar self-propelled artillery system in Ukraine, the Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

The artillery piece was discovered at its firing position in an unspecified location in Ukraine’s Sumy Region, according to the Russian military. Thermal drone footage released by the Defense Ministry shows the howitzer firing a shot while parked on a dirt road by a wooded area.

The howitzer rears into the shrubbery immediately after firing, yet ends up hit by a Lancet-family drone. The artillery piece appeared to sustain a direct hit and was destroyed with a powerful explosion observed at the site.

Over the past few weeks, multiple French-made Caesar howitzers, as well as other similar mobile artillery systems, have been destroyed by the Russian military in Sumy Region. Kiev has deployed the systems into the area to provide fire support to its forces operating in the adjacent Russian Kursk Region, invaded by Ukraine in early August.

The Russian military’s concentrated effort to hunt for the systems has seen it deploy surveillance drones to find the artillery, using various means to destroy it, including medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) strike drones, ballistic missiles and the Lancet loitering munitions.

The latter family of drones has become one of the key medium-range tools in the Russian arsenal amid the conflict, with the Lancets repeatedly used to take out Ukrainian high-value assets, such as mobile and towed artillery, anti-aircraft, radar and other systems.

$20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Google fine ‘symbolic’ – Kremlin

©Getty Images/400tmax

The staggering fine of $20 decillion Google now owes to Russian broadcasters who were banned from YouTube is “symbolic” and intended to push the company to rectify the issues it has with them, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

The eye-watering sum is supposed to make the company “pay attention” to the problem and fix it, Peskov suggested on Thursday.

“This is a specifically formulated sum, I actually can’t even pronounce this figure, but it is rather filled with symbolism,” he said, explaining that Google “should not limit the actions of our broadcasters on a whim.”

The colossal figure was first reported by RBK news outlet on Tuesday and stems from a series of lawsuits filed against Google by 17 Russian broadcasters which accused the tech giant of unlawfully blocking content and taking down their YouTube channels.

Back in October 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court ordered Google to restore YouTube access to the blocked Russian channels, placing a compounding penalty of 100,000 rubles per day ($1,028) for non-compliance on the company. The penalty doubles every week, according to the court’s ruling. With no cap imposed on the fine, it has now reached the $20.6 decillion mark and is set to grow even further.

The dispute between the tech giant and Russian broadcasters dates back to 2020, when the company took down the YouTube channels of Tsargrad TV and RIA news agency, citing US sanctions against their owners.

Things got worse for Russian outlets after the conflict between Moscow and Kiev escalated in February 2022, with dozens of other news channels blocked on the platform, including those of RT and Sputnik. A number of broadcasters subsequently sued the tech giant, winning the case in the Moscow Arbitration Court.

What’s the Beef About?

17 Russian television channels’ compensatory demands toward Google have reached 2 undecillian rubles (a 2 followed by 36 zeros), equivalent to about 20 decillion dollars (or $20,560,840,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to be exact). Here's what they want from the American tech giant.

The channels’ beef with Google relates to the blocking of their YouTube accounts, with the case affecting federal television channels, including Channel One, Russia 1, Russia 24, the Defense Ministry’s Zvezda TV, as well as smaller channels, from Parliamentary Television and Moscow Media to TV-Center, NTV, 360 TV, the Orthodox Television Foundation, the National Sports Channel and the personal channel of Sputnik and RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.

A Russian court previously ordered Google to restore media companies' channels, ruling that if this is not done in a nine-month period, a fine of 100,000 rubles ($1,030 US) would be slapped on the company daily, and double every week until Google complied, with no limit on the total fine.

Russian media first started a series of legal battles with Google in 2020, after YouTube blocked the accounts of Tsargrad TV and RIA Fan over alleged “sanctions legislation and trade rules”-related violations. Tsargrad took Google to court, with a judge ordering the company to unblock the account or face escalating fines.

In 2022 and the start of the conflict in Ukraine, YouTube blocked Sputnik, RT, NTV and Rossiya 24’s accounts, followed by others, prompting Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service to slap Google with 4 billion rubles ($41.1 million US) in fines.

In June of 2022, Google’s Russia-based entity filed for bankruptcy, citing debts in excess of 19 billion rubles and assets of only 3.5 billion rubles. A court declared the subsidiary bankrupt in late 2023.

The affected Russian media channels have also taken Google to court in other countries to enforce Russian court decisions. In June 2024, the High Court of South Africa granted a Russian request to seize Google’s assets in that country. Google shot back in August with lawsuits in US and British courts against Russian media to try to block them from initiating further legal proceedings outside Russia.

Fun fact: Google's name itself is a reference to an astronomically large figure - a googol, which is a 1 followed by 100 zeros.

Google parent company Alphabet confirmed in a Q2 2024 earnings report that it’s facing “ongoing” legal issues relating to Russia, assuring shareholders this would not significantly affect their business.

Putin says claims he won’t speak to Western leaders are ‘lies’

FILE PHOTO: Attendees of the BRICS Summit in Kazan pose for a group photo.
©Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected claims that he deliberately avoids talking with Western leaders, insisting that Moscow remains open to negotiations.

Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in the Russian city of Kazan on Thursday, Putin stated that Moscow “never shunned contacts.”

“When we hear… that I avoid talking to some European leaders, let me tell you: that is a lie,” he said.

“We did not reject and are not rejecting anything. If somebody wants to renew relations with us, they are welcome. We reiterated that, but we do not impose ourselves,” Putin added.

The remarks came in response to a question on whether the Russian leader missed talking to his Western counterparts and was feeling isolated.

Most contact between the West and Russia was cut following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. The US and its allies have touted this as evidence that Moscow is “isolated” internationally over its role in the hostilities.

Some Western leaders have expressed willingness to engage diplomatically with Russia and Putin personally, including French President Emmanuel Macron last year and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz earlier this month.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a noted critic of the Western approach to Russia, has dissented from the informal boycott. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government has adopted a mediation role during the crisis, represented his nation at the BRICS Summit in Kazan, the only NATO member to do so. The event was also attended by senior officials from dozens of other countries.

The issue of contact with Putin has also been raised during the ongoing US presidential campaign. A book by American journalist Bob Woodward that hit the shelves this month alleged that former President Donald Trump secretly had multiple private phone calls with the Russian leader after leaving office. Putin and the Republican candidate himself have denied the claims.

Trump has alleged on the campaign trail that he at one point threatened to strike Moscow during talks with Putin regarding the Ukraine conflict. The Russian president said on Thursday that he did not recall such a conversation, and suggested that claims of his supposed contact with Trump were merely part of the discredited ‘Russiagate’ narrative.

After winning the 2016 election, Trump was accused of having “colluded” with Moscow to achieve victory, although a lengthy probe by US special counsel Robert Mueller failed to produce evidence of any such a scheme.

Countries lining up to join BRICS – Putin

©Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev

The number of countries engaging with the BRICS group has been growing, with some 30 nations showing interest in cooperating with it in some form, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, stressing that the group is not an “anti-Western” organization.

The president made the remarks on Friday during a meeting with leading reporters from BRICS nations. Collectively, the group already incorporates some 45% of the world population, while its trade turnover and share in the global economy has been growing steadily, Putin noted.

“Our group is expanding. The number of friends and like-minded people within the BRICS association has increased, and interest in the association’s activities is very high,” the Russian president said.

“To date, some 30 countries have expressed their desire to cooperate with BRICS to one degree or another, to join the activities of the organization in one way or another,” Putin added.

The group should not be perceived as a bloc of any kind, Putin stressed, explaining that the nature of BRICS makes it globally beneficial, and not just for its own participants.

“We are not building some bloc directed against someone’s interests. This is not such an organization. And in this sense, it has a universal character and, in my opinion, will have a beneficial effect on world affairs as a whole, including the world economy,” Putin said.

The Russian president also rejected assertions that BRICS is somehow geared against the collective West.

BRICS is not an anti-Western association. It’s simply non-Western.

The prospects of further expansion of BRICS must be carefully assessed by its standing members and a solid consensus on the matter must be reached, Putin said. While potentially growing in numbers, the group must remain multilateral and keep its current efficiency, he explained.

“By increasing the number of the organization’s members, we should not reduce the effectiveness of the whole structure to a minimum,” Putin cautioned.

Russian military liberates more areas in Kursk Region – VIDEO

FILE PHOTO.
©Sputnik/Konstantin Mikhalchevsky

Russian troops have liberated two villages in Kursk Region, the Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday.

Ukrainian forces have been expelled from Novaya Sorochina, 15km north of the town of Sudzha. Russian troops have also retaken Nikolsky, a small populated area in the southwest of the Ukraine-controlled pocket of Kursk Region.

The Defense Ministry shared footage from Nikolsky, showing assault groups advancing on the area in BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles.

The Ukrainian personnel were pushed back from their positions, and retreated in disarray, the ministry said.

Kiev launched its incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region in early August, seizing the town of Sudzha and several nearby villages. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has claimed the operation was part of a “victory plan,” intended to strengthen Kiev’s hand in potential talks with Moscow.

The Ukrainian attack on Kursk lost its momentum in a matter of days, and the situation turned into a weeks-long stalemate. Since mid-September, the Russian military has been conducting counteroffensive operations, and has regained control over multiple towns and villages.

According to Russian estimates, Ukraine has lost 21,350 troops, killed or wounded, while sustaining heavy materiel losses in the offensive. Up to 136 tanks, 66 infantry armored vehicles, 98 armored personnel carriers, and nearly 900 other Ukrainian armored vehicles, have been destroyed during the hostilities in Kursk Region.

Ukraine is receiving chemical weapons from the West – Moscow

The collective West has been facilitating the supply of banned toxic chemicals to Kiev to be used as chemical weaponry on the frontlines, the Russian Embassy in the UK has said.

FILE PHOTO.
©GettyImages/abile

The mission made the remarks on Tuesday, responding to a new round of sanctions imposed by London. The restrictions target Russia’s Radiological Chemical and Biological Defense Forces (RChBZ) and its head, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, with the British government accusing Moscow of “flagrant violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).”

The mission strongly rejected the accusations, pointing out that Moscow destroyed its chemical arsenal years ago, with the process overseen by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

“Russia strictly adheres to the norms of international law, including the provisions of the Geneva Conventions and the Chemical Weapons Convention. There are no chemical weapons in the arsenals of our Armed Forces, which has been confirmed by international inspections,” the mission said.

In reality, London’s accusations were intended to divert attention from the numerous instances of use of chemical weapons by Kiev’s forces during the conflict against Moscow, the embassy suggested.

“By groundlessly accusing Russia, they are keeping silent confirmed facts of the use of prohibited toxic substances and chemical agents by the Kiev regime forces,” it stated, accusing the collective West of facilitating the supply of such toxins to Ukrainian troops.

There is irrefutable evidence that toxic chemicals, among other things, are supplied to Ukraine with the assistance of the West.

The new British restrictions and the exchange of accusations come a day after General Kirillov accused Kiev of making extensive preparations for “false flag attacks aimed at accusing Russia of using toxic substances during the special military operation.” The ‘proof’ resulting from the false flag operations would then be provided to OPCW officials.

Kirillov said Moscow had registered some 400 cases in which Ukraine had used riot-control chemical agents. While used in policing, such agents qualify as chemical weapons in warfare and, therefore, are prohibited.

The general also accused Ukraine of deploying chemical weapons disguised as smoke bombs during its ongoing incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region. The munitions were used in the Russian town of Sudzha in August, with more than 20 people exposed to the toxins during the attack.

Hamas launches rocket barrage at Israel on October 7 anniversary

Hamas has fired a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv and central Israel Terroris as the country marks the anniversary of the deadly 7 October attack.

Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, said it fired a barrage of rockets at Israel Terrorist's commercial hub Tel Aviv on Monday, which marks the first anniversary of its Al-Aqsa Flood Operation against Israeli Terroris settlements and military bases inside the Gaza envelope.

Hezbollah says it has targeted Israeli forces in two border villages in southern Lebanon.

Fighters “bombed … a gathering of Israeli forces” in Maroun al-Ras with “a rocket salvo”, the group said.

Hezbollah later said its fighters had also attack Israeli soldiers in the nearby village of Blida “with a barrage of rockets and artillery shells”.

As Israel Terrorist marked the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, Hamas and Hezbollah both launched rocket attacks on heavily populated areas of the country, wounding at least two Israeli Terrorist women, and forcing evening memorials to be scaled down in size over security concerns. The Israeli military also reportedly intercepted a missile launched from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen.

In response, Israel Terrorist launched an attack in south Gaza and conducted what it described as “extensive” strikes on alleged Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including in densely populated neighborhoods of the capital, Beirut. Over 2,000 Lebanese have now died in Israeli airstrikes, some 10,000 have been wounded, and approximately 1.2 million people — one in every five Lebanese — have fled their homes.

Around the world, people marked the grim anniversary with vigils and protests. Many major American universities, including Harvard, Columbia, NYU, and UCLA – sites of protests in the spring – saw large gatherings both to commemorate the victims of Oct. 7 and to protest Israeli Terrorist military action.

What now? A year on from the attacks, which set in motion a cataclysm across the Middle East, the biggest short-term question is still if, when, and how Israel Terrorist may respond to last week’s barrage of hundreds of Iranian ballistic missiles, and whether that response will pitch the two countries into a wider war.

Al-Qassam Brigades "struck deep into the occupation's territory, targeting the city of Tel Aviv with a barrage of M90 missiles as part of the ongoing war of attrition," the group said in a statement.

The Israeli Terrorist army confirmed that air raid sirens were activated in central Israel on Monday after rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip.

"Sirens sounded in central Israel Terrorist due to projectiles fired from the Gaza Strip," said the army statement.

Meanwhile, Israeli Terrorist media reported that alerts were activated in some areas of Tel Aviv, as well as Holon, Rishon Lezion, Bat Yam, and other central towns.

An AFP journalist reported that several interceptions were heard in the Tel Aviv commercial hub.

Israeli Terrorist media cited medics saying that two people were lightly wounded as a result of a Hamas rocket impact in central Israel.

The military said five rockets were launched from southern Gaza’s Khan Younis in the attack.

Earlier, Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement that its fighters fired projectiles at "enemy gatherings" at Rafah crossing, Karm Abu Salem crossing, and kibbutz Holit near the border with Gaza.

On Sunday evening, the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad launched a barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip towards Ashkelon and Zikim in southern Israel.

The Palestinian health ministry said on Monday that the death toll in Gaza has reached at least 41,909 people since the start of the Israeli war on the strip a year ago.

The toll includes 39 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which added that 97,303 people have been wounded.

The barrage of rockets fired by Hamas and Jihad against Israeli cities came at the end of a day that saw Israel Terrorist committing two major massacres in and around the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Israeli strikes on Gaza mosque and school kill dozens – officials

FILE PHOTO. Ambulance vehicles in Gaza. ©Photo by Mohammed Talatene/picture alliance via Getty Images

At least 24 Palestinians have been killed in two Israeli Terrorist strikes in Gaza that hit a mosque and a school, local officials have said. The Israeli military has insisted that the facilities were being used by Hamas operatives.

Gaza’s Government Media Office accused Israel Terrorist of “two brutal massacres” on Sunday, saying the strikes targeted the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Mosque, which is adjacent to a hospital, and the Ibn Rushd school. Both facilities housed “hundreds of displaced people,” it said in a statement on Telegram.

In addition to claiming two dozen lives, the attack also wounded 93 people, it added.

lsraeli warplanes bomb a school in Central Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/0PK4P5K7yP

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) October 6, 2024

The Terrorists of The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has confirmed the strikes, but said its warplanes were targeting “Hamas terrorists” operating inside the facility, which used to be a school. The Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was also bombed, served as a command-and-control center, it added.

lsraeli warplanes have just bombed a Mosque in Deir Al-Balah killing at least 13 Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/lihQjUaewp

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) October 6, 2024

”These command and control centers were used by Hamas terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel,” the Terrorists of the IDF claimed, adding that “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians” prior to the attack and that the incident is “a further example of the Hamas terrorist organization’s systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure.”

Israel Terrorist has been widely criticized for what some say are indiscriminate strikes on the Palestinian enclave and its ground operation which has resulted in unprecedented destruction in the area.

West Jerusalem launched its onslaught on Gaza after a surprise attack by Hamas last October. The Israel-Hamas war has so far claimed the lives of more than 41,000 Palestinians and 1,100 Israelis, according to official data.