Alun-alun Kota Bogor jadi Wisata Macet, Dishub Sebut Sopir Angkot Ngetem Jadi Biang Keladinya

Kondisi kemacetan di depan pintu masuk Alun-alun Kota Bogor yang berada di Jalan Kapten Muslihat. Foto/Adi/Pojokbogor

Semenjak pagar di depan Alun-alun Kota Bogor dibuka, kini Jalan Kapten Muslihat, Kecamatan Bogor Tengah, Kota Bogor, jadi wisata macet lantaran angkot yang ngetem.

Akibat angkot ngetem di Alun-alun Kota Bogor, kemacetan di Jalan Kapten Muslihat pun tak terhindarkan.

Bahkan dari pantuan pojoksatu.id, Bogor pada siang, hari Rabu, 04/01/2023, kemacetan menjular dari pintu masuk Alun-alun Kota Bogor hingga ke jalan Merdeka depan Museum Perjuangan.

Tak hanya angkot yang melakukan pengeteman, sejumlah ojek online pun nampak terlihat parkir di depan Alun-alun Kota Bogor, sehingga menambah kemacetan.

Menanggapi hal itu, Kepala Bidang (Kabid) Lalu Lintas Dishub Kota Bogor, Dody Wahyudin mengakui, kini jalan Kapten Muslihat menjadi tempat kemacetan baru semenjak Alun-alun Kota Bogor dibuka secara normal.

Dia tak menampik, banyaknya angkot ngetem membuka polemik baru untuk lalu lintas di Jalan kapten Muslihat.

“Alun-alun Kota Bogor sudah dibuka normal, jadi secara otomatis menimbulkan kembangkitan dan kemacetan baru,” ujar Dody kepada pojoksatu.id, Bogor saat ditemui di kantornya.

Di depan Alun-alun Kota Bogor, lanjut Dody, sebenarnya sudah disiapkan celukan yang fungsinya adalah untuk menaik dan menurunkan penumpang.

Sayangnya, celukan tersbut tidak dibarengi dengan kesadaran dari sopir angkot.

Para driver menggunakan celukan itu untuk pengeteman atau menunggu penumpang.

“Jadi harapan kami adalah sebenarnya adalah kesadaran dari masyarakat pengguna atau pemakai angkutan umum baik itu sopir atau pun masyarakat, yang akan naik angkutan umum itu naik dan turun pada lokasi atau titik yang sudah ditentukan,” ucap Dody.

Dody juga mengungkapkan, pihaknya sudah mulai membuat protap penempatan petugas pada titik-titik yang emang menjadi titik kemacetan baru.

“Jadi kita pun sudah mengantisipasi itu, tapi memang semua harus kembali kepada kesadaran masyarakat tentang berlalu lintas,” ungkap Dody.

Karena, masih kata Dody, kalau hanya mengandalkan dari petugas ada keterbatasan baik itu sumber daya manusia (SDM), tenaga dan lain lain sebagainya.

“Kami bangun sama-sama supaya titik kemacetan di Alun-alun Kota Bogor ini bisa dihilangkan, atau kita hindari dari dampak dampak yang akan terjadi,” tutup Dody.

With Iran in mind, new Israeli leaders cozy up to Putin

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) chairs the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on January 3, 2023. (AFP)

Ramallah - The new Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to restore close ties with Russia in a bid to counter Moscow’s increasingly friendly relationship with Iran, analysts say.

At least one observer believes Russia’s support for Iran could pose a future threat to Israeli security operations against Iranian targets in Syria.

On Jan. 3, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, after a phone call with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, asked his Cabinet colleagues to avoid commenting on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

He said that the new government will talk less about the war, meaning Israel will avoid denouncing Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, a shift away from the stance adopted by former prime minister Yair Lapid.

“It’s clear that the relations between Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin are much warmer for many years than those between Lapid and former Israeli premier Naftali Bennett with Putin,” Ksenia Svetlova, a senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council and former member of the Israeli parliament, told Arab News.

Netanyahu is also believed to be unhappy with President Volodymyr Zelensky over Ukraine’s failure to oppose pro-Palestinian resolutions at the UN last week.

Putin has worked with Netanyahu for 12 of the 22 years he has been at the helm in the Kremlin, and the two have a close relationship.

The Russian president called Netanyahu to congratulate him on winning the Nov. 3 election and again after the Israeli leader won a confidence vote on Dec. 29.

Israeli experts told Arab News that the Netanyahu government will work to develop close ties with Moscow, but at the same time maintain strategic links with the US, which expressed displeasure over the Cohen-Lavrov call.

Israeli political analyst Yoni Ben Menachem said that Putin expects Netanyahu to shift Israel’s Russia policy away from the approach taken by Lapid, who attacked Moscow in his UN speech and media statements.

Israel fears Moscow may prevent it from continuing to bomb Iranian targets in Syria. Russia might provide anti-aircraft missiles to Iranian forces that would pose a threat to Israeli warplanes.

Russia now enjoys “a very close relationship” with Iran to the extent that it may end the freedom given to the Israeli airforce to bomb Iranian targets in Syria, Ben Menachem said.

There are 1 million Russian Jews in Israel who speak Russian. Most are over 18 and vote and influence Israeli elections.

Previous Israeli governments included ministers and deputy ministers of Russian origin, such as Avigdor Lieberman, Yuli Edelstein and Sophia Lander.

On Dec. 31, Netanyahu spoke with Zelensky and asked him to oppose pro-Palestinian resolutions at the UN. Zelensky said he would agree if Tel Aviv provided Ukraine with advanced weapons. Netanyahu rejected the offer and told Zelensky that Israel could not supply Ukraine with more than humanitarian aid for fear of spoiling Tel Aviv’s ties with Moscow. Ukraine was absent from the voting session and avoided voting against Israel.

Zelensky hoped to receive air defense systems from the Lapid government, but these failed to arrive. It is unlikely Netanyahu will supply the systems.

“In any case, Israeli-Russian relations would be better between Netanyahu and Putin than they used to be between Lapid and Putin,” Svetlova told Arab News

Alexander Grinberg, an expert on Russia-Israel affairs, told Arab News: “I am sure that Netanyahu will be able to balance Israel’s position and its relations with Russia with the continuation of the war in Ukraine, as the position of his predecessor Yair Lapid in support of Ukraine was personal and emotional, nothing more.”

He said Netanyahu’s position on Russia was consistent with the Israeli army, Military Intelligence Directorate, and the rest of the Israeli security apparatus regarding Israel’s security interests concerning Tehran, whether in Syria or inside Iran.

“The Israeli people stand against Russia on the war in Ukraine, while the political and security leadership cooperates closely with Putin,” he said.

Biksu Penghasut Kebencian Agama di Myanmar Dapat Penghargaan Nasional dari Junta Militer

Biksu Wirathu/Net

Penghargaan nasional yang diberikan oleh junta militer Myanmar kepada seorang biksu atas jasanya bagi persatuan negara pada hari Selasa, 03/01/2023, menjadi ramai diperbincangkan.

Lantaran biksu bernama Wirathu itu, sangat terkenal sebagai penghasut kebencian agama dan dijuluki "Buddhist bin Laden".

Wirathu adalah salah satu dari ratusan orang yang menerima penghargaan dan gelar kehormatan “Thiri Pyanchi" atas pekerjaan luar biasa untuk kebaikan dan persatuan Myanmar.

Lantaran biksu bernama Wirathu itu, sangat terkenal sebagai penghasut kebencian agama dan dijuluki "Buddhist bin Laden".

Wirathu adalah salah satu dari ratusan orang yang menerima penghargaan dan gelar kehormatan “Thiri Pyanchi" atas pekerjaan luar biasa untuk kebaikan dan persatuan Myanmar.

Tetapi gelar yang diberikan sangat bertolak belakang dengan kontribusi Wirathu selama ini.

Ia telah lama dikenal karena retorika nasionalis anti-Muslimnya, terutama terhadap minoritas Muslim Rohingya.

Pada 2013, ia tampil di sampul majalah Time sebagai "The Face of Buddhist Terror".

Wirathu menyerukan pemboikotan bisnis milik Muslim dan pembatasan pernikahan antara umat Buddha dan Muslim.

Menurut kelompok HAM, seruan Wirathu telah memicu permusuhan terhadap masyarakat dan menjadi dasar untuk tindakan keras militer pada tahun 2017 yang memaksa sekitar 740.000 Rohingya melarikan diri ke perbatasan Bangladesh.

Di masa pemerintahan Aung San Suu Kyi, Wirathu pernah dipenjara tuduhan atas penghasutan.

Setelah kudeta yang dilakukan oleh junta militer, Wirathu akhirnya dibebaskan dari segala tuduhan September 2021.

Russia cannot view Italy as guarantor of peace process around Ukraine

©Russian foreign Ministry press service/TASS

Russia cannot view Italy as a guarantor of the potential peace process around Ukraine due to Rome’s biased stance against Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

The diplomat was asked to comment on the reports that Rome was poised to act as a guarantor of peace settlement in Ukraine. In particular, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced that at a press conference on December 29, 2022.

"Obviously, with regard to the biased position taken by Italy, we cannot view it either as ‘an honest broker’ or a possible guarantor of the peace process," Zakharova said in her response to a media question published on the ministry’s website.

Zakharova pointed out that "many countries pledge their readiness to take part in resolving the Ukraine crisis, and some even openly offer us their mediation services."

"Pope Francis, French President Emmanuel Macron, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and other heads of state and government, politicians and public figures have spoken about it," she continued. "Some are sincere in doing so, but others are motivated by their self-interest, trying to wedge themselves into the negotiation process for foreign policy benefits."

"However, we find it strange to hear proposals for mediation from the countries that since the very beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine have taken an unambiguous and very aggressive anti-Russian position, not only supporting the bloody Kiev regime, but also providing it with substantial military and military-technical assistance and intentionally pumping the cutting-edge weapons into Ukraine," Zakharova said.

According to the diplomat, "Along with a wide range of weapons and military equipment, Italy also supplies Kiev with anti-personnel mines."

Zakharova pointed out that "not only do those irresponsible actions multiply casualties, including among the civilian population in Donbass, and drag out the end of the conflict, but they also risk dragging NATO countries into direct military confrontation with Russia."

"Nevertheless, Kiev’s Western handlers, with Italy regrettably among them, have no intention of stopping and, on the contrary, are stepping up their supplies," she said.

"It would be better if European pseudo-peacemakers halted their military boost of Kiev and focused their efforts on working more firmly and demandingly with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who has repeatedly reiterated his total aversion to a peaceful resolution to the conflict, and even signed a decree on September 30, 2022 to reject negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman concluded.

Russian MoD Holds Briefing on Special Military Operation in Ukraine

• The Russian Army eliminated more than 40 Ukrainian servicemen in the Kupyansk direction;



• Russian troops eliminated a Ukrainian sabotage group the Kharkov region;



• The Russian Air Force shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 and an Su-25 in the Kramatorsk region, the DPR and in the Nikolaev region;



• Russian forces eliminated over 100 Ukrainian servicemen in the Donetsk direction;



• The Russian Army eliminated five Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups in the LPR and DPR;









• Russian forces destroyed two US-made counter-battery radars in the DPR;



• Russian troops destroyed five Ukrainian warehouses with artillery ammunition in the DPR and in the Zaporozhye region;



• Ukrainian troops lost more than 150 soldiers killed and wounded in the Krasny Liman direction;



• The Russian Army destroyed three Ukrainian 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers in Kharkov and Zaporozhye regions;



• Russian troops repelled counterattacks by Ukrainian forces in the South Donetsk direction;



• Russian forces eliminated more than 180 Ukrainian servicemen in the DPR and the Zaporozhye region.

Twitter Eases Policy on Political Advertising in US

Since Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter, he has alleged censorship by the previous leadership of the social media platform and enacted broad changes with little warning.

US social media company Twitter said on Wednesday it was softening the platform's policy on political advertising.

"We believe that cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics. Today, we're relaxing our ads policy for cause-based ads in the US. We also plan to expand the political advertising we permit in the coming weeks," the company tweeted.

Twitter also plans to align its advertising policy with the one followed by US television and other mass media services, the message read.

The ban has been in place sine 2019, prohibiting the promotion of political content on the platform.

The ad could also bring additional revenue to the company which is hampered by a small income. The issue became important after several major advertisers left Twitter as a reaction against Musk taking control of the social network last year, because they feared he would moderate content.

Musk, who has repeatedly stressed he is a champion of free speech, changed the strict moderation policy and revealed Twitter papers, suggesting that under the previous ownership, an inordinate amount of censorship had existed as well as possible links with authorities regarding the control of news flow on the network.

Elon Musk-led Twitter said it will expand the political advertising it permits in coming weeks to “facilitate public conversation around important topics” and align its advertising policy with those of TV and other media outlets.

We believe that cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics. Today, we're relaxing our ads policy for cause-based ads in the US. We also plan to expand the political advertising we permit in the coming weeks.

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 3, 2023

Twitter Inc. will relax a three-year ban on political advertising in a continued policy shift after its takeover by billionaire Elon Musk.

The company said on Tuesday that it will expand the political advertising it permits in coming weeks to “facilitate public conversation around important topics” and align its advertising policy with those of TV and other media outlets, with further details to be announced.

While it wasn’t immediately clear how extensive the changes will be, it represents a departure from a global ban on advertisements by candidates, elected officials and political parties first announced in 2019 by Twitter co-founder — and chief executive officer at the time — Jack Dorsey.

Dorsey justified the ban, which attracted the ire of then-President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, by saying that “political message reach should be earned, not bought.”

Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during a press conference at SpaceX's Starbase facility near Boca Chica Village in South Texas, on February 10, 2022.
©AFP 2022 / JIM WATSON

But since Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter, he has alleged censorship by the previous leadership of the social media platform and enacted broad changes with little warning. Among other shifts, the company has ended a policy preventing the sharing of Covid misinformation, reinstated the accounts of Trump and other right-wing personalities, and banned users tracking Musk’s private jet.

Twitter currently allows some so-called issue ads or cause-based ads for some economic, environmental and social topics, albeit with restrictions. The company said it will also relax its policy for such cause-based ads in the US.

Political advertising was a minor income source for Twitter before the ban — amounting to less than $3 million in sales during the 2018 US midterm elections. Still, the easing may help a company now struggling to stem losses in ad revenue as brands pull back from the site amid concern about its moderation policies.

German doctor jailed for illegally issuing mask exemptions

FILE - A man wearing a face mask to protect against coronavirus travels on a metro in Berlin, Germany, March 22, 2022. A German doctor has been sentenced to two years and nine months in prison for illegally issuing more than 4,000 people with exemptions from wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)

A German doctor was sentenced late Monday to two years and nine months in prison for illegally issuing more than 4,000 people with exemptions from wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic.

A regional court in the southwestern town of Weinheim confirmed Tuesday that the doctor was convicted of “issuing incorrect health certificates” to people from across Germany, most of whom she had never met or examined.

In addition to the prison sentence she was handed a three-year work ban and ordered to pay 28,000 euros ($29,550), the sum she had received for issuing the medical certificates. Her office assistant was fined 2,700 euros.

“The process is more reminiscent of a sale of certificates than a medical procedure,” the court said in a statement. It noted that she was not faulted for providing certificates to her existing patients.

During the trial the defendant had argued that wearing masks was harmful to people’s health.

The doctor’s lawyer intends to appeal the verdict, public broadcaster SWR reported.

The doctor’s lawyer intends to appeal the verdict, public broadcaster SWR reported.

Dozens of supporters gathered outside the court in Weinheim, north of Heidelberg, to protest against the verdict and Germany’s pandemic restrictions.

Germany ended requirements to wear masks in many indoor settings last year, though they are still compulsory on long-distance trains, in doctors’ practices, hospitals, nursing homes and on some regional public transport.

Twitter Pressured by US Lawmakers to Exaggerate Alleged Russian Election Meddling

discrediting doctors and experts who spoke out against vaccines

©AFP 2022 / CONSTANZA HEVIA

Twitter was pressured by US lawmakers and media to exaggerate alleged Russian meddling on the social media platform during the 2016 president election, journalist Matt Taibbi said in the latest release of the so-called Twitter Files.

The latest batch of internal documents released on Tuesday, in coordination with Twitter chief Elon Musk, shows that the social media giant had originally seen no coordinated effort by Russia to use the social media platform to launch a major campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election.

"No evidence of a coordinated approach, all of the accounts found seem to be lone-wolf type activity (different timing, spend, targeting, ($10k in ad spend)," Twitter's Russia Task Force said in a document on October 2017.

Twitter's then Public Policy Vice President Colin Crowell said in an email to former CEO Jack Dorsey in September 2017 that Democrat lawmakers had taken cues from then Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to pressure Twitter to investigate accounts linked to Russia.

The top Democrat on the Senate intelligence Committee Mark Warner also pressured Twitter to produce material that will make news headlines about alleged Russian meddling in the US elections via social media, according Crowell.

However, Twitter continued to find no coordinated effort by Russia to use the platform to allegedly influence the presidential elections, the documents found.

In an October 23, 2017 email the task force said the probe found only 17 suspicious accounts linked to Russia, only two of which had significant ad purchases, including Russia Today, which spent less than $10,000.

Twitter Files, discrediting doctors and experts who spoke out against vaccines

New twitter document released on December 26, detailing how Twitter executives attempted to censor 'inconvenient' data on Covid by discrediting doctors and experts who spoke out against vaccines

Using their pull, Zweig writes, the government was able to discredit doctors and experts, and suppress ordinary users' freedom of speech on Twitter — even if they were citing the Center for Disease Control's own data.

The documents provide more context as to how the government infiltrated the social media giant to suppress certain stories, as Twitter CEO Elon Musk vows there will be more revelations next week

According to the documents released on Monday, the Trump administration met with executives at Twitter, Google, Facebook and Microsoft looking for 'help from the tech companies to combat misinformation' about 'runs on grocery stores... that could stoke panic buying and behaviors' in the early days of the pandemic.

1. THREAD:

THE TWITTER FILES: HOW TWITTER RIGGED THE COVID DEBATE

– By censoring info that was true but inconvenient to U.S. govt. policy
– By discrediting doctors and other experts who disagreed
– By suppressing ordinary users, including some sharing the CDC’s *own data*

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

Then, when the Biden administration took over, they became focused on tackling 'misinformation' about vaccines and targeted high-profile vaccine skeptics like Berenson.

In the summer of 2021, Zweig writes, Biden said social media companies were 'killing people' for allowing vaccine misinformation — and just a few hours later, Berenson's account was suspended.

He was kicked off the platform the following month, and ultimately sued (and settled with) Twitter.

As part of the legal process, Twitter was compelled to release internal communications, which showed how the White House pressured the company to take action on Berenson.

14. But Twitter did suppress views—many from doctors and scientific experts—that conflicted with the official positions of the White House. As a result, legitimate findings and questions that would have expanded the public debate went missing.

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

But the Biden administration was apparently 'very angry' that Twitter had not done more to deplatform other accounts, and pressured executives to do more.

The Biden administration also piled pressure on the social media platform to suspend former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson over his tweets questioning Covid vaccines

In the latest instalment of the Twitter Files, journalist David Zweig laid bare how both the Trump and Biden administrations pressured Twitter executives to censor information that was 'true but inconvenient.'