Arab Saudi mengutuk penyerbuan Masjid Al-Aqsa oleh pemukim Israel

(AFP/File)

Kerajaan mengutuk penyerbuan Masjid Al-Aqsa oleh pemukim Israel, di bawah perlindungan pasukan pendudukan, kata sumber kementerian luar negeri Saudi.

Kementerian menekankan bahwa tindakan tersebut merusak upaya perdamaian dan melanggar prinsip dan norma internasional mengenai penghormatan terhadap tempat suci agama. Kementerian juga menegaskan kembali komitmen Kerajaan untuk mendukung semua upaya mengakhiri pendudukan dan mencapai solusi yang adil dan komprehensif yang memungkinkan Palestina mendirikan negara merdeka di perbatasan 1967, dengan Yerusalem Timur sebagai ibu kotanya..

Sekjen GCC mengecam penyerbuan Masjid Al-Aqsa oleh pemukim Israel

Sekretaris Jenderal GCC (the Gulf Cooperation Council / Dewan Kerjasama Teluk) Jassem Mohamed Albudaiwi mengutuk dengan keras penyerbuan pemukim Israel terhadap Masjid Al-Aqsa, di bawah perlindungan Pasukan Pertahanan Israel.

Albudaiwi menggarisbawahi bahwa agresi Israel selama Ramadhan merupakan eskalasi yang berbahaya, pelanggaran mencolok terhadap hukum internasional dan resolusi yang relevan, dan status quo sejarah dan hukum di Yerusalem dan tempat-tempat sucinya, serta provokasi terhadap umat Islam di seluruh dunia.

Sekretaris Jenderal GCC meminta masyarakat internasional untuk segera campur tangan guna menghentikan pelanggaran dan mengintensifkan upaya untuk mendorong proses perdamaian ke depan, menekankan posisi GCC yang tidak berubah, yang menempatkan perjuangan Palestina di atas prioritasnya dan menyerukan pembentukan sebuah negara Palestina merdeka di sepanjang garis perbatasan 4 Juni 1967, dengan Yerusalem Timur sebagai ibu kotanya.

Penggerebekan terjadi selama Ramadhan, periode sebulan penuh yang dianggap suci dan waktu spiritualitas dan doa dalam Islam.

“Tindakan seperti itu merusak upaya perdamaian dan melanggar prinsip dan norma internasional mengenai penghormatan terhadap tempat suci agama,” SPA mengutip pernyataan kementerian tersebut.

Lusinan pemukim ekstrimis Israel menyerbu kompleks Masjid Al-Aqsa, menurut kantor berita Palestina WAFA.

Departemen Wakaf Umum Islam di Yerusalem mengatakan dalam sebuah pernyataan bahwa beberapa pemukim melakukan penggerebekan di bawah perlindungan ketat dari pasukan pendudukan Israel, WAFA melaporkan.

Para pemukim dilindungi polisi Israel saat mereka masuk ke situs tersuci ketiga dalam Islam, sumber-sumber lokal mengatakan kepada kantor berita Wafa Palestina.

Provokasi Israel di Masjid Al-Aqsa tidak jarang terjadi. Pada awal Januari, Menteri Keamanan Nasional Israel yang baru, Itamar Ben-Gvir, membentuk situs suci tersebut, menuai kecaman internasional yang meluas.

Para pemukim menyerbu situs tersebut dari gerbang Al-Maghariba dan melakukan tur provokatif dan ritual Talmud di kompleksnya, kata sumber tersebut.

Laporan itu muncul di tengah meningkatnya kekerasan di Yerusalem dan Tepi Barat menyusul masuknya pemerintah Israel ke tampuk kekuasaan, yang telah membuat pasukan Israel membunuh setidaknya 32 warga Palestina pada tahun 2023 saja.

Laporan itu muncul di tengah meningkatnya kekerasan di Yerusalem dan Tepi Barat menyusul masuknya pemerintah Israel ke tampuk kekuasaan, yang telah membuat pasukan Israel membunuh setidaknya 32 warga Palestina pada tahun 2023 saja.

Pasukan Israel membunuh sembilan warga Palestina selama pembantaian mematikan di Jenin Tepi Barat pada hari Kamis dan melanjutkan untuk membom Jalur Gaza yang terkepung pada Jumat pagi, menyebabkan kehancuran beberapa properti. Tidak ada cedera yang dilaporkan.

Menanggapi serangan Jenin, seorang pria bersenjata Palestina pada hari Jumat menewaskan tujuh orang di luar sinagog di lingkungan pemukim Yerusalem timur yang diduduki, dan serangan lain menyusul pada hari Sabtu.

Pasukan Israel juga membunuh seorang pengemudi Palestina di Tepi Barat yang diduduki pada hari Senin, kata para pejabat di kedua sisi, dengan tentara mengatakan mobil itu menabrak kaki seorang tentara sebelum melaju kencang.

Menteri Luar Negeri AS Antony Blinken mendarat di Tel Aviv pada hari Senin pada putaran kedua tur Timur Tengahnya, menjelang pembicaraan yang mendesak pengurangan kekerasan, dan akan melakukan perjalanan ke Yerusalem.

Berburu Takjil Asli Bogor Tepat Apa Kata Suwardi One Pride

Sentra Takjil kota Bogor sejak lawas sudah ada sebelum kemerdekaan Indonesia hingga kini hanya ada dua tempat, yaitu Pulo Empang dan Sukasari, sepanjang Surya Kencana. Tempat lain - lain ada itu mulai tahun 2000an. Seperti yang disampaikan oleh Suwardi One Pride itu sangat tepat untuk dijadikan rekomendasi berbutu takjil.

1. Pulo Empang

Tepat sekali apa yang dikatakan Suwardi, salah satu tempat rekomendasi beli takjil di Kota Bogor yakni beradai di wilayah Pulo Empang.

Sepanjang jalan Pulo Empang Anda akan banyak menemukan jajanan takjil di sana, salah satunya mie glosor.

"Untuk jajanan takjil di pulo empang sepanjang jalan banyak benar kalau lagi puasa gini," ujar Suwardi.

"Karena bnyak pilihan takjil disana mulai dari jajanan pasar, kolak ,mie glosor, sate satean, jadi recomended banget ,satu lokasi banyak pilihan," ungkapnya.

Mie glosor adalah mi yang terbuat dari tepung sagu (aci) dicampur kunyit.

Mie tersebut berasal dari Sukabumi yang kemudian menjadi terkenal dan digemari oleh masyarakat Kota Bogor.

Istilah Glosor atau gelosor (mengalir) dipakai untuk menggambarkan betapa mudahnya mie tersebut ketika dimakan, mudah dikunyah, mengalir lancar dari mulut menuju tenggorokan dan menggelosor menuju lambung.

2. Sukasari

Selain Pulo Empang, Suwardi menyebutkan, kawasan lain yang bisa jadi rekomendasi untuk berburu takjil di Kota Bogor, yakni Sukasari.

Kawasan Sukasari yang terletak di kecamatan Bogor Timur ini juga banyak menawarkan jajanan takjil, terutama es buah.

"Kalau es buah recommended-nya di Sukasari. Saya dan keluarga selalu beli di sana. Tapi ada juga jajanan lainnya," tuturnya.

Suwardi menambahkan, selama bulan Ramadhan, ia kerap menemani sang istri membeli takjil untuk disantap saat berbuka.

"Biasanya berdua. Soalnya kalau sendiri takut salah beli yang dibeli kesukaan sendiri aja," imbuhnya.

NATO is fighting on Kiev’s side – Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
©Alexey Nikolsky; RIA Novosti

NATO countries are now de facto fighting on the side of Kiev and have become “deeply” drawn into the Ukrainian conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.  

“Once again, we drew attention to the subversive line of the NATO countries, which have been drawn into the conflict for a long time and are getting drawn into it deeper… and in fact they are fighting on the side of the Kiev regime,” Lavrov said during a press conference following talks with Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian in Moscow.

He also noted that the West no longer wishes to stop the conflict in Ukraine, and is instead working to prolong it. Lavrov pointed to a recent statement made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who claimed that any ceasefire or truce proposed by Moscow could not be allowed because it would only be in the interests of Russia.

“It is difficult for me to say what such a shallow, frankly speaking, analysis is based on. The only assumption is that the West does not want to stop this war and sees its own geopolitical interests in this war – primarily from the point of view of its attempts to eliminate another competitor on the world stage in the face of the Russian Federation,” Lavrov noted.

The diplomat also added that the West has a similar stance towards China. “Our Chinese friends are well aware that they too are already mentioned in NATO documents as competitors and long-term adversaries who must be neutralized,” Lavrov said. He noted that Russia, Iran and China will “categorically oppose” Washington and its allies’ attempts to establish everlasting Western hegemony.

Russia has repeatedly accused the West of waging a “proxy war” against it in Ukraine by continuing to provide billions of dollars worth of military aid to Kiev while imposing multiple rounds of sweeping sanctions on Moscow.

Russia, Iran expand exchange of business delegations — Lavrov

Russia and Iran are boosting the exchange of regional-based delegations among businesspeople, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at talks with his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on Wednesday.

Such exchanges promote higher trade turnover between the countries, he noted. "Our exchanges of regional-based delegations in support of businesspeople are expanding, which coupled with the activities of the intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation help ensure solid, sustainable growth in trade turnover," Russia’s top diplomat said.

Iran and Russia closely interact in many areas, including the political dialogue, as well as economic and investment cooperation in the implementation of various projects, he noted. "We cooperate closely on international and regional affairs, and all of those issues are on the agenda for today’s talks," the foreign minister said.

Lavrov, Iranian Counterpart Abdollahian Hold Presser After Talks in Moscow

The top diplomats are expected to cover a wide range of economic and political issues, while accentuating the Iran nuclear deal.

Sputnik comes to you live from Moscow, where Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian are holding a presser following their talks.

In all likelihood, economic cooperation between Moscow and Tehran will be raised. As of late, Russia has become the top investor in Iran’s economy, surpassing China. Since 2021, Moscow has injected roughly $2.7 billion into Iranian oil projects. Also, the diplomacy chiefs are expected to bring up the much-talked-about JCPOA (Join Comprehensive Plan of Action) deal that placed restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for economic sanctions relief.

The agreement was unilaterally undermined by Washington in 2018, yet Russia, along with other key players, has been trying to revive it.

Police across Pennsylvania respond to active shooter hoax calls at school district

Police across Pennsylvania respond to active shooter hoax calls at school districts

Large police presences converged on multiple schools across Pennsylvania as authorities investigated active shooter hoaxes.

Police responded to Central Catholic and Oakland Catholic high schools in Oakland, around 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.

There are no reports of injuries. No active shooter has been found at any location.

Additionally, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon lifted lockdowns.

Active shooter situation right now Central Catholic High School, Oakland Pittsburgh. I’m just 100 feet away. Police cars continue to arrive on the scene. pic.twitter.com/MXCHe2Dw3u

— Pittsburgh For Progress🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@Pitt4Progress) March 29, 2023

At this time, state police say the threats appear to be computer-generated “swatting calls,” but they are all being taken seriously.

State police out of the Blair and Bedford county areas tweeted, “PSP Hollidaysburg and Rockview stations are responding to active shooter threats at local schools that have been called in by telephone. We are treating each incident with standard law enforcement protocols. However, the calls are believed to be computer generated swatting calls.”

An Allegheny County spokesperson said, "County 9-1-1 has received three separate calls reporting that there is an active shooter in three separate schools. We are also aware that similar reports are coming in for schools outside of the county. In each instance, law enforcement is responding but believes that these are false reports. Thus far, there has been no active shooter found and no injuries at any school. Law enforcement will continue to thoroughly check out any reports."

This situation appears to have impacted schools in multiple counties.

New Castle police said they received a phone call from a male threatening to shoot up New Castle High School. The school was immediately put on lockdown, and NCPD units were all on the scene within minutes. The school was cleared by law enforcement and New Castle Area School District personnel, and the lockdown has been lifted.

In addition, Hopewell High School in Beaver County received a similar call, as did Laurel Highland High School in Fayette County.

"FBI Pittsburgh is aware of the numerous swatting incidents wherein a report of an active shooter at a school is made. The FBI takes swatting very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk."

Elon Musk and Others Call for Pause on AI, Citing ‘Profound Risks to Society

More than 1,000 technology leaders and researchers, including Elon Musk, have urged artificial intelligence labs to pause development of the most advanced systems, warning in an open letter that A.I. tools present “profound risks to society and humanity.”

A.I. developers are “locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one — not even their creators — can understand, predict or reliably control,” according to the letter, which was released Wednesday by the nonprofit group Future of Life Institute.

Others who signed the letter include Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple; Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur and candidate in the 2020 U.S. presidential election; and Rachel Bronson, the president of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which sets the Doomsday Clock.

“These things are shaping our world,” said Gary Marcus, an entrepreneur and academic who has long complained of flaws in A.I. systems, in an interview. “We have a perfect storm of corporate irresponsibility, widespread adoption, lack of regulation and a huge number of unknowns.”

A.I. powers chatbots like ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing and Google’s Bard, which can perform humanlike conversations, create essays on an endless variety of topics and perform more complex tasks, like writing computer code.

The push to develop more powerful chatbots has led to a race that could determine the next leaders of the tech industry. But these tools have been criticized for getting details wrong and their ability to spread misinformation.

The open letter called for a pause in the development of A.I. systems more powerful than GPT-4, the chatbot introduced this month by the research lab OpenAI, which Mr. Musk co-founded. The pause would provide time to implement “shared safety protocols” for A.I. systems, the letter said. “If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium,” it added.

Development of powerful A.I. systems should advance “only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable,” the letter said.

“Humanity can enjoy a flourishing future with A.I.,” the letter said. “Having succeeded in creating powerful A.I. systems, we can now enjoy an ‘A.I. summer’ in which we reap the rewards, engineer these systems for the clear benefit of all and give society a chance to adapt.”

Mr. Marcus and others believe that convincing the wider tech community to agree to a moratorium would be difficult. But swift government action is also a slim possibility, because lawmakers have done little to regulate artificial intelligence.

Politicians in the United States don’t have much of an understanding of the technology, Representative Jay Obernolte, a California Republican, recently told The New York Times. In 2021, European Union policymakers proposed a law designed to regulate A.I. technologies that might create harm, including facial recognition systems.

Expected to be passed as soon as this year, the measure would require companies to conduct risk assessments of A.I technologies to determine how their applications could affect health, safety and individual rights.

GPT-4 is what A.I. researchers call a neural network, a type of mathematical system that learns skills by analyzing data. A neural network is the same technology that digital assistants like Siri and Alexa use to recognize spoken commands, and self-driving cars use to identify pedestrians.

Around 2018, companies like Google and OpenAI began building neural networks that learned from massive amounts of digital text, including books, Wikipedia articles, chat logs and other information culled from the internet. The networks are called large language models, or L.L.M.s.

By pinpointing billions of patterns in all that text, the L.L.M.s learn to generate text on their own, including tweets, term papers and computer programs. They could even carry on a conversation. Over the years, OpenAI and other companies have built L.L.M.s that learn from more and more data.

This has improved their capabilities, but the systems still make mistakes. They often get facts wrong and will make up information without warning, a phenomenon that researchers call “hallucination.” Because the systems deliver all information with what seems like complete confidence, it is often difficult for people to tell what is right and what is wrong.

Experts are worried that bad actors could use these systems to spread disinformation with more speed and efficiency than was possible in the past. They believe that these could even be used to coax behavior from people across the internet.

Before GPT-4 was released, OpenAI asked outside researchers to test dangerous uses of the system. The researchers showed that it could be coaxed into suggesting how to buy illegal firearms online, describe ways to make dangerous substances from household items and write Facebook posts to convince women that abortion is unsafe.

They also found that the system was able to use Task Rabbit to hire a human across the internet and defeat a Captcha test, which is widely used to identify bots online. When the human asked if the system was “a robot,” the system said it was a visually impaired person.

After changes by OpenAI, GPT-4 no longer does these things.

For years, many A.I. researchers, academics and tech executives, including Mr. Musk, have worried that A.I. systems could cause even greater harm. Some are part of a vast online community called rationalists or effective altruists who believe that A.I could eventually destroy humanity.

The letter was shepherded by the Future of Life Institute, an organization dedicated to researching existential risks to humanity that has long warned of the dangers of artificial intelligence. But it was signed by a wide range of people from industry and academia.

Though some who signed the letter are known for repeatedly expressing concerns that A.I. could destroy humanity, others, including Mr. Marcus, are more concerned about its near-term dangers, including the spread of disinformation and the risk that people will rely on these systems for medical and emotional advice.

Though some who signed the letter are known for repeatedly expressing concerns that A.I. could destroy humanity, others, including Mr. Marcus, are more concerned about its near-term dangers, including the spread of disinformation and the risk that people will rely on these systems for medical and emotional advice.

The letter “shows how many people are deeply worried about what is going on,” said Mr. Marcus, who signed the letter. He believes the letter will be an important turning point. “It think it is a really important moment in the history of A.I. — and maybe humanity,” he said.

He acknowledged, however, that those who have signed the letter may find it difficult to convince the wider community of companies and researchers to put a moratorium in place. “The letter is not perfect,” he said. “But the spirit is exactly right.”

Priest Condemns 'Godless' Zelensky Regime's Seizure of Kiev-Pechersk Lavra During Great Lent

©RIA Novosti . Alexandr Altman / Go to the mediabank

The eviction of Orthodox monks from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra during Great Lent, along with the capturing and burning of Orthodox churches by the Zelensky regime are nothing short of diabolical, Hieromonk Feofan, a Donetsk priest told Sputnik, adding that the West has opted to turn a blind eye to these blasphemous and illegal actions.

On March 10, the Zelensky regime demanded that the Orthodox monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, a historic Christian convent and one of the most revered holy places of the Orthodox world, vacate the monastery by March 29, accusing the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of violating the terms of an agreement on the use of state property. The order came amid Great Lent, the most important fast within many denominations of Eastern Christianity.

"This is outright devilry, because the fact that they launched the seizure of the Christian Orthodox shrine during Lent, which is sacred to all Orthodox Christians, and this suggests that they are not Christians, and even more so not Orthodox," said Hieromonk Feofan, a Donetsk priest. "In Lent, we prepare for communion at the Last Supper of Christ, that is, these are reverent moments, very sacred, and then for the celebration of Easter, the Bright Resurrection of Christ. This is a time of turning in upon yourself, going deep into thoughts, reexamining your life, and working on yourself. And then a sheer devilish, demonic power comes and begins to destroy everything. What [the Kiev regime] will build upon the foundation of the Lavra remnants will no longer belong to Christ, it will not be a church, definitely, because it was done, firstly, illegally, and secondly, by such hellish methods."

Hieromonk Feofan, Donetsk Priest
©Photo : Hieromonk Feofan's personal archive

The expulsion of monks from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is part of a broader persecution of Orthodox priests by the Kiev regime, which includes a takeover of holy shrines and even burning churches down, according to Hieromonk Feofan. The Kiev regime has employed those brutal methods to force the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), the historically-established wing of the self-governing Eastern Orthodox religion in Ukraine, to renounce the leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate. Earlier this week, Dmitry Korchinsky, Ukrainian public figure, called for torching all the churches of Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. According to Korchinsky, "there is nothing wrong with that."

Hieromonk Feofan, Donetsk Priest
© Photo : Hieromonk Feofan's personal archive

"I have one acquaintance, a monk of the Lavra, and, unfortunately, he had to leave it," Hieromonk Feofan said. "And Thank God that he managed to flee the place, because he says that it was simply dangerous to stay there. Some armed individuals constantly came there and checked everyone at the entrance of the Lavra. That is, life there was in constant tension, and he had to leave. Now he is safe. But from speaking with him, I understood that those Lavra brothers with whom he communicates, are in a very difficult situation right now (…) Let's see if they will defend the Lavra. In general, we had precedents in history when the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius and other large monasteries were encroached upon, and the monasteries defended themselves. But, unfortunately, in our time, for some reason, we have goodness without fists."

Previously, Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said the monks could stay in the Lavra if they joined the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine led by defrocked metropolitan Patriarch Filaret. However, according to Hieromonk Feofan, this would be a betrayal of Faith. Feofan cited the Holy Gospel as saying: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). According to him, when a person with this feeling defends his Lavra, his monastery, his church, he is not afraid of anything or anyone.

"Why did the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople stand? It existed because it could defend itself. And now, unfortunately, we have a defenseless Orthodox Christianity, which cannot defend itself," noted Hieromonk Feofan. "We realized in 2014 that if we were captured, if Donbass were captured, we would lose almost everything for what we had lived and what we had cherished all that time, everything that our ancestors left us, including faith. We understood that if Filaretism came here, then the Uniates would come after it, and then the Vatican (…) At that moment, the issue of protecting the republic was of utmost importance, because everything else, and the Orthodox faith, and shrines, and our native land, that's all we would have betrayed if we hadn't started to defend Donbass. We have chosen protection at all costs. Not to survive at any cost, but to protect at any cost."