Viral sebuah unggahan di media sosial tentang aduan dan keluhan dari seorang guru Madrasah Ibtidaiyah (MI) yang mendapati anak muridnya harus berjejalan dalam rombongan belajar di sebuah SMP Negeri di Tangerang Selatan. Dia berkeluh kesah soal pelaksanaan Penerimaan Peserta Didik Baru (PPDB) yang disebutnya sudah menjadi rahasia publik, banyak diwarnai manipulasi, jatah, dan permainan uang.
Lewat akun twitter @ocehan_zea, guru ini mencurahkan problem PPDB di Tangerang Selatan tersebut kepada Menteri Pendidikan, Kebudayaan, Riset dan Teknologi Nadiem Makarim. Dia antara lain menanyakan ihwal penerimaan sekolah berbasis online tersebut. Selama dua tahun belakangan menjadi wali kelas 6 di sekolahnya, guru itu mengungkap proses PPDB yang didapatinya, "membuat sedih dan sakit hati."
Surat diawali dengan penuturannya sebagai guru di sebuah Madrasah Ibtidaiyah (setingkat SD). "belakangan ini anak-anak kami tertarik melanjutkan ke SMPN. Karena KK (kartu keluarga) Tangsel, jadi kebanyakan melanjutkan di SMPN Tangsel," tulisnya.
Sebagai guru kelas enam, dia mengaku turut memantau sistem online yang diterapkan pada penerimaan siswa baru tersebut, atau yang dikenal sebagai PPDB. Pada awal menjalankan perannya itu, dua tahun lalu, dia menyatakan sudah menemukan sejumlah kejanggalan dalam hal rekapitulasi nilai calon peserta didik baru di sekolah-sekolah.
Dia menunjuk kepada kecurigaan terhadap rekapitulasi nilai dari kelas 4 sampai 6 yang, menurutnya, banyak sekali yang mencapai 98. Ini ditemukannya di pendaftaran SMP maupun MTs Negeri. Belum lagi, dia menambahkan, beberapa oknum di jalur zonasi memainkan titik rumah, karena pendaftaran memasukkan titik sendiri.
Juga berlaku jatah atau jalur-jalur penerimaan tak resmi, seperti RT dan RW, lurah, camat, DPRD dan Satpol PP. "Justru menjdi mainan dengan bayaran, saya bingung sebenarnya apa fungsi jatah para pejabat?"
Dampaknya adalah dialami para peserta didik. Di sebuah SMP Negeri, dia menyebut satu rombongan belajar bisa sampai diisi sampai 50, bahkan 72 siswa. Para siswa baru itu tidak mendapat fasilitas meja dan kursi dan akhirnya diminta membawa sendiri. Selain mengutip keterangan mantan muridnya sendiri, akun @ocehan_zea menyertakan tangkapan layar kesaksian lain tentang rombongan belajar yang sangat padat itu.
"Sudah menjadi rahasia publik," katanya sambil menambahkan, "Saya sedih, saya sakit hati, saya khawatir memikirkan anak-anak saya melanjutkan perkembangan diri di lingkungan yang sudah tercemar kepercayaannya."
Saat diminta tanggapannya, juru bicara Pemerintah Kota Tangerang Selatan Ahmad Syatiri hanya memandangnya sebagai tingginya minat masyarakat di sekolah-sekolah negeri yang tidak dapat dihindarkan. Menurutnya, mengantisipasi penumpukan peserta didik di satu sekolah dengan menyiasati waktu kegiatan belajar mengajar (KBM). "Ada yang masuk pagi dan ada yang masuk siang," ujarnya.
Soal jatah atau jalur penerimaan khusus di PPDB untuk para pejabat, Ahmad membantahnya dan tidak dibenarkan. "Karena ini semua sudah by system, jadi kalau ada ASN minta jatah kursi, ya saya rasa itu tidak benar," kata dia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is also director of the Foreign Affairs Commission Office of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, discussed issues on the global agenda, including the Ukrainian crisis, as well as bilateral relations during a telephone conversation, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.
"The parties highly appreciated the ongoing development of Russian-Chinese relations, which demonstrate stability and positive dynamics amid general geopolitical instability on the planet," the ministry said. The top diplomats "touched upon a number of hot regional topics, including the Ukrainian crisis," it went on to say.
"The ministers discussed a range of pressing issues on the international agenda. They noted their rejection of the Western bloc’s confrontational policy toward Russia and China, its attempts to contain their development by means of sanctions and other illegitimate methods. They gave a positive assessment of the constructive dialogue and the high level of cooperation between Moscow and Beijing within the United Nations, BRICS, SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization - TASS), the Group of Twenty and other international structures," the ministry said.
The press release emphasized that the contact between the foreign ministers of Russia and China "once again confirmed unanimity or broad consonance of Moscow and Beijing's approaches to world affairs." The top diplomats also confirmed "their readiness to continue close foreign policy coordination," the Russian Foreign Ministry added. It also said that the parties had paid specific attention to the bilateral agenda in terms of the implementation of agreements reached at the top political level.
Earlier, Chinese Special Representative for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui conveyed Beijing’s position with regard to settling the Ukrainian conflict at an international conference in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
It was the first telephone call between the foreign ministers of Russia and China after Wang Yi’s recent appointment to that position. "Sergey Lavrov congratulated his Chinese counterpart on his recent appointment as Chinese Foreign Minister and wished him great success in his new demanding role," the Foreign Ministry summed up.
Top Hungarian diplomat speaks over phone with Russian deputy PM
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Monday that he spoke over the phone with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who reassured him that Russia will continue oil supplies in line with its contract liabilities.
"Today, I had a telephone conversation with Russian Deputy Prime Minister for energy issues Alexander Novak, who reassured us that the Russian partners will supply crude oil to Hungary in conformity with their contract obligations. So, energy security of our country is ensured," he wrote on his Facebook account (Facebook is banned in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which has been designated as extremist).
Russian oil is pumped to Hungary via the southern pipe of the Druzhba pipeline, which is exempt for the European Union’s sanctions. Some 4.9 million tons of oil were supplied to Hungary via this route in 2022. Oil from this pipeline also goes to oil refineries in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
EU Sanctions Punish European Businesses More Than Russia
European companies have reported a combined €100 billion ($109.9 billion) loss from cutting ties with Russia following the collective West slapping sanctions on Moscow over the special military operation in Ukraine.
Designed to deal a heavy blow to Russia's economy, Western sanctions struck European businesses like "friendly fire."
"The economic losses suffered by many European companies were to some extent foreseen," Gunnar Beck, a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Alternative for Germany party who is currently vice-president of the Identity & Democracy Group in the Parliament, told Sputnik. "I think the imposition of sanctions, as a tool of foreign policy, is always a very costly affair. But I think there were misconceptions on the side of many European governments in several respects."
"What wasn't foreseen was that the sanctions would harm many EU companies and many EU countries much more than Russia. I think that was a surprise. And that's related to the second point I'd like to make. Namely, I think that European governments were probably unaware or had willfully ignored the fact that the Russian government was relatively well prepared in terms of foreign currency and gold reserves," Beck continued.
Two Reasons Behind EU Economic Damage
Following the beginning of Russia's special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the US and its European allies imposed a series of restrictions aimed at curtailing Russia's business activity. The Western sanctions targeted almost all sectors of Russia's economy. The Central Bank's assets were frozen while Russia's access to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) was canceled.
Since February 2022 Western companies have been pulling out their operations en masse under the pressure of sanctions. The Financial Times conducted a survey that indicated that 176 out of 600 firms' financial reports showed that they suffered balance sheet losses as they rushed to sell, close, or reduce their businesses in Russia.
"There are two major reasons for these damages," Sergio Rossi, professor of macroeconomics and monetary economics at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, told Sputnik. "First, many European businesses have been already suffering from the post-pandemic troubles as regards several supply chain problems and the lack of demand on the market for produced goods and services that is due to households’ reduced purchasing power, owing to higher income inequalities that stem from neoliberal economic policies implemented by these countries’ governments."
"Secondly, globalization implies that the majority of European countries largely depend on foreign trade as a major – if not unique – engine for their economic growth. Since a reduction of exports implies therefore a lower rate of economic growth, the mushroom growth of energy prices, import prices, as well as profit margins of a number of firms – resulting from Western sanctions to Russia – has impacted negatively these countries’ economies, exacerbating the recessionary factors that already existed before all these sanctions were put into practice," Rossi emphasized.
Remarkably, a Yale study indicated that of the 1,000 companies that voiced their determination to leave Russia just over half have completely withdrawn from the country, while some are continuing to operate in Russia undeterred.
Europe is Heading Towards Crisis
Losses sustained by EU companies as a result of anti-Russia sanctions affect their competitiveness across the global economy and further weaken their respective countries' economic systems, according to Rossi. This adds to the already tough economic conditions caused by inflation, high levels of unemployment, plummeting living standards, and reduced wages.
"Actually, the observed inflationary pressures reduce real wages of the bottom and middle-class workers, so that their own consumption expenditures must be reduced, thereby inducing a dramatic vicious circle for all stakeholders, namely, firms, banks, and the public sector of these countries.The European Union risks therefore disintegrating before the end of this decade, in light of the increasing social conflicts and economic problems that remain unaddressed because there is no political will to solve them before long," suggested the economic observer.
For his part, Beck noted that Russia wasn't the most important export market for the European Union, so in this respect the bloc has not been hit much.
However, at the same time, Russia used to be a supplier of relatively cheap energy commodities which ensured the competitiveness of European business on the world stage. Now that Europe has switched to relatively expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US and reduced the consumption of fuel, some European firms opted to relocate from the Old Continent, causing nothing short of deindustrialization. Other manufacturers were prompted to slow down their economic activities due to aggressive interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank (ECB) which have made borrowing especially expensive.
"So, in short, there will be a net loss in wealth as a result of the detrimental effect of sanctions on the European economies," Beck said. "But that net loss is far smaller than the overall wealth loss. The Europeans have been imposing themselves with a whole range of other policies. And I think it's very difficult to convey the sheer folly of our governments and to the European Commission. They are pursuing fantasy projects that are harming their own economies, and their own people to a very great and possibly irreversible extent. But I'd say the kind of belligerent attitude the Europeans have been taking over Ukraine is part of this range of fantasy projects they are producing. There will be a very harsh awakening in the not-too-distant future. In fact, we are already seeing this awakening. The European economies are in crisis and I say they're going to get worse."
It's hard to say what will become a wake-up call for the Europeans, forcing them to revise their economic and political strategy and make a U-turn, according to the MEP. He believes that right now it's too early to say anything with a degree of certainty. However, it's clear that Europe is harming itself and once it drags itself into a deep economic crisis, political instability is likely to follow, Beck concluded.
Meanwhile, the Eurozone economy may face a major shock as the ECB's anti-inflationary policy threatens to stifle growth and heighten the risk of a deep recession, according to Bloomberg analysts. According to their estimates, the deferred effect of raising interest rates, combined with the restriction of government spending, could trim 4% from economic output of the euro zone.
Menteri Koordinator (Menko) Bidang Perekonomian RI Airlangga Hartarto mengatakan, pertumbuhan ekonomi Indonesia yang mencapai 5,17 persen secara tahunan (yoy) dapat dibilang lebih solid melampaui AS dan Singapura.
Berdasarkan data paparannya, pertumbuhan ekonomi Vietnam tercatat di level 4,14 persen, Meksiko di level 3,66 persen, AS 2,70 persen, Taiwan 1,45 persen, Arab Saudi di level 1,10 persen serta Korea Selatan 0,87 persen.
“Nah tentu kita lihat juga tingkat inflasi kita salah satu yang terendah di 3,08 persen, dibandingkan dengan negara Jerman yang masih di 6 persen atau yang sedang kena hiperinflasi seperti Turki itu yang 47 persen,” kata Menko Airlangga dalam Konferensi Pers Pertumbuhan Ekonomi di Jakarta, Senin.
Stagnasi tersebut dikarenakan saat ini negara-negara lain tengah mengalami kontraksi serta peningkatan inflasi akibat gejolak perekonomian global yang semakin tak menentu.
Lebih lanjut, Menko Airlangga juga menilai pertumbuhan ekonomi Indonesia hanya di bawah China yang tercatat 6,3 persen, dan Uzbekistan sebesar 5,6 persen.
Oleh karena itu ia optimistis bahwa kinerja pertumbuhan ekonomi di atas 5 persen dapat berlanjut hingga akhir tahun.
Adapun Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS) hari ini mencatatkan pertumbuhan ekonomi Indonesia pada kuartal II-2023 berada pada level 5,17 persen secara tahunan (yoy).
Sedangkan, secara kuartalan (qtq) mengalami kenaikan sebesar 3,86 persen apabila dibandingkan dengan kuartal I-2023.
Menko Airlangga menilai kinerja ekonomi tersebut menandakan ekonomi Indonesia telah berhasil di atas 5 persen secara tujuh kuartal berturut-turut.
Selain itu, pencapaian juga ditandai dengan kembalinya Indonesia ke dalam kategori Upper Middle Income Country berdasarkan Bank Dunia (World Bank).
"Indonesia kembali menuju upper middle income country berdasarkan data Bank Dunia di akhir Juni 2023 kita di angka 4.580-an. Kita berharap di akhir tahun 2024 nanti kita bisa mencapai 5.500 dolar AS dibanding negara lain," ujarnya.
At least 10 people were injured on Monday when an explosion rocked grain silos near the port of Derince in western Turkey, prompting an investigation into its cause, Kocaeli Governor Seddar Yavuz said.
An explosion occurred around 2:40 p.m. (1140 GMT) near Turkish Grain Board (TMO) silos, Yavuz said.
"Initial evaluations show that an explosion occurred due to wheat dust compression during the transfer of wheat from a ship to the silo," Yavuz said.
"We were told that it is technically possible that a blast could occur due to compression of wheat dust, but we are investigating every possible reason".
Two of the injured are in serious condition in hospital, and everyone has been accounted for, he added.
The Ministry of Transportation said no ships were damaged due to the explosion.
The explosion occurred in mid-afternoon on Monday, with Derince mayor Zeki Aygün telling local media that it originated at a block of government-owned grain silos and felt “like a violent earthquake.” Kocaeli Governor Seddar Yavuz said that 10 people were injured, with two in serious condition at a nearby hospital.
Security camera footage captured the moment of the blast, which scattered debris across a nearby goods yard. Video shot from further away showed a cloud of smoke and dust rising over the port after the blast.
Situated around 90 kilometers (55 miles) east of Istanbul in the province of Kocaeli, Derince is one of the few seaports in Türkiye wholly operated by the government. Derince is a grain transportation hub, and received regular shipments of grain from Ukraine, until the Black Sea grain deal expired last month.
Yavuz said that the explosion took place as grain was being transferred from a ship to a silo, and could have been caused by "wheat dust compression." According to live data from MarineTraffic.com, a Marshall Islands-flagged transport ship is currently moored next to the silos.
13 out of 16 silos at the port were damaged in the blast, provincial authorities said. Emergency services are still working at the scene, and police have launched an investigation into the incident.
The West continues providing the Ukrainian Armed Forces with weaponry that they use against Russian troops, but are these weapons effective enough to prevail on the battlefield?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently praised performance characteristics of the US and German air defenses - the Patriot and IRIS-T, respectively - that were earlier supplied to Kiev as part of the West’s military assistance to Ukraine.
Zelensky argued that these systems were proving "highly effective" and had "already yielded significant results" by allegedly downing 65 Russian missiles of various kinds and 178 Russian assault drones. Sputnik checks this out.
View From Other Angle
The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) earlier this month released a video of the destruction of the IRIS-T system by the Lancet-3 kamikaze drone, something that was reported by a US military news outlet as well. The IRIS-T was obliterated amid Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which the MoD said had failed on all fronts.
The developments were preceded by the Russian hypersonic missile Kinzhal successfully destroying five launchers of Ukraine’s Patriot system in May.
A well-informed source was cited by Sputnik as saying that the Patriot “was suddenly hit from an air ambush” by the MiG-31 fighter jet carrying the Kinzhal missile, and that “the enemy’s combat crews could do nothing to protect the anti-aircraft system.”
To understand the real effectiveness of the above-mentioned air defenses, one should first of all bear in mind that the Russian Armed Forces carry out “combined” missile attacks on Ukraine’s military infrastructure, Moscow-based military historian and political commentator Yury Knutov said.
What are Combined Strikes?
Knutov explained that such attacks stipulate Russian forces first using simple and “cheap” missiles along with similar unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones. The goal is to exhaust the Ukrainian air defenses, including the Patriots and the IRIS-Ts in terms of the number of missile interceptors or anti-aircraft missiles.
“Namely, we [Russian military] first launch, for example, the Kh-55 missiles, which are subject to decommissioning and were planned for disposal. Instead, we launch these missiles to prod the enemy to use his own expensive [Patriot or IRIS-T] interceptors to destroy the Kh-55s,” he said.
The same goes for Russian UAVs, he added. According to the expert, first and foremost, “relatively cheap Russian drones” are launched so that the enemy can use the same expensive interceptors to destroy these vehicles.
All this is followed by the "next echelon of Russian missiles, including the Kalibr, the X-555, and the X-101, which are already working directly on the Ukrainian targets themselves," Knutov noted. He underscored that neither the US- nor the German-made air defense systems are capable of tackling Russia’s Iskander short-range ballistic missiles.
Devil in Details
When asked about the effectiveness of the Patriots and the IRIS-Ts as such, the Russian expert noted that “if we take the total number of targets downed by these air defenses, it can turn out to be quite massive, so we can understandably refer to the high efficiency of these systems.”
Still, nothing is as simple as it could seem at first glance, according to Knutov.
"If we subtract from this number of the Russian UAVs and missiles the number of the pieces actually designated to destroy the Ukrainian target, and subtract the number of the drones and missiles that are designed to hoodwink the enemy, then the effectiveness of these NATO air defenses turns out to be extremely low," he emphasized.
How Can Russia Tackle the Touted Air Defenses?
Knutov explained that Russia сan grapple with the Patriots and the IRIS-Ts by means of the Kh-37 anti-radar missiles, which are capable of destroying the Ukrainian air defenses’ guidance or radar stations and thereby disable their key element.
This enables the Russian military to disable the Patriot or the IRIS-Ts systems for a long time, until they are repaired or the new ones are deployed, according to the expert.
He added that one cannot but mention Iskander-M missiles, capable of overcoming any enemy air defense shield, and the Kinzhal (Dagger) missiles, which successfully tackles the Patriot.
“Both Iskander-Ms and Kinzhals are highly effective against any Western air defense system. These missiles can destroy enemy air defenses even before and during deployment, a mission that can also be implemented with the help of the Kalibrs or Geran (Geranium) drones," Knutov concluded.
The Russian MoD has, meanwhile, said in a statement that since the beginning of its counteroffensive on June 4, Ukraine has lost more than 43,000 soldiers and over 4,900 units of various weaponry, including 26 aircraft, nine helicopters, 1,831 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, including 25 German-made Leopard tanks, seven French-made AMX wheeled tanks and 21 US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles.
In addition, the Russian troops have destroyed Kiev’s 747 field artillery guns and mortars, including 76 American M777 artillery systems, as well as 84 self-propelled artillery mounts from Poland, the US, France and Germany.
The Russian Defense Ministry earlier said that since the beginning of Kiev’s counteroffensive in early June, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have already lost more than 43,000 servicemen.
Ukrainian soldiers learned the truth about Kiev’s counteroffensive from the social network TikTok, Yaroslav Mironyuk, a captured serviceman, told Sputnik.
“The commanders didn't say a peep. Some said it had already begun, others said it hadn’t started yet,” Mironyuk noted.
He said that he was also in the dark about the goals of the advance, adding that he learned about what was going on from "what's on TV" and from watching TikTok videos.
According to Mironyuk, his unit was supposed to be replaced in the Staromayorsk area on the Southern Donetsk front three days after they were deployed there, but the rotation had never happened.
What’s more, he went on to say, they ran out of food on the very first day, which was followed by a shortage of water. When he and his comrades-in-arms heard the Russian Armed Forces shelling their positions, they decided to lay down their weapons and surrender, as per Mironyuk.
The remarks came a few days after Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that since the start of Kiev’s counteroffensive, the Ukrainian Armed Forces had lost more than 43,000 soldiers and over 4,900 pieces of various weaponry, including 26 aircraft, nine helicopters, and 747 field artillery guns and mortars.
This followed Western media reports citing unnamed Ukrainian and Western officials as saying that Kiev's forces had lost approximately one-fifth of their Western military equipment over the last two months, including enormous numbers of armored vehicles, as well as using up much of the stockpiles of munitions it was given.
Earlier, both Ukrainian and Western officials admitted that Kiev’s counteroffensive, which was launched by Ukraine's military on June 4, is going “slower than desired,” and is “behind schedule.”
Ukraine's Counteroffensive May 'Run Its Course in Next Few Weeks'
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier said that Kiev’s counteroffensive, which was launched on June 4, has been unsuccessful on all fronts as Russia continues its special military operation in Ukraine.
The next few weeks will see the Ukrainian counteroffensive “run its course”, former International Monetary Fund (IMF) economist and Bank of America strategist David Woo has told Russian media.
David Woo said that he was “really impressed” with the fact that "Russian military technology has literally been going through a revolution every three months" and "the Russians are constantly learning from their mistakes."
“The Russians are now fighting with weapons they didn’t have 18 months ago because they didn’t exist 18 months ago. And that to me is the most impressive thing, […] whereas the West is still walking around in the same circle, Russia’s getting better and better, and this war is gonna [sic] be won by technology in the end,” the former IMF economist argued.
He suggested that even though “the Ukrainians are good fighters," Russia will eventually “crush them”. According to Woo, “if Russia crushes Ukraine, that will be the end of American hegemony, as we know.”
Ukraine's much-hyped counteroffensive kicked off on June 4 after months of delays over a lack of military supplies from Western donors. Russian President Vladimir Putin underscored last month that Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which he said claimed the lives of “tens of thousands” of Ukrainian servicemen, had yielded no results.
"Neither the colossal resources that were pumped into the Kiev regime, nor the supply of Western weapons, tanks, artillery, armored vehicles and missiles helped. The delivery of thousands of foreign mercenaries and advisers who were most actively used in attempts to break through the front of our army did not help either,” Putin told a Russian Security Council meeting at the time.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, for his part, said that "the Kiev regime has no successes” and “is in a very difficult situation.”
“The special military operation continues. It is obvious that the counteroffensive is not working out the way it was intended in Kiev," Peskov told reporters.
He was echoed by the Russian Defense Ministry, which, in turn, said that Ukrainian troops kept trying, but were failing to advance as they continue to suffer heavy losses in men and materiel. A number of Western media outlets also pointed to the unimpressive results of Kiev's counteroffensive, admitting that its progress was "slower than desired."
