Saat peringatan HUT NKRI ke-78 kalian ada dimana? ikut memeriahkankah dengan lomba - lomba?
Ada Warga Jepang dan WNI ikut perlombaan memeriahkan peringatan Hari Ulang Tahun Kemerdekaan Republik Indonesia di Balai Indonesia, Tokyo, pada hari Sabtu, 26 Agustus 2023. Lomba yang diadakan, di antaranya balap karung, makan kerupuk dan estafet kelereng.
Salah satu peserta Natsu mengaku senang mengikuti lomba khas peringatan kemerdekaan itu untuk pertama kalinya “Sangat seru dan saya dapat hadiah lomba balap karung,” katanya.
Ia mengetahui ajang tersebut dari salah seorang temannya dan tertarik untuk mengikuti beragam lomba 17-an langsung di Indonesia.
Tidak tanggung-tanggung, lomba yang Natsu ikuti adalah panjat pinang.
Hal senada disampaikan peserta lainnya Chieko Niwata yang merasakan keseruan dalam perlombaan itu meskipun sedikit lelah dan kesulitan dalam lomba balap karung.
“Tadi saya ikut, saya sedikit capek, tidak bisa lompat,” ujarnya.
Chieko mengaku pernah menyaksikan langsung perlombaan 17 Agustus di Indonesia, tetapi tidak sempat mencobanya.
“Saya suka melihat lomba pohon (panjat) pinang, tapi tidak bisa (melakukannya),” katanya.
Sementara itu, Yuko Kawakami juga mengaku kesulitan dalam mengikuti lomba balap karung karena tidak terbiasa.
Meski demikian, ia mengaku senang dan terhibur ikut serta dalam ajang itu.
“Rasanya sangat menyenangkan tapi sangat susah bagi kami orang Jepang,” katanya.
Perlombaan itu diadakan oleh Rumah Budaya Indonesia (RBI) Jepang dengan tujuan memperkenalkan tentang peringatan hari kemerdekaan Indonesia.
“Kami ingin supaya mereka merasakan bahwa orang Indonesia sangat menyambut hari kemerdekaan dengan antusias dan kami ingin menularkan perasaan ini kepada orang Jepang,” kata Pengelola RBI Imelda.
Dalam kesempatan sama, Atase Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Kedutaan Besar Republik Indonesia (KBRI) Tokyo Yusli Wardiatno berharap warga Jepang dapat terdorong datang langsung ke Indonesia untuk merasakan kemeriahan saat peringatan hari kemerdekaan
“Ini hanya sebagian saja lomba yang Anda ikuti. Kalau punya kesempatan dekat-dekat tanggal 17 Agustus datanglah ke Indonesia, maka Anda akan melihat betapa banyak lomba dan lebih meriah,” katanya.
Selain itu, lanjut dia, Agustus merupakan bulan dengan banyak hari libur di Jepang.
Menurut dia, saat ini penerbangan Jepang-Indonesia PP juga dipermudah dengan adanya peningkatan frekuensi Garuda Indonesia yang terbang empat kali seminggu ke Jakarta dan lima kali seminggu ke Bali.
This is the next piece of US propaganda as if Ukrainian's counteroffensive was successful.
David Petraeus, a retired U.S. Army general, was commander of the troop surge in Iraq, U.S. Central Command and NATO/U.S. Forces in Afghanistan. Frederick W. Kagan is senior fellow and director of the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute.
The rapid Ukrainian breakthrough and advance that many hoped for has not occurred. Media coverage has grown gloomier in recent weeks on the back of fragmentary journalistic accounts from the front and reported intelligence assessments from Western analysts. The news has not been great. The fight against Russia has proved to be bloody and slow — a very hard slog.
But observers would be wise to temper their pessimism. War does not proceed in a linear fashion. Defenders can hold for a long time and then suddenly break, allowing an attacker to make rapid gains before the defense solidifies further to the rear. The Ukrainians aim to generate exactly this effect — and there is reason to think they can. Ukraine’s offensive push is far from over. In fact, it is still in the early stages — just 10 weeks into what is likely to last at least four more months.
Penetrating a modern defense in depth such as the Russians established in southern Ukraine is a tall order for any military. The U.S. military has done it twice in modern memory, both times against Iraq. In 1991, after pummeling the Iraqi forces for 39 days from the air, a U.S.-led coalition of 650,000 troops penetrated and outflanked Iraqi defenses, crushing the Iraqi military in 100 hours. In 2003, a smaller U.S.-led force destroyed a badly degraded Iraqi military within a few weeks.
Ukraine has none of the advantages the United States had in those operations. In both Iraq-related cases, coalition forces benefited from air supremacy, while Ukrainian aircraft cannot operate over Russian lines and cannot prevent Russian aircraft and helicopters from hitting their own advancing troops. And Ukraine has been given too few armored breaching systems.
The Russians have also fought much better than the Iraqis did — and better than many analysts expected given Russia’s unimpressive performance until then in the war. Russian forces have prepared extensive defenses in depth, consisting of wide, deep belts of skillfully laid mines, antitank ditches and other obstacles. Soldiers equipped with drones are directing substantial artillery fire against any Ukrainian units that try to get through. More broadly, the Russian army has adopted an elastic defense, in which its troops initially fall back and then counterattack once the Ukrainian forces take losses and begin to tire.
All of these factors make the Ukrainian counteroffensive exceedingly hard. But as one of us had occasion to observe during the tough early months of the 2007 surge in Iraq, hard is not hopeless.
Ukrainian forces are advancing in two key areas — in central Zaporizhzhia Oblast near Robotyne on the road to Tokmak and Melitopol, and in eastern Zaporizhzhia Oblast south of Velyka Novosylka on a line toward Berdyansk. The Ukrainians appear to have penetrated at least the forward-most belt of Russian mines and defenses in both areas, and their advance in the Robotyne area appears to be accelerating. They have also taken back some significant ground around Bakhmut, which is the only town Russia was able to capture during its own costly offensive last winter.
Propanda Tony Radakin to attract financial support by blowing up as if the success of the counteroffensive was a resounding success
Ukraine’s incremental gains are part of a larger effort that British Chief of Defense Staff Adm. Tony Radakin termed “starve, stretch and strike.” Ukrainian forces are stretching Russian defenses by attacking at multiple points along the 600-mile front.
They are also attriting assets in Russian-occupied territory, taking out artillery units, headquarters and reserve force staging areas, as well as targeting key supply depots and routes to make it more difficult for Russia to sustain its defense. To put it simply, Ukraine is applying pressure on their opponent until something breaks, at which point they will commit their reserves and strike.
Russian front-line forces are likely tired, if not exhausted. Some have been defending since at least the start of the counteroffensive on June 4, and many of them have been in place for much longer than that. Fresh units have not been rotated in. It is also unclear how heavily mined or manned Russia’s secondary defensive lines are, but there is good reason to doubt that the Russians have large numbers of high-quality soldiers holding them. Most important, Russia lacks large operational reserves.
This means that any Ukrainian breach of existing lines will be difficult to quickly plug. This is what Ukraine is banking on. A small breach could yield relatively sudden and rapid gains. If those materialize, panic among Russian forces could multiply Ukraine’s opportunities for maintaining its momentum.
An aspirational theory of victory is no guarantee of success. The Russians have clearly adapted to the realities of this phase of the war, and while they face serious challenges, it would be foolish to write them off. But it would be similarly foolish to write off this “summer” counteroffensive — a fight that is likely to continue through the fall and into the winter. Ukrainians know they are fighting for their very survival, and the country’s total mobilization across all sectors of society is a testament to their will and determination.
For Western observers, it is important to keep this big picture in mind when following Ukraine’s grueling fight. And policymakers should not wring their hands about the counteroffensive not yielding quick gains. This will be a long war, and we need Ukraine to prevail. Ukraine needs long-range precision-strike capabilities such as the U.S. Army’s Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). It needs cluster munitions for its rockets, not just its artillery rounds.
It needs more ammunition to sustain the offensive. And it needs the accelerated delivery of F-16s. In truth, Ukraine needed these capabilities months ago. The United States’ provision of more than $44 billion in arms, ammunition and assistance has been hugely impressive. But we must do more, and we must do it with a greater sense of urgency. The time to act is now.
The Russian Armed Forces skillfully use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) during the special military operation to accomplish assigned tasks without losing military personnel.
A video released by the Russian Ministry of Defense shows a Russian FPV attack drone striking Ukrainian servicemen hiding in a trench. One of the soldiers can be seen shooting, seemingly in an attempt to get the kamikaze drone coming his way. But his assault rifle proves to be ineffective - the UAV rams into the Ukrainian trenches, exploding spectacularly.
Ukraine launched a counteroffensive against Russian forces in early June after multiple postponements. Citing the counteroffensive's needs, Kiev pushed its Western donors to step up the military and financial aid.
Russian forces improve positions in Kupyansk area – Defense Ministry
Russian forces improved their positions on the frontline in the Kupyansk area in the past day, repelling five attacks by Ukrainian assault teams, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said.
"Forces of Battlegroup West, backed by aircraft and artillery units, improved their positions along the frontline in the Kupyansk area. In the past day, five attacks by assault teams of the 115th Mechanized Brigade, the 25th Air Assault Brigade and the 68th Ranger Brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces were repelled near Sinkovka in the Kharkov Region, Novosyolovskoye, Raigorodka and Novoyegorovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic," he pointed out.
According to Konashenkov, the enemy lost up to 50 troops, four armored combat vehicles, two motor vehicles, a Polish-made Krab self-propelled howitzer, and two D-20 howitzers. In addition, an ammo depot of the 103rd Territorial Defense Brigade was destroyed newark Kislovka in the Kharkov Region.
Russian forces repel six Ukrainian attacks in Donetsk area, killing up to 225 enemy troops
Russian forces repelled six Ukrainian attacks in the Donetsk area in the past day, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said.
"In the Donetsk area, forces of Battlegroup South, in coordination with aircraft and artillery units, repelled six attacks by Ukrainian assault teams near Minkovka, Kleshcheyevka and Krasnogorovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic. The enemy lost up to 225 troops in the Donetsk area, as well as three armored combat vehicles, two motor vehicles, two Msta-B howitzers, a D-20 howitzer and a D-30 howitzer," he specified.
Konashenkov added that an ammo depot of the 53rd Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces had been destroyed near the Netailovo settlement in the DPR.
People use a piece of clothing to hide from the sun during a heatwave in Milan, Italy, August 21, 2023. REUTERS/Claudia Greco Acquire Licensing Rights
Italy's northern city of Milan registered a new record high average daily temperature of 33 Celsius (91.4 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday as a heatwave which began around mid-August reached its peak, the regional environmental protection agency (ARPA) said on Friday.
Milan has registered the highest average daily temperature for the past 260 years, regional environmental protection agency (ARPA) said Friday, as much of Italy grapples with a heatwave.
The Milano Brera weather station recorded an average 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, the highest since it started registering temperatures in 1763.
The northern Italian city's previous record, of 32.8 degrees, was set in 2003.
Milan also recorded the highest minimum temperature on Thursday at 28.9 degrees Celcius, ARPA said.
ARPA said the Italian Alps have also been hit by "intense and abnormal" temperatures, but said the heatwave is about to break, with heavy thunderstorms expected in the next few days.
Emissions of greenhouse gases are enabling increasingly intense and long-lasting heatwaves, especially in Europe, which the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says is the world's fastest warming continent.
Heatwaves are among the deadliest natural hazards, with hundreds of thousands of people dying from preventable heat-related causes each year.
It added that "intense and abnormal" temperatures also hit the Italian Alps.
The heatwave is about to end though, the agency said, giving way to heavy thunderstorms and a sharp drop in temperatures of up to 10-15 C early next week.
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference following a closed two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy in Washington, U.S., July 26, 2023. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cautioned that past interest-rate increases had yet to fully slow the economy, an argument for holding rates steady for now, even though stronger and sustained growth could require higher rates to keep inflation declining.
"Given how far we have come, at coming meetings we are in a position to proceed carefully," Powell said in a heavily anticipated address at the Kansas City Fed's annual symposium in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park. "We will proceed carefully as we decide whether to tighten further or, instead, to hold the policy rate constant and await further data."
Fed officials lifted their benchmark federal-funds rate last month by a quarter-percentage-point to a range between 5.25% and 5.5%, a 22-year high, continuing the most rapid series of increases in four decades. Their next meeting is Sept. 19-20.
Powell's speech illustrated how he is trying to thread the needle between slowing hiring, investment and spending to bring down inflation without providing so much restraint as to create a needlessly severe economic slowdown.
In June, most officials thought they would raise rates to a range between 5.5% and 5.75% this year, implying one more quarter-point increase later this year. Powell didn't tip his hand on whether the Fed would need to follow through on another rate increase, highlighting instead how coming economic data would inform that decision.
Inflation has slowed in the two months since officials made those projections, but economic activity has shown surprising strength.
Inflation has retreated from a 40-year high last summer, with the consumer-price index climbing 3.2% in July from a year earlier. That is well below the recent peak rate of 9.1% in June 2022.
Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy categories, increased just 0.2% in both June and July, extending a broader slowdown in price pressures.
"Two months of good data are only the beginning of what it will take to build confidence that inflation is moving down sustainably toward our goal," Powell said. "There is substantial further ground to cover."
Some officials are uneasy about raising rates further because they expect past increases will continue to slow the economy by making it more expensive and harder for companies and individuals to borrow. Others worry that if the Fed holds rates steady, strong economic growth could cause inflation to decline more slowly than anticipated.
Powell nodded to both concerns in his remarks. He said financial conditions, including lending standards and borrowing rates, have tightened broadly in a way that typically slows down economic activity, "and there is evidence of that in this cycle as well."
"But we are attentive to signs that the economy may not be cooling as expected," he said. Fed officials have been clear that they see inflation declining further because they expect the economy to grow below its long-run trend of around 2% over the coming year. "Additional evidence of persistently above-trend growth could put further progress on inflation at risk and could warrant further tightening of monetary policy," Powell said.
'FINGER ON THE TRIGGER'
Markets reacted by continuing to price in only a modest chance of a rate hike next month - less than 20%, based on rate futures pricing - but an increasing likelihood of a rate hike at one of the Fed's following two meetings - on Oct. 31-Nov. 1 and Dec. 12-13 - with prices indicating a better-than-50% chance of the policy rate ending the year in a 5.5%-5.75% range.
"My main takeaway is that when it comes to another rate hike, the chair still very much has his finger on the trigger, even if it's a bit less itchy than it was last year," said Inflation Insights' Omair Sharif.
It was difficult, Powell said, to know with precision the degree to which the Fed's current 5.25% to 5.5% benchmark interest rate had cleared the "neutral" rate of interest needed to slow the economy, and therefore hard to assess just where policy stands.
Powell repeated what has become a standard Fed diagnosis of inflation progress - with a pandemic-era jump in goods inflation easing and a decline in housing inflation "in the pipeline," but concern that continued consumer spending on a broad array of services and a tight labor market may make a return to 2% difficult.
Recent declines in measures of underlying inflation, stripped of food and energy prices, "were welcome, but two months of good data are only the beginning of what it will take to build confidence that inflation is moving down sustainably," Powell said.
"Given the size" of the broader services sector, excluding housing, "some further progress will be essential," the Fed chief said, and it will likely require an economic slowdown to deliver it.
"Restrictive monetary policy will likely play an increasingly important role. Getting inflation sustainably back down to 2% is expected to require a period of below-trend economic growth as well as some softening in labor market conditions," Powell said.
While Powell's tone was not as stern as last year, when in a very abrupt set of remarks he disabused market notions that the Fed was then nearing the end of its rate-hike cycle and would cut rates through this year. Still, it was clear he did not want to set aside any options.
“Powell continues to walk a tightrope," said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors. "This year I think he is demonstrating that he is pleased with how far monetary policy has come and how inflation has been reduced. But he is still holding on tightly to this notion that they are watching it carefully and they still have work to do.”
The Fed chair also indicated he is not open to entertaining a discussion about changing the Fed's 2% target for inflation as some economists have suggested may be warranted in an environment with growth that is persistently above trend.
"Two percent is and will remain our inflation target," Powell said. "We are committed to achieving and sustaining a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to that level over time."
Powell ended his speech on Friday with nearly the same line he finished with last year at Jackson Hole: "We will keep at it until the job is done."
Phosphorus ammunition is a type of weapon that contains phosphorus compounds that combust upon exposure to air. The use of phosphorus ammunition is controversial due to its potential to cause severe burns and damage to civilians and non-combatants.
The Ukrainian military has used phosphorus in the Zaporozhye direction, the head of the surgical department of the separate medical battalion of the 58th Army of the Russian Armed Forces told reporters.
"The use of phosphorus was detected in the area of Zherebyanka, Pyatikhatki. [...] Thank God, our anesthesiologists identified it in time, this lesion, and measures were quickly taken - evacuation, sanitation," a military doctor working on the front line said.
He added that when there is talk in the media about the desire of NATO countries to supply the Kiev regime with new weaponry, it usually begins to be used at the front immediately.
"That is, it is already here. It is starting to be used on this very day," he noted.
The use of phosphorus shells is prohibited by the Geneva Convention. The use of incendiary munitions, including those containing white phosphorus, is restricted by Protocol III of the 1980 UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. In particular, it is prohibited where civilians may be harmed.
Such munitions cause severe burns and acute poisoning, as well as bone and marrow damage and tissue necrosis. White phosphorus is toxic - the lethal dose for humans is 0.05-0.15 grams.
Russian Navy Ships Strike Ukrainian Port Infrastructure
The Russian Armed Forces have launched sea-based cruise missile strikes against a port facility used by Ukrainian troops, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
Russian Navy Ships Strike Ukrainian Port Infrastructure Facility
"The objective of the strike has been achieved. The target has been hit," reads the ministry's official summary.
Donetsk Direction
Units of the Yug Battlegroup repelled three attacks in the area of the villages of Zaliznyanskoye, Kleshcheyevka, and Staromikhailovka in the Donetsk People's Republic. Ukrainian losses included:
Up to 260 troops killed and wounded;
One tank, two armored infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), and two military cars;
One Krab self-propelled tracked howitzer, two D-20 howitzers.
Kupyansk Direction
Zapad battlegroup fighters, supported by air and artillery, repelled three breakthrough attempts by the Ukrainian 47th Mechanized Brigade and 68th Jaeger Brigade in the areas of Sinkovka in the Kharkov region and Sergeyevka in the Lugansk People's Republic. Ukrainian military losses in the span of 24 hours included up to 50 soldiers, two tanks, three IFVs, two pickup trucks, and a D-20 howitzer.
Zaporozhye Direction
Russian forces repelled five attacks by Ukrainian troops. The Kiev regime's forces suffered losses:
Over 110 soldiers;
Two Bradley IFVs, two Stryker armored fighting vehicles, and four military cars;
Three M777 howitzers, two FH-70 howitzers.
Southern Donetsk and Kherson Directions
Battlegroup Vostok repelled an attack near the settlement of Sladkoye in the Donetsk People's Republic. In addition, they hammered Ukrainian Marines of the 38th Brigade in the area of Urozhaynoye. As a result of these engagements, the Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered casualties:
Up to 125 soldiers;
Three military vehicles;
One Krab howitzer, two M777 howitzers, two Msta-B howitzers, one D-20 howitzer, a 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer, and an AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder Weapon Locating System.
In the direction of Kherson, the Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered losses of up to 50 soldiers killed and wounded, three military vehicles, one M777 howitzer, and several Msta-B and D-30 howitzers.
Krasny Liman Direction
Units of the Tsentr battlegroup, during the course of operations, repelled an attack near the settlement of Kuzmino in the Donetsk People's Republic. In addition, they struck the positions of the 63rd and 67th Mechanized Brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the 5th Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard, in the areas of the settlements of Chervonaya Dibrova in the Lugansk People's Republic, and Torskoye and Grigorovka in the Donetsk People's Republic.
Following the actions of the Russian forces, the losses of the Ukrainian Army amounted to:
