Indonesia launches free meals program to feed children and pregnant women to fight stunting

Indonesia launches free meals program to feed children and pregnant women to fight stunting
Indonesia’s Minister of Cooperatives, Budi Arie Setiadi (R), visits students on the first day of the free-meal program at Angkasa 5 Elementary School in Jakarta on January 6, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 06 January 2025
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Indonesia launches free meals program to feed children and pregnant women to fight stunting

Indonesia launches free meals program to feed children and pregnant women to fight stunting
  • Many children are malnourished and promise is to provide free school lunches and milk as part of a longer-term strategy to achieve a “Golden Indonesia” generati

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s new government started an ambitious $28 million project Monday to feed nearly 90 million children and pregnant women to fight malnutrition and stunting although critics question whether the nationwide program is affordable.
The Free Nutritious Meal program delivers on a campaign promise by President Prabowo Subianto, who was elected last year to lead the nation of more than 282 million people and Southeast Asia’s largest economy. He said the program aimed to fight the stunting of growth that afflicts of 21.5 percent of Indonesian children younger than 5 and would raise the earnings of farmers and the value of their harvest.
Subianto has pledged to accelerate GDP growth to 8 percent from 5 percent now.
In his inauguration speech in October, Subianto said many children are malnourished and his promise to provide free school lunches and milk to 83 million students at more than 400,000 schools across the country is part of a longer-term strategy to develop the nation’s human resources to achieve a “Golden Indonesia” generation by 2045.
“Too many of our brothers and sisters are below the poverty line, too many of our children go to school without breakfast and do not have clothes for school,” Subianto said.
Subianto’s signature program, which had included free milk, could cost upward of 450 trillion rupiah ($28 billion). He said his team had made the calculations to run such a program, and “We are capable,” he asserted.
The government’s target is to reach 19.47 million schoolchildren and pregnant women in 2025 with a budget of 71 trillion rupiah ($4.3 billion) so as to keep the annual deficit under a legislated ceiling of 3 percent of GDP, said Dadan Hindayana, the head of the newly formed National Nutrition Agency.
Hindayana said the money would buy an estimated 6.7 million tons of rice, 1.2 million tons of chicken, 500,000 tons of beef, 1 million tons of fish, vegetable and fruit, and 4 million kiloliters of milk, and at least 5,000 kitchens would be set up across the country.
On Monday, a truck carrying about 3,000 meal portions arrived before lunch at SD Cilangkap 08, a primary school in the Jakarta satellite city of Depok. The 740 students were provided plates containing rice, stir-fried vegetables, tempeh, stir-fried chicken and oranges.
“We send a team to each school to facilitate the meal distribution to students every day,” Hindayana said, adding that the program will provide one meal per day for each student from early childhood education to senior high school levels, covering a third of the daily caloric needs for children, with the government providing the meals at no cost to recipients.
But the populist program has drawn criticism from investors and analysts, ranging from conflation with the interests of industrial lobby groups or the sheer scale of the logistics required, to the burden on Indonesia’s state finances and economy.
Economic researcher from the Center of Economic and Law Studies, Nailul Huda, said with Indonesia’s tight fiscal condition, state finances are not strong enough to support the fiscal burden and this will lead to additional state debt.
“That is not comparable to the effect of free meals program which can also be misdirected,” Huda said, “The burden on our state budget is too heavy if it is forced to reach 100 percent of the target recipients, and it will be difficult for Prabowo’s government to achieve the economic growth target of 8 percent.”
He warned it could also worsen the external balance of payments for the country, which is already a major importer of rice, wheat, soybeans, beef and dairy products.
But Reni Suwarso, the director of Institute for Democracy, Security and Strategic Studies said the stunting rate in Indonesia is still far from the target of a 14 percent reduction in 2024.
According to the 2023 Indonesian Health Survey, the national stunting prevalence was 21.5 percent, down around 0.8 percent compared to the previous year. The United Nations Children’s Fund or UNICEF estimated one in 12 Indonesian children younger than 5 are wasted while one in five are stunted.
Wasting refers to low weight for the child’s height, while stunting refers to low height for the child’s age. Both conditions are caused by malnourishment.
“That’s so bad and must be solved!” Suwarso said, “Child malnourishment have severe consequences, threatening the health and long-term development of infants and young children throughout this nation.”


Russian drone ‘struck’ Chernobyl cover, no radiation increase: Zelensky

Russian drone ‘struck’ Chernobyl cover, no radiation increase: Zelensky
Updated 34 min 25 sec ago
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Russian drone ‘struck’ Chernobyl cover, no radiation increase: Zelensky

Russian drone ‘struck’ Chernobyl cover, no radiation increase: Zelensky
  • The International Atomic Energy Agency also reported an “explosion” at the site

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that a Russian drone had struck a cover built to contain radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, adding that “radiation levels have not increased.”
The Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched more than 100 drones across the country overnight — including attack drones — targeting northern regions of the country where the Chernobyl power plant lies.
“Last night, a Russian attack drone with a high-explosive warhead struck the cover protecting the world from radiation at the destroyed 4th power unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant,” Zelensky said in a social media post.
The International Atomic Energy Agency also reported an “explosion” at the site, and said “radiation levels inside and outside remain normal and stable.”
The agency, which has had a team deployed on the site since the early stages of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, published images apparently showing the drone on fire after crashing into the covering.
In 1986, a reactor at Chernobyl exploded during a botched safety test, resulting in the world’s worst nuclear accident that sent clouds of radiation across much of Europe and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate.
Soviet authorities initially tried to cover up and then play down the disaster.
Eventually a massive concrete and steel cover called a sarcophagus was built over the reactor, to contain the radiation.
“The only country in the world that attacks such sites, occupies nuclear power plants, and wages war without any regard for the consequences is today’s Russia,” Zelensky added in his statement.
There was no immediate response from Russia.


Russia to be ‘reintegrated’ into world economy if war in Ukraine ends, Orban says

Russia to be ‘reintegrated’ into world economy if war in Ukraine ends, Orban says
Updated 14 February 2025
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Russia to be ‘reintegrated’ into world economy if war in Ukraine ends, Orban says

Russia to be ‘reintegrated’ into world economy if war in Ukraine ends, Orban says
  • Trump said both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed a desire for peace

BUDAPEST:Russia will be “reintegrated” into the world economy and the European energy system once a peace deal is achieved and the war ends in Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told state radio on Friday.
“If the US president comes and creates peace, there is a deal, I think Russia will be reintegrated into the world economy ... the European security system and even the European economic and energy system, that will give a huge boost to the Hungarian economy,” Orban, an ally of President Donald Trump, said. “We will win a lot with a peace deal.”
Trump said both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed a desire for peace in separate phone calls with him on Wednesday, and he ordered top US officials to begin talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, Orban has emerged as a vocal critic of EU sanctions against Moscow and the bloc’s financial and military support for Ukraine.
While countries in Western Europe have made serious efforts to wean themselves off Russian energy, landlocked Hungary gets 80-85 percent of its gas from Russia, with most of its crude oil supplies also coming from Russia.


260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated

260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated
Updated 14 February 2025
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260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated

260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated
  • Such scams have extracted tens of billions of dollars from victims around the world, according to UN experts

BANGKOK: Some 260 people believed to have been trafficked and trapped into working in online scam centers are to be repatriated after they were rescued from Myanmar, Thailand’s army announced Thursday.
In a fresh crackdown on scam centers operating from Southeast Asia, the Thai army said it was coordinating an effort to repatriate some 260 people believed to have been victims of human trafficking after they were rescued and sent from Myanmar to Thailand.
Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, which share borders with Thailand, have become known as havens for criminal syndicates who are estimated to have forced hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia and elsewhere into helping run online scams including false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes.
Such scams have extracted tens of billions of dollars from victims around the world, according to UN experts, while the people recruited to carry them out have often been tricked into taking the jobs under false pretenses and trapped in virtual slavery.
An earlier crackdown on scam centers in Myanmar was initiated in late 2023 after China expressed embarrassment and concern over illegal casinos and scam operations in Myanmar’s northern Shan state along its border. Ethnic guerrilla groups with close ties to Beijing shut down many operations, and an estimated 45,000 Chinese nationals suspected of involvement were repatriated.
The army said that those rescued in the most recent operation came from 20 nationalities — with significant numbers from Ethiopia, Kenya, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan and China. There were also nationals of Indonesia, Nepal, Taiwan, Uganda, Laos, Brazil, Burundi, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Ghana and India. They were sent across the border from Myanmar’s Myawaddy district to Thailand’s Tak province on Wednesday.
Reports in Thai media said a Myanmar ethnic militia that controls the area where they were held, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, was responsible for freeing the workers and taking them to the border. Myanmar’s military government exercises little control over frontier areas where ethnic minorities predominate.
Several ethnic militias are believed to be involved in criminal activities, including drug trafficking and protecting call-center scam operations.
The Thai army statement said the rescued people will undergo questioning, and if determined to be victims of human trafficking, will enter a process of protection while waiting to be sent back to their countries.
Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who is also defense minister, said Wednesday that there might be many more scam workers waiting to be repatriated from Myanmar through Thailand, but that Thailand would only receive those that are ready to be taken back right away by their country of origin.
“I’ve made it clear that Thailand is not going to set up another shelter,” he told reporters during a visit in Sa Kaeo province, which borders Cambodia. Thailand hosts nine refugee camps along the border holding more than 100,000 people, most from Myanmar’s ethnic Karen minority.
Phumtham added that Thailand would also need to question them before sending them back, first is to make sure that they are victims of human trafficking, and also to get information that would help the police investigate the trafficking and scam problems.
On a visit to China in early February, Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra vowed along with China’s leader Xi Jinping to crack down on the scam networks that plague Southeast Asia.
Many dramatic stories of Chinese people being lured to work in Bangkok only to be trafficked into a scam compound in Myanmar have surfaced. Chinese actor Wang Xing was a high-profile case but was quickly rescued after his tale spread on social media.
Underlining Beijing’s concern, Liu Zhongyi, China’s Vice Minister of Public Security and Commissioner of its Criminal Investigation Bureau, made an official visit to Thailand last month and inspected the border area opposite where many of the Myanmar’s scam centers are located.
Just ahead of Paetongtarn’s visit to China, the Thai government issued an order to cut off electricity, Internet and gas supplies to several areas in Myanmar along the border with northern Thailand, citing national security and severe damage that the country has suffered from scam operations.
Her government is considering expanding this measure to Thailand’s northeastern areas bordering Cambodia, said Thai Defense Ministry spokesperson Thanathip Sawangsang, who explained that officials had already removed Internet cables that were installed illegally in the areas.


Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs

Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs
Updated 14 February 2025
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Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs

Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs
  • Trump has attempted to dismantle government agencies and ordered them to prepare for wide-ranging job cuts

WASHINGTON: A federal judge ordered the administration of US President Donald Trump to restore funding for hundreds of foreign aid contractors who say they have been devastated by his 90-day blanket freeze, Politico reported late on Thursday.
The order blocks the Trump administration from canceling foreign aid contracts and awards that were in place before Trump took office on January 20.
The stated purpose in suspending of all foreign aid was to provide the opportunity to review programs for their efficiency and consistency with priorities, US District Judge Amir Ali wrote in a filing in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
He added: “At least to date, defendants have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended reliance interests for thousands of agreements with businesses, nonprofits, and organizations around the country, was a rational precursor to reviewing programs.”
Trump has attempted to dismantle government agencies and ordered them to prepare for wide-ranging job cuts, and several have already begun to lay off recent hires who lack full job security.
The Republican has also embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants and top officials at agencies in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.


Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue

Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue
Updated 14 February 2025
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Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue

Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue
  • Rubio intended to continue his travel to Germany and the Middle East on a separate aircraft

WASHINGTON: An Air Force plane carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Sen. Jim Risch, to Germany for the Munich Security Conference was forced to return to Washington late Thursday after developing a mechanical issue.
“This evening, en route from Washington to Munich, the plane on which Secretary Rubio is flying experienced a mechanical issue,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
“The plane has turned around and is returning to Joint Base Andrews,” she said. “The secretary intends to continue his travel to Germany and the Middle East on a separate aircraft.”
The issue with what one official said had to do with the cockpit windshield on the C-32, a converted Boeing 757, occurred about 90 minutes after the flight took off from Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington.
Although Rubio plans to resume his journey on a new plane, it was not immediately clear if the delay would cause him to miss a scheduled Friday morning meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Munich.