kebayangkali

Siapa yang tidak menginginkan koleksi foto Instagram yang indah dan memuaskan secara visual sekaligus menampilkan petualangan yang menakjubkan? Bagi mereka yang merencanakan perjalanan liburan ke Bali, 15 destinasi ini akan menjamin foto-foto yang Sobat Pesona ambil menjadi sangat indah!

1 | Banyumala Twin Waterfall

Tidak hanya terkenal dan sering dikunjungi seperti berbagai tujuan wisata lainnya di Bali, Banyumala Twin Waterfall masih terjaga kelestariannya. Air terjun yang menakjubkan ini berada di jalan tepi kawah antara Munduk dan jalan utama dari Singaraja menuju Denpasar. Definisi “nothing worth having comes easy”, sesuai dengan sulitnya pendakian untuk mencari dan mencapainya, tetapi Sobat Pesona akan terpuaskan ketika sampai pada lokasi ini. Sepanjang perjalan Sobat Pesona akan dikelilingi dengan hijaunya pepohonan, bebatuan dan sungai hingga Sobat Pesona mencapai air terjunnya. Kunjungi Banyumala Twin Waterfall untuk waktu relaksasi, dimana lokasi ini sangat cocok untuk bersantai selama liburan!

2 | Campuhan Ridge Walk

Selain pesona ombaknya, Bali juga populer dengan wisata alam yang menakjubkan. Satu hal yang harus Sobat Pesona kunjungi adalah Campuhan Ridge Walk. Terletak di Ubud yang modern dan ramai, jalur pendakian lembah pegunungan yang indah ini jelas merupakan tempat yang terbaik untuk melepas penat dan menghirup udara segar.Di sepanjang perjalanan Sobat Pesona akan menempuh jalur perbukitan yang terbentang sepanjang 9 kilometer, Sobat Pesona akan ditemani oleh pemandangan lereng bukit yang paling menakjubkan dan lembah hijau Sungai Wos. Jika Sobat Pesona beruntung dan cuacanya cukup baik, Gunung Agung yang gagah menjulang di antara perbukitan dapat terlihat jelas. Lokasi ini memang benar-benar bisa menambah petualangan Sobat Pesona di Bali jadi indah dan menakjubkan!

3 | Pura Gunung Kawi 

Sumber foto @mj.away

Salah satu situs arkeologi paling paling unik di Pulau Bali adalah Pura Gunung Kawi yang terdiri dari koleksi relief kuno yang diukir di atas permukaan tebing batu. Dengan mengunjungi situs ini, Sobat Pesona akan disuguhi pemandangan Sungai Pakerisan yang menakjubkan serta halaman Pura yang bernuansa Pura Hindu kuno dengan sentuhan modern. Pura ini mudah ditemukan dan merupakan destinasi yang penting untuk ditambahkan ke rencana perjalanan Sobat Pesona di Bali. Sebelum memasuki situs, Sobat Pesona akan menaiki anak tangga, dan akan ditawarkan vas dari tanah yang berisikan air suci dimana Sobat Pesona perlu memercikkannya air ke diri sendiri sebelum memasuki kompleks Pura. Pengalaman yang sangat eksotis ini, pantas mendapat tempat khusus dalam bucket list Sobat Pesona! Jadi tunggu apa lagi? Segera kunjungi Pura Gunung Kawi!

4 | Taman Budaya GWK

Sedang mencari ide perjalanan yang kaya akan budaya, dengan monumen bersejarah yang megah, atraksi tarian tradisional yang eksotis, dan acara yang penuh adrenalin dalam satu perhentian? Nah, Sobat Pesona tinggal mengunjungi Taman Budaya GWK. Saksikan berbagai keindahan tarian Bali seperti tarian Kecak yang eksotis, tarian Legong yang megah, serta banyak tarian lainnya yang memukau ditampilkan di sini. Jangan lupa untuk bersantai di sisi Kolam Teratai GWK sambil mengamati kemegahan patung Garuda Wisnu Kencana yang menjulang setinggi 120 meter dan dibangun selama 28 tahun. Perjalanan seru seperti ini pastilah akan membuat liburan Sobat Pesona menjadi tak terlupakan.

5 | Handara Golf Course Gate

Sumber foto @sam_kolder

Gerbang ikonik ini juga bisa menjadi salah satu tempat yang paling menarik untuk konten Instagram Sobat Pesona! Dengan pemandangan hijau yang indah dan suasana yang damai, tak heran jika orang banyak mengunjungi Bali akan menyempatkan untuk datang ke sini. Selain gerbang tradisional Bali yang megah dan eksotis, manjakan mata dan hiasi foto Sobat Pesona dengan pemandangan siluet bukit hijau yang menakjubkan. Buat kagum juga teman-teman Sobat Pesona dengan foto keren di Handara Golf Course Gate!

6 | Pantai Kelingking Nusa Penida

Sumber foto @annabeerends

Bali memiliki pantai yang menakjubkan dan sangat terkenal di seluruh penjuru dunia karena keindahan alamnya. Pantai Kelingking akan membawa Sobat Pesona ke pengalaman di tingkat yang jauh lebih tinggi. Sebagai salah satu tempat yang paling menakjubkan di Bali, Pantai Kelingking layak dimasukan ke dalam daftar tempat yang wajib Sobat Pesona kunjungi di Bali. Lokasi ini tersohor dengan tebing yang membentuk T-Rex juga pantai indah yang bagai surga tersembunyi. Jalan menuju lokasi ini beberapa berupa tebing-tebing yang curam dan belum memiliki pengamanan yang maksimum, sehingga Sobat Pesona perlu berhati-hati dan memperhatikan tiap langkah serta mengikuti peraturan yang ada. Sobat Pesona akan terpana menyaksikan pemandangan yang menakjubkan dimana perairan biru yang jernih membingkai tebing T-Rex yang ikonik. Sobat Pesona juga dapat melihat pantai tersembunyi di antara tebing-tebing yang hanya dapat diakses secara sangat hati-hati melalui jalan kecil menyusuri anak tangga yang cukup curam.
                                   

7 | Pura Luhur Lempuyang

Sumber foto @charlene22

Tempat favorit Instagramable berikutnya adalah Pura Luhur Lempuyang. Destinasi ini adalah Pura gunung kuno yang terletak di Bali Timur. Pura ini diyakini telah berdiri sebelum sebagian besar Pura Hindu di Bali berdiri, serta terletak di 1.175 meter diatas permukaan laut. Ketinggian yang dapat dicapai dengan menaiki anak tangga yang mencapai lebih dari 1.700 buah, dengan banyak spot menarik di sepanjang jalannya, termasuk beberapa Pura yang lebih kecil. Bagi Sobat Pesona yang mencari petualangan dan menyukai pendakian dicampurkan dengan pengalaman melihat situs arkeologi yang eksotis, tempat ini tidak boleh dilewatkan. Tetapi tidak perlu khawatir! Untuk Sobat Pesona yang kurang menyukai hiking, tetap dapat menikmati pemandangan yang menakjubkan dari kaki gunung. Pemandangan eksotis, tradisional, bersejarah dan menakjubkan, sangat sempurna untuk membuat liburan yang tak terlupakan!

8 | Pura Ulun Danu Bratan

Sumber foto @sergeykbn

Sebuah landmark terkenal yang indah dan bersejarah, Pura Ulun Danu Bratan adalah destinasi wisata yang sangat populer bagi turis lokal maupun mancanegara. Terletak di posisi strategis di jalan yang menyambungkan Bali Utara dan Selatan. Pura ikonik ini dikelilingi perairan yang tenang bagaikan cermin yang seakan-akan membuat Pura ini melayang. Pura ini telah menjadi spot berfoto favorit bagi banyak orang mulai dari yang menggunakan kamera Polaroid, kamera Digital, hingga era kamera smartphone untuk foto Instagram sekarang ini. Walaupun daya tarik utamanya adalah Pura terapung, tetapi seluruh kompleks Pura sendiri akan memberikan pengalaman bersejarah dengan atmosfer yang menenangkan yang tidak ingin Sobat Pesona lewatkan!

9 | Tanah Lot

Sumber foto @nastasiaspassport

Salah satu destinasi yang sangat penting di Bali adalah Tanah Lot, Pura Hindu kuno yang eksotis terletak di atas karang yang menantang deru ombak. Terkenal karena posisi lepas pantainya yang unik yang menjadikan Tanah Lot sebagai salah satu lokasi paling menakjubkan untuk memandang matahari terbenam. Tanah Lot merupakan tempat ikonik yang harus Sobat Pesona tuju untuk pengalaman Bali yang seutuhnya. Tanah Lot merupakan salah satu destinasi paling populer bagi para wisatawan karena situs ini menawarkan semua keunikan kebudayaan Tradisional Bali. Sobat Pesona juga dapat memilih banyak suvenir dan membawa pulang sebagian Bali ke rumah! Mulai dari topeng, tas dan banyak suvenir tradisional lainnya.  

10 | Terasering Tegalalang

Sumber foto @samisfierce

Terletak strategis di Ubud yang ramai dan populer, Terasering Tegalalang menawarkan pemandangan persawahan yang megah. Terasering ini menawarkan lukisan alam yang memukau bagi para pengunjungnya, dimana hamparan persawahan menghijau di antara perbukitan yang segar. Pemandangan pepohonan yang rimbun yang menjulang dari hutan di sekitaran, juga sangat cocok bagi Sobat Pesona yang ingin tenang bersantai menghirup udara segar dan terbebas dari keriuhan perkotaan. Sebuah tempat yang pasti akan membuat kenangan indah untuk Sobat Pesona!

11 | The Bali Swing

The Bali Swing menjadi tempat yang sangat populer dan hype sebagai spot yang Instagramable. Di sini terdapat beberapa ayunan yang berada di ketinggian yang bervariasi sambil menghadap ke lembah pohon palem indah yang berpadu dengan gemercik sungai yang menyejukkan. Suasana hutan Bali yang asri di sekitar lokasi ini, pasti bisa memikat hati Sobat Pesona. Pastikan untuk mengunjungi di waktu yang tepat karena antusiasme terhadap tempat ini dan pemandangan yang menakjubkan tentunya menarik banyak pengunjung. Hal yang wajib dilakukan juga adalah memastikan untuk datang pada kondisi cuaca terbaik, juga pada saat golden hour. Datanglah pagi hari dan dapatkan cahaya lembut untuk menghasilkan foto yang terbaik! Selamat bergaya!

12 | Tirta Empul

Terletak di Desa Manukaya di bagian tengah Bali, kompleks Pura yang memikat mata dan air suci dari gunung ini adalah situs warisan budaya nasional yang memiliki latar legenda mengenai kisah kebaikan melawan kejahatan. Tirta Empul yang berarti ‘mata air suci’ sebenarnya adalah nama sumber air yang terletak di dalam Pura. Mata air ini mengalir ke berbagai pemandian tempat memurnikan diri, dan kolam-kolam ikan yang mengelilingi batas luar Pura, sebelum akhirnya mengalir ke Sungai Tukad Pakerisan. Lokasi ini cocok untuk Sobat Pesona yang tertarik pada sejarah, mitos dan legenda Bali. Momen upacara adat juga termasuk prosesi yang menakjubkan untuk disaksikan.

13 | Tirta Gangga Water Palace

Terkenal karena taman airnya yang megah, Tirta Gangga telah menjadi salah satu tujuan utama bagi penggemar estetika untuk datang dan berfoto disana. Seperti kompleks pemandian lainnya, taman ini terdiri dari taman tropis, kolam berendam, juga kolam ikan. Ada juga air mancur yang dikelilingi oleh rumput yang dipotong rapi dan dihiasi dengan batu loncatan, patung indah, dan taman tropis. Lokasi destinasi ini, terletak di desa Ababi, sekitar 75 km sebelah timur Denpasar. Perpaduan antara suasana ketenangan dan arsitektur tradisional Bali yang amat menarik, akan membuat koleksi foto liburan di Instagram Sobat Pesona lebih inspiratif.

Dalam foto @beatrizazzevedo, Foto dan Edit oleh @thegingerwanderlust dan @lorenzowanderlust

14 | Pura Uluwatu

Memiliki nama asli Pura Luhur Uluwatu, Pura ini adalah salah satu dari 6 Pura utama yang diyakini sebagai pilar spiritual Bali. Pura Uluwatu juga terkenal karena lokasinya yang luar biasa. Berdiri megah di atas tebing curam sekitar 70 meter diatas permukaan laut. Sulit untuk tidak mengakui Pura Uluwatu sebagai salah satu tempat di urutan teratas untuk menikmati matahari terbenam dengan pemandangan langsung menghadap samudera Hindia, sambil diiringi pertunjukan tari Kecak yang membahana. Tampilan menakjubkan ini akan membuat gambaran yang sempurna di Instagram Sobat Pesona! Jangan lupa untuk datang sebelum jam matahari terbenam ya!

Sumber foto @mindz.eye

15 | Wanagiri Hidden Hills Lookout

Destinasi yang terletak di bagian Utara Bali ini, nampaknya sudah sering ini muncul di unggahan Instagram banyak orang. Wanagiri Hidden Hills Lookout memiliki atraksi populer yaitu sarang burung raksasa, ayunan, dan lokasi pandang yang mengarah langsung ke danau. Ada berbagai spot foto yang bisa Sobat Pesona pilih untuk mendapatkan banyak foto keren untuk Instagram. Kira-kira dibutuhkan perjalanan selama satu setengah jam untuk mencapai destinasi ini dari Canggu. Pastikan sampai ke tempat ini sebelum matahari terbenam, sehingga Sobat Pesona sempat menyaksikan pemandangan matahari terbenam yang tidak akan terlupakan.

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Jakarta – Kemenangan atas Filipina memastikan Indonesia melaju ke putaran ketiga Kualifikasi Piala Dunia 2026 zona Asia. Garuda lolos sebagai runner-up Grup F di bawah Irak.
Bermain di Stadion Utama Gelora Bung Karno, Selasa (11/6/2024), skuad asuhan Shin Tae-yong menang 2-0 berkat gol tembakan jarak jauh Thom Haye pada menit ke-32 dan sundulan Rizky Ridho pada menit ke-56.

Tambahan 3 poin membuat Indonesia finis di posisi dua klasemen Grup F dengan 10 poin dari enam laga, hasil tiga kemenangan dari sekali seri. Posisi Merah Putih takkan bisa disalip Vietnam yang baru meraih 6 poin dari lima laga, terlepas hasil mereka melawan Irak yang akan digelar Rabu (12/6) pukul 01.00 WIB.

Indonesia akan menjalani putaran ketiga pada September 2024 – Juni 2025. 18 negara yang lolos dibagi ke dalam tiga grup, masing-masing berisi enam tim. Dua tim teratas lolos langsung ke Piala Dunia, sedangkan peringkat 3-4 akan menjalani putaran empat untuk memperebutkan sisa dua tiket langsung.

Keberhasilan menapak ke putaran tiga juga memastikan Indonesia lolos langsung ke Piala Asia 2027 yang akan digelar di Arab Saudi. Sedangkan Vietnam dan Filipina yang tersisih dari Kualifikasi Piala Dunia akan beralih mengikuti putaran ketiga Kualifikasi Piala Asia demi raih sisa enam tiket yang tersedia.

Klasemen Grup F usai Indonesia mengalahkan Filipina 2-0

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Rushdi Abu Alouf,David GrittenShare

Israeli forces have reportedly reached the centre of the southern Gaza city of Rafah and seized a strategically important hill overlooking the nearby border with Egypt.

Witnesses and local journalists said tanks were stationed at al-Awda roundabout, which is considered a key landmark.

They also said tanks were on Zoroub Hill, effectively giving Israel control of the Philadelphi Corridor – a narrow strip of land running along the border to the sea.

The Israeli military said its troops were continuing activities against “terror targets” in Rafah, three weeks after it launched the ground operation there.

Western areas of the city also came under intense bombardment overnight, residents said, despite international condemnation of an Israeli air strike and a resulting fire on Sunday that killed dozens of Palestinians at a tented camp for displaced people.

The Israeli military said it was investigating the possibility that the fire was caused by the explosion of weapons stored by Hamas in the vicinity.

It also denied reports from local health and emergency services officials on Tuesday afternoon that tank shells had hit another camp in al-Mawasi, on the coast west of Rafah, killing at least 21 people.

Reuters news agency cited local health officials as saying the blast occurred after Israeli tank shells hit a cluster of tents in al-Mawasi on Tuesday. An official in the Hamas-run civil defence force also told AFP there had been a deadly Israeli strike on tents.

Videos posted to social media and analysed by BBC Verify showed multiple people with serious injuries, some lying motionless on the ground, near tents and other temporary structures.

There was no clear sign of a blast zone or crater, making it impossible to ascertain the cause of the incident. The location – verified through reference to surrounding buildings – is between Rafah and al-Mawasi, and lies south of the IDF’s designated humanitarian zone.

The IDF said in a statement: “Contrary to the reports from the last few hours, the IDF did not strike in the humanitarian area in al-Mawasi.”

Israel has insisted that victory in its seven-month war with Hamas in Gaza is impossible without taking Rafah and rejected warnings that it could have catastrophic humanitarian consequences.

The UN says around a million people have now fled the fighting in Rafah, but several hundred thousand more could still be sheltering there.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began what they called “targeted” ground operations against Hamas fighters and infrastructure in the east of Rafah on 6 May.

Since then, tanks and troops have gradually pushed into built-up eastern and central areas while also moving northwards along the 13km (8-mile) border with Egypt.

On Tuesday, they reportedly reached the city centre for the first time.

The al-Awda roundabout, which is only 800m (2,600 ft) from the border, is the location of major banks, government institutions, businesses, and shops.

One witness said they saw soldiers position themselves at the top of a building overlooking the roundabout and then begin to shoot at anyone who was moving.

Video posted online meanwhile showed tank track marks on a road about 3km west of al-Awda roundabout and 300m from the Indonesian field hospital, which was damaged overnight.

Earlier, residents told the BBC that tanks seized Zoroub Hill, about 2.5km north-west of al-Awda roundabout, after gun battles with Hamas-led fighters.

The hill is highest point along the Egyptian border and its seizure means the entire Gazan side of the border is now effectively under Israeli control.

Zoroub Hill also overlooks western Rafah, where residents said there had been the heaviest air and artillery strikes overnight since the start of the Israeli operation.

A local journalist said the bombardment forced hundreds of families to seek temporary shelter in the courtyard of a hospital, while ambulances struggled to reach casualties in the affected areas.

At dawn, thousands of people were seen heading north, crammed into cars and lorries and onto carts pulled by donkeys and horses.

“The explosions are rattling our tent, my children are frightened, and my sick father makes it impossible for us to escape the darkness,” resident Khaled Mahmoud told the BBC.

“We are supposed to be in a safe zone according to the Israeli army, yet we have not received evacuation orders like those in the eastern [Rafah] region,” he added. “We fear for our lives if no-one steps in to protect us.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not comment on the various reports but put out a statement saying that “overnight troops operated on the Philadelphi Corridor while conducting precise operational activity based on intelligence indicating the presence of terror targets in the area”.

“The activity is being conducted as efforts are continuing to be made in order to prevent harm to uninvolved civilians in the area,” it added.

“The troops are engaging with terrorists in close-quarters combat and locating terror tunnel shafts, weapons, and additional terrorist infrastructure in the area.”

The IDF has told civilians in eastern Rafah to evacuate for their own safety to an “expanded humanitarian area” stretching from al-Mawasi, a coastal area just north of Rafah, to the central town of Deir al-Balah.

On Sunday night, at least 45 people – more than half of them children, women and the elderly – were killed when an Israeli air strike triggered a huge fire in a camp for displaced people near a UN logistics base in the Tal al-Sultan area, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Hundreds more were treated for severe burns, fractures and shrapnel wounds.

The IDF said it was targeting two senior Hamas officials in the attack, which happened hours after Hamas fighters in south-eastern Rafah launched rockets towards the Israeli city of Tel Aviv for the first time in months.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a “tragic incident” had occurred “despite our immense efforts to avoid harming non-combatants” and promised a thorough investigation.

IDF chief spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that the strike had targeted a structure used by the Hamas commanders which was away from any tents, using “two munitions with small warheads”.

“Following this strike, a large fire ignited for reasons that are still being investigated. Our munitions alone could not have ignited a fire of this size,” he said.

Rear Adm Hagari added that investigators were looking into the possibility that the fire was caused by the explosion of weapons or ammunition stored in a nearby structure, and played what he said was an intercepted telephone conversation between two Gazans suggesting that. The audio recording could not immediately be verified.

Sam Rose of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, told the BBC from western Rafah that the killing of so many civilians could not be dismissed as an accident.

“Gaza was already one of the most overcrowded places on the planet. It is absolutely impossible to prosecute a military campaign involving large-scale munitions, strikes from the sky, the sea, the tanks, without exacting large-scale civilian casualties,” he said.

“It seems like we are plumbing new depths of horror, bloodshed and brutality with every single day. And if this isn’t a wake-up call, then it’s hard to see what will be.”

Last week, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s cross-border attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 252 others were taken hostage.

At least 36,090 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

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With the Chinese economy facing massive challenges, there have been concerns over its growth potential, at least in the immediate future.

Yet a key exception is emerging in the form of domestic tourism.

Last week’s five-day public holiday to mark labour day saw 295 million trips made within China, according to figures from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. This was 28% higher than pre-pandemic figures recorded in 2019.

The Transport Ministry’s figures are also staggering: 92 million rail trips; almost 10 million air trips and 1.25 billion highway journeys.

However, this comes as international arrivals continue to lag, with foreigners currently entering China at barely 30% of 2019 levels. Why the disparity?

The beautiful historical river town of Wuzhen, a short drive from Shanghai, is considered one of China’s top visitor sites for travellers of all types. When we arrive the little pathways and old bridges which cross narrow waterways are filled with visitors.

A popular thing to do in Wuzhen is to pose for photos dressed in traditional hanfu clothing – as if you have really been transported back hundreds of years.

Two women in their 20s, friends since high school, are visiting from Jilin Province in the north east. After arriving, they spend an hour getting their hair done in an elaborate imperial-era style – and they are full of praise for Wuzhen’s classical beauty.

We ask if, following the post-Covid opening up, many of their family and other friends have been travelling much? “Of course, after the pandemic, we’re all visiting other places.”

Nearby a local man who is selling ice-creams also says tourist numbers are “not that bad lately”.

As good as before Covid? “Almost the same,” he replies.

Shopkeeper Wang Ying, who sells traditional snacks, echoes this sentiment with a big smile on her face. “Business is going well, and it’ll only get better.”

All this will be seen as good news for the Chinese government. It’s been saying that a push on domestic consumption can counter the significant faltering portions of the economy.

Major players in the once-mighty property sector are struggling to stay afloat, local government debt continues to rise, and persistent youth unemployment has left highly qualified university graduates uncertain of their future.

Amid all these challenges, the Communist Party has set a target of “around 5%” GDP growth for this year. Apart from the fact that analysts have long questioned the veracity of the country’s official growth figures, economists are also asking how such a target can be reached, in any genuine sense, in 2024 without significant extra stimulus.

One lifeline could be a more buoyant travel scene which could bring broader business opportunities and greater service industry employment.

Schubert Lou, chief operating officer at travel agency Trip.com, told the BBC: “We’ve seen very strong domestic travel demand with search volumes in hotels up 67% compared to last year, and flight volumes up 80%.”

Tourism industry consultant Peng Han from Travel Daily is following the investment trail to see how the business community really views the possibilities in the sector.

“With famous international hotel brands – like Intercontinental, Marriott and Hilton – you just have to look at their growth in China in 2023,” he says. “Then check the performance goals for these large hotel groups in 2024 which have also been set relatively high. This shows that they are very optimistic about the growth potential of the Chinese market.”

But, while the volume of local travellers might be up, Mr Peng does point to the problem of per capita consumption which remains persistently low.

He says general uncertainty about the Chinese economy is putting more emphasis on saving, so people are looking for good value options. They are going on holidays and paying for things but doing so much more frugally.

This is where an increase in big-spending foreigners could help. But they are simply not travelling to China in the numbers they used to.

In 2019, nearly 98 million international visitors came to the country. Last year it was only 35 million – including business trips, students and the like. Mr Lou describes the domestic versus international market as “uneven”.

For many in the tourism industry here specialising in services for foreign travellers, “uneven” would be an understatement. Three years of harsh Covid prevention measures drove down arrivals from other countries, but that alone can’t account for the current situation.

Huang Songshan, the head of the Centre for Tourism Research in the School of Business and Law at Australia’s Edith Cowan University, blames this weakness in part to “the shifting geopolitical landscape globally”.

In the peer-reviewed East Asia Forum, he pointed to a 2023 survey carried out by the Pew Research Centre, writing that, “Most individuals in Western nations hold unfavourable views towards China. The Chinese government’s tightening grip on societal regulations could potentially cause discomfort for foreign travellers in China.”

Official travel advice from some governments echo this sentiment, at times quite harshly.

Washington warns potential travellers to “reconsider travel to Mainland China due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans, and the risk of wrongful detentions”.

Australia advises “a high degree of caution” warning that “Australians may be at risk of arbitrary detention or harsh enforcement of local laws, including broadly defined National Security Laws”.

The political environment has also taken a toll on flight availability and price. This is especially the case with connections to and from North America. Last month’s 332 scheduled round trips between China and the US contrasts with 1,506 in April 2019.

As a result, finding a seat on a direct flight can be extremely difficult and those that are available are very expensive.

President Xi Jinping made a speech at a dinner on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in San Francisco last November addressing this point. “Today, President Biden and I reached important consensus,” he told the crowd.

“Our two countries will roll out more measures to facilitate travels and promote people-to-people exchanges, including increasing direct passenger flights, holding a high-level dialogue on tourism, and streamlining visa application procedures. We hope that our two peoples will make more visits, contacts and exchanges and write new stories of friendship in the new era.”

Washington has since increased the number of Chinese airline flights permitted to land – but only from 35 per week to 50. It is still well short of the 150 weekly trips pre-Covid.

The Biden administration is coming under pressure from unions and US airlines to not increase this any further because, they argue, Chinese airlines have an unfair advantage over them as they have state support; don’t face the same onerous Chinese regulations; and, crucially, can fly over Russian airspace, making trips shorter and cheaper.

A letter to the US government from the Chair of the House Committee on China, Mike Gallagher, and the committee’s top Democrat representative, Raja Krishnamoorthi, reads: “Should the US-China passenger carrier market expand without the US government addressing these significant issues, US aviation workers, travellers and airlines will pay a hefty price tag.”

Mr Lou says the frequency of international flight connections is definitely having an impact.

“What we are seeing right now, based on civil aviation data, is that inbound flight capacity won’t get back to even 80% of 2019 [levels] by the end of 2024.”

Then there are other potential turnoffs for those considering travelling in China, like the country’s state-of-the-art phone app payment and booking systems which work very smoothly for Chinese citizens and residents, but which can be an enormous headache if you have just arrived.

There are certain sites, transport options, and purchases which can only be accessed via Chinese electronic apps which are, at times, only available in Chinese.

Professor Chen Yong at Switzerland’s EHL Hospitality Business School is an authority on the economics of tourism in China. He thinks that hurdles relating to payment and booking apps can pose a real problem.

“Technologies such as social network websites, online maps, payment apps, among others, which foreigners have long been accustomed to using, are either unavailable or inaccessible when they travel to China,” he says.

“On the other hand, there are Chinese alternatives to these technologies that remain inaccessible to foreigners due to language barriers and differences in user habits. We need to bridge this divide because it affects the tourist industry badly.”

Back in Wuzhen, the presence of international travellers is much smaller than in years gone by, but there are still a few foreign faces in the crowd.

An Italian couple says the process of linking up to and using China’s payment apps was a challenge but that it was not insurmountable, though they add, with a laugh, that it is “much, much, much easier” if you have a Chinese friend to help you.

Eliseo, from California, says he has had problems making payments to small vendors who don’t accept credit cards and really no longer deal with cash. Another hurdle for him has been his bank at home which has blocked some payments, flagging them as potentially fraudulent coming from China.

Chinese officials have acknowledged that the foreign traveller numbers have been low but they are now trying to turn this around.

One way they’re attempting to attract more foreign visitors is by increasing the number of countries whose citizens don’t need a visa to enter. Trip.com says this resulted in an almost immediate increase in passenger arrivals from Southeast Asia.

In 23 Chinese cities, transit passengers from more than 50 countries are also able to stay for a few days visa free if they have an onward ticket. In Shanghai, hotels above a three-star level have been told that they should prepare to deal with international credit cards and an initial batch of 50 taxis have also started accepting them.

However, Professor Chen says “it would be too optimistic to envision a long-term growth in China’s inbound tourism”.

“The key is to establish a culture that puts service providers in the shoes of foreign tourists. They should imagine themselves being a foreigner who can’t speak or read Chinese and who doesn’t have a Chinese mobile number, payments apps and so on.”

He says that the culture around this can’t be changed overnight.

Yet, in places like Wuzhen – where the local travellers have already returned – the tourism companies are hoping that incredible sites like theirs will eventually be too much for foreigners to resist as well.

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BBCInfluencers like Ranting Gola (left) and Sham Sharma are using their social media presence to promote political parties

Just weeks before the first ballot was cast in this year’s Indian election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at an event in Delhi rubbing shoulders with people known by names like BeerBiceps and Curly Tales.

The event – an awards show, congratulating some of the country’s top social media stars on their work – was an acknowledgement of the power of the influencer which a few years ago may have seemed unimaginable.

And as politicians prepared to battle it out for India’s billion votes, these influencers were being lined up to play a crucial role in reaching the young, the disinterested and the disillusioned.

But even as some celebrate social media’s democratisation of the media – a place where any one can share their views freely – others paint a darker picture, one where threats are rife, and the truth can be set aside for the right pay cheque.

A decade ago, you would have struggled to find anyone calling themselves an “influencer”.

But now, says Vinay Deshpande, co-founder of Rajneethi, a political management consultant firm, “it’s become a profession”.

“I know teenagers who are doing this part-time to earn pocket money.”

Pocket money underplays the earning potential somewhat, however. At the lower end, people can charge around 2,000 rupees ($24; £19) a day, but top influencers can pull in about 500,000 rupees for a post – equivalent to the monthly salary of someone in top-level management.

The creator of the Ranting Gola channel revealed to the BBC that political parties and election management firms have offered as much as “100,000 to 500,000 rupees for a single campaign”.

It is no small amount – but then, it could turn the tide in a candidate’s favour.

Mr Deshpande says they have helped an opposition candidate win an assembly election by pushing out content through a curated list of local influencers with a small but active following.

“Social media content is powerful and can influence the way a person feels about an issue,” Mr Deshpande says. “It gives social currency to a belief or opinion – but this can lead to a lack of critical thinking about an issue,” he adds.

Preethi Aggarwal, 25, is one of those who turns to apps like Instagram, YouTube and Twitter to help her understand the news.

Like thousands of others, Ms Aggarwal follows a bunch of “political influencers”, or people who talk about politics on social media to “really understand what’s going on”.

“News can get boring and complicated sometimes. I think these people [influencers] make it fun and easier to understand,” she says, adding the context and their own perspective help her form her opinions.

But the problem is, whose perspective is she getting?

PMO India / YouTubePM Modi congratulated Ranveer Allahbadia (left, known as BeerBiceps) and other influencers at a recent event

YouTuber Samdish Bhatia reveals numerous politicians have reached out to him, especially in the months before this election, offering him millions of rupees to interview them.

“But they wanted me to share questions in advance or get the video approved before it’s published,” he says, adding that he declined the offers because he “likes to maintain editorial control”.

The particular trend for longer form, slightly chummy interviews – where politicians get to show off their human side – is particularly vulnerable to management, says Joyojeet Pal, an associate professor at the University of Michigan.

“Many of these interviews are carefully managed by politicians,” Mr Pal says.

But even if they aren’t, a gentler style of questioning can also blur the line between interview and promotion, says Mr Pal.

“If your questions aren’t holding power to account, then the interview just becomes a platform for easy publicity.”

But for Mr Pal, this is just one of the problems he sees with politics on social media.

In a recent research paper, he examined some of India’s top influencers and who they interviewed, finding BJP leaders were featured more often than opposition leaders.

His research also found an overall drop in the number of accounts posting content critical of the incumbent government in recent years, while the amount of pro-BJP content had increased.

“This hints at a growing hesitancy among people to be openly critical of the government whereas there seems to be more confidence in putting up polarising content or content that supports the government’s ideologies,” Mr Pal says.

“And this is dangerous for democracy,” he adds.

Getty ImagesEven in the most remote areas, Indians have access to a mobile phone and internet

Influencers supporting the opposition certainly suggested they were working in a hostile environment.

A number who post content that’s critical of the government declined to speak to the BBC for this piece citing fear of repercussions by the government. They also run their channels under pseudonyms to keep their identities secret.

The Ranting Gola told the BBC that she has often received comments that are abusive or threatening because of the videos she posts and that her Instagram account has been disabled numerous times, even though the platform hasn’t given her a clear reason for doing so.

She also only spoke to the BBC on the condition that her name not be revealed.

The BJP government has denied allegations that it has clamped down on dissent and free speech.

But even pro-BJP YouTuber Sham Sharma told the BBC that freedom of speech could be a problem in India:

0:52YouTuber Sham Sharma talks about the positives and perils of sharing his views online.

But even given these concerns, opposition parties are using the same influencer system to reach voters in what they say is a difficult environment.

“The mainstream media has been taken over by the BJP,” alleges Supriya Srinate, who heads social media for the Congress party.

“Our funds have been frozen; we have no money to advertise,” she adds, referring to action taken by India’s tax department weeks before the elections. Congress leaders have accused the government of political vendetta, but the government has denied the allegation and said that the federal department was doing its job independently.

Influencers, Ms Srinate argues, are a good way to reach voters as a result of these alleged hurdles, explaining the Congress has been working with “volunteers” who believe in the party’s ideology and want to share its work on social media.

Ankit Lal, former political advisor of the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), agrees that influencers have helped democratise the publicity landscape.

Akash Banerjee, a former journalist who runs the YouTube channel, The DeshBhakt, argues that influencers are also able to push boundaries more than the traditional media can.

He cites the video ‘Is India becoming a dictatorship?’ – made by popular content creator Dhruv Rathee, who is based in Germany – which takes on the government directly, and has been viewed about 24 million times on YouTube so far. The government hasn’t reacted to the video yet.

“After the video, the term ‘dictatorship’ has popped up more in conversations, and this is something that has never happened before,” Mr Banerjee says.

“Our job as influencers may not be to open the window and check if it’s really raining, but we owe it to the nation to take a look outside the window and let people know if dark clouds are approaching and that they can do something about it by voting.”

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Getty ImagesThe Dali was a ‘clearly unseaworthy’ ship with ‘an incompetent crew’, the city of Baltimore argued in a lawsuit filed Monday

Baltimore has sued the operators of the container ship that hit and destroyed one of the US city’s main bridges last month, killing six people.

The city says the Dali was “clearly unseaworthy” and accuses its owners and manager of negligence.

The ship’s Singapore-based owner and manager have already asked a court to limit their liability.

The region is reeling from the closure of its busiest maritime transit port after the span collapsed on 26 March.

“None of this should have happened,” attorneys representing the Baltimore mayor and city council argued in a federal lawsuit.

The city is asking the US District Court of Maryland for a jury trial to hold the defendants fully liable.

Naming the Dali’s owner, Grace Ocean Private Limited, and its manager, Synergy Marine Private Limited, the suit alleges the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s collapse was a direct result of their “gross negligence, and recklessness, and as a result of the unseaworthiness of the Vessel”.

On 1 April, Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine petitioned the same federal court in Maryland to cap its responsibility for the incident.

Citing a pre-Civil War maritime law, the pair of companies estimated their liability for the vessel and the cargo’s value at $43.6m (£35m).

Monday’s court filing from the city of Baltimore rebuts that number as “substantially less than the amount that will be claimed for losses and damages arising out of the Dali’s allision with the Key Bridge”.

The path taken by the cargo ship – which was exiting the Port of Baltimore under the Key Bridge – is “no stranger to large freighters”, the city’s representatives wrote.

They said the vessel “had been experiencing an inconsistent power supply” that was either not investigated or not fixed.

“The Dali left port anyway, despite its clearly unseaworthy condition,” said the lawsuit.

The filing also says the Dali was manned by “an incompetent crew that was inattentive to its duties” and “lacked proper training”.

Contains upsetting scenes.Tracking data shows the path of the Dali container towards the bridge

On Friday, port officials opened a third temporary channel for boats to enter and exit the corridor, but these channels can only sustain about 15% of pre-collapse commercial activity.

A fourth channel, that will allow most traffic back into the port, is expected to open by the end of the month.

Darrell Wilson, an attorney who represents Synergy Marine and is also handling media inquiries on behalf of Grace Ocean, told the BBC it would be inappropriate to comment on the litigation while federal investigations into the collapse were ongoing.

New drone video shows close-up view of debris from the Baltimore bridge collapse

Six construction workers who were fixing potholes died when the bridge collapsed. Two of the bodies have yet to be recovered.

Workers are still extracting thousands of tonnes of debris from the water and from atop the stationary Dali, whose original schedule would have seen it arrive at a Sri Lankan port on Monday.

Apart from two of the ship’s pilots, 21 crew members – almost all of whom are of Indian origin – remain on the ship. There is no timeline yet for when the crew will disembark or head back to sea.

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Komisi Pemilihan Umum (KPU) akan mengumumkan hasil Pemilihan Umum 2024 pada Rabu (20/03) – tenggat penghitungan suara berdasarkan Undang-Undang Nomor 7 Tahun 2017 tentang Pemilu.

Proses rekapitulasi suara nasional baru dilanjutkan kembali pada Rabu (20/03) siang. Ada dua provinsi yang tersisa menjelang berakhirnya tenggat, yakni Provinsi Papua dan Papua Pegunungan

Komisioner KPU, August Mellaz, mengatakan tim KPU Papua Pegunungan baru tiba di Jakarta pada pukul 03.00 WIB setelah mencarter pesawat Trigana Air. Sedangkan tim KPU Papua baru tiba pukul 13.30 WIB.

Di dalam rapat pleno tersebut, KPU Papua Pegunungan mengatakan bahwa proses rekapitulasi suara Kabupaten Tolikara harus berpindah dari Wamena ke Jayapura tempat lima kali karena masalah keamanan.

Situasi itu membuat rekapitulasi suara tingkat provinsi di Papua Pegunungan baru selesai pada Selasa (19/03) malam.

Dari 37 provinsi yang telah selesai direkapitulasi hingga Rabu (20/03) sore, pasangan Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming menang di 35 provinsi.

Hasil rekapitulasi terbaru hingga Rabu (20/03) pukul 15.30 WIB menunjukkan bahwa Prabowo-Gibran juga unggul di Papua Pegunungan, Jawa Barat, dan Maluku.

Prabowo-Gibran hanya kalah di dua provinsi, yakni Aceh dan Sumatera Barat yang dimenangkan oleh Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar.

Prabowo-Gibran juga meraih suara terbanyak unuk pemilihan yang dilakukan di luar negeri — di 128 Panitia Pemilihan Luar Negeri.

Sementara itu, di depan KPU, aparat polisi berjaga untuk menangani aksi unjuk rasa dari sejumlah elemen masyarakat.

Polri mengerahkan lebih dari 3.000 personel untuk mengamankan demonstrasi di KPU dan DPR RI terkait hasil pemilu.

Unjuk rasa telah mewarnai proses pemilu sejak beberapa pekan terakhir. Pada Selasa (19/03), polisi “mengamankan” 16 orang pengunjuk rasa di KPU dan DPR RI.

“Tentunya ada alasan rekan petugas kepolisian melakukan pemeriksaan terhadap beberapa orang ini karena ada gangguan keamanan dan ketertiban tadi malam. Namun secara persuasif sudah dilakukan imbauan literasi komunikasi sudah dilakukan,” kata Kepala Bidang Humas Polda Metro Jaya Kombes Ade Ary Syam Indradi.

Prabowo-Gibran menang di mana saja?

Dari 37 provinsi yang rekapitulasi suaranya telah disahkan KPU, Prabowo-Gibran hanya kalah dua provinsi. Di Aceh, mereka meraup 787 ribu suara, kalah dari Anies-Muhaimin yang meraih 2,3 juta suara.

Di Sumbar, Prabowo-Gibran kalah dari Anies-Muhaimin. Suara mereka berselisih sekitar 500 ribu dari Anies-Muhaimin yang meraih 1,7 juta suara.

Hingga Rabu sore, Prabowo-Gibran telah dipastikan oleh KPU menang di Papua Pegunungan, Jawa Barat, Maluku, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, Gorontalo, Kalimantan Tengah, Bali, Lampung, Bangka Belitung, dan Kalimantan Barat.

Mereka juga menang di Sumatera Selatan, Jawa Tengah, DKI Jakarta, Kalimantan Selatan, Kalimantan Timur, Kepulauan Riau, Nusa Tenggara Timur, serta Banten.

Prabowo-Gibran unggul pula di Kalimantan Utara, Jawa Timur, Sulawesi Tenggara, Sulawesi Barat, Riau, Papua Barat, Sulawesi Utara, dan Bengkulu.

Provinsi lain yang mereka menangkan adalah Sulawesi Selatan, NTB, Papua Selatan, Jambi, Maluku Utara, Sumatera Utara, Sulawesi Tengah, Papua Tengah dan Papua Barat Daya.

Kemungkinan satu atau dua putaran?

Untuk memenangkan Pilpres dalam satu putaran, pasangan capres-cawapres harus memenuhi syarat yang tertuang pada Pasal 6A ayat 3 UUD 1945 dan Pasal 416 ayat 1 UU 7/2017 tentang Pemilu.

Regulasi tersebut mengatur tiga syarat yang wajib dipenuhi, yaitu:

• Paslon capres dan cawapres mengantongi suara lebih dari 50% dari total jumlah suara dalam Pilpres 2024.
• Capres dan cawapres menang lebih dari setengah provinsi di Indonesia, atau minimal 20 dari 38 provinsi di Indonesia.
• Meraih minimal 20% suara dari setengah provinsi di Indonesia.

Merujuk rekapitulasi suara di 37 provinsi dan 128 PPLN yang sudah disahkan KPU, pada Rabu (20/03) sore, Prabowo-Gibran menang di 35 provinsi.

Bagaimana hasil suara partai politik?

Merujuk rekapitulasi suara 70 daerah pemilihan yang sudah disahkan KPU, PDI-P meraih suara terbanyak, yaitu 21,9 juta suara (17,96%).

Golkar berada di peringkat kedua dengan 18,7 juta suara (15,36%), diikuti Gerindra dengan 15,6 juta suara (12,8%).

Secara berturut-turut, PKB dan Nasdem berada di urutan berikutnya, masing-masing dengan 13,1 juta suara (10,7%) dan 12,2 juta suara (10%).

Partai Demokrat, PKS, dan Partai Amanat Nasional per Selasa pagi juga telah melampaui ambang batas parlemen sebesar 4%.

Selain yang telah disebut di atas, partai lain belum melampaui ambang batas parlemen, termasuk Partai Persatuan Pembangunan yang selama ini selalu lolos ke Senayan.

Mereka baru meraih 4,6 juta suara (3,8%). PPP berpeluang menempatkan kader ke DPR juga suara mereka melonjak di 14 dapil yang akan direkapitulasi hari ini.

Masalah apa saja yang masih mengganjal?

Berbagai persoalan mewarnai proses penetapan rekapitulasi suara oleh KPU dari tingkat kabupaten/kota, provinsi, dan nasional. Berbagai kalangan juga telah mengadukan dugaan kecurangan kepada Bawaslu.

Sejumlah KPU di tingkat kabupaten, kota, dan provinsi bahkan gagal menyelesaikan rekapitulasi suara sesuai tenggat.

Merujuk Peraturan KPU 5/2024, rekapitulasi suara di tingkat kabupaten/kota harus selesai maksimal 5 Maret, sementara untuk tingkat provinsi paling lambat 10 Maret.

Akibat proses yang molor, Ketua KPU Hasyim Asy’ari mengeluarkan surat dinas Nomor 454/PL/01/8-SD/05/2024.

Melalui surat itu, Hasyim meminta KPU di daerah terus melanjutkan rekapitulasi suara meski telah melewati tenggat waktu.

Tenggat waktu rekapitulasi suara mengikat KPU secara hukum, kata Fadli Ramadhani, peneliti dari Perkumpulan untuk Pemilu dan Demokrasi.

Dia berkata, KPU wajib memenuhi tenggat waktu itu agar proses tahapan pemilu dapat berjalan.

Di saat KPU terikat untuk mematuhi tenggat waktu, Fadhli menyebut Bawaslu dapat secara simultan memeriksa dugaan kecurangan yang diadukan kepada mereka.

“Jika kecurangan terbukti terjadi dalam proses penegakan hukum oleh Bawaslu, perbaikan dan koreksi dapat dilakukan dalam proses rekapitulasi KPU,” kata Fadhli.

“Misalnya, jika terjadi kecurangan di tingkat kecamatan, koreksi suara bisa dilakukan ke tingkat kabupaten/kota. Pelaku dapat disanksi oleh Bawaslu. Begitu juga kecurangan pada tingkat selanjutnya,” tuturnya.

Fadhli berkata, dugaan kecurangan hanya dapat diselidiki dan diputus oleh Bawaslu.

“Bagaimana sikap Bawaslu? Mereka sengaja tidak menyelesaikan laporan, tidak menemukan bukti atau bagaimana?” kata Fadhli.

Anggota Bawaslu, Lolly Suhenty, membuat klaim bahwa lembaganya akan mempercepat penanganan dugaan kecurangan.

Lolly berkata, Bawaslu akan mengambil putusan soal kecurangan sebelum tenggat penetapan rekapitulasi hasil penghitungan suara pada 20 Maret.

“Kecuali perkara-perkara yang memang sifatnya lebih kompleks sehinga tidak bisa diambil putusannya sebelum tanggal 20. Tentu kami juga harus menghormati proses yang berjalan nanti di MK,” kata Lolly.

Fadhli menuturkan, satu-satunya jalan untuk mempersoalkan dugaan kecurangan soal penghitungan suara pasca penetapan pemenang Pemilu hanyalah Mahkamah Konstitusi.

Bagaimana sikap tim pemenangan capres-cawapres?

Pasangan Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD menyatakan akan fokus mempersoalkan kecurangan yang bersifat terstruktur, sistematis, dan masif.

Ketua tim hukum Ganjar-Mahfud, Todung Mulya Lubis, sebelumnya berkata kepada BBC News Indonesia bahwa mereka pasti akan membawa dugaan kecurangan Pilpres ke MK.

Kubu Anies-Muhaimin juga telah menyatakan rencana mereka mengajukan gugatan ke MK.

Mereka membuat klaim telah mengantongi berbagai data dan bukti untuk menguatkan dalil kepada hakim konstitusi.

“Pengacara dari Tim Hukum AMIN ada 1.000 orang yang akan support di MK,” kata Iwan dalam keterangannya, Jumat pekan lalu.

Di sisi lain, kubu Prabowo-Gibran menyebut tidak terjadi kecurangan apapun dalam proses rekapitulasi suara oleh KPU. Apalagi, klaim kubu pasangan itu, masyarakat turut mengawasi proses penghitungan suara.

“Tidak ada suara rakyat yang dicurangi dalam rekapitulasi. Hasilnya untuk pilpres kami menilai secara umum rekapitulasi suara oleh KPU berlangsung dengan sangat baik dan lancar,” kata Juru Bicara Tim Kampanye Nasional Prabowo-Gibran, Budisatrio Djiwandono, melalui keterangan pers, Selasa pagi.

Demo mewarnai proses rekap suara KPU

Selama beberapa pekan terakhir, sejumlah unjuk rasa berlangsung di kantor KPU. Berbagai kelompok menuntut KPU dan Bawaslu mengusut dugaan kecurangan yang terjadi selama tahapan Pilpres.

Senin kemarin, misalnya, kelompok yang menamakan diri mereka Koalisi Nasional Penyelamat Demokrasi, berunjuk rasa menentang kecurangan pemilu.

Lebih dari itu, mereka juga menyampaikan aspirasi soal pencopotan Jokowi dari kursi presiden.

Anggota KPU, August Mellaz, menyebut unjuk rasa adalah bagian dari setiap proses pemilu dari tahun ke tahun.

Namun dia enggan mengafirmasi dugaan-dugaan yang disebut oleh kelompok pengunjuk rasa. Menurutnya, KPU telah bekerja secara transparan, termasuk dengan proses pengawasan pihak eksternal.

“Kalau tudingan ke KPU termasuk unjuk rasa kan sudah ada kalau dilihat Pemilu sebelumnya sama proses-proses rekapitulasi menjelang penetapan kan pasti ada unjuk rasa. Tapi itu bagian yang normal saja,” ujarnya di kantor KPU, kemarin. https://sukaati.com/

By Emma Saunders

Entertainment reporter

Hollywood director Gareth Edwards has always done things differently. Now his latest film has all the tech heads in Tinseltown talking.

Best known for blockbusters such as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and Godzilla (2014), and now rumoured to be helming the next Jurassic Park movie, his sci-fi action film The Creator is in the running for best special effects and best sound at the Oscars next month.

The film sees John David Washington play Joshua, an ex-special forces agent, as a future war rages between humans and artificial intelligence (AI). The movie also stars Gemma Chan and Alison Janney.

Speaking to BBC Click’s Spencer Kelly, Edwards says: “I used to jokingly refer to the style of the film [as] if Terrence Malik had sex with James Cameron and had a baby… that was the ultimate high benchmark of what this film was trying to do!”

Its impressive visuals – check out that huge military spaceship called The Nomad – have been widely praised, especially given the film had a budget of around $80m (£63m), a third of what a special effects-heavy movie like this would usually cost.

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Working with pioneering studio Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), which was founded in 1975 in order to create the visual effects for Star Wars, British-born Edwards took inspiration from his first film Monsters (2010), an indy made on a tiny budget with a small team.

Most big films meticulously plan and build elaborate sets before shooting the majority of their special effects against a blue/green screen, which is hugely expensive.

But Edwards switched things up, shooting on location in countries including Cambodia and Thailand, then adding the special effects later.

Referencing Monsters, which had a crew of just six and also shot on location, Edwards says: “[I was] trying to get back to the positives of doing a guerrilla film.

“It’s a way more efficient, exciting and interesting process. If you go to a location that’s like the place in the scene and… if the crew is small enough, it’s cheaper to fly anywhere in the world than it is to build a set.

“Whatever was the best place in the world we could find for that scene, we would go and shoot it there, knowing that in the computer afterwards, we can change things.

“And [it] already looks good before you hand it over to the visual effects company.”

Working that way has been made easier with recent advances in technology, Edwards explains.

“We tried to keep everything small and what allowed for that, which couldn’t have happened five years ago, was that the camera technology had become really good.”

A Sony FX3 camera was the tool of choice: “It’s very cheap and small, I could just move with the camera. It was a massive, liberating thing.”

The careful choice of locations also helped keep the budget down.

“It looks bigger than your average film because every location is an Instagram destination,” Edwards tells Kelly.

A significant chunk of The Creator was filmed in Thailand because “money goes a lot further there”.

But creating a film in this way requires a lot of trust on behalf of the visual effects company, who come in at the tail-end of the project.

Edwards explains that he showed the early stages of the scenes to ILM so any misunderstandings could be ironed out quickly.

Shooting on location was also an advantage for the cast.

Londoner Andrew Roberts was the on-set special effects supervisor for the film.

“It’s great to have something real for the visual effects artists to build on top of, and also for the actors to be in a space where there is something real that can inform their emotion and their performances, rather than being surrounded by blue or green [screen] and being told to imagine.”

The film has received much praise for its special effects, although some critics have not been quite as impressed with the storytelling itself.

The Guardian’s Wendy Ide awarded it four stars, writing: “British director Gareth Edwards finally gets to make the sci-fi spectacular he was always destined to tackle.

“And with this ambitious, ideas-driven, expectation-subverting, man-versus-machines showdown, he has co-written and directed one of the finest original science fiction films of recent years.”

But the Evening Standard’s Hannah Strong had reservations, awarding it just two stars: “It’s a handsome film and demonstrates the filmmakers’ vivid imagination, but this doesn’t quite extend to the story itself, or its dialogue which often veers into cheesy territory.”

For Edwards, the film posed a different challenge to the likes of Rogue One, his last movie which came out eight years ago.

Reports claimed that Lucasfilm left Edwards out in the cold towards the end of the project, bringing in Tony Gilroy to write new dialogue and shoot extra scenes.

Edwards has disputed this, however, telling KRCW’s The Business podcast that when Gilroy was brought in, they both worked together until the very end of the movie.

“Having done these massive franchises, there’s pros and cons,” Edwards tells BBC Click.

“The cons are you have this giant fanbase and all this pressure and you cannot fail; it had better be a massive hit because there’s so many people waiting to see it.

“When you do an original science fiction [film], you’ve got the opposite problem – no-one’s heard of it, no-one cares, you’ve got to educate the world about what it’s about… why they should go and see it.

“It’s a double-edged sword. [You’re] trying to do something new but if it’s too out there… I just made this stuff up in my head and everyone is helping me create it but what if I’m wrong and it doesn’t work?”

‘Proud parent’

Perhaps surprisingly given his pedigree, Edwards, who hails from Nuneaton, is his own worst critic.

“I always think I’m not pushing things enough, I always think I’ve conformed and sold out… I always look at my heroes and beat myself up. My heroes growing up were Spielberg, Lucas, James Cameron.

“We could go a lot further and do something more unique…” he trails off.

“[But] the day you get through a film, and everything about it was easy and fun and enjoyable, is the day you made your worst movie and you should probably retire.”

And on The Creator’s Oscar chances?

He modestly points out that he’s not personally nominated as the recognition is for the visual effects team (Roberts, Jay Cooper, Ian Comley and Neil Corbould) and the sound crew.

“As a proud parent of the film, it’s a nice end to the journey,” he concedes.

Roberts adds: “I was born and grew up in the UK, my parents are from the Caribbean, a working class family and… to be at this point of being an Oscar nominee and potentially getting to win… I never could have dreamed this.”https://sukaati.com/

By Christine Ro

Technology of Business reporter

The British Library used to be my unofficial office. Once I even argued that for writers, the British Library was the best aspect of living in London.

But the UK’s national library now feels a bit like a throwback to pre-internet times. Books have to be ordered in person, using paper slips. Much of its digital content is inaccessible.

The problems trace back to a ransomware attack in October 2023, which paralysed IT systems.

The Russian hacker group Rhysida claimed responsibility, and demanded a ransom of 20 bitcoin (equivalent to £600,000 at the time). After the British Library refused to pay up, and following an online auction of stolen data, the hackers leaked the nearly 600 GB of private information on the dark web.

It wasn’t until January 2024 that the online catalogue became useable again, and even this was an incomplete version.

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The organisation has prepared users for a lengthy recovery process, noting that it could take several months just to analyse the leaked data. The library has not specified a timeframe for further recovery, but outside observers believe that it could take a year.

The British Library declined to comment for this article.

The good news is that this is an unusually long timeframe for recovery from a cyber-attack. According to the data site Statista, from 2020 to mid-2022, the average amount of downtime following a ransomware attack in the US was 24 days.

A UK government survey conducted in 2022-23 found that 88% of businesses and 84% of charities had been able to restore their operations within 24 hours of their most devastating cyber breach or attack.

But protracted recovery isn’t unheard of. From identifying affected IT systems to decrypting servers, uninstalling non-functional applications, blocking connections, disabling accounts, and restoring uninfected backups, each step can create bottlenecks.

To some extent the longer-term recovery depends on the amount of rebuilding, or new system construction, an organisation does following a cyber-attack.

For the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), which was hit by a ransomware attack back in December 2020, this process is continuing today. “SEPA made the decision to build back better from new rather than re-establish legacy systems,” according to a spokesperson for the agency.

There are many variables determining the length of cyber-attack recovery. These include the type and number of systems affected, the quality and quantity of backups, the experience of IT staff, and the sophistication of both the attack and the initial response.

For instance, with the rise of cloud computing, it’s become increasingly common for companies to use hypervisors, which basically generate digital versions (virtual machines) of physical computer systems.

Ransomeware attackers can encrypt the hypervisor – locking up multiple systems and programs in one go. It’s a trend being seen by Mandiant, a cyber security firm that is now a subsidiary of Google Cloud.

In a situation where a hypervisor is running many programs critical to business operations, “the impact is more significant and in some cases can actually impact the underlying infrastructure that the organisation would use to be able to get back up and running more quickly,” says Kimberly Goody, the head of cyber crime analysis at Mandiant.

The size of the organisation could also be a factor. “A larger organisation could take a longer time to recover because when you look at the staff to systems ratio, it could be much higher than a smaller organisation,” Ms Goody says.

In the anomalous cases where recovery drags on into months or even years, one potential reason is that an organisation’s “backups might have been encrypted and they haven’t been able to restore them,” Ms Goody comments. For instance, it may be a painfully slow process to obtain a decryption key.

Ensuring that backups are created and tested frequently is one way that organisations can make themselves more resilient to cyber attack.

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Another is to avoid reliance on a single type of prevention. Just one reason that antivirus fails, Ms Goody says, is because “today there is a whole underground marketplace” where criminals can cheaply test out malware samples against different antivirus programmes. If they see that their malware isn’t detected by a particular antivirus product, they can target an organisation with those weak defences.

Shoring up defences would include investing in cyber-security staff and tools. Ms Goody also offers some advice to organisations overwhelmed by the array of cyber-security products on the market. “The only way to know how effective they are for you, and how relevant they’re going to be for you and your team, is to test that in your own environment,” she emphasises.

Even well-prepared organisations may fall victim to cyber-attacks. In these cases, cyber-risk insurance can help to absorb financial losses. Ms Goody calls this “a really valuable component of an organisation’s broader risk plan given the evolving nature of cyber-attacks”.

Financial losses from disrupted operations can dwarf the initial ransom demand. “The majority of the costs can be on the business interruption side of the things, not actually the extortion,” says Simon West, the cyber-advisory lead at Resilience.

This is the case for the British Library, whose digital rebuilding will cost millions of pounds, requiring the organisation to use its reserves.

Preparation is essential given the inevitability of future cyber-attacks. Ciaran Martin, the former head of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, has predicted that a cyber-attack as severe as the one that has debilitated the British Library is likely for every one of the next five years.

Mr West says, “Even though our research shows that the ransom amounts are decreasing, it’s still very lucrative for criminals. It’s now easier than it ever was before” – with cyber-attackers able to outsource phishing attacks and other services to third parties, and with AI presenting them with new opportunities.

“While the going’s good for them, I don’t see it stopping.”https://sukaati.com

By Bernd Debusmann Jr

BBC News

A Japan-based US Navy sailor has been charged with espionage for allegedly passing classified information to a foreign government.

Bryce Pedicini is alleged to have given documents to foreign agents at least seven times in 2022 and 2023.

The US Navy also accuses him of trying in May 2023 to hand over photographs showing the screen of a military computer.

He faces a court martial while the investigation continues.

The accused is a chief petty officer fire controlman assigned to a Japan-based guided missile destroyer, the USS Higgins.

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He has been in custody since May 2023, just days after the last alleged incident in Japan.

The other incidents took place over a period of four months in Hampton Roads, Virginia, in late 2022 and early 2023, say US investigators.

The document alleges that he was handing over information “with reason to believe that it would be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of a foreign nation”.

It is unclear what country he was allegedly attempting to pass documents to, or what those files contained.

The charging sheet notes only that the information was “relating to national defence”.

Commander Arlo Abrahamson, a spokesman for US Naval Surface Force, said in a statement: “The incident remains under investigation and legal proceedings continue.”

CPO Pedicini’s military records show that he enlisted in the US Navy in 2009 and served on several naval vessels.

In addition to charges of espionage and communicating defence information, CPO Pedicini is accused of failing to report foreign contacts to his superiors, failing to report solicitation of classified information, transporting classified information and taking a personal device into a secure room.

The charges were referred to a court martial in January.

Also last month, a 26-year-old sailor, Wenheng Zhao, pleaded guilty to passing on information to Chinese intelligence while working at a California naval base. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.

Zhao was arrested in August alongside another sailor, 22-year-old Jinchao Wei, who was accused of conspiring to send defence information to a Chinese agent.

Mr Wei – who had access to sensitive information about his ship – was allegedly approached by a Chinese agent in early 2022, when he was going through the process of becoming a US citizen.https://sukaati.com/