Indonesia Elections 2024: Anies, Prabowo or Ganjar? Why East Java could decide the presidency - CNA

WHAT POTENTIAL VOTERS THINK 

For now, some voters in East Java appear split on whom they would vote for.

In Tebuireng, one of its 3,500 students is Nasywa Maulida, who had just finished class when CNA met her during a visit in November.

The 17-year-old will be a first-time voter in the upcoming election.

When asked whether she knew who are running, she named the presidential candidates. 

“I’ve heard there are Mr Ganjar Pranowo, Mr Prabowo and Mr Anies Baswedan. But who their running mates are, I don’t know yet,” she said. 

Even though presidential candidates had visited her school, she claimed there was not enough information on the candidates available at the school. 

“Because we only get information from television. And we only watch TV once a week on our day off. And even then, sometimes we don’t watch the news.

“We watch something else, so we don’t really know the latest development outside (of the boarding school),” she explained. 

Twelve-grader Mohammad Hilmi, also a Tebuireng student, claims he does not know much about the elections.

“I don’t have time (to follow the news),” he said. But he claims he will cast his vote. 

“Maybe I will find out their track record because they all have leadership experience like Ganjar Pranowo, who led Central Java, Anies Baswedan, who led Jakarta, and Prabowo, who was with the military,” the 18-year-old said. 

Have his teachers not given him information about the election? 

“No,” he told CNA. “Well, maybe just a bit. They said there will be a few pairs.”

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2024-02-04 22:00:00Z
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US intends further strikes on Iran-backed groups says US National Security Adviser - CNA

Saturday's strikes in Yemen hit buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems, launchers and other capabilities the Houthis have used to attack Red Sea shipping, the Pentagon said, adding it targeted 13 locations.

The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said the strikes "will not pass without a response and consequences".

Another Houthi spokesperson, Mohammed Abdulsalam, indicated the group would not be deterred, saying Yemen's decision to support Gaza would not be affected by any attack.

Residents described being shaken by powerful blasts. "The building I live in shook," said Fatimah, a resident of Houthi-controlled Sanaa, adding that it had been years since she had felt such blasts in a country that has suffered years of war.

The Houthis did not announce any casualties.

The Yemen strikes are running parallel to the unfolding US campaign of retaliation over the killing of three American soldiers in a drone strike by Iran-backed militants on an outpost in Jordan.

IRAN SEEN AVOIDING DIRECT CONFRONTATION

On Friday, the US carried out the first wave of that retaliation, striking in Iraq and Syria more than 85 targets linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and militias it backs, reportedly killing nearly 40.

Mahjoob Zweiri, Director of the Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University, did not expect a change in Iran's approach even after the latest US strikes.

"They keep the enemy behind the borders, far away. They are not interested in any direct military confrontation which might lead to attacks on their cities or their homeland. They will maintain that status quo," he told Reuters.

Iran's foreign ministry said the latest attacks on Yemen were "a flagrant violation of international law by the United States and Britain", warning the continuation of such attacks was a "worrying threat to international peace and security".

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2024-02-04 17:54:00Z
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Houthis vow response after US, UK strike dozens of Yemen targets - CNA

"UNACCEPTABLE"

Anger over Israel's devastating campaign in Gaza, which began after an unprecedented Hamas attack on Oct 7, has grown across the Middle East, stoking violence involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

On Jan 28, a drone slammed into a base in Jordan, killing three US soldiers and wounding more than 40 – an attack Washington blamed on Tehran-aligned forces.

US and allied troops in the region have been attacked more than 165 times since mid-October, mostly in Iraq and Syria, but the Jordan deaths were the first from hostile fire during that period.

The United States responded on Friday with strikes against dozens of targets at seven Tehran-linked facilities in Iraq and Syria, but did not hit Iranian territory.

Diplomatic sources have said the UN Security Council would convene on Monday, after Russia called for a meeting "over the threat to peace and safety created by US strikes on Syria and Iraq".

Iran denounced the Saturday strikes on Yemen, saying they "contradict" declared intentions by Washington and London to avoid a "wider conflict" in the Middle East.

Hamas called the US and British attacks "an escalation that will drag the region into further turmoil".

But British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Tehran is ultimately responsible for the violence, telling the Sunday Times that "we need to send the clearest possible signal to Iran that what they're doing through their proxies is unacceptable".

"You created them, you backed them, you financed them, you provided them with weapons, and you will ultimately be held accountable for what they do," Cameron said.

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2024-02-04 11:49:00Z
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HK firm scammed of $34 million after employee duped by video call with deepfake of CFO - The Straits Times

The South China Morning Post said the case was the first of its kind in Hong Kong. PHOTO: REUTERS

A multi-national company was scammed of HK$200 million (S$34 million) after an employee in Hong Kong attended a video conference call with deepfake recreations of the company’s chief financial officer and other employees.

The South China Morning Post reported on Feb 4 that the case was the first of its kind in Hong Kong, but local police did not name the company or its employees involved.

Hong Kong police senior superintendent Baron Chan said that aside from the employee that was duped, every colleague in the video call was “fake”.

The scammers had used publicly available footage to digitally recreate each individual.

The employee, who works in the finance department, had received a message in January – from someone who appeared to be the company’s Britain-based CFO – asking for a transaction to be made.

Although the employee was initially doubtful, Mr Chan said the victim was fooled after being invited to the video conference call and seeing the company’s CFO and other “employees” in attendance.

The employee complied with instructions given during the meeting, and transferred around HK$200 million to five bank accounts, spread across 15 transactions.

The employee realised the deception only one week after receiving the initial message, after directly inquiring with the company’s headquarters.

Mr Chan said that during the video call, the employee was asked to do a self-introduction, but did not interact with anyone else.

The “fake” colleagues gave orders to the victim, and the meeting ended abruptly after, added Mr Chan.

The scammers had approached two or three employees of the company using the same scam tactic, said Mr Chan, but did not give details of those encounters.

The police are investigating the case, but no arrests have made in connection to the case so far.

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• Deepfake
• AI/artificial intelligence
• Internet crimes and scams
• Hong Kong

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2024-02-04 03:35:00Z
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Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Clashes in Gaza City after Israeli all-clear | Israel War on Gaza News - Al Jazeera English

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1. Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Clashes in Gaza City after Israeli all-clear | Israel War on Gaza News  Al Jazeera English
2. Israel launches strikes on Rafah ahead of Gaza truce push  Yahoo Singapore News
3. Deadly strikes hit 'pressure cooker' Rafah ahead of Gaza truce push  Arab News
4. Israel Signals Its Military Will Move Into Rafah, in Southern Gaza  The New York Times
5. Trapped against fence, Gazans in ‘pressure cooker’ Rafah fear Israeli attack on their last refuge  South China Morning Post

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2024-02-03 23:39:03Z
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Israel keeps pressure on last two refugee cities in Gaza, kills 18: Health officials - CNA

In Gaza City, residents and militants said fighting continued against Israeli forces. Health officials said two people were killed by sniper fire. Israeli forces carried out arrests in the southern suburb of Tel Al-Hawa.

Israel launched a war on Hamas, the militant group which rules the Gaza Strip, after an October onslaught on southern Israel by Hamas militants who killed 1,200 people and took 253 people hostage into Gaza, more than 100 of whom are still captive, according to Israeli tallies.

Israeli officials say they aim to eliminate Hamas, which has vowed to repeat its October attacks, and repatriate the hostages, many of whom are women and children.

Gaza health authorities, who do not differentiate between militants and civilians in their tallies, say more than 27,000 Palestinians have been confirmed killed since the start of the war, 107 of them in the past 24 hours, with thousands more feared lost amid the ruins.

The Israeli military said its forces killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen in northern Gaza.

"During targeted raids in the northern and central Gaza Strip over the last day, IDF troops killed dozens of terrorists and destroyed numerous anti-tank missile launchers," the Israel Defense Forces said.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other smaller militant groups said in a separate statement their fighters engaged in fierce battles with the army in the north and the south of the Gaza Strip.

"The more the occupation forces remain on the ground, the more we will get to them," one Palestinian militant official said.

"A martyr falls, another rises and takes the rifle, and we are ready to fight for many more months," he told Reuters.

Asked about Israel saying it killed 10,000 militants, he said, "This is for public consumption in the occupation entity. It is fiction."

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2024-02-03 11:14:00Z
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Indonesia Elections 2024: Prabowo's dual role as minister, presidential hopeful risks abuse of authority, analysts say - CNA

The constant hat-switching is concerning to analysts and activists, who told CNA that it carries the risk of power and state resources being abused for political gains during an election cycle.

Indonesia, they said, should go back to the days when ministers and top public officials are suspended from their respective positions whenever they want to participate in the presidential election as candidates.

INEFFECTIVE CAMPAIGNING 

This is the first time a sitting minister is allowed to run for president without resigning.

But the constant hat-switching is affecting Mr Prabowo’s ability to campaign far and wide, with an analyst alleging that the presidential candidate is unable to expand on his supporter base due to this.  

His rivals Mr Anies Baswedan and Mr Ganjar Pranowo are former governors whose terms ended in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Thus, they are able to freely campaign whenever and wherever they want. 

With more free time on their hands, Mr Anies and Mr Ganjar had been visiting far-flung corners of the vast archipelago, sometimes meeting voters in small towns and remote villages. They were also able to cram more agendas during their visit to a particular province and have more interactions with their respective supporters.

Mr Prabowo, on the other hand, could not campaign outside of Jakarta or travel to areas that are more than a few hours' drive from the capital city too often due to his ministerial duties.

Whenever he does find time to visit far-flung places, it is common for the presidential frontrunner to visit two or three provinces in a single day, leaving very little time to interact with his supporters. 

His limited time also meant that Mr Prabowo tends to stick to big rallies inside sports venues and hotel ballrooms.

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2024-02-02 22:00:00Z
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