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• Forge, a platform designed to reward gamers for playing the most promising upcoming games, announces today strategic relationships with leading blockchain gaming protocols Avalanche , Immutable , Polygon , Ronin , Solana , and Sui .
• This reduces layers of friction so that games can easily incentivize player engagement, and players can claim and collect rewards for their gaming achievements.
• "As gamers ourselves, we are huge fans of what Forge has set out to accomplish with their platform," said Ed Chang, Head of Gaming at Ava Labs.
• "Incorporating Avalanche and Forge will make it easier for game developers to find an audience and reward gamers for joining their communities."

• After four election attempts and three presidential races, the 72-year-old Defence Minister is set to succeed President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who has been in power for a decade.
• We summarised the views of nine academics on seven crucial issues that have become public discussions following recent presidential and vice-presidential debates.

1. Human rights and freedoms on the line

• Prabowo had admitted his involvment in the kidnapping of pro-democracy activists in May 1998 riots, but said he released them.
• Eka said it was concerning that Prabowo did not include any commitment to resolve past human rights violations in his election platform.
• “Hoping for Prabowo to resolve the past human rights cases seems impossible.
• It is difficult to expect Prabowo to be able to fully protect human rights, including civil, political, economic and socio-cultural rights of the entire community,” Eka said.

2. The New Capital’s funding challenge

• Prabowo-Gibran’s victory means the development of the New Capital city in East Kalimantan, one of Jokowi’s signature projects, will continue as planned.
• With many of Prabowo-Gibran’s campaign programs requiring substantial funding, including the free lunch and internet programs, money will be tight.
• “There is still a burden from the debt inherited by the Jokowi administration, and the interest is also very high.
• This does not include the risk of biodiversity loss due to the reduction in cover.

3. Food estate’s risk of failure

• However, amid a changing climate and the risk of extreme weather, the food estate project is at high risk of failure.
• Prabowo must reconsider the food estate project, Angga said, because Indonesia had already experienced two losses by forcing itself to boost mass agriculture: the Suharto-era million-hectare rice field project in Central Kalimantan and the food estate project in Merauke in Papua.

4. Strategies for nickel and other industries

• Additionally, given its status as one of the world’s biggest nickel producers, Indonesia’s export ban on raw nickel and the flood of semi-finished nickel products in the international market has seen global nickel prices plummet.
• Krisna said the downstream aspirations echoed by Prabowo-Gibran were not only about nickel, but also crude palm oil, coal and digital downstreaming.
• “Some of these industries are varied, and many require a wide scale that may not be sufficient if they only rely on the domestic market.

5. Improving teacher and lecturer welfare

• One study found increased welfare could encourage educators to improve the quality of the teaching and learning process.
• Another study in 2019 showed the fulfilment of adequate welfare for teachers would increase teachers’ enthusiasm when working.
• Hariyadi concluded that although necessary, improving welfare was not the only component needed to enhance the quality of public services, especially in the education sector.

6. Protecting independent research and academic freedom

• In the presidential debates, Prabowo and his two competitors did not explain their understanding of academic freedom.
• The discussion about the political environment, academic autonomy and the legal environment determining academic freedom was nowhere to be found.
• Masduki said Prabowo should acknowledge academic autonomy from the very beginning: from planning research topics and building the research environment to receiving funding not flavoured with political messages.

7. Progress on helping children grow

• The prevalence of stunting cannot go down quickly in only one leadership period, as it is caused by many factors.
• “The Health Ministry has a program for the first 1000 days of a child’s life, starting during pregnancy.
• “The target (of the program) is unclear, whether (it is) to overcome stunting, malnutrition or other nutrition.
• Ultimately, budget allocations may hinder the efforts to reduce stunting, as Jokowi government has eliminated the mandatory spending for health.

• After nearly three months of campaigning, the three pairs vying for presidential and vice presidential seats are now in the cooling-off period.
• That past is why the commitments of candidates to resolve human rights violations always come up during Indonesian elections.

Anies: concerns about his backers

• Their programs related to human rights underlines Anies’ pledges to strengthen national human rights institutions, resolve past human rights cases and provide socio-economic recovery for victims of human rights violations.
• Anies is the candidate with the most comprehensive details on his plans to revise regulations hindering press freedom and civil liberties.

Prabowo: haunted by deadly human rights allegations

• Frontrunner Prabowo Subianto, who is running with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, has pledged to strengthen democracy by protecting human rights for citizens.
• The pair have also promised to eliminate discriminatory practices, including protecting the fundamental rights of communities and vulnerable groups.
• However, only Prabowo-Gibran have not included any program to resolve past human rights violations among all candidates.

Ganjar: unresolved agrarian disputes

• However, they do not expressly state what kinds of programs they will have to achieve this.
• Ganjar has a poor record on agrarian conflicts during his tenure as the former governor of Central Java.
• In 2018, he issued an environmental permit to construct the Bener Dam in Purworejo, Central Java, as part of a mining site.

No candidate is clean

• The three presidential and vice-presidential pairs and their supporters have yet to be entirely assertive on the issue of civil liberties and human rights protection.
• Given their track records, Indonesian voters face a challenge to vote for the candidate with the clearest position on human rights issues, given no one is thoroughly “clean” from human rights controversies.

Eka Nugraha Putra tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.

• Operation HOPE, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping low-and moderate-income Americans thrive in an ever-changing economy, announced today that its Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Hope Bryant has been recognized by TIME Magazine in its latest cover story on “The Closers” – a list of 18 Black leaders working to close the racial wealth gap.
• The list was published on February 1, 2024 to kick off Black History Month and was featured on the February 12th cover of the iconic publication.
• “Operation HOPE has been committed to using financial literacy to help close the racial wealth gap for more than 30 years, and we are honored to be recognized for this work alongside so many other titans in our community working toward the same mission,” said Mr. Bryant.
• “Our work at Operation HOPE continues with more responsibility than ever as the U.S. economy becomes more and more reliant on the workforce and consumer spending of minorities over the next 30 years.