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☆ The top 9 'must-have' travel experiences of 2024, according to luxury advisors
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-16 | by ( Monica Pitrelli | Jonathan Delise | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

If that sounds like a tall order for a summer getaway, the luxury travel company Virtuoso asked 20,000 of its travel advisors to share their top experiences for 2024. Dark sky tourism focuses on rural locations without light pollution, such as Greece's Olympus Mountain National Park. Departing in August, Virtuoso recommends travelers first take in the Olympic Games before departing the city in style. Passion travelsHobbies may be associated with the home, but Virtuoso recommends taking your passions on the road. Virtuoso recommends exploring Peruvian cuisine at the Mistura Food Festival, or checking out the street food of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Persons: Nicolas Economou, Manoj Shah, Belles, Bhutan's, Young, Peter Adams, Chiang Mai, Koh, Wiphop, Sakura, James Cole, Hillary, Cousteau, Shackleton, pricey, Yasin Akgul, bookworms, Wolfgang Kaehler, Brian Curtice, Levente Bodo, ERNESTO BENAVIDES Organizations: Nurphoto, DarkSky, Stone, InterContinental, UNESCO, Istock, Expedition, Getty, CNBC Travel, Orient, Afp, Departing, Olympic Games, Chelsea Flower, Lightrocket, Festival Locations: stargazing, Norway, Iceland, Canada, Northern Mexico, Blanco , Texas, Albanya, Spain, Africa, Bhutan, Thailand, Pana, Yai, Bangkok, Japan Japan, United States, North America, Japan, Hakodate, Hokkaido, Kyoto, Kanazawa, Fuji's, Antarctica, Paris, Istanbul, Turkey, Asia, Europe, Venice, Turkish, Strahov, Riau, Isla, Ljubljana, Slovenia

☆ Indonesia says 200,000 hectares of palm plantations to be made forests
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A general view of a palm oil plantation in Siak regency, Riau province, Indonesia, April 26, 2022. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsJAKARTA, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Some 200,000 hectares (494,210 acres) of oil palm plantations found in areas designated as forests in Indonesia are expected to be returned to the state to be converted back into forests, a government official said late on Tuesday. While 3.3 million hectares (8.1 million acres) of the country's nearly 17 million hectares of palm plantation have been found in forests, only owners of plantations with a combined size of 1.67 million hectares have been identified, forestry ministry secretary general Bambang Hendroyono told reporters. Indonesia's chief security minister Mahfud MD has threatened to pursue legal action against palm oil companies that use land illegally after the Thursday deadline passes. Indonesia has launched several programmes to improve governance in its massive palm oil industry, amid criticism by environmentalists of the crop's impact on deforestation.

Persons: Willy Kurniawan, Bambang Hendroyono, Bambang, Mahfud, Bernadette Christina, Gayatri Suroyo, Raju Gopalakrishnan Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Officials, Thomson Locations: Siak, Riau province, Indonesia, Rights JAKARTA

☆ Indonesia launches first bullet train, WHOOSH, funded by China's Belt and Road infrastructure initiative
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-01 | by ( Heather Chen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Part of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative and largely funded by Chinese state-owned firms, the $7.3 billion project opened to the public on Sunday. The train will travel between the capital Jakarta and Bandung in West Java, Indonesia’s second-largest city and a major arts and culture hub. Indonesia's outgoing President Joko Widodo rides the high-speed railway during a test ride in Jakarta. Akbar Nugroho Gumay/APWidodo and Chinese Premier Li Qiang were photographed taking test rides on the new high-speed railway throughout September. The train deal was first signed in 2015 as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and construction began later that year.

Persons: Dwiyana Slamet Riyadi, Dwiyana, Yasuyoshi Chiba, Joko Widodo, Xi Jinping, Akbar Nugroho Gumay, Li Qiang, ” Organizations: CNN —, Kereta, Surabaya –, PT, PT KCIC, Initiative Locations: CNN — Indonesia, Jakarta, Bandung, West Java, Indonesian, Indonesia China, Halim, East Jakarta, Padalarang, West Bandung, Surabaya, East Java Province, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Borobudur, AFP, Indonesia, Southeast, China, Rempang, Indonesia’s Riau

☆ Indonesian indigenous islanders are rallying against plans to build a Chinese funded factory on their homes
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Heather Chen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN —A plan to build a multi-billion dollar Chinese glass factory in Indonesia’s Riau Islands Archipelago has sparked fierce protests from indigenous islanders who are opposed to their villages being torn down. Riot police were deployed to the scene and fired tear gas and water cannons at protesters, CNN affiliate CNN Indonesia reported. On Rempang island, chaos broke out on September 7 when local authorities and developers showed up to conduct land surveys and take measurements. BP BatamIn a bid to soothe tensions, Indonesian government officials have promised improved relocation packages for residents on Rempang. Relocation and compensation only have economic value and cannot replace the villagers’ collective memory and identity as local indigenous people,” said Arifin Jaynal Ylbhi, spokesperson for the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI).

Persons: Joko Widodo, Xi Jinping, ”, “, Muhammad Rudi, Investment Bahlil Lahadalia, Arifin Jaynal Ylbhi, Hong Kong, Ansar Ahmad, Didit Wicaksono, Widodo, Nur, Sophie Grig, Bahlil Organizations: CNN, Badan, BP, Riot, CNN Indonesia, Government, Investment, Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen, Greenpeace, Veteran National Development University of Jakarta, Survival, CNN Indonesia . Investment Locations: Riau, Indonesia, Southeast, Batam, Singapore, Rempang, Hong, Malay, ” Riau, Greenpeace Indonesia, West Papua, Jakarta, CNN Indonesia

A new Indonesian private island, named ONE°15 Marina Nirup Island, opened in July nine miles south of Singapore. The hotel will have 94 rooms and 52 villas, according to the representative. Rendering of a hotel lobby and lounge on Nirup Island, Indonesia, set to open in late 2024. Fifty villas will be for sale, while an additional 30 will be managed by the island's Westin hotel, according to the representative. Arthur Tay, CEO of SUTL Enterprise, said the opening of the marina will ease demand for yachting berths in Singapore.

Persons: Sinar, Arthur Tay Organizations: Westin Hotels, Resorts, PT, SUTL, CNBC Travel Locations: Singapore, Indonesian, Nirup, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Philippines, Riau

But satellite images and photos show the Chinese-owned ship had loaded the oil four months earlier in Venezuela, an OPEC nation in South America under U.S. oil sanctions. Two of those tankers, including the Young Yong, were designated this month by U.S. authorities for violating sanctions on Iran, one of Venezuela's closest allies. The U.S. Treasury declined to comment on the involvement of the Young Yong or the other vessels identified by Reuters in shipping Venezuela crude. Indonesian authorities said in early November that the Young Yong had run aground off the Riau Islands on Oct. 26. The United States imposed oil trading sanctions on Venezuela in 2019 after calling Maduro's re-election the previous year a sham.

☆ Sanctioned oil tanker floating free after stranding in Indonesia
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SINGAPORE, Nov 10 (Reuters) - U.S.-sanctioned oil supertanker Young Yong is moving away from shallow waters in Indonesia after more tugboats were deployed on Thursday to free the stranded vessel, shipping data showed. The ten tugboats that had surrounded the ship were also dispersing, data on Refinitiv Eikon and MarineTraffic website showed. The United States has allowed some transactions necessary to dock and anchor the Young Yong safely and make repairs as part of the efforts to free the vessel. The Young Yong was among the vessels sanctioned through its ownership. The supertanker is filled with about 2 million barrels of Venezuelan fuel oil after receiving the cargo through ship-to-ship operations last month, according to vessel monitoring services.

The Indonesian navy has been trying to free the Djibouti-registered ship, Young Yong, which ran aground off Indonesia's Riau Islands on Oct. 26 near a gas pipeline. The Young Yong was among the vessels sanctioned. Capable of carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil, the stranded tanker is almost full, according to shipping data on Refinitiv Eikon. allows transactions to free sanctioned oil tanker, Young Yong, which has been stranded in Indonesian waters since Oct. 26CHALLENGESThere are operational challenges in refloating the ship like the risk of an oil spill and strong currents in the surrounding waters, said Jacob Hogendorp, managing partner of Global Salvage Consultancy. He added that part of the cargo onboard Young Yong would likely have to be transferred to another ship before refloating commences.

REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File PhotoHOUSTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - A grounded oil supertanker under U.S. Treasury Department sanctions being refloated in Indonesia is filled with Venezuelan fuel, according to vessel monitoring services. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control last week imposed sanctions on the stranded tanker, Young Yong, for its part in an international oil smuggling network that Washington said supports Hezbollah and Iran's Quds Force. Both tankers had departed between late July and early August carrying fuel oil supplied by Venezuela's state-run oil firm PDVSA, according to internal company documents seen by Reuters and TankerTrackers.com, which confirmed the vessels' identities. The Panama-flagged Eagle Brenda, identified on PDVSA shipping schedules as "Eagle I," also carried some 1 million barrels of Venezuelan fuel oil, the documents showed. The tanker was in Venezuelan waters at least twice since last year, where it loaded Venezuelan crude and fuel for exports, according to PDVSA's schedules and TankerTrackers.com.

Worker loads palm oil fresh fruit bunches to be transported from the collector site to CPO factories in Pekanbaru, Riau province, Indonesia, April 27, 2022. The momentum in shipments could help to bring Indonesia's palm oil stocks, which ballooned to 6.69 million tonnes by end-June from around 4 million tonnes at end-2021, back to 4.5 to 5 million tonnes by end-September, said Eddy Martono, Secretary General at the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI). Malaysia has also displaced Indonesia so far in the 2021/22 marketing year to end-October as the top palm oil supplier to India, according to SEA data. "Indonesian sellers are now trying hard to regain the lost market share by offering discounts," a New Delhi-based palm oil dealer said. "Palm oil is big contributor in its tax kitty.

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