HOT POINT

Prequalification certifies that the vaccine meets international standards for quality ‌and safety, ⁠allowing U.N. agencies such as UNICEF to buy and distribute ⁠it for immunization campaigns.

The nOPV2 shot is designed to be more ​genetically stable ​than older ​oral polio vaccines, ‌lowering the risk of triggering new outbreaks while helping to stop transmission, the WHO said.

Advertisement

The move follows a pledge by global leaders in December ‌to provide $1.9 billion ​to support eradication efforts, ​aiming to ​protect 370 million children ‌each year despite recent ​budget cuts.

Polio, ​a disabling and potentially life-threatening disease, has been wiped out in ​many ‌regions but continues to circulate.

(Reporting by ​Ruchika Khanna in Bengaluru. Editing ​by Mark Potter)

SPARTANBURG, South Carolina, Feb 13 (Reuters) - About a dozen times each day, medical staff at Parkside Pediatrics in Spartanburg, South Carolina, head to the clinic's parking lot, reaching inside cars and minivans to check children and their parents for fever, rash and other signs of measles.

Dr. Justin Moll started this outdoor triage in December to cope with what has quickly become the largest U.S. measles outbreak in more than three decades, federal health data show. He wants to keep the ‌highly contagious virus out of the clinic's waiting rooms, already packed with infants and other small children. Many of them are unvaccinated against measles because they're still too young.

Moll and his colleagues have treated about 50 measles patients since the outbreak started in early October, ‌something never seen before at their South Carolina clinics. They fear that outbreaks like these are becoming the new normal as Americans' opposition to vaccines deepens, fueled by backlash to the COVID-19 response and misinformation on social media. Medical experts say U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s anti-vaccine policies have further undermined public trust in life-saving immunizations by promoting unproven theories ​about the dangers of vaccines.

"This is not going to be the last vaccine-preventable disease to hit us," Moll told Reuters at his clinic in Spartanburg, the epicenter of the outbreak.

For this story, Reuters interviewed more than two dozen doctors, nurses, parents, school officials, pharmacists, pastors, lawmakers and former health officials in South Carolina.

The South Carolina outbreak has surpassed 930 cases, about 20 of which required hospitalization, according to state health officials. No deaths have been reported by the state.

School immunization rates statewide have dropped by nearly 3 percentage points since prior to the pandemic in 2020, as local leaders and parents pushed back against COVID-related lockdowns and vaccine mandates and demanded more "medical freedom" to choose what, if any, other routine shots their children receive.

Only 89% of all students from kindergarten up through high school are up to date on their shots in Spartanburg County, below the 95% rate that public health experts say can prevent measles' spread. In some local schools, vaccination rates have ‌dropped below 20%, according to state data.

During previous outbreaks, the federal government has led the charge to encourage ⁠widespread vaccination and coordinate efforts among states to curb the spread of disease. Kennedy has not made any major statements regarding the measles outbreak in South Carolina. HHS didn't respond to a request for comment.

The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) two-shot protocol remains recommended at the federal level starting at 12 months of age, with a second at 4 to 6 years of age.

Measles is among the most highly contagious viruses known. Spread through coughing, sneezing and talking, it can linger ⁠in the air for up to two hours and move quickly through communities with low vaccination coverage.

'SOME FOLKS HAVE OVERREACTED' IN AVOIDING ALL VACCINES

Some South Carolina Republicans now have second thoughts about discrediting routine immunization but find they hold little sway.

"I now believe that some folks have overreacted in the other direction and oppose any and all vaccines, even ones that have been tried-and-true for decades," Josh Kimbrell, a Republican state senator running for governor, wrote last month to a Spartanburg County school board.

He asked school officials to examine their policies on vaccine exemptions for students, but was pilloried on social media when he posted the letter online. Kimbrell didn't respond to requests for ​comment.

Dr. ​Leigh Bragg, a pediatrician near Spartanburg, said local hospitals, churches and schools are reluctant to speak up about the most proven way to curb the outbreak. "People are trying to ​stay in the middle and not pick a side on vaccinations," she said.

Even South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, a ‌Republican, has championed personal choice as the preventable disease spreads through the state.

"Our approach is to be sure people have the information and that the vaccine is available for them, give them all the information so they can make up their mind on what they want to do," he told reporters at a state tourism conference this week.

The outbreak struck as South Carolina's public health department grappled with reductions in federal funding and overall staffing in recent years, two former department employees told Reuters.

Last month, the Trump administration said it had sent South Carolina $1.4 million to support its measles response. State officials said the federal government also has provided assistance with testing, clinical advice and free vaccines.

"The number of cases we're seeing now is unprecedented," Dr. Linda Bell, South Carolina's state epidemiologist, said this week. "We have a great deal more work to do to stop this outbreak."

Despite Bell's pleas for people to get fully vaccinated, some remain reluctant to heed those calls. At state-run vaccine clinics at Spartanburg churches, only a handful of people have shown up in recent weeks.

Talina Podrez, a 21-year-old barista in Spartanburg, said measles had swept through her local church in January, leaving services about half empty. While she stayed away because ‌she only has one of the two recommended MMR shots, Podrez said she isn't interested in getting another shot.

"My mom was against most of the vaccines so we just ​got whatever was needed for the bare minimum," she said.

'MANY PARENTS HAVE LOST RESPECT AND FEAR FOR THIS DISEASE'

Nathan Heffington, a nurse practitioner and medical director for Parkside Pediatrics in ​Spartanburg County, believes that many more infections aren't being counted. He has seen multiple unvaccinated families show up with telltale signs of measles, ​but then refuse to get tested.

The clinic still reports them to the state as suspected cases and advises them to quarantine.

"The actual numbers are much, much higher than the reported numbers, which is just all the more nerve-wracking," Heffington said. "Many parents ‌have lost respect and fear for this disease."

While political leaders shy away from a strong endorsement of vaccines, ​it is left to medical providers like Moll and Heffington to persuade reluctant ​parents of their value.

"They're not anti-anything. They're just trying to do the best thing for their family and figure out who to trust," said Moll.

Kathleen Black's two oldest children, ages 8 and 4, got all their routine immunizations. But she wanted to hold off when her youngest, Katie, was born about a year ago.

From social media and friends, Black heard childhood vaccines may cause autism or developmental delays, claims not supported by medical research. Like many in South Carolina, she voted for Trump and supports Kennedy's demands for more vaccine safety studies.

"I like ​to go down those rabbit holes and it opens up millions of questions, like 'What's in the vaccines? Why ‌are we giving all these vaccines?'" she told Reuters during a visit to the Parkside clinic.

Heffington explained to her the risks posed by vaccine-preventable diseases. He then discussed the immediate threat her baby faced from measles, and the protection provided by an early ​MMR shot. He answered all of her questions about possible side effects. Finally, Black pressed him: "Would you do it?"

"Absolutely," the father of five replied. Black agreed to the first dose that day, and her daughter received a second dose last month.

"I wouldn't trust ​every doctor," Black said, "but I definitely trust Nathan."

(Reporting by Chad Terhune in Spartanburg, and Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Diane Craft)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida, Feb 13 (Reuters) - A SpaceX rocket soared into orbit from Florida early on Friday with a crew of two U.S. NASA astronauts, a French astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut headed to the International Space Station for an eight-month ‌science mission in microgravity.

The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket, topped with an autonomously operated Crew Dragon capsule dubbed "Freedom", was launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force ‌Station, along Florida's Atlantic Coast, at about 5:15 a.m. EST (1015 GMT).

A live NASA-SpaceX webcast showed the 25-story-tall vehicle rising from the launch tower as its nine Merlin engines roared to life, gulping 700,000 gallons ​of fuel per second, emitting clouds of vapor and a reddish fireball that lit up the predawn sky.

'THAT WAS QUITE A RIDE'

Nine minutes into its flight, the Falcon 9's upper-stage rocket had accelerated to more than 17,000 miles per hour (27,360 kph) before thrusting the Crew Dragon into orbit. By then, the reusable lower-stage booster had flown itself back to Earth and touched down safely at a Cape Canaveral landing pad.

The four crew were set to reach the space station on Saturday afternoon after a 34-hour flight, docking ‌with the orbiting laboratory platform some 250 miles (420 km) above ⁠Earth.

The mission, designated Crew-12, marks the 12th long-duration ISS team that NASA has flown aboard a SpaceX launch vehicle since the private rocket venture founded in 2002 by billionaire Elon Musk began sending U.S. astronauts to orbit in May 2020.

Crew-12 was led by ⁠Jessica Meir, 48, a veteran astronaut and marine biologist on her second trip to the space station, nearly seven years after making history with NASA colleague Christina Koch by completing history's first all-female spacewalk.

"Thank you team, that was quite a ride," Meir radioed to the SpaceX flight control center near Los Angeles. "Crew-12 is grateful and ready for the journey ahead. We're on ​our ​way."

Joining her on the flight was Jack Hathaway, 43, a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot ​and rookie astronaut; European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, 43, a ‌master helicopter pilot from France; and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, a former military pilot on his second mission to the ISS.

ORBITING LABORATORY

Upon arrival, the team will get busy with a host of scientific, medical and technical research tasks in microgravity, according to NASA.

Those include studies of pneumonia-causing bacteria to improve treatments on Earth, and experiments with plant and nitrogen-fixing microbe interactions to boost food production in space.

Much of the science agenda is aimed at perfecting technologies that NASA hopes to deploy in future astronaut missions to the moon and Mars as part of its fledgling Artemis program, successor to project Apollo a half-century ago.

The Artemis II mission, a 10-day test voyage designed ‌to fly four astronauts around the moon and back, is due to launch as early ​as next month.

Crew-12 will be welcomed aboard the space station by three current ISS occupants - NASA astronaut ​Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev.

Four Crew-11 members ​who were supposed to have stayed aboard until the arrival of Crew-12 departed a few weeks early, when an undisclosed serious health ‌condition affecting one forced an unprecedented medical evacuation flight home in ​mid-January.

The ISS, which spans the length of ​a football field and ranks as the largest human-made object in space, has been continuously operated by a U.S.-Russian-led consortium that includes Canada, Japan and 11 European countries.

The first hardware for the outpost was launched more than a quarter century ago. It was conceived as part of a multinational venture to ​improve ties between Washington and Moscow following the Soviet ‌Union's collapse and the end of Cold War rivalries that spurred the original U.S.-Soviet space race in the 1950s and 1960s.

NASA has said it ​is committed to keeping the space station operating until the end of 2030.

(Reporting by Steve Nesius in Cape Canaveral, Florida; Writing and additional ​reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Alex Richardson)

The moment sent chills through French figure skaterSurya Bonaly, she told USA TODAY Sports. The three-time Olympian tuned in thousands of miles away in her Minnesota home, but she could clearly see past Chock and Bates' stoic smiles and gracious waves. Bonaly resonated with the frustration and heartbreak simmering beneath.

"When I was watching the podium and I see everyone super excited except (Chock) and (Bates), I can see they are ... forced to smile for the camera. And I'm like, 'Oh, I feel I've been there," Bonaly told USA TODAY Sports on Feb. 12.

Figure skating has long been a subjective sport, where judging is open to personal interpretation and sometimes implicit bias. It has greatly impacted Bonaly's international career and the conversation was renewed following Chock and Bates' stunning defeat by gold-medal winnersLaurence Fournier BeaudryandGuillaume Cizeronof France.

"I'm French, I do support my French team, but obviously the Americans...I feel so sad for them," Bonaly added. "They lost it for so less than (two) points. And it's sad, but I guess it's figure skating, because some people like you, some don't and they can just change the rest of your life just for one second in a competition just like that."

Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France won gold in figure skating ice dance at the 2026 Winter Olympics. The U.S. ice dance pair Madison Chock and Evan Bates won the silver medal with a total of 224.39 points after scoring a 134.67 in their free dance.
Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France perform during the Ice Dance Free Dance during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Ice Skating Arena on Feb. 11, 2026 in Milan.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Madison Chock and Evan Bates of United States perform during the Ice Dance Free Dance during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Ice Skating Arena on Feb. 11, 2026 in Milan.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Piper Gilles and partner Paul Poirier of Team Canada compete in the during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Ice Skating Arena on Feb. 11, 2026 in Milan.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Britain perform during the Ice Dance Free Dance during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Ice Skating Arena on Feb. 11, 2026 in Milan.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy perform during the Ice Dance Free Dance during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Ice Skating Arena on Feb. 11, 2026 in Milan.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Canada's Zachary Lagha and Marjorie Lajoie compete in the figure skating ice dance-free dance final during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan on Feb. 11, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

All eyes on Ice Dance finals as Team USA chases Olympic gold

Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France won gold infigure skating ice danceat the2026 Winter Olympics. The U.S. ice dance pairMadison ChockandEvan Bateswon the silver medalwith a total of 224.39 points after scoring a 134.67 in their free dance.Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France perform during the Ice Dance Free Dance during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Ice Skating Arena on Feb. 11, 2026 in Milan.

Bonaly, a three-time World silver medalist, recalls her own podium moment. At the 1993 World Championship in Prague, Bonaly was awarded silver after landing seven triple jumps and a triple combination. Oksana Baiul had five triple jumps and no combinations in her program, but was awarded the gold over Bonaly.

The following year, Bonaly believed she did enough to claim an elusive World gold. But she narrowly missed the top of the podium again. During the medal ceremony, Bonaly removed the silver medal from around her neck as a symbol of protest.

"It was difficult to fight all the time against all those barrier against me," Bonaly added.

The crowd booed and the removal of her medal was viewed as poor sportsmanship, but Bonaly said she was tired of the unfair treatment and a system that undervalued her athleticism and skill.

"Our sport is so subjective. It's not like with a swimming time, you just click your time ... and can see exactly what the number was," Bonaly said. "In skating, it all depends ... look at (Thursday) at the competition with ice dance."

Surya Bonaly is a French retired figure skater and coach best known as the only Olympic athlete to land a backflip on one blade, a move she performed at the 1998 Winter Olympics. Born on December 15, 1973, in Nice, she became one of the most decorated skaters of her time, earning…pic.twitter.com/RUd1KlwsU3

— Fascinating (@fasc1nate)February 4, 2026

In the free skate, Chock and Bates finished with a 76.75 technical elements score and a 57.92 program components score following a clean skate that many perceived as flawless. France's Beaudry and Cizeron finished with a higher technical elements score of 77.06 and a program components score of 58.58 despite several missteps.

"Within competition ... the top performance will win. We don't care which one, but it has to be the top," Bonaly said. "For me ... we know it was American team. (Cizeron), even though I'm a big fan of him and he is a great dancer and he has a perfect technique, he did make some mistakes and somehow the judge didn't acknowledge (the) mistakes ... I saw two mistakes."

Bonaly isn't sure how judging can be improved to be more objective, but she declared that "something has to be changed," because the system that failed her decades ago is still flawed: "It has to be more fair and that's it ... I'm sick and tired of seeing some people who should have won miss it and just lose ... It has to be more clear."

Bonaly was featured on a 2019 episode ofNetflix's "Losers,"where she shared some advice to a group of young Black skaters breaking into a sport that is both beautiful, but unforgiving. The episode is titled "Judgment," which Bonaly faced throughout her entire career. Yet, it gave her perspective she teaches to her skating students.

"Sometime it's hard. Many days you feel like crying, but winning a competition, it's not the important thing in life," Bonaly said in the episode. "You don't have to wait for a medal to make your life different ... A medal is nice, but ... it's superficial. It's not real. If you give 100% and you know there was no other way, you did the best, well, feel good about it."

It's a philosophy Chock and Bates have embraced. After the ice dance free skate result brought them to tears on Thursday, Chock and Bates said their perfromance, likely the last dance of their Olympic careers, was a "gold medal performance."

"We did what we had to do," Chock said. "Sometimes you do your very best and it's not always what you hope in the result, but we feel confident in knowledge that we did our job and we wouldn't change anything about what we've done or how we went about doing it."

Contributing: Jordan Mendoza

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast.Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Surya Bonaly reacts to Chock, Bates upset: Americans were top team

Milan Cortina Olympics Skeleton

Meanwhile, his disqualification was justified because he insisted on bringing his messaging — a tribute helmet — onto the field of play, International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry reiterated Friday.

Heraskevych was in Milan for the hearing Friday, still believing that his plan to wear a helmet displaying the images of more than 20 Ukrainian athletes and coaches who have been killed since Russia invaded their country in 2022 was not in violation of the Olympic Charter.

"I feel the same as the last four days," Heraskevych said. "I believe I didn't fail at any rules, so therefore I shouldn't be suspended, and I should be today part of the Olympic Games, part of the competition, but not part of the hearing. So, we continue to fight for our truth."

Speaking in Milan, a day after she visited with Heraskevych in Cortina d'Ampezzo moments before he was told that he could not participate in his Olympic race, Coventry repeated what the IOC has been pointing to for several days about the need to control how messages from athletes can be shared with the world.

"I think that he in some ways understood that but was very committed to his beliefs, which I can respect," Coventry said. "But sadly, it doesn't change the rules."

Advertisement

Heraskevych has already missed thefirst two runs of his competition,with the final two runs set to take place on Friday evening — so it's unclear how his case could be remedied to his liking.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams said he believes the CAS ruling will come quickly, but neither he nor Coventry would speculate if Heraskevych — provided he wins his appeal — could somehow be returned to the Olympic race.

"Obviously, we know the schedule of the competition, and it's an objective for CAS to be able to render the decision before the start of the race, assuming that it's possible," CAS director general Matthew Reeb said before the hearing. "We don't know how long the hearing will take."

AP journalists Annie Risemberg and Stefanie Dazio in Milan contributed to this story.

AP Olympics:https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

It includes an early dinner at 4:30 p.m. because Tran says he gets "cranky" after 6:30. It also includes a date at a spa. Just don't expect Sanders to sit there while Tran gets a massage from another man.

"That's not gonna happen," Sanders said.

Tran and Sanders revealed these Valentine's details Thursday, Feb. 12, on"We Got Time Today,"a weekly talk show on Tubico-hosted by Sanders and Rocsi Diaz. Sanders put Tran on the phone during the show to talk about it.

"If I left it up to you, we would be at Red Lobster," Tran told Sanders.

"For the seafood lover in me," Sanders replied.

OOPS:Why Devin Hester's help was among two Colorado NCAA violations

In lieu of that, Tran said, "We have a cute little weekend planned."

They plan to enjoy "jazz night" at 6 p.m. Friday, which comes after "linner," a meal that comes in the traditional time between lunch and dinner — about 4:30.

"I have to eat linner," said Sanders, who likes to go to bed early and alsohates late football games. "I can't do dinner. Because if I do dinner, it ain't gonna be no more. So we do linner, like a late lunch."

"You get cranky after like 6:30," Tran told him.

The couple also plans a train ride through the mountains this weekend, plus another dinner and a "beautiful hotel at an undisclosed place."

Advertisement

"And I'm forcing you to go to the spa," Tran told Sanders. "Because he doesn't love the spa."

"I don't need nobody rubbing on me, I'm straight, I'm good" Sanders said.

"OK, but you're gonna get a facial," Tran said.

"I don't mind a facial, but ain't nobody rubbing on me," Sanders told Tran. "Like, you want to get a couples massage? So… you want me to sit there and watch a dude rub on you? That's not gonna happen…. I don't get down like that."

"He's just doing his job," Tran said.

"He won't do his job while I'm sitting there," Sanders said. "You buck naked right beside me, and a dude rubbing on you. And I supposed to be good with that? You lost your mind."

"I feel like every man has had this conversation when it comes to massages," Diaz said.

Tran tried to reassure Sanders.

"You're my man," she said.

"She better be a woman," Sanders replied.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer@Schrotenboer. Email: bschroten@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:What is Deion Sanders doing for Valentine's Day? His date has plans

Indonesia has experience in peacekeeping operations as one of the top 10 contributors to United Nations missions,including in Lebanon, and has been deeply involved in providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, including funding a hospital.

But many Indonesians are skeptical of PresidentPrabowo Subianto's plans to joinWashington's proposed Board of Peaceand participate in the International Security Force with only vague details so far on how they will operate, seeing it as simply kowtowing to Trump's agenda as the two countries negotiate a trade deal.

"We need to be careful to ensure that our military personnel are not supporting the Israeli military forces," said Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, a Middle East expert with Jakarta's Center of Economic and Law Studies. "We need to be careful that our military forces are not fighting against wrong actors."

The ISF's mandate remains unclear

U.N. peacekeeping forces all have clear and strict mandates, but since the Board of Peace and ISF will operate outside the U.N., many wonder how the troops will be used, and who will pay for them. Last year's ceasefire agreement broadly says that the ISF will "provide support to vetted Palestinian police forces in Gaza" and will "work with Israel and Egypt to help secure border areas."

Indonesia currently is paid by the U.N. for the troops it sends to serve as peacekeepers, but people fear it will have to pick up the tab for the troops sent to Gaza, as well asa possible $1 billion payment for a permanent placeon the Board of Peace, as outlined in a draft charter.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country and firmly supports a two-state solution in the Mideast, and officials have justified joining the Board of Peace by saying it was necessary to defendPalestinian interestsfrom within, since Israel is included on the board but there is no Palestinian representation.

"Indonesia sees the importance of the involvement of the parties to the conflict as part of the process towards peace," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yvonne Mewengkang said this week.

She said Indonesia would use its membership to "ensure that the entire process remains oriented towards the interests of Palestine and respects the basic rights of the Palestinian people, as well as encouraging the realization of a two-state solution."

The Jakarta Post slammed that kind of reasoning in an editorial, however, saying that an "independent Palestinian state, if it emerges at all, is likely decades away."

"Indonesia will end up paying $1 billion long before any meaningful outcome is achieved," Abdul Khalik wrote. "And if Indonesia eventually withdraws in frustration, it will have already spent vast resources; financial, diplomatic and political, for nothing."

Trump seen as overstepping the UN

The Board of Peace was initially envisioned as a small group of world leaders overseeing Trump'splan for Gaza's future. But the U.S. president has since said he sees the board as a mediator of worldwide conflicts, sidestepping the mandate of the U.N.

Prabowo, a former army general who has been keen to raise Indonesia's profile on the world stage, quickly accepted Trump's offer for a place on the Board of Peace and made an initial pledge of 20,000 Indonesian troops as peacekeepers during his speech at theUnited Nations General Assembly.

An online petition started by a group of Muslim scholars and activists questions joining a body that ostensibly promotes peace, but whose proposed chairman for life will be Trump, citing his threats to take Greenland, the seizure ofthen-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and the American veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a Gaza ceasefire last year.

"In our belief, peace will be difficult to achieve by a country or a leader of a country who repeatedly uses his veto power to prevent the occurrence of peace itself," reads the petition, which calls for Indonesia to withdraw from the Board of Peace and has gotten more than 9,000 signatures so far.

"The BoP faces serious legitimacy problems, both normatively, structurally and morally."

Indonesia's military readies troops despite lack of guidance

About 100 protesters against Indonesia's involvement gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta on Friday, holding signs with slogans like "Bored of peace?" and "Free Gaza."

Earlier this week, Indonesian Army Chief of Staff Gen. Maruli Simanjuntak said that training had begun for the peacekeepers, even though Indonesia has yet to receive any guidance on what types of personnel were needed.

He said Indonesia now envisions sending between 5,000 to 8,000 troops.

"We have started training personnel who might later serve as peacekeepers," he said. "So that means engineering, medical units - the types often deployed."

Despite the skepticism at home, the idea of Indonesians serving as peacekeepers in Gaza is seen in the region as a good one, said Hassan Jouni, a Qatar-based analyst who was formerly a Lebanese army general. Indonesia, he said, is viewed as an "honest and acceptable broker" by both sides in the conflicts in Lebanon and Gaza.

"Indonesia is a Muslim country... and its religious identity gives it a large distinction in its security participation as part of the peacekeeping forces in the Arab region," he said. "At the same time, it does not pose a strategic threat to Israel."

While Indonesia and Israel do not have formal diplomatic ties and Indonesia has been supportive of the rights of the Palestinians, it has not taken a directly confrontational stance toward Israel similar to some other Muslim-majority powers such as Turkey and Iran.

"From this point of view, the participation of Indonesian forces in southern Lebanon comes in a balanced and effective manner," he said, and it may be expected to do the same in Gaza.

Many are looking for clarity toward the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace next week in Washington, where other countries are expected to announce troop commitments of their own.

Prabowo plans to attend in person and is expected to also sign the new trade deal while there, and the Center of Economic and Law Studies' Rakhmat said he didn't think he would be swayed by public sentiment.

"I don't think the domestic opposition would significantly change the decision of Indonesia in joining the BoP," he said.

Rising reported from Bangkok. Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this story.