A week after cyclone-induced floods and landslides hit three provinces in Sumatra, authorities are still scrambling to find those who are missing and to distribute aid, as several affected areas remain still cut off and awaiting necessary supplies.

The Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister has dispatched around 40 tonnes of food and medical supplies to flood-ravaged Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra, as the government pressed on with search and rescue missions for a disaster that has claimed nearly 800 lives.

She was one of the lucky ones on Wednesday, when soldiers in military fatigues oversaw the distribution of rice to flood survivors.

Political tensions continue to rise within the country’s most influential Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), after a leaked internal audit alleged millions of dollars were funneled into the organization's central board under chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf in a suspected money laundering scheme.

About 1.4 million hectares of forest cover have been cleared across Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra between 2016 and 2025 to make way for plantations and mining, according to the environmental group Walhi. The areas hardest-hit by floods and landslides last week were degraded watersheds. 

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said tropical cyclone seeds could emerge across several regions in southern Indonesia between the second week of December and early January, which may dissipate or intensify into a full-fledged cyclone.

Sibolga city is among the regions worst affected by flash floods and landslides in North Sumatra. 

The six illegal workers worked as a team and each had a specific role, such as team leader, cutter or transporter.

The KPK has welcomed a district court's decision to throw out the corruption fugitive's legal challenge related to his arrest in Singapore on jurisdictional grounds, saying it hopes the ruling will pave the way for Paulus' extradition under a bilateral treaty.

In affected regions, there is growing frustration among survivors of catastrophic flooding and landslides over the pace of the rescue effort and aid delivery.

Environmentalists, experts and even the government have pointed to the role forest loss played in flash flooding and landslides that washed torrents of mud into villages and stranded residents on roofs.

The three provinces have suffered severe devastation after a rare tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait and unleashed a week of torrential rain and powerful winds, triggering widespread floods and landslides.

Siegfried Mets, 73, was sentenced to death in 2008 for distributing drugs, while Ali Tokman, 64, was serving life imprisonment for smuggling more than 6 kg of the synthetic drug MDMA.

The agency in a press conference late on Tuesday said 708 people had been killed since last week, a figure lower than the 753 reported on its website earlier in the day. It did not give a reason for the discrepancy. 

The discovery was the latest in a string of elephant deaths in recent months that has heightened concern over the endangered species’ survival.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has logged at least 60 alleged human rights violations in Papua this year, from deadly lapses in basic health care to land grabs and attacks on civilians, a pattern the agency says highlights Jakarta’s failing approach to the restive region.

A decade-old case of alleged corruption in the procurement of a satellite at the Defense Ministry entered a new phase on Monday, as investigators concluded their probe into a retired Navy officer and two other suspects in the case.

To deal with the shortage of burial plots for the dead, Jakarta is planning to revitalize and expand several public cemeteries across the city at the expense of poor residents who have lived among the graves on city-owned land for decades.

With at least 712 dead and hundreds more missing from floods and landslides across northern Sumatra, regional leaders have admitted that they cannot handle the crisis alone, underscoring deep budgetary and logistical gaps in disaster response.

Investigators of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) previously raided the former West Java governor’s house in Bandung in March and confiscated a Mercedes-Benz that was once owned by former president Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie.

The rains have moved on and the floodwaters have largely receded, but the disaster has left a trail of devastation and trauma for those who survived.

Government agencies and aid groups are rushing to get aid to those affected, while rescuers search for 472 people still listed as missing.

He expressed concern that the mining activities could cause environmental degradation and threaten Komodo dragons.

The special service aims to ease mobility for local business owners, particularly in transporting agricultural products and merchandise.

Senior clerics of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) have called for a reconciliation, known as islah, between its chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf and its supreme council as a way to solve the internal rift concerning Yahya’s chairmanship.

A year-old infant is the only survivor of the family that was traveling in the passenger car, which was passing an unguarded crossing on Sunday when it was hit by a train headed to Surabaya.

President Prabowo Subianto visited flood- and landslide- hit areas in northern Sumatra on the sixth day after the disaster, promising to address urgent food and fuel shortages as thousands face dwindling supplies and the growing threat of hunger, while damaged roads continue to hamper relief efforts.