China’s growing appetite for durian is giving this famously divisive fruit political power.

From cybercrime and disasters to an elfin plush toy trend, here are some of the worst and best to happen in the Indo-Pacific throughout the year.

The US under the Trump administration has emerged as a global hegemon alongside China, albeit with different drivers, afflicting the rest of the world with limited opportunities, especially developing countries.

A merger between Grab and GoTo would result in significant market concentration, creating a new entity with up to 99 percent market share in Indonesia's ride-hailing and food delivery sectors 

The way we understand humanitarian crises determines whether we truly attempt to resolve them, or merely manage them so they remain tolerable.

The direct election mechanism as a way of choosing political leaders could become a thing of the past in Indonesia, starting with the election of the heads of regional administrations, but it could go all the way up to the election of the head of state.

To coincide with National History Day on Dec. 14, the Culture Ministry held the soft launch of Sejarah Indonesia: Dinamika Kebangsaan dalam Arus Global (Indonesian history: National dynamics in global currents).

We won’t know until January, but we are probably looking at the highest fiscal deficit in decades.

Indonesia's ambition to strengthen its domestic steel industry is being quietly undermined from within. While policymakers continue to champion downstream industry development, industrial resilience and import substitution, recent findings by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) reveal troubling weaknesses in steel import governance. The problem extends beyond illegal imports, pointing instead to regulatory gaps, weak inter-ministerial coordination and administrative failures that continue to erode the credibility of Indonesia's industrial policy.

Rather than the national polls, the outcome of the ongoing dynamics in Upper Myanmar between the KIA and the junta is a better political barometer for the country's course next year.

The Christmas 2025 theme as declared by the PGI and the KWI urges reflection on the state of Indonesian families and how "saving" them is inherently linked to the republic's future.

In celebrating Christmas, Christians are invited to demonstrate concern for the Earth rather than adding to its burdens through environmentally unfriendly celebrations.

Through the waste to energy initiative, Danantara will provide the investment, while the state utility company, PLN, will handle the electricity generated. 

Out of the 386 regencies and mayoralties targeted by the Health Ministry, fewer than half are estimated to have public health laboratories currently capable of processing PCR-based HPV DNA tests to detect cervical cancer.

In a surprising turn of events to cap off the year, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, has been shaken by turmoil that many observers are calling an internal coup. At the center of the storm is the sudden political ousting of Yahya Cholil Staquf as chairman of NU’s executive body Tanfidziyah.

The Indonesian term "mandiri" embodies the type of strategic governance necessary to unify a state's resources under a single command during a natural catastrophe. 

Hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Sumatra fear that "good news" will never come because the central government insists everything is under control. 

The debate about foreign assistance is a proxy for a deeper question of whether the state can make fast, clear, citizen-first decisions under pressure.

The current polemic between the Constitutional Court and the National Police is a test of the state vis-à-vis the ethics of power.

As long as Jokowi loyalists remain within Prabowo’s government—not merely to sustain influence but to survive politically ahead of 2029—fragmented governance is likely to persist. 

One of the JETP’s most ambitious and politically sensitive flagship goals, the early retirement of the Cirebon-1 coal-fired power plant, now appears to be effectively off the table.

The national policy on export proceeds (DHE) from natural resources has been revised for a third time after repeated attempts failed to significantly bolster foreign exchange (forex) reserves or deepen onshore foreign currency liquidity. The latest revision relaxes the mandatory rupiah conversion requirement from 100 percent to 50 percent and requires the placement of DHE in Association of State-Owned Banks (Himbara) members. While this is intended to ease pressure on exporters, it raises questions about whether locking DHE onshore can be effective in the long run without undermining export competitiveness.

In the aftermath of the disaster devastating parts of Sumatra, the lesson of Nargis is relevant not because Indonesia is on the brink of total failure, but because the moral test is identical. 

Prabowo seems to live inside a political bubble, dependent on information filtered by ministers and advisers whose main job is protecting his pride rather than telling him the truth.

Patriarchy damages a potentially powerful force of mature masculinity, one that could have been emotionally grounded, ethically strong and socially accountable

Multiple factors have contributed to overcapacity in China due to intense domestic competition, and though the government has several anti-involution measures in place, it will take time before they begin effecting any change.

Rather than safeguarding justice, Indonesia's legal instruments are increasingly being bent to serve institutional interests. The standoff between the Constitutional Court (MK) and the National Police over the assignment of active officers to civilian posts exposes not merely regulatory inconsistency, but a deeper disregard for constitutional authority.