A worker sorts copper production at El Teniente mine, the world's largest underground copper mine in Machali, near Rancagua, Chile, on April 2, 2025.

In a global economic heatwave, beware financial wildfires

Global growth is running hot into the second half of the year, forcing asset managers to find firebreaks while staying invested.

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From trust to Kizuna: 20 years of Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund

The next chapter of Japan-ASEAN relations will test whether the bond can endure amidst increasingly self-seeking and divisive geopolitical tendencies. ...

11 hours ago

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When forests burn, climate commitments falter

As peatlands burn and flagship carbon projects go up in smoke, our market-driven climate pledges are failing. Only recognizing the legal rights of nature, as constitutionally mandated, can pull us back from the brink. ...

12 hours ago

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Students rest while receiving treatment for food poisoning at the regional general hospital after eating government-sponsored free school meals in Sidoarjo, East Java, on Sept. 2, 2026.

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Children are no longer the priority, were they ever?

When a national school lunch program turns kids into hospital patients, it’s time to ask whether our children are the priority, or just collateral damage for an economic machine.

1 day ago

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (right) and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung pose on Jan. 12, 2026, for photographs before performing on drums after their meeting in Nara, Japan.

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The Donald Trump shock in East Asia

The consequences of Trump’s behavior are even more serious for East Asia than they are for Europe.

1 day ago

People gather in front of the Parliament Complex in Jakarta on Aug. 26, 2026, in preparation for a peaceful protest by the United Pati Community Alliance, or AMPB. The group held a peaceful protest that Thursday over corruption eradication and the passage of the Asset Forfeiture Bill.

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Asset forfeiture bill: The paradox of Prabowo’s anticorruption rhetoric

Prabowo promised to chase corrupt actors to Antarctica, but passing the asset forfeiture bill without democratic safeguards risks handing the state a weapon against its own people.

1 day ago

A worker checks an aluminum sheet roll on Feb. 11, 2025, at an aluminum processing factory in Huaibei, Anhui, China.

Academia

Capped at home, China extends its aluminum dominance abroad

China's aluminum producers are increasingly turning to developing smelters abroad against a capacity cap of 45 million tonnes at home, extending the country's industry dominance further afield.

1 day ago

Activists led by Greenpeace Malaysia and Himpunan Advocacy Rakyat Malaysia (HARAM) stage a rally in front of the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Sept. 4, 2026, calling for transparency and corporate accountability over transboundary haze due to wildfires in Indonesia.

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Ending Southeast Asia’s never-ending haze cycle

Southeast Asia’s recurring haze is rooted in fires burning in Indonesia, but its regional impact calls for stronger ASEAN cooperation, accountability and prevention.

1 day ago

Stranded passengers wait in a terminal at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang on Sept. 7, 2026, after the main airport serving Jakarta halted operations following the eruption of Mount Anak Krakatau in the Sunda Strait.

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When volcanoes reshape geopolitics and ASEAN's balance of power

Superpowers and treaties shape the balance of power in Southeast Asia; until the volcanoes beneath them decide to rewrite the map.

1 day ago

Mount Anak Krakatau volcano spews hot lava as seen from Pasauran village in Serang, Banten, on Sept. 5, 2026.

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Anak Krakatau doesn't need an earthquake to kill

Tsunami sirens are built to detect earthquakes, but Anak Krakatau can kill without one, and our warning systems are still waiting for a shake that’s never coming.

2 days ago

The construction of Digital Edge Indonesia data center in Cikarang, West Java, is underway in this undated picture. State power producer PT PLN is set to supply 2x 725 megavolts of electricity to support the operation of the country’s largest data center.

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Who controls the data, controls the future

AI now sits inside finance, defense, health care and public administration, and it runs on two things most governments do not actually control: the data that train it and the compute that processes it.

2 days ago

A man looks at an electronic display in Seoul on July 28, 2026, showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) after the close of trading.

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Asia's next leverage-driven market crash could be brewing

The recent crash of tech-heavy KOSPI rings an alarm bell for retail investors in navigating Asian equities as regulators move to rein in single-stock ETFs across the region.

2 days ago

Visitors are seen enjoying the sunset on Lake Toba at Bulbul Beach, in Balige, Toba regency, in June 2022. (JP/Tonggo Simangunsong)

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Celebrating literature, culture and nature at the Lake Toba Writers Festival

On the volcanic shores of Lake Toba, an unpretentious festival is keeping deep storytelling alive in an age of shallow feeds.

2 days ago

Workers assemble electric motorcycles on Sept. 21, 2023, at the Alva manufacturing plant in Cikarang, West Java.

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From fuel to batteries: Trading one dependence for another

Unless it builds the supply chain to match its electric ambitions, the country risks trading its costly addiction to foreign oil for imported batteries and coal-fired power.

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An aerial view shows flood damage to a residential area in Meurah Dua, Pidie Jaya regency, Aceh on Feb. 22, 2026, after devastating cyclone-induced floods and landslides struck northern Sumatra in November 2025. In hardest-hit Aceh, which accounted for most of the more than 1,000 deaths, families have become increasingly frustrated over authorities' sluggish response.

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From the Himalayas to Sumatra: Can Indonesia govern an unruly climate?

When freak disasters render historical weather data useless, Indonesia's real climate crisis isn't about predicting the next storm—it’s learning how to govern a future that no longer plays by the rules.

2 days ago

President Prabowo Subianto looks on as he arrives on Aug. 14 at the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta for the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) plenary meeting, in which he delivered the State of the Nation address and the 2027 state budget proposal.

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The Indonesian hex: When political rhetoric rewrites reality

The administration has erected a political hologram over Indonesia’s economic landscape.

3 days ago

Anak Krakatau volcano erupts as documented by a team from the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation at the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) on Sept. 5, 2026.

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Relentless natural disasters test Indonesia’s fiscal priorities

Indonesia can always scramble cash after tragedy strikes, but with national buffers tied up and disasters arriving back-to-back, running preparedness on a shoestring is a gamble we can no longer afford.

3 days ago

Boniface Djabia, the chief of Betykro, a camp of cocoa producers living in precarious conditions 20 kilometers from Guiglo, Ivory Coast, poses for a portrait in front of one of his mud houses covered with straw on Jan. 16, 2026.

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How developing countries can do more with less

Evaluation frameworks for development projects have long been influenced by donor priorities. But foreign-aid cuts have created an opportunity for African countries to implement equitable evaluation practices, both to channel limited resources more effectively and to shape the future of global development governance.

3 days ago

House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad (right) of the Gerindra Party shows a copy of the legislature's commitment letter to pass the asset forfeiture bill to representatives of the United Pati People's Alliance (AMPB) on Aug. 27 at the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta. The AMPB staged a protest in front of the legislative complex to demand the passage of the long-awaited asset forfeiture bill and harsher punishment for corrupt officials.

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The Dec. 15 deadline keeps Indonesia’s political pressure cooking

By putting a Dec.15 deadline in writing, lawmakers didn't just defuse a street protest—they handed the public a ticking timer on their own integrity.

3 days ago

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left), Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (center) and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif meet in Mecca in this handout photograph taken and released by the Turkish Presidency press office on Aug. 7, 2026.

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The anxious search of Pakistan’s power elite for regional standing

Pakistan’s power elite still dreams of returning to those days of perceived glory and reclaiming the country’s position among the leading middle powers of the Muslim world.

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Figurines with computers and smartphones are seen in front of the words “Artificial Intelligence“ in this illustration created on Feb. 19, 2024.

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AI watermarks erase human authorship twice

Models absorb human creativity without consent, then label human-directed work as machine-made, creating a troubling double erasure of authorship.

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Cybersecurity governance: From bureaucracy to real-world threats

We have the blueprints to defend our digital sovereignty, but without real enforcement power, adequate funding and urgency on AI and quantum threats, the next massive breach is already penciled in.

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President Prabowo Subianto inspects the implementation of the free nutritious meal program on June 2 at State Junior High School (SMPN) 111 Jakarta.

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What SBY and Jokowi can teach Prabowo about regaining public trust

History proves political recovery is entirely possible. SBY and Jokowi successfully restored their approval ratings above 50 percent. Not only did they improve their numbers, both went on win re-election.

4 days ago

A thick haze shrouds Metro Manila due to smoke from ongoing fires in Kalimantan, Indonesia, in this drone picture taken in Quezon City, Philippines, on Sept. 1, 2026.

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Asia's natural disasters must not become financial crises

Physical hazards can quickly morph into macroeconomic shocks.

4 days ago

Riot police are deployed outside the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta on Aug. 27, 2026, during a protest against government policies that also called for harsher penalties against corrupters.

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Sowing division: When the state pits citizens against citizens

When a government outsources repression to street militias, it isn't preserving order; it is waging a reckless, authoritarian war against its own people.

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Oil tankers unload imported crude oil at the at the crude oil terminal of in Qingdao port, in China’s eastern Shandong province on July 16, 2026.

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Why oil importers are learning to live with longer trade routes

Energy trade routes that optimize distance and costs may no longer be suitable for the fractured and fractious modern world, especially for major importers.

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A firefighter from the Banjar Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) douses a peatland fire on Sept. 2, 2026, in Banjar regency, South Kalimantan.

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What a record‑shattering El Niño means for the world’s weather

This year's El Nino is forecast to be the strongest ever, compounding the effects of climate change, and it may just catalyze the world into finally abandoning fossil fuels.

4 days ago

Indonesian seafarers line up for immigration clearance following their arrival at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, on June 16, 2021.

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From Vladivostok to Gunungkidul: Indonesia must export skills, not just workers

If Indonesia wants its global diplomacy to truly pay off, it must stop sending cheap labor into the shadows and start exporting certified talent the world will actually invest in.

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An ice cream vendor looks at banners showing candidates for the 2024 presidential and regional legislative elections on Feb. 3 in Surabaya, East Java.

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Making the legislative threshold adaptive and democratic

We must stop treating the parliamentary threshold as an arbitrary political horse trade and replace static cutoffs with an adaptive, evidence-based mechanism that protects voter representation.

6 days ago

Stateless outcasts: A Rohingya man carries Myanmar's national flag on Aug. 25, 2026 during a Genocide Remembrance Day rally at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, to mark the ninth anniversary of their mass exodus following a military crackdown.

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Myanmar crisis testing the promise of universal jurisdiction

Universal jurisdiction can open the courtroom doors to Myanmar’s survivors, but without cross-border political will, investigative muscle and survivor-centered networks, a growing docket of foreign cases will never amount to real accountability.

6 days ago

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