Health advocates: People hold a rally on Sept. 8, 2026 in Yogyakarta to demand the government end the free nutritious meal (MBG) program following repeated cases of mass food poisoning.

Civil society needs protection, not stigmatization

Prabowo’s londo ireng remark directed at civil society groups does not reflect the actual policy work civil society is providing, including the promotion of democratic values, good governance and human rights perspectives.

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SBY’s foreign policy legacy and the Democratic Party

SBY tenure marked a phase of both consolidation and a renaissance for Indonesia’s foreign policy. ...

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Europe’s greatest mistake: Military interests trump security

The collision of an aging population, escalating climate damages and massive remilitarization is set to present an unprecedented, compounding threat to the future well-being of Europeans. ...

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The Great Barrier Reef refuses to die on schedule

Despite decades of media obituaries and rescheduled catastrophes, the Great Barrier Reef just delivered the best five years of coral cover in its 40-year recorded history.

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A group of women crosses a street in front of Perdana Putra, the office of the prime minister in Malaysia’s administrative capital Putrajaya, shrouded in haze from regional wildfires on Aug. 13, 2026.

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The remedy gap in transboundary haze

Building on the 2002 agreement, ASEAN has since declared the right to a clean and healthy environment and is now working on an action plan that may finally provide access to legal recourse for the region’s citizens harmed by transboundary haze pollution.

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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. (Reuters/Stringer)

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Assessing the merit of the strategic commodities bill

In order to ensure the viability and merit of the bill, it is imperative for all of us to get clarity on ultimate purpose, intended impacts and legal soundness during the legislative process.

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Local members of Operation Madago Raya, a joint public security initiative on deradicalization and counterterrorism run by the National Police and the Indonesian Military, provide a box of basic staples to a former terrorist (second right) on Nov. 3, 2025, during a social assistance handover event in Poso, Central Sulawesi.

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The war on terror and its unintended consequences

We cannot claim our war on terror as a success if it breeds new generations of anger, alienation and hatred.

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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.

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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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(left to right) Foreign Minister Sugiono, Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Laos' Foreign Minister Thongsavanh Phomvihane and ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn talk before a group photo during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Pasay, Metro Manila on July 23, 2026.

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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.

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The Kapuas River delta, formed by the Landak (left) and Kapuas Kecil rivers, looms out of thick haze on Aug. 27, 2026, in Pontianak, the provincial capital of West Kalimantan.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Indonesian hex: When political rhetoric rewrites reality

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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