A woman walks on Sept. 20, 2024 across the dried-up bed of the Bendo Reservoir in Ponorogo, East Java, which has been hit by severe drought.

Why a just land transition needs real funding

Up to 40 percent of our planet’s lands are degraded and deteriorating, jeopardizing the health and livelihoods of more than 3 billion people.

2 months ago

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ASEAN floods 2025: Governance at a crossroads

The flooding that peaked last month across the region illustrates a fundamental truth: disaster risk reduction is inextricably tied to governance, including economic policies, and ASEAN must tackle climate issues as a collective agenda. ...

2 months ago

Academia

New OPEC+ quotas ignite spending surge

The new MSC mechanism for setting output baselines from 2027 looks set to spur investment via a more equitable and transparent capacity measurement system, leading to a more sustainable market. ...

2 months ago

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A truck loaded with a donation of oxygen concentrators on March 8, 2021, from the Tanoto Foundation leaves a freight depot at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Banten.

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Philanthropies shift focus to scale, transparency, measurable outcomes

Philanthropies can begin by designing learning systems that move beyond counting outputs to understanding outcomes.

2 months ago

Former executives of state-owned ferry operator PT ASDP Ferry Indonesia, namely president director Ira Puspadewi (second right), planning and development diretor Harry Muhammad Adhi Caksono (third left) and commercial and service director Muhammad Yusuf Hadi, walk into the courtroom of the Jakarta Corruption Court in Jakarta ahead of their verdict hearing on Nov. 20, 2025.

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How presidential clemency fuels impunity

Prabowo’s increasingly reckless use of pardons reflects a troubling pattern of presidential overreach.

2 months ago

Rescuers carry a body bag of a victim recovered on Friday from an area hit by flash floods following heavy rains in Malalak district, Agam regency, West Sumatra.

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Sumatra floods: A test of national coordination, not just status

Indonesia has real-time disaster maps using crowdsourced reports and a national portal for disaster risk reduction, but they lack integration

2 months ago

A fisherman parks his fishing boat on Nov. 11, 2025, in Kupal village, on Bacan Island, at coastal area in South Halmahera regency, North Maluku.

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The triple-return ocean economy

Advancing regenerative ocean solutions provides a hedge against systemic instability by protecting one of Earth’s most powerful stabilizing forces.

2 months ago

A woman walks among tree trunks on the shore on Sunday following deadly flash floods and landslides, in Padang, West Sumatra. The death toll from floods that hit Indonesia this week has reportedly risen to more than 400 people.

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The early warning that Sumatra never received

In the event of disasters, what protects people is not a perfect environment, but a reliable flow of information and a clear structure of action.

2 months ago

President Prabowo Subianto receives flowers from the Indonesian diaspora on September 20 upon his arrival at a hotel in Manhattan, New York, where he stayed during his visit to the United States. Prabowo delivered his speech at the United Nations General Assembly’s general debate on September 23.

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Citizenship without certainty

The Global Citizenship is commendable initiative but it lacks legal certainty, professional security and a genuine sense of belonging that can convince Indonesian diaspora to return home.

2 months ago

Protesters take part in an anti-corruption rally on Nov. 30, 2025, along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue in Quezon City, Metro Manila.

Academia

Outrage alone won’t save the Philippines

Democracies move slowly; but when paired with civic education, vigilance and public participation, their institutions stand a better chance of surviving and renewing themselves.

2 months ago

This photo taken on July 17 and released on July 18 by Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP) shows military police personnel looking at computers, smartphones and other equipment seized during a raid on a scam center in Kandal province, Cambodia.

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ASEAN inaction on cybercrime poses a risk to regional security

If left unaddressed, these criminal networks will not only destabilize individual member states but also threaten the credibility, security and economic future of the ASEAN as a whole.

2 months ago

A health worker examines a resident’s chest X-ray on Nov. 11, 2025, at the Cibodasari Puskesmas (community health center) in Tangerang, Banten.

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Funding gap looms, will progress against AIDS, TB, malaria suffer?

However, with global funding pledges falling short of the target required to sustain health programming, how can countries, including Indonesia, win their goal to end AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as global health threats?

2 months ago

A vehicle rides past stacks of cargo containers on July 7, 2025, at the Jakarta International Container Terminal at the Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta

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ASEAN and East Asia’s response to a fragmenting global economy (2 of 2)

Cross-pillar coordination within ASEAN and acceleration of all integration initiatives should become the main agenda, while at the same reviving ASEAN’s role in the greater Asia region, and Indo-Pacific.

2 months ago

A mosque is surrounded by residual mud and standing water on Nov. 30, 2025, after a flash flood in Meureudu, the administrative seat of Pidie Jaya regency in Aceh.

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The disastrous trap of Indonesia’s extraction strategy

The recent series of disasters that hit Sumatra illustrate the worsening collective outcomes Indonesia risks if it continues to choose the wrong option as posited in the classic game theory problem of the prisoner's dilemma.

2 months ago

Students take part in an Indonesia Gelap (Dark Indonesia) rally on Feb. 17, 2025, in front of the East Java Legislative Council in Surabaya.

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Rehabilitating and reconstructing the republic

Indonesia can take a page out of its own playbook for rehabilitating Aceh and Nias after the 2004 tsunami and apply it to the institutional tidal wave that is threatening all citizens as well as the future of the republic.

2 months ago

Academia

Why cyclones have hit Southeast Asia so hard

While we cannot say for certain if climate change can be linked to the intense storms that caused devastation in countries across Southern Asia this year, they do indicate the advent of unknown conditions.

2 months ago

Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (center) attends the Nov. 14 session of the House of Councillors Budget Committee at the National Diet in Tokyo.

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Behind diplomatic crisis, Japan’s economic slide

Takaichi Cabinet to demand more stimulus, which, in turn, would further penalize medium- to long-term economic and financial market stability.

2 months ago

Workers at the Arun storage and regasification facility in Lhokseumawe, Aceh, prepare mooring equipment on Jan. 19, 2015, as liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker Tangguh Towuti arrives offshore, carrying 119,000 cubic meters of the fossil fuel from Tangguh, West Papua.

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First mover or fast follower? ASEAN’s readiness for global methane rules

Major natural gas exporters in ASEAN face an urgent need to align with emerging methane standards to ensure long-term market access.

2 months ago

A woman walks past a promotional display for ASEAN Malaysia 2025 on Oct. 23 in front of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

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ASEAN and East Asia’s response to a fragmenting global economy (1 of 2)

Trade and investment are no longer about exchange of goods and services, but also about strategic tools being used for geopolitical and geo-economic purposes.

2 months ago

Leaders attend a plenary session on the opening day of the G20 leaders' summit on Nov. 22, at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.

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How the G20 can lead the fight against global inequality

Inequality has become an emergency that must be treated with the same urgency as climate change.

2 months ago

University students hold posters of demands during a protest on Sept. 9, in front of the House of Representatives complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta.

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Foreign policy tightens up top, but not below

As the president centralizes foreign policy in his own hands, guided by instinct and private diplomacy, a generation of young Indonesians are determined to break it open.

2 months ago

An illustration photograph taken on Nov. 22, 2025, shows a gold-plated souvenir Bitcoin coin reflected in a mirror and arranged for a photograph in front of a computer screen displaying the Bitcoin monthly price chart in Guildford, the United Kingdom.

Academia

Has gold been Tethered?

For investors buying gold as a bastion of stability, it should give pause that one of bullion's biggest buyers in recent months is a lynchpin of the hyper-speculative world of crypto.

2 months ago

Greening dilemma: Heads of state (from left, front) Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Ding Xuexiang and Guyanese President Irfaan Ali attend the leaders’ roundtable on Nov. 6 to launch the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) during the pre-COP Belém Climate Summit in Brazil.

Academia

Why China is hesitant on global green leadership

Though the world sees it as an emerging superpower, China sees itself as a developing country, and so is reluctant to take on climate responsibilities on a par with major powers like the EU or the US.

2 months ago

Residential areas in Bahodopi district stand on Jan. 3, 2024, against the backdrop of rolling hills covered by haze due to emissions from the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) in Morowali regency, Central Sulawesi.

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Morowali and the politics of air sovereignty

State presence in airspace governance has come to the forefront with the controversy over Morowali, sounding a warning bell for Indonesia's air sovereignty.

2 months ago

Weight of responsibility: Community health workers weigh a toddler during a regular mother-and-child checkup on Oct. 12, 2023, at a posyandu (integrated health post) in South Celep district, Sidoarjo, East Java.

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How many more mothers must Indonesia lose?

In a country with Indonesia’s level of development, a maternal death reflects deep cracks in the health system.

2 months ago

Peace of mind: Women practice aerial yoga on July 19, 2025 during a session at a gym for women in Banda Aceh, Aceh.

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Technology and spirituality: Friends or foes?

Scientific and spiritual values should work in harmony, not in opposition.

2 months ago

Class struggle: Teacher Armani checks his students’ work on Nov. 20, 2025 in their damaged classroom at SDN 2 state elementary school in Cibaliung village, Pandeglang regency, Banten.

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Teachers and the shifting realities of classrooms

In the wake of technological advancement, teachers are no longer solely transmitters of knowledge, they are facilitators, guides and interpreters.

2 months ago

Service resumed: The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station is seen in a picture taken on Aug. 5, 2024, in Kashiwazaki, in Japan’s Niigata prefecture. Japanese local authorities approved the resumption of the world’s largest nuclear plant on Friday, a crucial step in the effort to bring it back online following the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

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The one condition nuclear power cannot ignore

When corruption is massive, pervasive and prevailing, the safety assumptions behind nuclear technology collapse.

2 months ago

Baby in waiting: A gynaecologist performs an ultrasound on a pregnant woman on Aug. 3, 2025 at a non-profit health clinic in Sukadana, West Kalimantan.

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An equal burden of infertility amid unequal access to treatment

The WHO’s first guideline on infertility takes a broad approach to addressing this global issue, focusing on ways to provide more equitable, sustainable access to fertility services.

2 months ago

Asian leaders (from left to right) Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev pose for a picture on June 17 at the China-Central Asia Summit in Astana.

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ASEAN needs to closely watch, Central Asia is rising

Central Asia rarely dominates the narrative of Southeast Asia’s foreign policy, indeed, no leader from a major ASEAN player has visited the region in the past decade.

2 months ago

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