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.

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.

22 hours ago

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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. ...

1 day ago

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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. ...

18 hours ago

The Latest

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.

19 hours 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?

20 hours 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.

1 day 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.

1 day 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.

1 day ago

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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.

1 day 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.

1 day 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.

1 day 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 days 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 days 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 days 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.

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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 days 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.

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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 days 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 days 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.

4 days 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.

4 days 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.

4 days 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.

4 days 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.

4 days 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.

5 days ago

Nickel smelters spew emissions into the skies above Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park on Jan. 26, 2024, affecting a nearby residential area in Bahodopi district, Morowali regency, Central Sulawesi.

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The governance gap in Morowali is a bigger threat than the IMIP airstrip

The IMIP has grown into an almost semiautonomous zone, showing how the state must stay on top of such unchecked developments to fulfill its mandates in ensuring the well-being of both the nation and its people, which necessarily involves securing the environment.

5 days ago

Palestinian children stand outside the partially damaged Al-Mushtal Sports Club on Nov. 26 in Gaza City.

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The missing ingredients for peace in Palestine

Let us not be naive: the ceasefire is just a beginning. The events in Palestine cannot be seen in a vacuum, independent from their past and current context.

5 days ago

Conservationist and 'Rafflesia' enthusiast Septian "Deki" Andriki takes a picture on Nov. 19 of the inside flower of a 'Rafflesia hasseltii' in Sumpur Kudus village, Sijunjung regency, West Sumatra.

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What the Rafflesia controversy reveals about scientific collaboration

The Rafflesia flower case shows Western researchers always become protagonists by default, while local collaborators become scenery, regardless of their actual contributions.

5 days ago

A LNG tanker ship makes its way past migrants attemping to cross the English channel on a smuggler's boat off the coast of Calais, north-western France, on Oct. 23, 2024.

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Don’t expect Ukraine peace deal to alter Europe’s gas game plan

Whether the US-brokered peace deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war comes through, Europe is unlikely to shift back from LNG, mostly from the US, to its preinvasion overreliance on Russian pipeline gas.

5 days ago

Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (right) greets Timor-Leste Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao as he arrives to attend the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 26, 2025.

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Strategic priorities for ASEAN’s newest member

Membership of ASEAN brings Timor-Leste political visibility and economic opportunity, but also new exposure to disputes in a grouping where several members are wrestling with democratic backsliding.

5 days ago