A passenger of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius makes the heart hands sign on May 11, 2026, as he leaves aboard a military bus from the port of Granadilla de Abona on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain.

Vietnam’s hantavirus warning for Southeast Asia

Taking action to prevent zoonotic disease spillover is better than reacting to an outbreak, especially in countries where people live and work closely with wildlife, such as Vietnam and Indonesia.

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Sparring and engaging, Asia's new normal

As traditional US alliances shift and Beijing flexes its muscle, regional powers must master the delicate art of sparring with China without triggering an outright conflict. ...

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The Himalayan warning and the blind spots in climate risk

A glacier in Tibet fell exactly as the science said it would, and no agency or institution was waiting for it: Indonesia is writing a climate change law with the same blind spot. ...

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Social aid recipient receive a sack of rice from the government's food reserves distribution program on Oct. 29, 2024, at the Dumai Post Office in Riau.

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‘Desil-desilan’: Indonesia’s welfare ranking needs more than a data refresh

The deeper issue is that a probabilistic statistical estimate is being wielded as an indisputable administrative fact; one deemed sharp enough to decide who gets subsidized fuel and who walks away empty-handed.

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An employee is seen inside the production facilities of high-end printed circuit boards (PCBs) and integrated circuit (IC) substrates manufacturer AT&S on Aug. 11 in Leoben, Styria, Austria.

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Technocracy cannot fix Europe

A new private initiative bringing together the crème de la crème of European business, financial, economic and tech elites could well prove useful in kick-starting European growth and innovation. But first, it must recognize that the problem it hopes to solve is fundamentally political.

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Coordinating Economy Minister Airlangga Hartarto (right) receives the Roadmap for the OECD Accession of Indonesia from the organization’s secretary-general Mathias Cormann on May 2, 2024, during the opening of the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris.

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OECD is no magic lamp

Chasing elite clubs like the OECD won’t magically transform Indonesia’s economy, especially in a fractured global order where diplomatic prestige is no substitute for domestic reform.

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Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul (right) greets Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet (left) alongside Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on May 7, 2026, after their trilateral meeting ahead of the 48th ASEAN summit in Cebu, the Philippines.

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Peaceful border talks require secure ground first

As Thailand prepares to engage constructively with the UNCLOS conciliation proceedings to resolve the border dispute with Cambodia, both sides must first ensure that the conditions on the ground are actually safe for our teams to work.

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President Prabowo Subianto stands atop the dais on Aug. 14, 2026, prior to delivering his State of the Nation Address and the 2027 state budget proposal during the plenary meeting of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) at the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta.

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Meeting Indonesia’s growth, and deficit, targets

In parallel with growth, the government must have a dedicated focus on the revenue side of reducing the deficit, particularly in drawing businesses out of the shadow economy and into the real economy.

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Acting Bank Indonesia governor Destry Damayanti waves on Aug. 26, 2026, prior to undergoing a fit and proper test with House of Representatives Commission XI at the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta to confirm her appointment as the central bank’s new governor.

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New BI leadership brings experience and stability

As Destry Damayanti makes history as the central bank's first female governor, a battle-tested leadership team is stepping up to anchor monetary stability and drive equitable growth through turbulent global markets.

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Smoke and flames rise from a wildfire burning in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, on Aug. 13, 2026.

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How state budget fuels more land and ecological conflicts

As toxic haze blankets the region, Indonesia's 2027 draft budget reveals a dangerous paradox: chasing state revenue by doubling down on the very extractive projects fueling the fires and displacing its people.

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Locked out: Hundreds of people crowd the gate of the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta on Aug. 27, 2026, during a mass demonstration that demanded passage of the long-delayed asset forfeiture bill and tougher punishment for corruptors.

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The Aug. 27 demonstrations: From the streets to the MPR?

While the crowds take to the streets, the real political battle is being waged behind closed doors - where public anger may simply be the opening move in an elite power reshuffle.

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Opening stage: A participant takes a photo in front of a banner for the 35th Nahdlatul Ulama National Congress (Muktamar NU) on Aug. 27, 2026, after the five-day conference opened at Untung Suropati Field in the sprawling complex of Pondok Pesantren Bahrul Ulum Tambakberas, an Islamic boarding school in Jombang regency, East Java

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Watching the 35th NU congress from the diaspora

As Nahdlatul Ulama gathers for its 35th Muktamar, a former diaspora leader argues that safeguarding the organization’s future demands uncompromising independence from power, global literacy at the helm and a real voice for cadres abroad.

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Around 1,800 participants attend the in-person opening of the 2nd Batch of the National Graduate Internship Program on Nov. 26, 2025, at the Manpower Ministry office in Jakarta.

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We cannot intern our way to productive employment

Subsidizing six-month internships won't fix graduate unemployment if Indonesia's shrinking industrial base lacks the factories, machinery and capacity to hire them afterward.

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A doctor provides care to a patient with Ebola virus on July 13 at the Rwampara Ebola Treatment Center in Bunia, Ituri, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Health workers at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in DR Congo are threatening to strike, telling AFP on July 13 they had not been paid since the virus was detected in mid-May. The highly infectious disease has killed more than 700 people among the nearly 2,000 confirmed infected in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the outbreak was declared on May 15, according to the latest official toll published on July 14.

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The deadliest Ebola outbreak can be stopped

Stopping the world’s fastest-moving Ebola outbreak demands more than international aid—it requires empowering the local communities and frontline workers holding the front line.

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French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (center) pose with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (left) and Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslaw Sikorski on Jan. 7 upon their arrival for a Weimar Triangle and India meeting at the French Foreign ministry in Paris.

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35 years of the Weimar Triangle: France, Germany and Poland shaping Europe’s future

The Weimar Triangle was founded on a conviction that remains as relevant today as it was 35 years ago — together, we are stronger.

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Members of the United Pati Community Alliance (AMPB) from Pati, Central Java, gather in front of the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta on Aug. 26, 2026, the day before a rally to urge firmer anticorruption efforts and to demand the House of Representatives expedite passage of the asset forfeiture bill.

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Bank account freezes can help fight crime, not silence critics

When the state freezes an activist’s bank accounts mid-protest, it isn't routine law enforcement. It is an urgent test of whether the rule of law controls the police or punishes dissent.

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People visit the Dolly Parton exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee, the United States, on Aug. 26, 2026.

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Why Dolly Parton was one of America’s greatest

What made her something more was what she did when she left the stage.

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Children defy the heat as they play on the rail tracks on July 15, 2022, in a low-income area in Pejompongan, Central Jakarta.

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Can Indonesia build trust in its welfare data?

Indonesia needs not only better welfare data, but also greater public understanding and trust in how that data is produced.

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Fire rages through Singha Durbar in Kathmandu during a Gen Z protest on Sept. 9, 2025, a day after a police crackdown on demonstrations over a ban on 26 social media platforms and alleged government corruption.

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Gen Z‑led uprisings across Asia: Strengths and limitations of youth protest

Youth-led protest movements across Asia have exposed underlying anger at corruption and blocked opportunity. But so far, only Nepal has managed to convert that anger into a transfer of governing power.

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A fireman extinguishes a peatland fire on Aug. 24, 2026, in Kampar regency, Riau. The Riau provincial administration and other agencies reduced the area affected by forest and land fires from about 16,000 to 900 hectares between January and August 2026.

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Breaking the vicious cycle of forest fires and haze

Satellite dots and convenient scapegoats won't stop the haze, breaking the country’s fire crisis demands trading assumptions for real accountability on the ground.

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A group of ‘ojol’ (online motorcycle transportation drivers) distributes boxes of supplies donated by the public at a drop-off point outside the Senalayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta on Aug. 25, 2026, ahead of a planned protest on Aug. 27.

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When the state rolls back reform promises, from Sabang to Merauke

From raging wildfires to simmering revolts in the regions, a hyper-centralized Jakarta is driving the country toward a dangerous breaking point that harks back to past policy failures.

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A man holds a banner claiming local elections held in June were fraudulent, during a protest demanding new elections on July 23 in Seoul.

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Look East for lessons in democratic resistance

For all the horror of the Tiananmen crackdown, this period also brought extraordinary democratic breakthroughs elsewhere in Asia, as entrenched autocratic systems finally began to yield to democratic rule.

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The Ampera Bridge sits shrouded in haze from wildfires on Aug. 23 in Palembang, South Sumatra.

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Indonesia can fight fires. It must govern climate risk, too

The 2026 forest and land fires reveal a paradox: Indonesia can mobilize after ignition, but climate justice depends on institutions that govern risk before smoke appears.

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The US fiscal hole has an AI problem at its core

Washington has a multitrillion-dollar fiscal problem. United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's answer, so far, is to look for loose change down the back of the sofa.

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Trump’s pivot, Seoul’s long game

For South Korea, the best approach to dealing with Trump is what it has always been: Wait him out.

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Bated breath: Groups of santri (Islamic boarding school students) hold aloft the flag of Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) as they wait along a road for the presidential motorcade to arrive on June 23 ahead of the closing ceremony of the NU National Conference of Islamic Scholars and Grand Conference at the Syachona Mohammad Cholil Islamic Institute in Bangkalan, East Java.

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Beyond the congress: NU and the moral future of Indonesia

The 35th Muktamar (congress) should be more than a leadership contest. It should mark a new commitment to integrity, independence and service in the life of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization.

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A demonstrator carries Indonesia’s national flag alongside a pirate flag from the Japanese anime One Piece, an internet symbol of protest against government policies, on Aug. 29, 2025, during a rally outside the residence of the Governor of East Java, in Surabaya.

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Indonesia's shrinking digital freedom: From rubber articles to four-hour censorship

Despite years of constitutional reform and judicial intervention, the state's reflexive tendency to criminalize criticism of those in power remains alive and well.

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Flames rise from a wildfire on Aug. 13 in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan.

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Why El Niño isn’t the sole culprit of forest fires

Kalimantan’s land fires aren’t just down to El Niño; they are caused by the soil losing its ability to hold water. Prevention must start by restoring the soil’s natural balance.

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Why the world still needs Wall Street

Other financial systems have only so much capacity to receive a large and rapid reallocation without destabilizing themselves.

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A farmer applies urea fertilizer on June 10, 2026, at a parched rice field in Handapherang village, Ciamis regency, West Java.

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When villages quietly carry the national economy

Factories were supposed to build Indonesia’s modern workforce. But as industrial job growth stalls, village spending, not factory floors, is keeping the economy afloat.

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