Damaged houses are seen on Nov. 28, 2025, after a flash flood in Batang Toru district, South Tapanuli regency, North Sumatra.

Why Indonesia needs mandatory disaster insurance

Countries with high disaster risk do not leave disaster protection to voluntary market behavior

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Indonesia’s OECD bid: A historic step for both sides

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India-Russia: A time-tested partnership building trust

Russia has moved significantly closer to China, sometimes uncomfortably so, while the United States has tried to consolidate Europe under a NATO-centered response to Moscow.

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China’s one trillion trade surplus: Turning tariffs into gain

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A woman covered in mud stands on a street filled with mud after a flash flood hit the area in Aceh Tamiang, Aceh, on Dec. 6, 2025.

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Warm oceans seem to be turning even ‘weak’ cyclones deadly

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Local residents walk on logs used as a temporary bridge following a deadly flash flood on Dec. 7 in Batang Toru, South Tapanuli, North Sumatra.

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Have we not learned our lessons?

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Why the US will never abandon Taiwan

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AI is not the risk. Our habits are

A nation’s relationship with technology is forged in childhood, where habits of curiosity, perseverance and independent reasoning are either nurtured or suppressed.

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Words reading “Artificial intelligence AI“, miniature of robot and toy hand are pictured in this illustration created on Dec. 14, 2023.

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Beyond the code: The geopolitical triad of AI

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A man with a hoe walks down a street filled with mud and littered with roadside debris on Dec. 6, 2025, after a flash flood hit Aceh Tamiang regency, Aceh.

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The Sumatra disaster will increase our fiscal risk

The Sumatra flooding and landslides necessitate a review of the risk factors noted in next year's state budget, as natural disasters pose massive economic losses both locally and nationally.

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A man walks over a pile of logs and debris next to a damaged home on Dec. 5, 2025, in Geudumbak village, Langkahan district, North Aceh, after a flash flood on Nov. 26 swept them into areas along the Arakundo River Basin.

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Deforestation turns cyclonic storms into likely recurring tragedies

Extreme rain wasn’t the only cause of Sumatra’s deadly floods. Years of forest loss, eroded soils and weakened watersheds turned a storm into a tragedy, one that could repeat.

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How Asia’s semiconductor powerhouse fits into ASEAN’s strategic future

As tensions rise between Tokyo and Beijing, ASEAN and Taiwan must balance economic integration with the political realities imposed by China’s growing assertiveness across Asia.

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Indonesia and Norway: Cementing middle power cooperation in a turbulent time

A constructive collaboration between Indonesia and Norway on many issues in the global arena could serve as a distinctive model of cooperation among middle powers.

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Indonesia’s missing maritime holding: Turning seafaring identity into industrial power

For a nation that calls itself the world’s largest archipelago, Indonesia has never built the industrial architecture needed to transform its maritime identity into maritime power.

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Every hour counts: Mobilizing national capacity for disaster response

The President must declare the Sumatra floods and landslides a national disaster so the state can mobilize its vast emergency response apparatus and afterward, learn crucial lessons from this incident for future policies and actions.

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The critical-minerals race is putting the planet at risk

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When Indonesia's development leads to destruction

The country still has time to choose between pursuing the current extractive course to benefit the few or changing course toward equitable development to benefit the many, but the clock is ticking.

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Biosecurity efforts boost Indonesia’s food resilience

ASF may not infect humans, yet its impact runs deep.

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Why Malaysia must reform its Islamic home financing

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Building a financially healthy Indonesia

Setting up a national council for financial health, as the President has announced, is the first step in improving financial well-being for all Indonesians, whose experiences will also inform efforts toward ensuring financial health as a global challenge.

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Members of a search and rescue team use a rubber dinghy on Nov. 25, 2025, to evacuate residents from a flooded neighborhood in Padang, West Sumatra.

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Disasters, women and the people we choose not to see

Indonesia needs to reform its disaster management system so it is designed with vulnerable groups at the center, or we will continue to see the same established cycle of response with each disaster that strikes.

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The fifth amendment: A path back to the people?

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Why global environmental coordination matters now

Planetary threats require planetary governance.

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Indonesia needs a stronger legal backbone for its subsea cables

Indonesia is crisscrossed by global data routes yet lacks a unified mechanism to govern what happens beneath its own seas.

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Riva Siahaan, the president director of PT Pertamina Patra Niaga, the commercial arm of state-owned oil and gas giant Pertamina, is detained on Feb. 25 after being named a suspect in a corruption case by the Attorney General's Office (AGO) in Jakarta.

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Why rules of corporate reputation are still ignored in Indonesia

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An aerial photo shows damage left by a flash flood on Dec. 2 in Rigeb, Blangkejeren, Gayo Lues regency, Aceh.

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Self-inflicted wound: When ignorance sells the forest

The floods are the bill we are paying for decades of cultivated ignorance.

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Seeing global change without the Western lens

Simultaneous disruptions offer a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the deep transformation of global institutions and ideas.

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A villager affected by flash floods walks amongst a pile of log debris on Dec. 2, 2025, in Tukka village, Central Tapanuli regency, North Sumatra. The death toll from floods and landslides that have struck Indonesia's Sumatra island since late November has risen to 712, the National Disaster Management Agency said on Dec. 2.

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Sumatra’s floods are not just nature’s fury, Indonesia must act together

To prevent similar disasters in the future, regular audits of plantation, mining, and logging permits, especially in upstream watersheds, are needed to ensure that land-use decisions support ecological protection.

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