Heavy traffic congestion clogs the roads on Jan. 2, 2025, in Malang, East Java, as visitors from other cities traveled to Malang during the Christmas and New Year holiday. According to data from the Transportation Ministry, the peak of the return flow from the 2025 Christmas and 2026 New Year holidays was expected to be a projected 20.81 million travelers.

Year-end consumption surge: A sign of recovery or a seasonal mirage?

Focusing solely on credit expansion risks overlooking the fundamental issues of inequality and structural weakness in domestic demand.

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Indonesia can surpass Vietnam’s 8% growth

Indonesia's energy, critical minerals, agriculture and biodiversity-linked industries offer multiple growth vectors if managed with policy coherence. ...

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Taming unruly tourists with code of conduct

Social media addiction and the hyperconsumptive lifestyles of the 21st century often mean tourists forget the real purpose of their visit. ...

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The Latest

A child receives a vaccine to prevent polio on Aug. 10, 2023, as part of a monthly medical checkup program for children at an integrated services post in Banda Aceh.

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Turning online conversations into child protection

In a country as diverse as Indonesia, decisions about immunization are shaped within families and communities and influenced by local social norms, religious guidance and lived experience.

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A woman waves a Venezuelan flag among members of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces during a rally on Jan. 6, 2026, in support of seized Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, in Caracas. United States forces reportedly killed 55 Venezuelan and Cuban military personnel in the raid to capture Maduro.

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The grandeur and misery of international law

Too often, international law fails to prevent stronger states from acting as they please, as in the case of the US attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of President Maduro.

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It’s all about the cloud: Streaming television services accessible at Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube are hosted and powered by online data centers.

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Transforming IT without turbulence: How AI and service discipline can build trust

The benefits of combining IT service management and AI are often visible in measurable outcomes, such as faster incident resolution, reduced downtime and more efficient use of resources.

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An Indonesian Air Force plane from the Jupiter aerobatic team flies past the National Monument (Monas) during a parade on Oct. 5, 2025, held as part of celebrations marking the Indonesian Military's (TNI) 80th anniversary at Merdeka Square in Central Jakarta.

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Amid disasters, worsening geopolitics, Indonesia’s ‘theater state’ could reach its limit

There are democratic there are practices that are deployed to bind a nation together, whereas in an authoritarian society, rituals and theater are imposed upon the masses, to instill fear and submission.

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Workers leave a PT Sri Rejeki Isman (Sritex) factory, on Oct. 24, 2024, in Sukoharjo, Central Java.

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Caught upstream: Saving Indonesia’s dying textile industry

For Indonesia, protectionism does not generate the jobs the country needs, while damaging the competitiveness of its exports.

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Greenpeace Indonesia activists protest on Nov. 18, 2025, in front of the Muara Karang gas-fired power plant in North Jakarta. The protest had been against the inconsistency of national energy policies, calling for an end to dependence on fossil fuels ahead of the COP30 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil.

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The ocean has finally entered the global climate debate

The ocean increasingly suffers the effects of absorbing over 90 percent of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse-gases and about one-quarter of annual carbon dioxide emissions.

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Bold operation: Captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrives on Jan. 05, at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport as he heads toward the Daniel Patrick Manhattan United States Courthouse for an initial appearance to face US federal charges including narco-terrorism, conspiracy, drug trafficking, money laundering and others in New York City, the US.

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Venezuela and the dangerous return of might makes right

Learning from the Venezuela invasion, Indonesia should continue to position itself as pro-law, pro-stability, pro-development and firmly opposed to military interventions, or worse, a new form of colonialism.

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People cross the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge on the border with Venezuela on Jan. 6, 2026, in Cucuta, Colombia.

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Trump's Venezuela oil grab revives petrodollar debate

The United States’ moves against Venezuela and its leader could be part of Washington's broader efforts to maintain the greenback's global dominance.

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An employee (left, front) of the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) distributes information about the National Health Insurance (JKN) as part of the agency’s Mobile Customer Service initiative in Ternate, North Maluku, during Car Free Day on Aug. 10, 2025.

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A year of historic global health milestones and challenges

Reflecting on last year's achievements and challenges in public health, ensuring a healthier world through universal coverage remains the overarching goal for 2026.

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Personnel from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) escort Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (fourth right, in tan shirt) to an armored van on Jan. 5, 2026, at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport in New York City.

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Preventing further derailment of the international order

Given the overall deterioration of the international order and climate commitments we all witnessed last year, diplomatic actors across the globe, including Indonesia, must prevent further backsliding in both areas in 2026.

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Coordinating Economy Minister Airlangga Hartarto (right) shakes hand with United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer following a meeting on Dec. 23, 2025, at the USTR office in Washington, DC. Indonesia is preparing to seal a reciprocal trade agreement (ART) with the US in at the end of January next year after resolving all substantial issues in negotiations that had earlier risked stalling.

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Why Indonesia’s US deal could cost more than it delivers

For Indonesia, which is deeply embedded in East Asian production networks and heavily exposed to Chinese trade and investment, a reciprocal trade agreement with the US could trigger chaotic and costly supply chain realignments.

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Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul (left) and Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet shake hands and hold up a document during the Oct. 26, 2025, signing of a ceasefire deal between Cambodia and Thailand on the sidelines of the 47th ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur.

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How should ASEAN address the 2025 mess?

What 2025 ultimately revealed is how far the Indo-Pacific has drifted from the visions ASEAN and its partners once championed.

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Sign of “GOJEK” and “GRAB” are seen on the helmets of an online motorcycle taxi driver and their passenger on Nov. 12 at Jl. Basuki Rachmat in Jakarta.

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The hidden costs of a GoTo–Grab merger

In the context of a GoTo-Grab merger, the participation of Danantara introduces a fundamental conflict of interest that cannot be resolved through rhetoric alone.

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A worker monitors production on Aug. 2, 2024, at the nickel smelter of PT Vale Indonesia in Sorowako, South Sulawesi. Nickel is a key component in the batteries of electric vehicles, and Indonesia is both the world’s largest producer and home to the biggest known reserves globally.

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Leveraging rare earths: A pathway to national resilience

Despite its abundance of strategic minerals, the country still relies on imports to meet domestic demand for processed rare earth products.

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A generation under surveillance is rising up

The recent protests show that youths around the world are taking action today to secure pathways to their aspirations toward a better tomorrow, for themselves and their countries, and that the powers that be are simply dismissing them instead of regarding their demands as "the future".

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Tree carnage: Logs swept in by flash floods weeks earlier lie piled on Dec. 14, 2025, where homes once stood along a river in Aceh Tamiang, North Sumatra.

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The desacralization of nature and disaster

The transition from traditional belief systems toward formal religiosity has brought an unintended side effect: a reckless desacralization of nature

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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, during a rally on Aug. 29, 2025, outside the residence of the Governor of East Java, in Surabaya.

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From print to platforms: What holds nations together now?

The increasingly virtual world has made digital platforms the central stage of democracy.

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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrives at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport om Jan. 5, as he heads towards the Daniel Patrick Manhattan United States Courthouse for an initial appearance to face US federal charges including narco-terrorism, conspiracy, drug trafficking, money laundering and others in New York, the United States.

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The precedents to Trump's Venezuela operation

While shocking, nothing about this calamity is new: it recalls four precedents that can help us see elements of the present that otherwise may be shrouded by propaganda or emotion.

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Lokataru executive director Delpedro Marhaen gestures after attending the reading of charges on Dec. 16 at the Central Jakarta District Court. Delpedro and three other co-defendants, Muzaffar Salim, Syahdan Husein and Khariq Anhar, have been charged with incitement for allegedly posting social media content related to demonstrations in August that turned violent after a delivery driver was ran over and killed by police.

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The paradox of police reform: High approval ratings, low rule of law

Despite the sweeping reform in 1998, the National Police is still fraught with a culture of violence, uneven professionalism and a lack of accountability.

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A farmer plants rice on Oct. 26, 2025 in Nagari Padang Laweh Malalo, Tanah Datar regency, West Sumatra.

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Gene editing in Indonesia: Can new biotechnology solve old agricultural problems?

Can gene editing truly support smallholder farmers and help Indonesia achieve food sovereignty, or will it simply revive the old controversies surrounding genetically modified crops?

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Jakarta Governor Pramono Anung (right) and his deputy Rano Karno (center) talk on May 8, 2025 with a prospective resident of low-cost rental apartments (rusunawa) Jagakarsa in South Jakarta.

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Building Jakarta from the ground up: A year under Pramono Anung and Rano Karno

Pramono Anung and Rano Karno’s first year in office focused on rebuilding Jakarta by prioritizing people and basic services.

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Personnel from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) escort Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to an armored van at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport in New York City on Jan. 5, 2026, for transporting to the Daniel Patrick Moynihan US Courthouse to face federal charges including narco-terrorism and money laundering.

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Venezuela, Taiwan and the return of power politics

The US invasion of Venezuela is a worrying sign of the world to come, one that will be defined by multilayered, regional systemic conflict against which internal national strength is the only defense.

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A motorcyclist rides past an election campaign banner on Dec. 9, 2025, in Nawnghkio, Shan state, ahead of the first phase of Myanmar’s general election set to take place on Dec. 28.

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Myanmar’s vote and the real contest in the north

Rather than the national polls, the outcome of the ongoing dynamics in Upper Myanmar between the KIA and the junta is a better political barometer for the country's course next year.

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A motorcade carrying Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro leaves the Westside Heliport on Jan. 3, 2026, in New York, the United States. Maduro, who was captured by US forces in Caracas, arrived in New York on Saturday evening. Maduro was seen surrounded by FBI agents as he descended the boarding stairs of a US government plane at a state National Guard facility, and was slowly escorted along the tarmac.

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Venezuela and the persistence of hierarchy in global politics

Calling the US invasion of Venezuela a “realist moment” may sound appealing, but it risks becoming a vocabulary that affirms power rather than a tool for understanding it.

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Workers unload sacks of rice imported from Thailand on June 22, 2023, from a cargo ship at Malahayati Port in Krueng Raya, Aceh.

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ASEAN needs an ASEAN+5 food security framework

Demand for food across Asia will continue to rise, driven by population growth, expanding middle classes and changing diets, but this is unlikely to be met by Asian producers and exporters alone.

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United States President Donald Trump (center), alongside (from left to right) Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to the press following US military actions in Venezuela on Jan. 3 at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, the US.

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Trump and the raid on Caracas

International law is not simply a moral preference. It is a guardrail built from hard lessons.

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Slow recovery: Homes are seen as they are rebuilt amid cleared lots on Dec. 28, 2025, in Altadena, California, the United States, where homes were destroyed by the Eaton Fire one year ago. The Eaton Fire ignited on Jan. 7, 2025, killing 19 people and destroying more than 9,000 structures, most of them homes in Altadena. The fire is the fifth deadliest and the second most destructive wildfire in California history.

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Beware of central economic forecasts for 2026

With China’s efforts to upgrade its growth model progressing slowly, the US will serve by far as the global economy’s primary engine, a concentration that creates its own set of risks.

1 month ago

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