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. 

Regent Mirwan said he had checked that all victims had been properly handled and ensured that all agencies were working properly before he performed umrah pilgrimage.

One in four women in Indonesia has experienced sexual violence in their lifetime, with at least 30 percent of reported cases committed by intimate partners according to a 2024 survey conducted by the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry. 

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.

Ahead of a planned revision to election rules, President Prabowo Subianto has once again raised the idea of scrapping direct regional head elections to cut costs, despite persistent opposition from pro-democracy activists who have warned of a possible rollback of democratic safeguards.

On Nov. 25, flash floods triggered by Cyclone Senyar struck Sumatra, severely damaging Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra. Two weeks later, more than 3 million people had been affected, with 1 million displaced, 836 dead, 518 still missing, and some 2,700 injured as of 16.00 Western Indonesia Time (WIB) on Dec. 4.

Fuel and liquified petroleum gas (LPG) supply is still limited and electricity has not fully recovered, with occasional blackouts continuing.

Riau Islands province has signaled it is ready to implement community service as an alternative punishment for criminal offenses carrying a maximum five years in prison or a fine of Rp 10 million when the new KUHP goes into effect on Jan. 2.

The regions hit by the floods and landslides in Aceh remain cut off from the government’s rescue efforts and aid delivery because of infrastructural damages, prompting fear of a rising death toll in one of the worst-hit provinces in the disaster.

Foreign investors need assurances that their long-term investments will be protected from arbitrary decisions or bad-faith actors.

Indonesia’s bid to mass-produce cars of a homegrown brand in 2027 is “highly ambitious”, experts say, noting that an electric vehicle model would require sustained fiscal outlays and far stronger technical competencies than the country currently possesses.

The Indonesian Navy deployed at least 13 warships, five helicopters and an airplane to distribute relief for disaster victims in the northern part of Sumatra.

Drug smugglers Ali Tokman, 65, and Siegfried Mets, 74, have been languishing in jails for years after falling foul of the country's strict narcotics laws.

The Finance Ministry expects the Sumatra disaster to only have a slight impact on gross domestic product growth in the fourth quarter.

Shell Indonesia has been allotted 100,000 barrels of fuel by Pertamina Patra Niaga, bringing the total supply for all private gas stations this year to 430,000 barrels.

"Avatar: Fire and Ash", directed by James Cameron 16 years after he first enthralled fans with his blue-coloured Na'vi people, will release in major markets from December 17 ahead of the holiday season.

Since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, US strategies have designated Moscow as a major threat. However, the updated US policy, announced on Friday, adopts a softer tone, urging limited cooperation.

Australia on Sunday activated disaster relief for residents impacted by wildfires that have burnt properties, infrastructure and thousands of hectares of bushland in the country's most populous state.

Three days of talks between Ukrainian and US officials produced no apparent breakthrough Saturday, with President Volodymyr Zelensky committing to further negotiations toward "real peace," even as Russia launched another series of drone and missile strikes on its neighbor.

Negotiations on consolidating the US-backed truce in the war in Gaza are at a "critical" moment, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani has said.

Hong Kong's citizens votes on Sunday in an election where the focus is on turnout, with residents grieving and traumatized after the city's worst fire in nearly 80 years and the authorities scrambling to avoid a broader public backlash.

Elon Musk's social media company X was fined 120 million euros (US$140 million) by EU tech regulators on Friday for breaching online content rules, the first sanction under landmark legislation that once again drew criticism from the US government.

Aceh resident Munawar Liza Zainal said he felt "betrayed" by the government, which has so far shrugged off pressure to declare a national disaster. Declaring a national disaster would free up resources and help government agencies coordinate their response. 

The UN reported on Feb. 14 that Ukrainian authorities said a drone with a high explosive warhead struck the plant, caused a fire and damaged the protective cladding around reactor Number Four, which was destroyed in the 1986 disaster.

The former TV reality show host dominated the scene at Washington’s Kennedy Center on Friday, placing himself squarely at the center of one of the biggest events in the sporting world in a glitzy, celebrity-studded affair that bore the unmistakable stamp of the president.

Indonesia is among the countries with transitional capacity, which have internet access for most people, but coverage and quality remain uneven with regulation, funding and skills still catching up. These nations are encouraged to draft national strategies that should outline greater investment in labor skills and strong AI policies.

The government has confirmed 607 deaths, with another 214 people missing and feared dead, in what President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has called the country's most challenging natural disaster.