Gen. Suharto is a hero to some groups in Indonesia, but obviously, not a hero to many other groups. It’s much better if Indonesia is to end these jokes about national heroes. Let the public decide their own respective heroes www.arabnews.com/node/2621860...

In Jakarta, 280 CSOs from 31 provinces met at the Indonesia Civil Society Forum 2025, discussing the roles and challenges of society in a democracy. It's shrinking due to government repression, limited public participation and poor transparency www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/20...

Jakarta’s traffic paralysis, especially during bad weather, is more than just an inconvenience, it’s an economic drain as congestion slows business activity, worsens air quality and erodes productivity. The price tag is IDR 100 trillion annually www.thejakartapost.com/business/202...

An American teacher and his teenage son died after being stung dozens of times last month by what appeared to be "murder hornets" in a forest in Laos. Swarms by murder hornets are rare but have been reported throughout the region www.nytimes.com/2025/11/05/w...

Indonesia’s police chief said a suspect believed to be involved in explosions at a mosque inside a Jakarta high school complex, which caused dozens of injuries, was a student there, and an investigation is under way into his background and possible motive www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11...

A permanent peace agreement in Gaza could pave the way for Indonesia as well as Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israel, according to a senior White House official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity apnews.com/article/trum...

From forced conscription to brutal interrogation centers, this one-hour documentary “War with the Junta” examines the changing conflict dynamics and desperate tactics that the generals are perpetrating to stay in power www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC5_...

Sri Owen, a woman born in 1935 in Padang Panjang, Sumatra Island, moved to Wimbledon, working for BBC and later writing popular cookbooks on Indonesian cuisine, died in London at 90 www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/d...

A very good year to read and to think about my public role as a reporter

The UN Security Council has voted in favour of a US resolution to lift sanctions on Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa ahead of his White House visit next week. Sharaa helped lead a rebel offensive that ousted Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 share.google/ooryOcukMsET...

For years, Gen Z shoppers have been driving the rise of secondhand fashion. Now rising prices and new tariffs announced by the White House earlier this year are pushing even more Americans to follow their lead www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQzB...

Artificial intelligence is to exact a high price from the earth. It’s a price that became clear to Kate Crawford, a researcher who has tracked the environmental effects of A.I. for more than a decade www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDoC...

Indonesia President Prabowo wants to extend the Whoosh high-speed rail to Java’s easternmost city of Banyuwangi, beyond Surabaya that was earlier touted as the end point. Amid ongoing concerns over its $72 million annual debt, he would take responsibility share.google/HsEbxM59KcXI...

Mexico's leader Claudia Sheinbaun explained in a press conference how a man came up and groped her while she was on a street talking to citizens. She filed a complaint against the man, calling for more awareness of harassment against women in Mexico www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R0O...

Democrats, furious about President Trump’s remaking of American government and society, turned out in extraordinary numbers for an off-year election to sweep virtually every competitive election on the map www.nytimes.com/2025/11/05/u...

Sound analysis from economist Muhamad Chatib Basri on Indonesia's good economic growth but fragile middle class. He helps to describe why millions of young Indonesian were involved in street protests nationwide carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

The UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights and several other UN rights experts raised concerns about reports of environmental destruction, lack of Indigenous consent, and intimidation of environmental defenders in Weda Bay, North Maluku 🇮🇩 cri.org/indonesia-un...

Lee Kuan Yew's death in 2015 triggered a decade-long saga over what to do with his house at 38 Oxley Road, Singapore, where his family home sits. Lee wanted that house to be demolished but now the government wants to preserve it as a national monument www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/38...

Thirteen women from nine stations across three cities in New Zealand have teamed up for the Wāhine Toa Firefighter Calendar, a powerful new initiative supporting Breast Cancer Cure www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3608...

Press freedom in Indonesia has once again come under attack from the corridors of power, with the Agriculture Ministry becoming the latest to allegedly employ intimidation tactics in a dispute with Tempo that had already been mediated by the Press Council www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/20...

Changpeng Zhao, considered the crypto industry’s richest man, had admitted to violations that allowed criminals to move money on his the cryptocurrency exchange. He struck a deal involving the Trump family’s own venture. President Trump pardoned him www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/u...

France’s trove of DNA profiles has helped solve high-profile crimes and was used to find some of the Louvre suspects, and it is growing. The police can also access other countries’ databases www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/w...

As Zohran Mamdani sprints toward Election Day, many New Yorkers are still struggling with a question about his candidacy: Is a 34-year-old state assemblyman who, until recently, managed a paid staff of only five, ready to lead the U.S.’s largest city? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/02/n...

A New York City anomaly, the Argosy Book Store continues to thrive thanks to the dedication of the three women who have presided over it for decades www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/n...

China and Cambodia is to build the 180-km Funan canal, connecting the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand. Vietnam is concerned that it will divert water flows from the Mekong. It could well starve Vietnamese farmlands of much needed water www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb_k...

For decades, China’s government has reshaped the country with dramatic displays of engineering power, from vast infrastructure projects that have remade entire provinces to nationwide campaigns that attempt to shape citizens’ behavior www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOY7...

In the Indian Ocean, Socotra Island is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. More than a third of the plant species on the island don’t exist anywhere else on the planet. A type of dragon’s blood tree is now struggling to survive www.youtube.com/watch?v=Heob...

After an uptick in Islamophobic comments about Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, some Muslims say they are hopeful but worried about repercussions www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/n...

Myanmar’s military junta has sought to derail Timor-Leste’s long-awaited accession to ASEAN by exploiting the bloc’s consensus rules. Now Timor Leste shouldn’t have to buy its ASEAN seat with silence over atrocities in Myanmar thediplomat.com/2025/10/timo...

Many EU ambassadors advocate that the European Commission delay the enforcement of new anti-deforestation laws for everyone, not just small companies, amid a new push in Brussels to simplify the implementation scheduled to start in December 2025 share.google/jqK5o6vkuyXT...

The Goethe Institute gave the 2025 Goethe Medal to David van Reybrouck of Belgium, the author of the books "Congo" and "Revolusi." It’s the official award of the Federal Republic of Germany and the most important foreign cultural policy prize www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBXn...

The Brazilian government, which will host the COP30 global climate summit in a little over a week in Pará state, should act urgently and decisively to uphold unmet commitments to frontline Amazon communities that live in and protect the rainforest cri.org/reports/chai...

Nvidia makes the first publicly traded company to top US$5 trillion in market value. It's indicates not only of the astonishing levels of wealth in Silicon Valley but also the strategic importance of this company. It added $1 trillion in just four months www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/t...

A software engineer inherited his family's laundry business in Singapore, prompting him and his wife to learn overseas and making it bigger with computation www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYMO...

Three years since former president Jokowi launched the ambitious new capital in Kalimantan, meant to replace polluted, congested and sinking Jakarta, some fear Nusantara is in danger of becoming a glorified ghost town www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

China’s leader Xi Jinping draws on lessons from Lin Zexu, a Qing official whose defiance of Britain led to China’s humiliating defeat but made him a national hero www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/w...

Ferdinand Marcos Jr: As the incoming chair of the Asean, the Philippines committed to engage the bloc and China in diplomacy and mutually beneficial cooperation in the South China Sea, while asserting the country’s rights in the disputed waters share.google/80yYobZaJ0XX...

Lighthouse Reporter found a vast archive of data on the deep web containing thousands of phone numbers, emails and locations of people all over the world. It came from surveillance company First Wap in Jakarta, tracking journalists, activists and political dissidents www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territory: Israel continues to kill, starve, maim, and displace the people of Gaza despite the three-week-old truce, killing nearly 100 and wounding about 350 Palestinians www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvZg...

Vietnamese govt has a poor record of dealing with allegations of sexual harassment. In the latest reported incident, a South Korean civil servant accused Deputy Defense Minister Hoang Xuan Chien of “inappropriate touching” at a banquet in Seoul www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territory: Israel continues to kill, starve, maim, and displace the people of Gaza despite the three-week-old truce, killing nearly 100 and wounding about 350 Palestinians www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvZg...

The South Korean authorities have been scrambling to accommodate this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Gyeongju, which is known for tombs, temples and pagodas www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/w...

A U.N. human rights commission has documented hundreds of instances of Russian drone pilots targeting civilians in the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine, and concluded that they amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/w...

Mohammed bin Salman is to turn Saudi Arabia’s oil wealth into tech influence. Few nations can match their cheap energy, deep pockets and open land — the ingredients that tech firms need to operate the power-hungry data centers that run modern A.I. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/t...

Boredom isn’t a bug—it’s a feature. Harvard professor Arthur C. Brooks explains why boredom unlocks creativity, activates a powerful brain network, and might even protect you from depression www.youtube.com/watch?v=orQK...

It will be difficult for Asian governments not to feel like bystanders when Trump and Xi meet next week in South Korea. The global economy hangs in the balance as the two leaders hold talks that could either prompt or prevent another full-blown trade war www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/w...

Kamala Harris offered her strongest indication that she would consider a third presidential run. In an interview with the BBC, she said she remained confident a woman will become U.S. president one day and that it could “possibly” be her www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/u...

Growing military involvement in civilian affairs, including President Prabowo’s flagship programs, may put civilians, especially those in vulnerable communities, at risk, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/20...

President Prabowo appointed his brother, tycoon Hashim Djojohadikusumo, as leader of Indonesia’s delegation to the 30th UN Climate Change Conference in Brazil, as Indonessia misses the deadline to submit its latest climate pledge ahead of the summit www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/20...

Today across the Indian government and business sector, a movement is gaining steam to begin exporting more workers. The idea is to connect young Indians to companies in countries with shrinking populations where labor shortages are holding back growth www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/b...