Nile Rodgers, the award-winning producer, dives into the creative process behind David Bowie’s chart-topping single “Let’s Dance” (1983). He transformed Bowie’s original folk-inspired guitar piece into a global 1980s dance rock anthem www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j4l...

Business is booming for mobile entertainment trucks called sound horegs in East Java, Indonesia. But as near-130 decibel levels shatter safety limits and cause tempers to flare, they’ve been labelled “sinful” by some local authorities www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtVc...

“It’s both deja vu and PTSD,” said Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist, when sitting down with Jon Stewart for a conversation about Trump’s authoritarian attacks on free speech in the wake of Disney taking Jimmy Kimmel off the air www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsb1...

As the U.S. retreats, China steps in to fill the void. In the Pacific, China already spent billions of dollars on new roads and vehicles, school upgrades, bridges and development assistance. Australia is holding the bag www.smh.com.au/world/north-...

In New York, UN General Assembly president Annalena Baerbock, who is the former foreign minister of Germany, concerned about the UN’s future www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbfH...

Devakka, a commander in the Maoist insurgency in India, speaks about her journey of spending 25 years in the forests. She surrendered under the government’s amnesty policy in 2014. Now living with the name Shambala Devi www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFAQ...

In 1963, before Jimmy Kimmel was born, the U.S. Supreme Court drew a constitutional line. The government is free to persuade private entities to support its policies. But the First Amendment forbids the government from using coercion to suppress speech www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/u...

Benedict Rogers: Asia and the world need Indonesia to secure its democracy. We cannot afford to let it slide into authoritarianism, intolerance, instability, and conflict www.ucanews.com/news/asia-an...

The explosion of AI across every industry has seen hundreds of water- and power-hungry server farms sprout up across the US. Business Insider revealed the true cost of the data warehouses: noise pollution, a lot of water to cool computers www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-8T...

Documentary: Art Spiegelman, a cartoonist, drawing the Maus series, an American master, also drawing The New Yorker covers www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkwy...

Arson attacks during protests in Nepal destroyed buildings, court files and even records of international agreements and state investments www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/w...

Robert Redford’s friendship with Bob Woodward lasted a half-century, when the actor urged Woodward and his Watergate reporting partner, Carl Bernstein, to tell the story of the investigation through the prism of their relationship www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/b...

Mass protests and unrest in Indonesia are once again shaking Southeast Asia’s largest democracy. Rooted in economic inequality, misgovernance, and official indifference, today’s turmoil echoes the country’s turbulent history going back to 1965 www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2yH...

Jakarta’s air pollution crisis extends indoors, where fine particulate matter often exceeds outdoor levels and World Health Organization guidelines. Poorer households face nearly double the exposure of higher-income households eastasiaforum.org/2025/09/15/j...

Robert Redford, the big-screen charmer turned Oscar-winning director with hit movies and who, off screen, evangelized for environmental causes and fostered independent film movement, died at his home in Utah. He was 89 www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/m...

Fury at Nepal’s politicians had led earlier this year to a failed royalist uprising, which may have been an unheeded warning of the popular discontent that exploded on the streets this month www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/w...

John Martinkus made his name reporting on conflict. He was one of the first journalists to cover East Timor’s struggle for independence in the 1990s, and went on to cover Iraq, Afghanistan, Aceh, Burma and West Papua. He died in Melbourne, aged 56 www.theage.com.au/culture/book...

A motorcycle taxi association warned of "greater and greater escalation" in the fight for laws that protect gig workers in Indonesia. Millions of drivers, who are poorly paid and largely uninsured, are demanding better working conditions and protections www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

China's Coast Guard fired water cannon on Tuesday at Philippine ships near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, accusing Manila of an "illegal" intrusion and the ramming of one of its vessels share.google/O1yI2cMujQvm...

Yusuf Islam is now trying to explain himself — the inspirations for those early music staples; his religious conversion and the relief he found there; his charitable work for Palestinians and advocacy for Muslim children in England www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/a...

Historian Anne Applebaum talked about China calling attention to its growing global strength with a military parade and a summit with China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and others www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqVo...

In an unprecedented move, Indonesia's six human rights state bodies have set up an independent fact-finding team to investigate riots erupting during recent nationwide protests, which were marred by police brutality and led to deaths and injuries www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/20...

In the U.S. many radio and television stations in rural and tribal areas, facing enormous budget holes with the cut from the Trump administration, are pleading with NPR and PBS to lower their fees as they examine whether to drop national programming altogether www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/u...

Sushila Karki was sworn in as the interim head of Nepal after young people ousted her predecessor. She has been tasked with restoring order ahead of elections in six months. She order an investigation into the riots www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBod...

Unmanned warships from both China and the U.S. blur legal boundaries as technology outpaces international law in contested maritime zones like the South China Sea www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpre...

In her New York apartment, Gloria Steinem, 91, relaxed in her bedroom. Bookshelves reached the ceiling and a pillow on her bed read, “The power of the world always works in circles.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/s...

Australian and New Zealand authorities uncovered evidence allegedly linking a man from Logan, Brisbane, and a man from Urunga, New South Wales, to arms trafficking activities into West Papua, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the killing of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, evaded detection for hours before climbing on a roof, where the police say he shot and killed Kirk during an outdoor event at Utah Valley University www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

After a week of violent and destructive protests, Nepal’s President Ram Chandra Poudel on Friday appointed former Chief Justice Sushila Karki as a caretaker Prime Minister to lead an interim citizens' government nepalitimes.com/news/madam-p...

Indonesia set up North Java Coast Management Authority to oversee construction of a 700-km seawall from Banten to Gresik, aimed at protecting 20 million people from erosion, flooding and land subsidence. The US$80 billion project including planning and financing news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indo...

In Kuala Lumpur, ASEAN issued a document on "our shared future 2045." What does it mean for the people in the region? Let's hear a discussion with Megan Steven (Sabah), Gus Miclat (Davao City), Jean Disco (Melbourne) and me in Jakarta asean.org/wp-content/u...

Brazil’s Supreme Court convicted Jair Bolsonaro, the former president, of trying to cling to power after losing the 2022 election, including a plan to assassinate his opponent 🇧🇷 www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/w...

The foundation of a free society is the ability to participate in politics without fear of violence. To lose that is to risk losing everything. Charlie Kirk just lost everything. As a country, the U.S. came a step closer to losing everything, too www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/o...

A young man was shot while giving a speech :-(

In Tanjung Pinang, Bangka Island, Indonesia's Ministry of Religious Affairs inaugurated the first state Confucian school in Indonesia. Bangka is an Indonesian province with the largest percentage of Confucians www.kemenkopmk.go.id/peletakan-ba...

More than a dozen Russian drones entered Poland overnight, prompting NATO to scramble fighter jets to shoot them down in what Western officials described as a dangerous escalation of the war in neighboring Ukraine www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/w...

Indonesian police arrested Sri Lanka's most-wanted man in a Jakarta apartment along with five others. Mandinu Padmasiri Pereta and the others will be extradited to face charges including gunning down a rival inside a court in Colombo www.thejakartapost.com/world/2025/0...

Pacific Island leaders have kicked off their annual summit in the Solomon Islands, with climate change and security expected to take centre stage amid the battle for influence in the region between China and the United States www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/...

Floods in Bali have killed people this week and blocked major roads, disrupting the busy travel destination. It brought down two buildings in Denpasar, killing four people, and two more people were killed in Jembrana www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia...

President Trump said that he found out about Israel’s airstrike in Qatar from the United States military, rather than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he often describes as both a friend and his strongest ally in the Middle East www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/u...

After Indonesia, One Piece flag makes it to protests against censorship in Nepal where Gen Z protestors rallying against censorship, corruption, and the leadership of Prime Minister Sharma Oli www.telegraphindia.com/entertainmen...

Qatari PM Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani says the Israeli strikes on Doha can only be interpreted as “state terrorism.” Qatar reserves its right to respond to Israel and will not tolerate any violations of its sovereignty www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZmE...

Cats are hugely popular in Indonesia, which boasts the highest rate of cat ownership in the Asia-Pacific. Indonesia is a majority Muslim country, and the high status of cats in Islam may help explain why cats are so popular there www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Israel carried out a strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar's capital Doha. A Hamas official says its negotiating team was targeted during a meeting to discuss a U.S. proposal www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnOz...

Indonesia's Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati was chairing a meeting when she received a call from President Prabowo Subianto's office informing her she would be replaced within an hour, underscoring the abruptness of the longtime finance czar's sacking www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

Nepali PM Sharma Oli stepped down after a wave of anticorruption protests left 19 people dead and more than 100 injured, but protesters remained on the streets, blocking roads and setting fires to parliament and other government buildings www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/...

Nusantara was meant to embody Indonesia’s future as a green, modern, new capital rising from Borneo’s forests. But under President Prabowo, Nusantara is facing funding cuts and political indifference. The new capital project risks becoming a costly monument www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWn9...

“The police shooting of demonstrators in Kathmandu and across Nepal shows the administration’s appalling disregard for the lives of its own citizens and desperate need to suppress criticism,” said Meenakshi Ganguly www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

After his inauguration, Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa said the unrest in Indonesia reflected "the voice of a small part of our people", promising that protests would cease as he embarks on boosting economic growth and creating more jobs www.reuters.com/business/fin...

Danish PM Mette Frederiksen has called for stricter measures limiting religious symbols and rituals in education, asking for a ban on full-coverage veils worn by some Muslim women to be extended to schools and universities www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...