Indonesia to ban social media for children under 16

Platforms include YouTube, TikTok and Instagram as communication minister says ‘our children face real threats’

Indonesia will ban social media for children under 16, its communication and digital affairs minister said on Friday.

Meutya Hafid said in a statement to media said that she signed a government regulation that will mean children under the age of 16 can no longer have accounts on high-risk digital platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Roblox and Bigo Live, a popular livestreaming site. With a population of about 285 million, the fourth-highest in the world, the south-east Asian nation represents a significant market for social networks.

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US man deported from Bali after 11 years in prison for ‘suitcase murder’ of then girlfriend’s mother

Tommy Schaefer released early from 18-year sentence for 2014 murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack during luxury holiday

Indonesia has freed and deported a US man after he spent 11 years in prison for the premeditated murder of his then girlfriend’s mother on the tourist island of Bali.

Tommy Schaefer was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the 2014 murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, the mother of Heather Mack, during a luxury holiday in a case that became known as the Bali suitcase murder.

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Global heating and other human activity are making Asia’s floods more lethal

Much improved response systems are struggling to cope with ever more powerful and destructive storms

Families stranded on their rooftops. Homes buried by fast-flowing mud. Jagged brown craters scarring lush green hillsides.

The scenes are the result of a series of cyclones and storms in a heavy monsoon season that have struck Asia with torrential rains, gutting essential infrastructure and reshaping landscapes. The violent weather has killed at least 1,200 people in the past week and forced a million to flee without knowing whether their homes will still be standing when they go back.

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Death toll passes 900 in Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka floods

Officials in Indonesia say more than 442 people have died, while Sri Lanka suffers worst natural disaster since 2004 tsunami

Authorities in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand are racing to clear debris and find hundreds of missing people after more than 900 died in devastating floods and landslides across the south of Asia.

In the latest example of the impact of the climate crisis on storm patterns and extreme weather, heavy monsoon rains, exacerbated by a tropical storm, have overwhelmed parts of south-east Asia in recent days, leaving thousands of people stranded without shelter or critical supplies.

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Flash flooding in Sumatra kills 69 as rescue crews search rivers for survivors

Monsoon rains cause devastation on Indonesian island, sparking landslides and flash flooding

Flash floods and landslides on Indonesia’s Sumatra island have killed 69 people, with 59 missing as emergency workers search in rivers and the rubble of villages for bodies and possible survivors.

Monsoon rains over the past week caused rivers to burst their banks in North Sumatra province on Tuesday. The deluge tore through mountainside villages, swept away people and submerged more than 2,000 houses and buildings, the National Disaster Management Agency said. Nearly 5,000 residents fled to government shelters.

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Jakarta overtakes Tokyo as world’s most populous city, according to UN

The rankings were changed after the UN used new criteria to give a more accurate picture of the rapid urbanisation driving the growth of megacities

Jakarta has overtaken Tokyo as the world’s most populous city, according to a UN study that uses new criteria to give a more accurate picture of the rapid urbanisation driving the growth of megacities.

The Indonesian capital is home to 42 million people, according to an estimate by the population division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs in its World Urbanisation Prospects 2025 report published this month.

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At least 54 people injured in explosions at Indonesian school mosque

Authorities say suspect is 17-year-old male student and warn against terrorist attack speculation after Jakarta blasts

At least 54 people have been injured in explosions that shook a mosque at a high school during Friday prayers in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Authorities later said the suspect was a 17-year-old male student who had been injured and was undergoing surgery.

Witnesses told local television stations that they heard at least two loud blasts at about midday, just as the sermon had started, from inside and outside the mosque at SMA 72, a state high school within a navy compound in Jakarta’s northern Kelapa Gading neighbourhood.

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British woman on death row in Bali for drug smuggling to be repatriated

Lindsay Sandiford, 68, has been on death row in Indonesia since 2012, after authorities found 3.8kg of cocaine in her suitcase

A British woman will avoid execution for drug smuggling in Indonesia under an agreement between the two nations to repatriate her and another Briton serving a life sentence.

Lindsay Sandiford, 68, has been imprisoned in Bali since 2012. She was arrested at the resort island’s airport after authorities found 3.8kg of cocaine worth $2.5m hidden in the lining of her suitcase. During the trial, she said she was forced to carry the drugs by a gang that threatened her children.

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Three Australians accused of premeditated murder in Bali villa could face the death penalty

Melbourne man Zivan Radmanovic, 32, was fatally gunned down in a Bali villa in June

Three Australians accused of shooting a Melbourne man in a Bali villa are set to be charged with premeditated murder, an offence punishable by the death sentence.

Melbourne man Zivan Radmanovic, 32, was fatally gunned down in the bathroom of Villa Casa Santisya near Munggu Beach, in Bali’s Badung district in June.

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UK plastic waste exports to developing countries rose 84% in a year, data shows

Campaigners say increase in exports mostly to Malaysia and Indonesia is ‘unethical and irresponsible waste imperialism’

Britain’s exports of plastic waste to developing countries have soared by 84% in the first half of this year compared with last year, according to an analysis of trade data carried out for the Guardian.

Campaigners described the rise in exports, mostly to Malaysia and Indonesia, as “unethical and irresponsible waste imperialism”.

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Indonesia school collapse: search for victims ends as 67 confirmed dead

Grief and confusion gripped East Java last week after foundational failures caused the Al Khoziny Islamic school to collapse during afternoon prayers

Indonesian rescuers wrapped up the search on Tuesday for victims trapped under the rubble of a collapsed Islamic boarding school in the province of East Java, after retrieving more than 60 bodies, disaster authorities said.

Grief and confusion gripped the small town of Sidoarjo last week after foundational failures caused the Al Khoziny school to cave in on hundreds of people, mostly teenage boys, while they were at afternoon prayers. Most escaped.

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Indonesia school collapse death toll reaches 54 as search for missing students continues

Excavators used to remove rubble while 14 people reportedly still unaccounted for and police allege building work was being carried out without a permit

Indonesian rescuers searching for missing students after a prayer hall at an Islamic boarding school collapsed last week recovered the bodies of dozens of students over the weekend, bringing the confirmed death toll to 54.

Using heavy excavators equipped with jackhammers, circular saws and sometimes their bare hands, rescue teams removed tons of rubble in an attempt to find the 14 students reportedly still missing. Rescuers found 35 bodies over the weekend alone, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency said.

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Indonesian school collapse: death toll rises to 14 as crews pull more bodies from rubble

Dozens of students remain unaccounted for at Sidoarjo boarding school as rescuers bring in heavy excavators to clear large slabs of concrete

The death toll from a school collapse in Indonesia rose to 14 on Friday after recovery crews pulled multiple bodies from beneath the rubble. Dozens of students remain unaccounted for and the death toll is expected to rise.

Rescuers initially searched by hand for survivors after the building caved in on Monday. But with no more signs of life detected by Thursday, they turned to heavy excavators equipped with jackhammers to help them progress more rapidly.

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‘I use cannabis as medicine’: the US basketball player facing execution in Indonesia over $400 of gummies

Unlike his fellow basketball player, Brittney Griner, Jarred Shaw has received scant attention after being arrested for a drugs offence overseas

When Jarred Shaw, an American basketball player in Indonesia, stepped down to the lobby in his apartment complex earlier this year to collect a package containing illegally imported cannabis gummies, he thought that the medicine to ease his Crohn’s disease had arrived.

It had – but so too had 10 undercover police officers. A video on social media shows Shaw, wearing a black T-shirt and shorts, shouting for help as the swarm of officers move to apprehend him.

The Indonesian National Police did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

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Indonesia school collapse: 91 missing and three dead as rescuers search rubble for second day

Desperate search for more than 90 missing after building collapses while students held prayers at school in Sidoarjo

Parents and rescuers in Indonesia were desperately searching for dozens of teenage boys believed to be trapped, a day after the collapse of an Islamic boarding school which has already left three dead, authorities said.

Authorities said 91 people were listed as missing after the Al Khoziny school building collapsed while pupils held late afternoon prayers in a mosque housed on a lower floor of a building whose upper floors were under construction.

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Indonesia school collapse: one dead, 65 buried under rubble as rescuers race to find survivors

Death toll expected to rise as instability of building in East Java town hampers rescue efforts

At least one student has been killed, dozens injured and 65 presumed buried under rubble after a school building collapsed in Indonesia on Monday, with rescuers running oxygen and water to those who remained trapped more than 12 hours later.

Rescue workers, police and soldiers digging through the night pulled out eight weak and injured survivors hours after the building at Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in the East Java town of Sidoarjo collapsed while students were praying.

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Bali hospital denies allegation of organ theft after body of Australian repatriated without heart

Australian officials demanded answers after the body of Byron Haddow was returned without his heart

A Bali hospital has denied allegations it was involved in organ theft, after the body of a young Australian who died on the Indonesian resort island was repatriated without his heart.

Queensland man Byron Haddow was found dead in the plunge pool of his Bali villa earlier this year while on holiday.

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Bali to block new hotels and restaurants after deadly flooding raises questions about mass tourism

Bali governor says new instructions issued to stop hotels and restaurants being built on productive land, especially rice fields

Indonesia will ban the construction of new hotels and restaurants built atop cleared rice fields and agricultural land on the popular resort island of Bali, after recent flash flooding killed at least 18 people.

A state of emergency was declared on Bali on 10 September after the island experienced the most severe flooding in more than a decade.

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Politicians in at least 51 countries used anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric during elections, NGO finds

Rights group also finds rise in openly gay, bisexual and transgender people running for office in 36 countries

Politicians in at least 51 countries used homophobic or transphobic rhetoric during elections last year, from depicting LGBTQ+ identity as a foreign threat to condemning “gender ideology”, according to a new study of 60 countries and the EU.

However, there were also gains for LGBTQ+ representation in some countries. Openly gay, bisexual and transgender people ran for office in at least 36 countries, including for the first time in Botswana, Namibia and Romania – albeit unsuccessfully – according to the report by Outright International. The number of LGBTQ+ elected officials doubled to at least 233 in Brazil.

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Flash floods in Indonesia leave at least 15 people dead and 10 missing

Torrential rains cause flooding and landslides in East Nusa Tenggara province and on the tourist island of Bali

Rescuers have recovered the bodies of 15 people who have died in flash flooding in two Indonesian provinces, while authorities said 10 others were missing.

Torrential rains beginning on Monday caused flooding and landslides in East Nusa Tenggara province and on the island of Bali.

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