A sudden eruption from the highest volcano on Indonesia’s most densely populated island of Java left several villages blanketed with falling ash.
The eruption was accompanied by a thunderstorm that spread lava and smouldering debris, which formed thick mud. The event triggered panic among locals and caused one death
Continue reading...Dozens more were injured when the highest volcano on densely populated Java island spewed a huge cloud of ash into the air
The death toll from the eruption of the Semeru volcano on Indonesia’s Java island has risen to 13, with nearly 100 others injured, the country’s disaster mitigation agency has said.
Mount Semeru, the highest volcano on Indonesia’s most densely populated island of Java, spewed thick columns of ash more than 12,000 meters into the sky on Saturday, with searing gas and lava flowing down its slopes and triggering panic among people living nearby.
Continue reading...Survey also finds adults aged 18-24 and women more concerned about personal finances than other groups
Young people and women have taken the hardest psychological and financial hit from the pandemic, a YouGov survey has found – but few people anywhere are considering changing their lives as a result of it.
The annual YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project found that in many of the 27 countries surveyed, young people were consistently more likely than their elders to feel the Covid crisis had made their financial and mental health concerns worse.
Continue reading...The alliance between Britain, the US and Australia has divided the region and angered China
The UK has invited south-east Asian nations to attend a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Liverpool next month, in a move that risks highlighting concerns that the new alliance between Britain, the US and Australia will fuel a regional nuclear arms race.
States from the Association of South-East Asian Nations are divided on the new Aukus partnership but some, notably Indonesia and Malaysia, have sharply criticised it, and many in the 10-member bloc are reluctant to take sides in the unfolding superpower rivalry between the US and China.
Continue reading...Dozens of West Papuans were tortured and thrown into the sea 23 years ago. Days later, Australia knew details of the attack, yet remained silent. Evening news editor Julian Drape introduces this story about survivors and campaigners still fighting for accountability
You can read the original article here: ‘Killed like animals’: documents reveal how Australia turned a blind eye to a West Papuan massacre
My father, Sukarno, the first elected president of Indonesia, was put under house arrest in March 1967 a few days after I was born. He was 67. In the months before, there had been a bloodbath in the country in which he lost many trusted friends and allies. The year before, he had sent my mother, who was pregnant with me, to Japan, her homeland, advising her to return to Indonesia when the situation improved.
It never did. Three years later, in 1970, I saw my father for the first time, on his deathbed. My mother and I had not been allowed to return to the country and we had been living in France. My father died a few hours after our plane from Paris landed. Thanks to the despotic rule of the second president – General Suharto – I was not able to see my father alive, although my mother had tried repeatedly to enter Indonesia.
Continue reading...Environment minister of country home to world’s third-biggest rainforest says deforestation pledge must not halt development
Indonesia has questioned the terms of a Cop26 deal to end deforestation by 2030, days after joining more than 100 countries in signing up to it.
The nations agreed on the multi-billion-dollar plan at the climate conference in Glasgow this week to stop cutting down trees on an industrial scale in under a decade.
Continue reading...Treasures worth millions found in the last five years along the Musi River could be the site of the Srivijaya empire
It was a fabled kingdom known in ancient times as the Island of Gold, a civilisation with untold wealth that explorers tried in vain to find long after its unexplained disappearance from history around the 14th century. The site of Srivijaya may finally have been found – by local fishing crews carrying out night-time dives on the Musi River near Palembang on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Their extraordinary catches are treasures ranging from a lifesize eighth-century Buddhist statue studded with precious gems – worth millions of pounds – to jewels worthy of kings.
Continue reading...Declassified documents reveal how in 1965 a shadowy dirty tricks arm of the Foreign Office incited anti-communist massacres that left hundreds of thousands dead
In early 1965 Ed Wynne, an official from the Foreign Office in London in his late 40s, arrived at the door of a two-storey villa set in the discreet calm of a genteel housing estate in colonial Singapore.
But Wynne was no ordinary official. A specialist from the Foreign Office’s cold war propaganda arm, the Information Research Department (IRD), he had been assigned to lead a small team. A junior official, four local people and two “IRD ladies”, seconded to the unit from London, would join him.
Continue reading...Newly declassified papers show shocking role played by Britain in slaughter
A propaganda campaign orchestrated by Britain played a crucial part in one of the most brutal massacres of the postwar 20th century, shocking new evidence reveals.
British officials secretly deployed black propaganda in the 1960s to urge prominent Indonesians to “cut out” the “communist cancer”.
Continue reading...India, Egypt and Cuba among first states to develop and make their own vaccines as Covax falls behind
Developing countries are increasingly turning to homegrown Covid vaccinations as the UN-backed Covax programme falls behind.
While western countries roll out booster jabs to their own populations, Covax, which was set up by UN agencies, governments and donors to ensure fair access to Covid-19 vaccines for low- and middle-income countries, has said it will miss its target to distribute 2bn doses globally by the end of this year.
Continue reading...The pandemic has prompted a rethink of tourism’s role on the island as some call for only ‘quality’ visitors
After being shuttered for 17 months, the upmarket Hujan Locale restaurant in the Balinese town of Ubud is slowly coming back to life.
Outside, staff greet a box truck driver who delivers fresh vegetables and stacks of lemongrass, ginger flowers and kaffir lime leaves. Kitchen workers are busy preparing for the day ahead. A chandelier above a stairway is once again casting a warm yellow shimmer across the walls.
Continue reading...Vaccination rates are rising in much of south-east Asia and the Pacific after recent outbreaks, but some of the largest countries are falling behind
While Australians have focused on the Covid waves in Sydney and Melbourne, many of Australia’s neighbours have recently experienced their largest outbreaks so far. This includes Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu and even Singapore.
Singapore surpassed Australia’s vaccination target weeks ago, but was now seeing more than a thousand cases a day. Fiji recently had one of the highest rates of Covid cases per capita – peaking at 1,850 cases in the middle of July. But the nation of 889,000 was now regularly administering more than 10,000 new vaccinations a day.
Continue reading...Joe Biden has introduced a vaccine mandate affecting millions, but some countries have gone further
Following the decision by the US president, Joe Biden, to introduce a vaccine mandate for millions of workers, and the UK government’s decision to row back on its push to require vaccine passports for nightclubs and other crowded events, where does the issue of insisting on vaccination stand globally?
Continue reading...Kompas TV showed footage of firefighters trying to put out huge flames from the top of a building in Banten province in western Java
A fire at a jail in Indonesia has killed 40 people, authorities have said.
The fire in the prison in Banten province broke out at some time between 1am and 2am on Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for the prison department of the law and human rights ministry said.
Continue reading...Goffin’s cockatoos on Indonesia’s Tanimbar Islands crafted three different types of tools from tree branches to obtain seeds from sea mangoes
Australian bird of the year 2021: nominate your favourite for the shortlist
Wild cockatoos have been observed using three types of tools as “cutlery” to extract seeds from tropical fruit.
Researchers made the discovery while studying Goffin’s cockatoos on the Tanimbar Islands, a remote archipelago in Indonesia.
Continue reading...After 18 months of remote learning, some students will re-enter classrooms as the capital sees a fall in coronavirus infections
After almost 18 months, children in Jakarta will begin to re-enter classrooms on Monday, as Indonesia, which faces on of the worst Covid outbreaks globally, eases restrictions in some areas.
Indonesia began gradually loosening its lockdown measures last week, allowing restaurants and places of worship to open their doorsat 25% capacity, and malls to operate at 50% capacity. The relaxed rules were introduced across several regions in Java and Bali , including greater Jakarta, greater Bandung and greater Surabaya.
Continue reading...Skeleton of hunter-gatherer found in Leang Panninge cave sheds light on ancient human migration
Archaeologists have discovered ancient DNA in the remains of a woman who died 7,200 years ago in Indonesia, a find that challenges what was previously known about migration of early humans.
The remains, belonging to a teenager nicknamed Bessé, were discovered in the Leang Panninge cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Initial excavations were undertaken in 2015.
Continue reading...Human rights groups welcome chief of staff’s apparent decision to end the decades-long, ‘abusive’ practice
Human rights organisations have welcomed the Indonesian army’s apparent decision to end the “abusive” and long-criticised “virginity testing” of female recruitments.
The procedure is known in Indonesia as “the two-finger test”, because during the examination the doctors would insert two fingers inside the woman’s vagina to check whether the hymen is still intact or not. Those declared not to be a virgin would be rejected for recruitment.
Continue reading...Frustrations with government response and anti-vaxxers as country struggles to cope with variant
Indonesia’s health ministry has recorded 1,747 new deaths of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, pushing the nation’s total deaths to 100,636.
The south-east Asian country has been struggling to cope with the highly contagious Delta variant since it was first discovered in Indonesia in late June. According to Our World in Data, Indonesia’s total number of infections has now reached 3.53 million.
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