Jakarta – Indonesian state energy company Pertamina plans in 2024 to mix more of its gasoline products with ethanol in a bid to offer alternative fuels to the public, its chief executive said on Monday.

Devy Ernis, Jakarta – A junior high school teacher in Lamongan shaved the heads of dozens of hijabi students for not wearing an inner hijab or ciput as it is locally known. This action was met with strong protests from a number of parents, demanding the teacher to be disrespectfully fired.

Adi Warsono, Jakarta – Passengers of Light Rail Transit or LRT Jabodebek departing from Bekasi were evacuated this morning, August 30, due to a problem with the train. Passengers were asked to leave the train five minutes after departure.

"I took the train from Jatimulya and was asked to get off at Cikunir 2," a passenger Devina Amelia said this morning.

Yamin Kogoya – The Jakarta District Court heard the case of alleged bribery and gratification against suspended Papua governor Lukas Enembe on Monday with evidence from expert witnesses saying that an audit showed records to be "clean and accurate".

The hearing was convened to hear the testimony of three expert witnesses on the allegations against Governor Enembe.

Len Garae, Port Vila – The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) has failed West Papua, says a Vanuatu government champion of West Papuan self-determination.

Melissa Conley Tyler, Anders Hofstee and Kara Chesal – When Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong visited Dili last month, one of the projects she highlighted was the Timor-Leste South Submarine Cable.

Jakarta – Indonesia's upcoming presidential election will be a close contest between two popular candidates, the country's defence minister and a governor of one of its most populous provinces, an opinion survey showed on Wednesday.

Mai Nguyen and Siyi Liu – Nickel smelters in top producer Indonesia are making rare purchases of ore from the Philippines to ease tight supplies, people familiar with the matter said, upending trade flows of the raw material and pushing up costs across the supply chain.

Medan, Indonesia – Indonesia's Chinese-funded high-speed train service has been delayed for the second time in less than a month, in the latest setback for the project plagued by cost overruns and local scepticism.

The trial launch of the $7.3bn Jakarta-Bandung high-speed service, scheduled for Friday, will not go ahead as planned, a spokesperson for the project said.

Batam, Riau Islands – Dozens of Chinese nationals were arrested in Indonesia on suspicion of running an online love scam syndicate that ensnared hundreds of victims in China, police said Wednesday.

Acting on a tip-off from their Chinese counterparts, police arrested 83 men and five women at an industrial park in Batam city in Riau Islands province on Tuesday.

Tenggara Strategics, Jakarta – For the last year of his final term in office, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has set ambitious targets in terms of economic growth, poverty reduction, job creation and reducing inequality, using the state budget as an instrument to achieve these.

Jakarta – For what it's worth, the scathing attack against President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's food estate program, from no less than the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), gives us a rare glimpse of what a democracy should look like.

Yerica Lai, Jakarta – Presumptive presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto has renamed his augmented electoral alliance after President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's cabinet and has asserted it represents "team Jokowi", as he seeks to portray himself as the popular president's rightful successor.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) has arrested three soldiers on suspicion of kidnapping, torturing and killing a civilian in an extortion plot, officials said Tuesday.

According to the TNI, the victim was tortured to death and local media reported his body was later found in a river in the West Java town of Karawang.

Dio Suhenda, Jakarta – Resistance has been growing against a plan to erect a 100-meter-tall statue of Indonesia's founding father Sukarno in a new economic hub in West Java, as some observers have questioned the urgency and purpose of the costly project.

Ichsan Ali, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Wednesday threatened to impose sanctions against factories that do not install pollution control devices as Jakarta grapples with worsening air quality. The sanctions may even include a shutdown of the factory's operations.

Jakarta – Disgraced taxman Rafael Alun Trisambodo attended the opening hearing of his corruption trial on Wednesday only to discover that his wife might soon join him as a co-defendant.

He stands accused of accepting bribes totaling Rp 16.6 billion ($1.1 million), which he allegedly used to purchase land, properties, jewelry, luxury vehicles, and high-end branded bags.

Syakirun Niam, Jakarta – A 1965 exile who resides in Amsterdam, Holland, Sri Budiarti or Ning, has related her experience of being berated and accused of being a member of the now-defunct Indonesian Women's Movement (Gerwani).

Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – Indonesia – the world's largest Muslim-majority country – reported that its Sharia-compliant finance assets had totaled hundreds of billions of American dollars in value.

Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said on Tuesday freedom of expression should not give someone a free pass to discriminate against others based on religion following multiple Quran-burning incidents in Europe.

Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas told reporters on Tuesday that the government was still reviewing its plan to allow Indonesian Muslims to take the hajj pilgrimage only once in their lifetime.

Timika, Jubi – The families of the murder and mutilation victims in Mimika Regency expressed their dissatisfaction with the decision made by the Appellate Judges Panel of the Surabaya High Military Court III, which reduced the sentence for Maj. Inf. Helmanto Fransiskus Dakhi, the defendant, from life imprisonment to 15 years in jail.

In spite of again being denied full membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) has welcomed the call from the MSG Leaders' Summit in Port Vila last week for Indonesia to allow the long-awaited visit of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to West Papua.

Sebastian Strangio – Myanmar's military government has ordered Timor-Leste's senior diplomat to leave the country in retaliation for a meeting that his government held with the opposition National Unity Government (NUG).

Jakarta – Indonesia's government has widened public access to a 7 million rupiah ($458.87) subsidy to buy an electric motorcycle after a lack of uptake due to limited eligibility, as it aims for long-term mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs).

Aisyah Llewellyn – Two weeks ago, this column discussed the Indonesian Supreme Court's decision to slash the sentences of four convicted murderers, including two police officers, after the defendants appealed their guilty verdicts following the slaying of a young police brigadier.

Antara, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo asked the Jakarta provincial government to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles or EV in a bid to reduce air pollution in the capital city.

Jakarta – A school on Indonesia's main island has partially shaved the heads of more than a dozen girls, its headmaster said Monday, after they were accused of wearing their Islamic hijab headscarves incorrectly.

BeritaSatu, Jakarta – Three low-ranking soldiers, including a member of the elite presidential security unit or Paspampres, have been apprehended for allegedly kidnapping a cosmetic and drug salesman and causing the victim to die from "excessive torture" during their ransom demand.

Akhmad Riyadh, Antara, Jakarta – Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) head of media information, Ali Fikri, confirmed that his agency conducted a search at the Mayor's Office of Bima, West Nusa Tenggara.

Jakarta – Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin appealed to the public to use masks to prevent respiratory diseases caused by air pollution.

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Indonesia's deal with industrialized countries for the latter to channel $20 billion in funding to help speed up the former's energy transition is hitting a snag due to captive coal-fired power plants.

Indonesia is among the world's biggest consumers of coal, the single largest energy source of planet-heating carbon dioxide.

BTV, Surabaya – An Indonesian couple was sentenced to jail on Tuesday for producing and profiting from a video depicting their sexual activities.

The Surabaya District Court found them guilty under the 2008 pornography law and the draconian Electronic Information and Transaction Law.

Nirmala Maulana Achmad, Jakarta – The government is being asked to set history straight on incidents of past gross human rights violations by writing an official national history book.

A one-year moratorium has been placed on Indonesia's application to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).

Prime Minister James Marape said this was so that Pacific Island Forum could address the West Papua issue and specifically human rights allegations in the province.

Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – The government is banking on the freshly launched light rail transit, popularly known as the LRT, to reduce the traffic in one of the world's most congested cities, Jakarta.

A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil, Jakarta – The Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency (Bapeten) is unfazed by Japan's releasing treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean on Thursday, as it has accepted that any residual tritium would become diluted on entering the open sea, with negligible impacts on distant shores.

Nina A. Loasana, Jakarta – Environmentalists have urged authorities to be consistent and thorough in taking legal action against people and businesses that contribute to Jakarta's air pollution, as the environment ministry moves to arrest suspects and close factories linked to the city's worsening air.

Jakarta – Local authorities have declared a state of emergency following a raging fire that has been burning at Sarimukti landfill in West Bandung regency, West Java, since last week.

Yohana Belinda, Jakarta – The craft of winemaking has come a long way in Indonesia over the past decade, from humble beginnings in East Java's hip-hop community via burgeoning artisanal products to big operations. Bali plays a central role in the business today.

Tenggara Strategics, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Megawati Sukarnoputri, the chair of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the largest party in the coalition government, have sharp and probably irreconcilable differences in their approaches to the 2024 presidential race.

Yangon, Myanmar – Myanmar's junta on Sunday ordered the expulsion of Timor Leste's top diplomat in the country over a meeting his government held with a banned shadow administration.

The Southeast Asian nation has been locked in crisis since the military seized power in February 2021, ending a brief experiment with democracy and sparking violent clashes.

Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Adm. Yudo Margono has demanded that three soldiers, including one member of the Presidential Security Detail (Paspampres) accused of torturing and murdering a civilian in South Jakarta be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Daniel A. Fajri, Jakarta – The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) led by Benny Wenda presented a false report on the situation in Papua at the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Summit, forcing Indonesia to walk out of the forum.

Muhammad Ersan Pamungkas – The 1978 novel by Australian author Christopher Koch, titled The Year of Living Dangerously, set primarily in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, describes events leading up to the coup attempt by the now-defunct Communist Party of Indonesia on 30 September 1965 and the hazards in the city in those days given the socio-political conditions.

Hariz Baharudin, Jakarta – Students in parts of the Indonesian capital will do their schooling from home, and more civil servants will also work remotely for a few days as the city hosts the 43rd Asean Summit and other related summits from Sept 2 to 7.

Jakarta (VNA) – The Indonesian government has lifted a moratorium on sending Indonesian citizens to the Middle East as domestic helpers but cautioned that those who take up offers of employment in the region must follow the proper procedures to ensure they are fully protected.

Jayapura, Jubi – Tropical glaciers in Papua are predicted to vanish within the next three years. The melting of the glacier on Puncak Jaya, the highest peak in Indonesia at 4,884 meters, is being accelerated by this year's El Nino phenomenon.

Grant Wyeth – Last week the 22nd Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Leaders' Summit was held in Port Vila, Vanuatu. The MSG is a regional body that includes Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea as well as the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), an alliance of pro-independence political parties in New Caledonia.

Tempo.Co, Jakarta – Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud Md said at the inaugural meeting with political exiles in Diemen, the Netherlands, that the state will not apologize to the victims of the 1965-66 massacres.