Marian Faa and Stephen Dziedzic – The first meeting of defence ministers – featuring Australia's Richard Marles and his Indonesian and PNG counterparts – will be held tomorrow morning in Port Moresby.

Ni Made Tasyarani, Jakarta – Indonesia extended its trade surplus in October despite a slowdown in exports amid declining oil and gas shipments.

Alfitria Nefi Pratiwi, Jakarta – Researcher from the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios), Rani Septyarini, highlights the harmful impact of trawling on capture fisheries. "In 1960, capture fisheries production growth reached 21.67 percent, but it plunged to 2.41 percent in 2022," said Rani, in a written statement on Tuesday, December 2, 2025.

Tamaam Alfarizqi and Alfath Asmunda, Tapanuli, North Sumatra/Banda Aceh – In North Sumatra, Rosmina wades into her home through soupy grey-brown mud that reaches her knees, searching for belongings she can extract after deadly flooding submerged her village.

Eka Yudha Saputra, Jakarta – The spokesperson for 212 Reunion rally, Aziz Yanuar, stated that the grand reunion to be held at Monas Field, Central Jakarta on Tuesday afternoon, December 2, 2025, will begin with a collective dhikr and a Salat al-Ghaib, or Absentee funeral prayer, for the victims of Sumatra floods.

Jakarta – This is what happens when a mass organization accepts a coal mining concession. Instead of focusing on social and religious activities for the benefit of its members, senior Nahdlatul Ulama figures are caught in an internal conflict over the management of natural resources.

Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – Think-tank Celios revealed that Indonesia could lose Rp 68.67 trillion or approximately $4.1 billion from the cyclone-induced floods and landslides hitting Sumatra.

The estimates encompassed the economic losses on a national scale and took into account the available data as of Nov. 30.

Antara, Jakarta – Indonesia will require $757.6 billion in climate financing by 2035 to meet its climate-action commitments under the Enhanced and Secondary Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), highlighting a major funding gap as current climate spending accounts for only 3 percent of the state budget, the government said on Tuesday.

Rebecca Ratcliffe – The number of people killed by floods and landslides on Indonesia's Sumatra island rose to 753 on Tuesday, the disaster agency said, with 504 people missing.

The toll was a sharp increase from the 604 dead reported by the agency on Monday.

Dede Leni Mardianti, Jakarta – Indonesian Social Affairs Minister Saifullah Yusuf dismissed reports of looting in the Bulog warehouses in Central Tapanuli Regency and Sibolga City, North Sumatra. He said the rice was intentionally distributed to the flood and landslide-hit residents.

Maria Baru, Sorong – Hundreds of Papuans from various organisations held a peaceful action to commemorate the Political Manifesto Day for Papuan independence in Sorong City, Southwest Papua, on Monday December 1.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) and the western regional Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) are urging the administration of President Prabowo Subianto to immediately declare a national disaster emergency status in response to the massive floods that have hit Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra.

Arso Gombo, and Mirius Wenda – We are the West Papua Campaign USA, a nonprofit organization established in 2021 with the support of the Pacific Island Community Association of Washington State (PICA-WA).

Anastasya Lavenia Yudi, Jakarta – Statistics Indonesia (BPS) recorded a 0.17 percent (month-to-month) inflation in November 2025. Meanwhile, the year-on-year and year-to-date inflation are recorded at 2.72 percent and 2.27 percent, respectively.

Aida Ulim, Jayapura, Jubi – The West Papua National Committee (KNPB) commemorated the 64th anniversary of the West Papuan independence Political Manifesto on December 1, by reflecting on what the KNPB has done and what it will do in the future.

Anastasya Lavenia Yudi, Jakarta – The Indonesian manufacturing sector has recorded an expanded Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) in November 2025 at the level of 53.3, according to the Standard & Poor's Global Ratings (S&P). The manufacturing PMI last month improved compared to October, with 51.2, marking the highest standing since February 2025 at 53.6.

Antara, Jakarta – The massive floods and landslides that struck three Indonesian provinces, namely Aceh, West Sumatra, and North Sumatra, have caused extraordinary impacts, casualties, infrastructure damage, property losses, and have paralyzed the economy and social life of the community.

Johnny Johan Sompotan, Jakarta – Flash floods and landslides that battered the island of Sumatra over the past week have wiped out four villages in Aceh, Governor Muzakir Manaf said on Sunday.

In a video posted on social media, Muzakir broke down in tears as he spoke about the scale of the disaster in his province.

Muhammad Aulia Rahman, Anis Firmansah, Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office (AGO) has opened the door to investigating whether extensive illegal logging contributed to the deadly floods and landslides that have devastated parts of Sumatra over the past week, as the death toll surged to 442.

Arnoldus Kristianus, Jakarta – Indonesia reported Monday that its October trade surplus reached $2.39 billion, but this was only nearly half of what the country had registered in September despite a 66-month streak.

The surplus had amounted to $4.34 billion in September.

Jakarta – The North Sumatra chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) believes the flash floods that have hit several areas recently were not solely the result of extreme weather.

Dede Leni Mardianti, Jakarta – Three Indonesian provinces in the region of Sumatra have not fully recovered after being hit by flash floods and landslides over the past week. The three affected areas are Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra. The number of casualties due to this disaster continues to rise.

Jakarta – Amid the doom and gloom characterizing recent global events, rare, positive, albeit pungent, news has bloomed from a forest in West Sumatra. A Rafflesia hasseltii, a parasitic flower from the same genus as the world-renowned Rafflesia arnoldii, was recently rediscovered in a community forest in Sijunjung regency.

Muawwan Daelami, Jakarta – Fast Food Indonesia said the financial strain stemming from last year's boycott of KFC products continues to fade, with the company reporting significantly smaller losses through the third quarter of 2025.

Dede Leni Mardianti, Jakarta – The Chair of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), Jusuf Kalla, predicts that the cost of post-flood recovery in the Sumatra region will exceed Rp60 billion. He calculates that the funds are needed to provide for the basic needs of the affected communities for the next year.

Nathanael Sumaktoyo – Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto surprised many on 11 June 2025 when he mentioned in a speech at the Indo Defence Expo & Forum that according to a study purportedly published a few weeks earlier, "the Netherlands took resources from Indonesia valued at US$31 trillion in today's terms during their colonisation of our country".

Giovanni Torre – The flag of West Papua was raised around the world on Monday for West Papuan National Flag Day, including at Leichhardt Town Hall in Sydney.

In 1961 the Morning Star flag, representing the West Papuan nation, officially flew for the first time – in what was then the Dutch colony of Netherlands New Guinea.

Alif Ilham Fajriadi, Jakarta – Erma Yulihastin, a climate and atmosphere researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), predicted that the rainy season in Java will be affected by the emergence of the Borneo Vortex in the South China Sea region.

Kurniawan Arif Maspul – A pregnant woman's preventable death after being refused treatment exposes the deadly gap between health coverage and real access to care in Indonesia's most marginalised regions.

Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – President Prabowo Subianto has signaled that he does not plan on declaring the disastrous Sumatra flooding a national emergency for now, despite its soaring death toll.

Eka Yudha Saputra, Jakarta – Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian acknowledges that the government is not yet ready to deal with large-scale disasters such as the Sumatra flood that occurred in the provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra.

Eka Yudha Saputra, Jakarta – Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said it had warned local governments well in advance about the formation of Tropical Cyclone Senyar, which triggered catastrophic flooding across Sumatra last week.

Vinnilya Huanggrio, Jakarta – The deadly flash floods that struck multiple regions across Sumatra have been made significantly more destructive by years of large-scale deforestation, which triggered landslides and washed heavy debris into residential areas – a pattern not seen in recent floods in Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, according to an environmental expert.

Antara, Jakarta – Indonesia's Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Yuliot Tanjung has responded to growing public scrutiny over the role of extractive industries in worsening climate-driven disasters in Indonesia, after flash floods and landslides swept across northern Sumatra last week.

Alif Ilham Fajriadi, Jakarta – Recent floods and landslides that swept through northern parts of Sumatra were not solely triggered by climate factors or extreme weather, said an Atmospheric physics professor at Andalas University in Padang, West Sumatra.

Environmental degradation

Agencies, Jakarta – The death toll from floods and landslides following cyclonic rains in Sumatra has risen to 442, official data on a government website showed on Sunday.

Tempo.co, Jakarta – Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his condolences for the massive flood disaster in the northern region of Sumatra Island, Indonesia, which has claimed hundreds of lives. The Sumatra floods have caused extensive damage in various areas.

Kristo Langker, Kiwirok, West Papua – On September 25, 2025, Lamek Taplo, the guerilla leader of a wing of the West Papua National Liberation Army (Tentara Pembebasan Nasional Papua Barat, or TPNPB), left the jungle with his command to launch a series of raids on Indonesian military posts.

Agencies, Jakarta – The death toll from devastating floods and landslides in Southeast Asia climbed past 400 on Saturday as clean-up and search-and-rescue operations got underway in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.

Heavy monsoon rain overwhelmed swaths of the three countries this week and left thousands stranded, many on rooftops awaiting rescue.

This year is the 64th anniversary of the first official flying of the Morning Star flag in 1961, in the then Dutch colony of Netherlands New Guinea.

Ranny Supusepa, Asrul Rizal – The North Sumatra chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) says that the ecological disaster in the form of flooding and landslides that occurred in Batang Toru in the regencies of South Tapanuli (Tapsel), Central Tapanuli (Tapteng) and North Tapanuli (Taput), were allegedly caused by seven companies.

Antara, Jakarta – Massive floods and landslides across western Indonesia have killed more than 100 people, displaced tens of thousands, crippled fuel supply lines, and exposed possible environmental damage upstream, authorities said on Saturday, as rescue teams struggled to reach isolated communities cut off by collapsed roads and overflowing rivers.

Antara, Jakarta – Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo has disclosed the direction of the monetary policy in 2026: to maintain a balance between stability and growth, or pro-stability and pro-growth. This policy direction is chosen amidst the ongoing global uncertainty.

Dhaka – The 50th anniversary of Timor-Leste's Proclamation of Independence has been celebrated in Dhaka highlighting the significance of the milestone and underscoring prospects for expanded bilateral cooperation following Timor-Leste's recent accession to ASEAN as its 11th member.

Dinda Shabrina, Jakarta – Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has promised to double the budget for school rehabilitation in 2026 after acknowledging that the government had only been able to improve around 16,000 schools this year.

Ervana Trikarinaputri, Jakarta – The Chair of the House Commission VIII (DPR), Marwan Dasopang, suspects that the recent flooding in several areas of North Sumatra, especially in South Tapanuli (Tapsel) and Central Tapanuli (Tapteng), was caused by deforestation.

Eka Yudha Saputra, Jakarta – Aceh Governor Muzakir Manaf has declared a state of emergency due to floods and landslides in several regions of Aceh Province over the past week.

Hendrik Yaputra, Jakarta – Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto claims that the government has shown tangible results in the first year of his leadership. According to Prabowo, the government has achieved commendable feats.

Ervana Trikarinaputri, Jakarta – The floods and landslides wreaking havoc in Aceh, West Sumatra, and North Sumatra are evidence that relying on forest-damaging extractive energy may not be the best solution for Indonesia, according to the Indonesian Institute Center for Public Policy Research (TII).

Adil Al Hasan, Jakarta – Deputy Director of PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk, Thomas Sugiarto Oentoro, said that the injection of Rp23.6 trillion in capital from Investment Management Agency Danantara automatically reduces the amount of publicly owned shares in the company.