Indonesia News
LPDP Will Reform Its Interview Process to Avoid Discriminatory Questions
The government-funded scholarship program came under fire recently after a report showed that applicants were asked discriminatory questions about their religion, marital status, and sexual orientation by the program’s panelists. Luky Alfirman, the director of LPDP, said that the report will be taken seriously. —BBC Indonesia
Five Indonesian Cities Vulnerable to Rising Sea Levels, NASA Says
NASA has come up with a new diagnosis tool that shows which ice sheet poses the biggest threats to each of the evaluated 291 cities in the world. Four cities and one region in Indonesia are on the list: Jakarta, Banda Aceh, Makassar, Jayapura, Manado, and the entirety of East Java. If the tool is accurate, these places will see a sea level rise of at least 1.713 millimeters. —Kompas
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Graft Suspect Setya Novanto Asks President Jokowi for Help
Prominent politicians are lobbying President Joko Widodo to intervene in the ongoing corruption case against House Speaker Setya Novanto, a man implicated in a massive multi-million dollar graft scandal who spent months trying to avoid detention. Setya is now behind bars, but his backers, including the PKS’s Fahri Hamzah are apparently asking Jokowi for help. Fahri told reporters that Setya tried to lobby the president twice, to no avail.—merdeka.com
Officials Predict a Spike In Counterfeit Money Ahead of 2018 Election
Bank Indonesia says there’s a really good chance that the circulation of fake bills will increase during next year’s election because of money politics, a term that means vote buying in Indonesia. So remember, those people trying to buy your vote aren’t only hurting our democracy, they don’t even have real money. —Tirto
International News
Suicide Bomb Blast at Nigerian Mosque Kills Dozens
A suicide bomber killed at least 20 people at a mosque in Mubi, a northeastern Nigerian city, according to local reports. Police said the suicide bomber was a teenager who targeted people coming to the mosque for a morning prayer. —Al Jazeera
China Supports Hun Sen’s Efforts to Dissolve Cambodia’s Only Opposition Party
Cambodia’s slide into an outright dictatorship gained a new supporter on Tuesday as Chinese officials backed PM Hun Sen’s decision to dissolve the opposition party and jail its leader on trumped up charges stemming from a Facebook post. China is one of Cambodia’s main trading partners and its decision on the matter could have forced Hun Sen’s hand. —Reuters
New Delhi Holds Half Marathon Amid Hazardous Smog
Some of the worst smog in years wasn’t enough to stop more than 30,000 runners from competing in the New Delhi half-marathon. The majority of the runners participated without wearing a mask, despite doctor’s warnings that the entire event should have been postponed. —The Guardian
North Korean Punishes Top Military Leaders for ‘Impure Behavior’
North Korean despot Kim Jong Un sent two key military figures off to “re-education camps” according to reports in South Korean media. Experts say the move is meant to head off any potential rivals inside the country’s powerful military. “Kim Jong Un doesn’t want anybody in the military to stay in charge for too long … He’s brilliant, cynical, brutal and efficient,” one expert said. —CNN
Everything Else
The Uncomfortable Truth Behind Medan’s Dog Meat Trade
The Batak restaurants that line the streets of Medan serve dog, a controversial dish in this Muslim-majority country. But there’s an even darker secret at the center of the dog meat trade— most of the pups for sale were once someone’s pets. —VICE
Why Don’t We Blame Men For Their Extramarital Affairs?
There are numerous phrases in Bahasa Indonesia for a married man’s mistress, but none for a cheating man. That’s sort of messed up, isn’t it? —VICE
