A new UN study has named Hong Kong’s data centres as some of the most carbon-intensive in the world, blaming the city’s heavy dependence on a fossil-fuel-powered energy grid.

The report, titled “Environmental Cost of AI’s Energy Use,” examined the global carbon, land and water impacts of the infrastructure powering AI, saying that by 2030, data centres could consume 945 terawatt-hours.

That is “nearly triple the combined annual electricity use of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria, countries collectively home to more than 650 million people,” according to a UN press release.

“Indonesia, India, and Hong Kong (SAR) are among the most carbon-intensive grids with carbon footprints 62%, 51%, and 43% higher than the global average, respectively. Poland and Mainland China rank lower with carbon intensities at 30% and 21% higher than the global average,” the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health said in a report on Wednesday.

In comparison, the carbon footprint of electricity in the US, Germany, and Italy is 18 per cent, 24 per cent, and 32 per cent below the global average, respectively.

Energy in Hong Kong is 67 per cent derived from fossil fuels, 32 per cent from nuclear and just 1 per cent from renewables, the report said.

There is also a water footprint for cooling heat-intensive data centres, as well as a land footprint. “AI-related water consumption could equal the basic annual domestic needs of 1.3 billion people by the end of the decade, while its land footprint may exceed 14,500 square kilometres – roughly twice the size of the Jakarta metropolitan area,” the UN said.

However, Hong Kong was ranked among the lightest for water and land consumption, mostly because its energy mix does not rely on renewable energy sources, which require large amounts land.

As a trade and logistics hub, with around 300 internet service providers, Hong Kong remains a prime location for data centres. Its telecommunication networks connect to 12 external submarine optical fibre cable systems, with more under construction, according to the city’s Digital Policy Office.

The government is building a new 110,00 square metre data facility in Sandy Ridge, 90 per cent of which will be dedicated to data centres, according to a government press release in March.

Daily AI use, not training

The UN report said that day-to-day use of AI models accounted for around 80 to 90 per cent of total energy demand, as opposed to just model training. It cited the case of ChatGPT, which was processing around 2.5 billion prompts per day, with image generation requiring a thousand times more energy than a simple text query.

“China’s DeepSeek, launched in January 2025, attracted more than 20 million daily active users within three weeks, and had about 125 million monthly active users by mid-2025,” the report said.

According to the Digital Policy Office website, “data centre operators are all striving to enhance energy efficiency , so as to reduce their power consumption, their operating expense and also their environmental impacts.”

It cites existing policies by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD), which set rules for ensuring the energy efficiency of buildings and regulate the use of fresh water in cooling towers for air conditioning systems.

The EMSD’s Green Data Centres Practice Guide lays out initiatives for efficient data centre design, procurement, operations and disposal, whilst also promoting the use of assessment tools to measure environmental impacts.

Critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan population falls after heavy rain and landslides, fuelled by climate crisis, in North Sumatra

Extreme rainfall and landslides fuelled by the climate crisis killed 7% of the remaining population of the world’s rarest great ape, a study has found, prompting fears for the species’ survival.

The research suggests 58 out of the remaining 800 critically endangered Tapanuli orangutans (Pongo tapanuliensis) were killed after more than 1,000mm (39in) of rain fell over four days in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province in November 2025. This equates to 11% of the local population and 7% of the entire species.

People told not to enter damaged buildings for fear of aftershocks from magnitude-7.8 quake

At least 37 people have died and hundreds have been injured after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake shook part of the southern Philippines early on Monday, collapsing buildings and triggering tsunami alerts.

The quake hit early in the morning about 20km (12.4 miles) off the coast of Sarangani province, with tremors felt strongly across Mindanao and 420km away in the city of Manado on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

JAKARTA, June 3 — Indonesian officials arrested today the former head of the country’s free school meals programme, blighted by mass food poisonings and corruption claims, a day after he was fired.

The much-hyped billion-dollar feeding scheme was the flagship policy of President Prabowo Subianto’s 2024 election campaign.

Prabowo fired Dadan Hindayana, an entomologist who had led the National Nutrition Agency since its inception in August 2024, along with two deputies yesterday. All three were taken into custody in Jakarta today.

They stand accused of “crimes in the management” of the programme, Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi of the attorney general’s office told reporters.

Authorities earlier raided the nutrition agency’s office as well as the homes of the three defendants, Syarief said.

The government says the programme has provided meals to more than 61 million people by March, but tens of thousands of people have fallen ill since it was rolled out in January last year.

Critics have called for the scheme to be suspended over hygiene concerns and accusations of corruption.

Last month, anti-graft watchdog Indonesia Corruption Watch filed a complaint against Dadan citing alleged budget irregularities.

Syarief said today that foundations appointed by the three defendants to oversee kitchens were allegedly “used as vehicles for crimes”.

“Those foundations received billions of rupiahs in incentives every day, and those foundations were affiliated, owned by” the suspects, he added.

The trio are also accused of overseeing illicit procurement of electric motorbikes, shoes, tablets and television sets.

If found guilty, they could face life imprisonment.

The free meal scheme had a goal of reaching at least 82.9 million children and pregnant and breastfeeding women — nearly one-third of the country’s population.

More than 20 per cent of children in Indonesia are affected by stunting caused by severe malnutrition.

The programme was among the first budget items to be cut back as Jakarta moved to counter the economic impact of the Middle East war.

Dadan, who just Tuesday attended an official event by Prabowo’s side, told parliament last year the programme was responsible for at least 11,000 poisoning cases, with over 600 people hospitalised.

Prabowo has also acknowledged problems and vowed to discipline anyone found guilty of wrongdoing.

Announcing Dadan’s dismissal yesterday, State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi said that “throughout the ongoing evaluation process, all programmes of the National Nutrition Agency will continue to run as they should”. — AFP

JAKARTA, June 4 — For the past ‌century, the Blue-fronted Lorikeet was one of Indonesia’s most elusive birds, known only from a 2014 photographic record and a handful of museum specimens, with a lingering hope that it had not vanished. After days of climbing through sharp limestone, biting insects and difficult mountain terrain, a flash of green feathers high ‌on Buru’s highest peak showed that this dazzlingly colourful parrot was still there.

Endemic to the island of Buru - meaning it is found nowhere else on Earth - the small bird was spotted in April during an expedition led by an Indonesian mountaineering group. The team photographed the bird for the first time in 12 years and captured the first sound recordings of its high-pitched calls - sounds birds often use to keep contact in the forest canopy.

The lorikeet’s bright green body, orange bill, blue hindcrown and pointed tail helped the team identify it.

The team was looking specifically for this species, but the odds felt slim.

“When you are looking for a bird that has only been documented once in the past century it feels like a long shot,” said John Mittermeier, director of the Search for Lost Birds at the American Bird Conservancy conservation group.

First described from seven specimens collected in the 1920s, the Blue-fronted Lorikeet has been one of ‌Indonesia’s avian mysteries. The bird went unrecorded for nearly 90 years despite searches in lowland and mid-elevation forests, before being photographed in 2014.

There ⁠was a long-held suspicion that the parrot may not have been gone, ⁠but rather living higher up in the mountains than searchers had managed to look. The ⁠highlands landscape where the lorikeet was found had ⁠remained largely inaccessible until recently, when ⁠local climbers mapped a route into the mountains.

Mittermeier said steep limestone terrain, cliffs, sharp boulders and no water make the area difficult to access.

“There are no other birds on the island that look like the lorikeets, so when we saw them we knew immediately what they were,” ⁠Mittermeier said.

“We saw at least nine during the trip,” Mittermeier added.

James Eaton, a birder involved in the expedition, said the rain, jagged limestone, river torrents and lack of trails meant anyone trying to reach the peak needed “a strong - or crazy - reason to even attempt it.”

“This bird was our reason for doing so,” Eaton said.

After a gruelling week, “to actually photograph our holy grail suddenly made all the hardships disappear - it’s a feeling adrenaline junkies would know well,” Eaton said.

The sighting capped years of preparation for Eaton.

“It makes all the ⁠researching, reading, plotting - some of which are years in the making, totally justified - it makes you feel alive, a justification for your dedication,” Eaton said.

The Blue-fronted Lorikeet was listed as Data Deficient by the IUCN Red List and recognised ⁠in 2024 as a lost species by the Search for Lost Birds, a global partnership between American Bird Conservancy, Re:wild and BirdLife International.

Mittermeier said ⁠further work is ⁠needed to learn the bird’s population size and possible threats.

“A finding like this ... is the first step to being able to protect it,” Mittermeier said.

For Eaton, the rediscovery was a reminder of the beauty and surprise still far from public view.

Amid unrelenting negative news, Eaton said, “these moments of joy and discovery ‌are a healthy reminder of what a beautiful world is there.”

“This small green parrot,” Eaton said, “it was here long before humans stepped foot on the island, just like birds living in your garden at home - they have more right to be there than you or I.” — Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 — National men’s singles shuttler Leong Jun Hao pulled off an upset by defeating world number 11 Kodai Naraoka of Japan in the opening round of the Indonesia Open at Istora Senayan, Jakarta, today.

The world number 27 secured a 21-17, 21-17 victory in 50 minutes to advance to the second round of the prestigious Super 1000 tournament.

The win marked Jun Hao’s fifth victory over Naraoka in their seven career meetings.

Jun Hao will next face either third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark or France’s Alex Lanier for a place in the quarter-finals.

Malaysia also had reason to cheer in the men’s doubles when world number eight pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani advanced to the second round after overcoming Singapore’s Wesley Koh Eng Keat-Junsuke Kubo in straight games.

The independent pair won 21-17, 21-16 and will next take on either England’s Ben Lane-Sean Vendy or Japan’s Takumi Nomura-Yuichi Shimogami in the second round.

However, it was a disappointing day for Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub Azriyn-Tan Wee Kiong, who bowed out in the first round after suffering an 18-21, 10-21 defeat to India’s Hariharan Amsakarunan-M R Arjun.

Also enduring an early exit were mixed doubles pair Jimmy Wong-Cheng Su Yin, who fell 19-21, 18-21 to China’s world number one Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dong Ping in a 45-minute contest.

The first-round action will continue tomorrow with several Malaysian representatives set to begin their campaigns, including top men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah. — Bernama

JAKARTA, June 13 — Indonesia’s decision to raise the BI-Rate and increase non-subsidised fuel prices within days highlights the government’s effort to support the rupiah and ease fiscal pressures, although the measures are expected to add pressure on households and businesses, analysts say.

University of Indonesia administrative science lecturer Dr Muhammad Ramaditya said the measures reflected efforts to address key vulnerabilities facing Southeast Asia’s largest economy, namely currency weakness and fiscal pressures.

“The primary objective of the 5.50 per cent rate is currency defence. By widening the yield differential against foreign assets, Indonesia becomes more attractive to global investors, while high-yielding domestic instruments such as Bank Indonesia Rupiah Securities and government bonds help attract capital inflows and support the rupiah,” he told Bernama.

Bank Indonesia (BI) on Tuesday raised the BI-Rate by 25 basis points to 5.50 per cent, citing the need to safeguard rupiah stability after the currency weakened beyond 18,000 per US dollar.

The rupiah has since recovered to around 17,900 per US dollar from levels above 18,000 earlier this week, suggesting the rate hike has helped improve market sentiment.

A day later, state-owned energy company Pertamina increased prices of non-subsidised fuels, with Pertamax (RON 92) rising to Rp16,250 (about RM3.64) per litre from Rp12,300 and Pertamax Green 95 to Rp17,000 (about RM3.81) from Rp12,900. Subsidised fuels, including Pertalite (RON 90) and Bio Solar, remained unchanged.

Ramaditya said maintaining rupiah stability was crucial as Indonesia remained dependent on imports of industrial raw materials, electronics and food commodities such as wheat and soybeans.

He said a weaker rupiah would raise the cost of imported goods and raw materials, potentially triggering broader inflationary pressures that could hurt consumers more severely than higher interest rates.

The economist also viewed the fuel price adjustment as a step towards reducing pressure on the state budget by allowing non-subsidised fuels such as RON 92 and RON 95 to move closer to market prices.

He said the policy would allow the government to preserve funds for targeted social assistance programmes, infrastructure development and subsidies for lower-income groups that depend on subsidised fuel.

However, Ramaditya acknowledged that the two policies could also create competing pressures on the economy, with higher fuel prices likely to increase transportation and logistics costs while higher borrowing costs could weigh on household spending and business activity.

Concerns over rising living costs were reflected in demonstrations by student groups in Central Jakarta on Friday, where protesters criticised several government economic policies, including the recent fuel price increase.

Meanwhile, Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the BI-Rate increase was necessary after the rupiah weakened beyond 18,000 per US dollar, surpassing levels recorded during the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis.

He said the move was aimed at preventing further depreciation of the rupiah, but noted that Indonesia’s situation was unique as investor confidence had also been influenced by perceptions that economic policies were becoming more interventionist and populist.

Mohd Afzanizam said concerns over governance and transparency had also affected sentiment among foreign investors, pointing to MSCI’s recent review of Indonesian-listed companies that resulted in several firms being removed from its benchmark index.

Taken together, the analysts said, the measures reflected efforts to stabilise the rupiah and manage fiscal pressures, although higher fuel and borrowing costs could weigh on household spending and business activity in the near term. — Bernama

In November 2025, Cyclone Senyar generated extreme rainfall in parts of Sumatra, Indonesia, triggering thousands of landslides. Our new paper in the journal Current Biology demonstrates that these landslides might have a devastating impact on a critically endangered population of Tapanuli orangutan.

In November 2025, Cyclone Senyar brought extreme rainfall to large parts of Sumatra in Indonesia. I have written about this on previous occasions – the rainfall triggered vast numbers of landslides.

In my line of work, we often focus on the landslide impacts on the landscape, on human lives and on infrastructure. We rarely consider the impacts on th eanimal population. This is certainly a weakness that the Cyclone Senyar event brings to focus.

Part of the area devastated by the landslides is that slopes around the Batang Toru rover, an area of forest that is home to a rare species of orangutang. These great apes, Pongo tapanuliensis, live in a habitat known as the West Block of Tapanuli. There are only 800 individuals left in the wild, a situation that is highly precarious. The loss of even a small number of adults could tip the species towards extinction.

I was a part of a consortium of scientists that considered the landslide impacts of Cyclone Senyar on the habitat of these orangutangs. The results have just been published in the journal Current Biology (Meijaard et al. 2026) – the paper is open access and published under a creative commons license.

This image, from the paper, shows the landslide impacts of Cyclone Senyar:-

In the study area of 71,161 hectares, the mapping indicates that there were 50, 185 individual landslides, covering a surface area of 8,303 hectares. This is about 11% of the forested area. We then estimate the likely loss of the orangutang population, which is likely to be in the range of 18-120 individuals, with a central estimate of 58 individuals. This is likely to have been a devastating loss for this highly endangered population.

This level of habitat loss might also be placing a severe pressure on the remaining population, so further fatalities are very possible through, for example, reduced food availability.

The intensity of the rainfall was almost certainly supercharged by climate change. The impacts of Cyclone Senyar are being replicated widely – and of course we are now in the northern hemisphere tropical cyclone season again.

Our paper makes some policy recommendations for this population of orangutans. First, the government of Indonesia needs to permanently protect this area of forest against mining , palm oil and hydropower developments. Ideally, the protected area should be expanded. Second, Indonesia needs support for biodiversity-recovery, hazard forecasting and ecological restoration planning.

Reference

Meijaard, E. … Petley. D. … et al. 2026, Extreme rainfall further endangers the world’s rarest great ape. Current Biology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.05.029

Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Authorities are cracking down on photographers and videographers traveling in Bali on tourist visas -- even if they are not getting paid for their images.

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After only a single sighting for a century, Indonesia's exceedingly rare, beautiful Blue-fronted Lorikeet (Charmosynopsis toxopei) has been found again. Before the new sighting, the bird was last seen in 2014, prior to which it had not been seen since the 1920s.

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