Southeast Asia's worst haze in over a decade sparks student protests

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Thousands of students across Indonesia have protested for days over the government’s response to toxic haze that has blanketed multiple cities and spread across Southeast Asia in recent weeks.

On Friday, more than 500 protesters gathered outside the Central Kalimantan Governor’s Office in the provincial capital of Palangkaraya, demanding solutions to the haze. Some held signs that read “haze emergency” and “If we burn, you burn with us!”

Protests spread to more than half a dozen Indonesian cities this week, including on the island of Borneo, where many of the fires are burning.

Indonesia’s haze is primarily caused by forest and peatland fires, often started to clear land for farming. While such fires are common during dry season, which usually begins in April, this year’s are the worst on record.

The haze has triggered health concerns and ignited public backlash from Singapore, Malaysia and others in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Student and civil society groups have demanded stronger action on the haze for months. Some called for Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to declare a national emergency and take more aggressive steps to prevent the agricultural practices blamed for fueling the blazes.

Some student-led protests have merged with ongoing demonstrations over Indonesia’s struggling economy.

“In Indonesia, we’re so angry,” said Vincent Thomas, a student at Indonesia's Universitas Padjadjaran, who joined protests in Bandung. “We want the officials responsible to be held accountable.”

Many demonstrators on Friday wore thick masks to protect themselves from the air pollution blanketing Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan, which was tinged orange by the haze.

Volunteer firefighters extinguishing blazes around Palangkaraya told The Associated Press that they hoped that rain would come soon.

More than 333,470 residents have suffered acute respiratory illnesses across the seven provinces affected by the haze since mid-August, according to Indonesia’s Ministry of Health.

“We want the government to openly declare a national disaster emergency,” Thomas said. “Not just regarding Kalimantan, but regarding forest fires across the entire country, in every part of Indonesia.”

Jemilah Mahmood, executive director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, said this is what happens when changing climate meeting damaged environments.

“The lungs of a child in Pontianak or Johor Bahru depend on the health of a peat swamp hundreds of kilometers away,” she said.

Indonesia’s forests were a tinderbox because there was less rain during the wet season.

Experts blame this on extreme heat, climate change and an intensifying El Niño that may be the strongest in living memory.

“The current haze crisis is a real symptom, a real example of how climate change affects our day-to-day lives,” said Syahdiva Moezbar, with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Jakarta.

Singapore and Kuala Lumpur were ranked among the most polluted cities in the world this month by the global air quality monitoring platform IQAir, with many considering this the worst haze crisis to affect the region in over a decade.

Singaporean officials, who have warned the country’s air quality may deteriorate further, are taking legal action against seven companies in Indonesia that Singapore blames for causing the fires.

“For me, the part that does worry me is just the difficulty in getting N95 masks and air purifiers,” said Qiyun Woo, a Singaporean environmentalist. “You just can’t help but worry about your own health, especially when you might not have an air purifier.”

The haze has closed schools in East Timor and been detected in the Philippines.

Slash-and-burn agricultural practices are common across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, with burning seasons typically running from January to April. Regional efforts to tackle the issue have lagged.

“Crises like this test relationships, and the rhetoric this season has been unhelpful on all sides,” said Mahmood at the Sunway Centre. “My worry is not a permanent rupture. It is that blame becomes a habit and gets in the way of the cooperation we need.”

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FILE - A thick haze obscures the skyline behind the Central Business District area in Singapore, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/David Hu, File)

FILE - Visitors look out at the hazy skyline of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Anton L. Delgado, File)

A boat cruises along the Musi River amid thick haze from forest fires in Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Muhammad Hatta)

People display a poster that reads "Declare the wildfires as national disaster," during a rally protesting the Indonesian government's response to toxic haze from forest fires that has blanketed multiple cities, in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Dias Gustrian)

A first tanker carrying Russian diesel to the United States under a new import agreement has set sail, the Kremlin said Friday, two weeks after President Donald Trump said he struck a deal with President Vladimir Putin despite Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

“The first oil tanker has sailed off to customers, and regular supplies will continue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said without elaborating.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said earlier this week that the first shipment would amount to 40,000 tons of diesel, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.

Marine intelligence firm Kpler said the vessel was signaling it was headed to New York to arrive Nov. 7 and would be the first Russian diesel delivery to the United States since July 2023.

The abrupt reversal of U.S. sanctions policy on Russia over its invasion of its neighbor was seen as an attempt by Trump to address high fuel prices ahead of the midterm elections.

The diesel shipment of 40,000 tons amounts to around 300,000 barrels, or about 7% of the roughly 4 million barrels of diesel the U.S. economy consumes in a single day.

The import agreement, which Trump says foresees millions more tons of Russian diesel reaching the U.S. in coming months, is unlikely to make a dent in painfully high prices at the pump or elsewhere, energy policy experts say.

Russia’s diesel production has come under strain from repeated Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on its oil refineries. The attacks caused fuel shortages, which now have eased. Trump last month asked Kyiv to stop the attacks.

The U.S. diesel decision caused alarm and dismay in Ukraine, which has pleaded with foreign countries to tighten sanctions on Moscow and deny it revenue for its invasion launched in February 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Trump’s decision “a weak decision by strong partners.”

The diesel agreement was a sudden policy reversal, coming just weeks after Trump signed into law a sweeping sanctions package that directed him to impose up to 100% tariffs on the top five importers of Russian oil or natural gas. He later put the measures on hold.

The development is the latest twist in the at times volatile relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy, which in recent weeks has reached a new low.

Meanwhile, Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, said Friday afternoon that all four Moscow airports — Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky — stopped flights arriving and departing for security reasons.

At Sheremetyevo airport, passengers were told to take shelter, Russian news agency Interfax reported. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that air defenses downed 17 Ukrainian drones targeting the Russian capital.

Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war for the first time since August.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said each side released 270 prisoners. Ukraine said 270 of its soldiers and civilians were freed, most of them held in captivity since 2022.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy answers media questions before his meeting with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)