NewsTracker Answers for week of June 30, 2025

Q: Volunteer crews are dragging magnets down the streets of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, to collect sharp metal objects thrown onto the city’s main roads by vandals trying to damage the tires of cars and motorbikes, possibly to set up robberies of the drivers. Where is Indonesia, a Southeast Asian nation spread over thousands of islands?

Circle the area on this map


Q: A volunteer said four tons of “nail traps” were collected from Jakarta’s streets over six years. Jakarta is located on the island of Java. How does Java compare with the world’s largest island?

A. 15th the size

B. 2,796 times more people

C. 84 degrees warmer

D. All of the above


D. Java is the world’s most populous island, with an estimated 158 million people living on the world’s 13th largest island. Greenland is the largest island with a population of about 56,500 people. About 80 percent of Greenland lies north of the Arctic Circle, with an average yearly temperature of -1.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Java is just south of the Equator, with an average yearly temperature of 82.4 degrees.


Q: Jakarta is Indonesia’s largest city with a metropolitan population of 32.5 million people. But, it won’t be the nation’s capital much longer. Indonesia is building a new capital on what island just north of Java?

A. Borneo

B. Honshu

C. Luzon

D. Sri Lanka


A. Borneo is the world’s third-largest island, which Indonesia shares with Malaysia and Brunei. Indonesia’s government plans to move away from Jakarta, which is heavily polluted, rapidly growing more congested, and one the world’s fastest sinking cities. Honshu is Japan’s largest island, and Luzon is the largest island in the Philippines. Sri Lanka is an island nation near India.


Q: Jakarta has the largest metropolitan population in Southeast Asia, and it is the third-oldest continuously inhabited city in the region. Which region of the world has cities that have been inhabited the longest?

A. East Asia

B. South Asia

C. West Asia

D. North Africa


C. The western Asian sites of Aleppo, Syria, and Byblos, Lebanon, are believed to have been continuously inhabited since at least 5,000 BC. They are part of an area called the Fertile Crescent, believed to be the first area where humans began settled farming more than 11,000 years ago.


Q: With more than 283 million people, Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous nation. Indonesians live on 730,720 square miles of land, or 390 people per square mile. Which among the 10 most populous nations is the most crowded?

A. Bangladesh

B. China

C. India

D. Pakistan


A. In Bangladesh, there are 3,450 people for each square mile of land. There are 1,260 people per square mile in India, and 840 per square mile in Pakistan. China has five times as many people as Indonesia, but has the same population density – 390 people per square mile. The United States is the third most populous nation and has 96 people per square mile.