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JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Following another week of dust-ups between the media and President Trump, his predecessor shared a bit of wisdom Saturday from the other side of the world about tolerance and taking the daily news cycle in stride.

"I wasn't worried about what was in the newspapers today," former President Obama said during a nostalgic visit to Indonesia's capital, his childhood home. "What I was worried about was, 'What are they going to write about me 20 years from now when I look back?'"

Mr. Obama was greeted by a crowd of thousands, including leaders, students and businesspeople, in Jakarta, where he opened the Fourth Congress of Indonesian Diaspora. He is wildly popular in Indonesia, where many view him as an adopted son. A statue of the boy still remembered as "Barry" stands outside his old elementary school.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama delivers his speech during the 4th Congress of Indonesian Diaspora Network in Jakarta, Indonesia, Saturday, July 1, 2017.

Achmad Ibrahim / AP

He reminisced about moving to Jakarta in 1967 when he was just 6 years old, shouting, "Indonesia bagian dari diri saya!" or "Indonesia is part of me!"

Mr. Obama said he had been gorging on the local food since arriving.

"If the rainy season came, the floods were coming and we had to clean out the floors in our house and then chase the chickens because they had gone someplace else," he said to roaring laughter. "Today, Jakarta is a thriving center of commerce marked by highways and high-rises. So much has changed, so much progress has been made."

Mr. Obama lived in the country with his mother, an anthropologist, and his Indonesian stepfather. The couple split up after having his half-sister, and Mr. Obama moved back to Hawaii when he was 10 to live with his grandparents. But he said he has never forgotten the years he spent in Indonesia.

"My time here made me cherish respect for people's differences," he said, noting how he and his family had just visited two of the most treasured ancient temples -- Borobudur, a Buddhist complex, and the Hindu compound of Prambanan -- in the world's most populous Muslim country.

Mr. Obama's speech came on the final leg of his 10-day vacation in Indonesia. In addition to visiting the temples in the city of Yogyakarta on the island of Java, he and his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Sasha and Malia, also went rafting and toured the resort island of Bali. On Friday, he met Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo at the grand Bogor Palace in West Java, just outside Jakarta.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama (L) and Indonesian President Joko Widodo are seen during their meeting at the Botanical Garden near the presidential palace in Bogor, Indonesia June 30, 2017.

Pool/Reuters

Mr. Obama largely stayed away from U.S. politics and the Trump administration, but he did tout one of his accomplishments while in office.

"In Paris, we came together around the most ambitious agreement in history about climate change, an agreement that even with the temporary absence of American leadership, can still give our children a fighting chance," he said.

Mr. Trump shocked many countries last month by announcing he was pulling out of the accord. He has also had a difficult relationship with members of the press and was recently condemned by Democrats and Republicans for a tweet that attacked a female MSNBC host.

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Mr. Obama stressed the importance of stepping away from news sites where only like-minded views are shared, and warned about social media giving rise to resentment of minorities and bad treatment of people.

The Indonesian visit marked Mr. Obama's first trip to Asia since leaving office. He urged the country to be a light of democracy and to never stop embracing differences. Indonesia has faced a rise in Islamic radicalism and anti-gay attacks, and was recently condemned by rights groups for jailing Jakarta's former governor, an ethnic Chinese Christian, for blasphemy.

"The spirit of this country has to be one of tolerance. It's enshrined in Indonesia's constitution, it's symbolized by mosques and temples and churches beside each other," Mr. Obama said. "That spirit is one of the defining things about Indonesia. It is one of the most important characteristics to set as an example for other Muslim countries around the world."

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In Paris, we came together around the most ambitious agreement in history about climate change, an agreement that even with the temporary absence of American leadership, can still give our children a fighting chance, Obama said during a speech in Indonesia on Saturday.

Obama stressed that even though Trump made the decision to pull the United States out of the Paris agreement, technically its not out yet.

The president spoke in lofty terms about the state of the world warning that it was a crossroads as many countries were slipping into nationalism.

We start seeing a rise in sectarian politics, we start seeing a rise in an aggressive kind of nationalism, he said. We start seeing both in developed and developing countries an increased resentment about minority groups and the bad treatment of people who dont look like us or practice the same faith as us.

Obama spoke generally about world leaders who refused to embrace tolerance and diversity.

I dont believe the future favors strongmen. I believe the future favors those who promote tolerance who are open to differences and learn from everyone, he said.

Obama spent 10 days vacationing in his childhood home of Indonesia, visiting cultural and historical sites.

Indonesia is made of thousands of islands, hundreds of languages, scores of regions and ethnic groups. So my time here made me cherish and respect for peoples differences, he said.

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By Todd Shepherd, The Washington Examiner

Former President Barack Obama is conducting select meetings to begin a process of rebuilding the Democratic Party as leaders and elected officials in both Washington and across the country are still debating how to go forward.

After the 2016 elections, besides losing the White House and not having control of either chamber of Congress, Democrats were faced with new lows of seats they held in state legislatures.

A report by The Hill says Obama has been making regular calls with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez. According to an anonymous source in the DNC, Obama jokingly told Perez, "Hey man, it's only the future of the world in your hands."

Working out of his D.C. office, Obama is said to be conducting one-on-one meetings with other legislators, like Maryland's freshman Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen. Still, sources that spoke to The Hill stopped short of divulging a more complete list of the meetings Obama has had.

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Senate Republican leaders considered keeping one of former President Barack Obama's big tax increases on wealthier Americans and using the money to fatten proposed subsidies for the poor in a bid Thursday to placate moderate GOP lawmakers and salvage their struggling health care bill.

With a core priority tottering, top Republicans also assessed an amendment pushed by conservatives to let insurers offer plans with low premiums and scant benefits. To do so, a company would also have to sell a policy that abides by the consumer-friendly coverage requirements in Obama's 2010 statute, which the GOP is struggling to repeal.

Both proposals were encountering internal Republican opposition, and it was uncertain either would survive. But the effort underscored how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., needed to mollify both wings of his divided party if he's to rescue one of his and President Donald Trump's foremost campaign promises.

McConnell postponed a vote on an initial version Tuesday, forced by conservative and moderate GOP senators prepared to block it.

By Friday, McConnell wants to add changes to the bill that would assure its passage after Congress' week-long July 4 recess. For him to prevail, no more than two of the 52 GOP senators can oppose the measure.

But as senators charged out the Capitol's doors Thursday to begin their break, there were no overt indications that GOP leaders had resolved their problems.

"We're kind of at a stalemate right now, I'd say," said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who with Ohio GOP Sen. Robert Portman and others want to forestall reductions the measure would make in Medicaid. Discussions about easing those cuts were continuing, but progress so far was "not enough for me," said Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.

The Medicaid program for low-income and disabled people has grown dramatically in their states and others, but the Republican bill would cut it, with reductions growing over time.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said that while GOP leaders might have a package in hand Friday, "I'm not confident that's going to, kind of, solve everybody's concerns."

Vice President Mike Pence met in the Capitol on Thursday with Capito, Heller and other GOP dissidents, including Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Texas' Ted Cruz.

The Senate bill would repeal most of the tax boosts Obama levied, around $700 billion over the coming decade. They were aimed largely at high earners and the medical industry and helped finance his expansion of coverage to about 20 million people.

Under a proposal by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the bill would retain Obama's 3.8 percent tax increase on investments by higher earners. Keeping that increase would save $172 billion over 10 years, and moderates want to use it to make the health care subsidies their bill would provide more generous.

Democrats say the GOP bill is mostly a tax cut for the rich. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said the Senate measure would raise out-of-pocket health care costs for many low earners while producing 22 million more uninsured people by 2026.

Corker said he was "very confident" that leaders would address the issue in the updated bill. He said cutting upper-income taxes and increasing health care costs for the poor "is not an equation that works."

"Obviously we'd like to get rid of all" of Obama's tax boosts, said No. 3 Senate GOP leader John Thune of South Dakota. "But if it takes something like that to get our members on board to move this process forward, I think we have to consider that."

Conservatives said they opposed the idea, along with the chairmen of Congress' two tax-writing committees: Senate Finance chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and House Ways and Means chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas.

Obama's health law enacted an additional 3.8 percent tax on investment income for married couples making more than $250,000 a year and individuals making more than $125,000.

Also in play was the proposal by Cruz to let insurers offer skimpier policies, which conservatives say would lower premiums.

Moderates oppose that, especially if it lets insurers raise premiums on people with pre-existing medical problems. No. 2 GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas suggested the proposal might not survive because Senate rules won't allow it on the bill.

The leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus suggested the Senate bill would be doomed if it excluded something like Cruz's plan or House-approved provisions letting insurers charge higher prices to people with serious diseases. Many expect the House to try for quick passage of any health care bill the Senate approves, foregoing potential problems of negotiating a bicameral compromise.

"Is failure an option? Absolutely not," said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C. "Is failure on the doorstep knocking? Absolutely. So we've got to make sure we don't answer that door."

Republicans also said party leaders agreed to add $45 billion for battling opioids abuse to their bill. They were also considering a proposal by conservatives to let people use tax-advantaged health savings accounts to pay health care premiums.

Associated Press writers Erica Werner, Mary Clare Jalonick, Kevin Freking and Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report.

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