| | | | | | | Hello. Today we're focusing on Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, where strongman Prabowo Subianto appears on track to win the presidential election. Jonathan Head and colleagues in Jakarta help us understand why it matters. We're also covering the cost-of-living crisis in Nigeria, where poorer families have turned to lower quality rice to survive. We also have the latest the war in Ukraine, US congressional politics, and men fighting for a large leather ball (and it's not the Super Bowl). |
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| | | | Top of the agenda | | Prabowo leads Indonesian election - unofficial results | | | | Prabowo Subianto's campaign looks to have garnered more than half of the vote. Credit: EPA |
| | The fourth most populous country on the planet has been voting to elect a new president. And the first estimates from independent pollsters suggest Indonesia’s former defence minister Prabowo Subianto - an ex-special forces commander dogged by allegations of human rights abuses - has a comfortable lead. Our live page has more updates. Early projections, which could change significantly, place him above the 50% threshold needed for a first-round win. Mr Prabowo "is a throwback to the old authoritarian era", known for "his intemperate outbursts and anti-democratic views", writes our correspondent Jonathan Head, from Jakarta. But he led a cheery campaign which featured his cat's Instagram account and was supported by outgoing President Jokowi, who remains a popular figure. With the three main candidates adopting fairly similar development-focused policy platforms, personality may well have made the difference. But Mr Prabowo’s strong performance has opponents worried about the direction of the world’s third-largest democracy. | | • | Prabowo's cutesy campaign: Read how a TikTok cartoon has helped hide the strongman's dark past - leading him to what looks like a decisive victory. | | • | Man of the people: President Joko Widodo, also known as Jokowi, is stepping down while remaining tremendously popular. Here's how he became a kingmaker for his own succession. | | • | Matter of size: With 275 million people and a territory longer than Europe, Indonesia is bigger than you might think. Frances Mao shows us its true size. |
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| | | | | | World headlines | | • | A first in 150 years: The US House of Representatives has narrowly voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, with Republicans blaming him for an unprecedented influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border. It is likely to fail in the Democratic-led Senate, however. | | • | More US politics: Democrat Tom Suozzi has won the swing US congressional district left vacant when former Republican Congressman George Santos was expelled last December. | | • | War in Ukraine: The Caesar Kunikov, a large Russian amphibious ship, has sunk off the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea, according to Ukraine's armed forces. | | • | Cyberwarfare: North Korea hacked into the personal emails of an aide to the South Korean president, reportedly gaining access to Yoon Suk Yeol's schedule during his November state visit to the UK. | | • | Bali levy: Foreign tourists must now pay a 150,000 rupiah (£7.60; $9.60) tax to enter Bali, which has been affected by misbehaving visitors in recent years. |
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| | AT THE SCENE | Kano, Nigeria | | Surviving on 'throwaway rice' | | As they're facing the harshest inflation in 30 years, struggling Nigerians are turning to afafata rice, a lower quality grain that's usually discarded or used as fish food. | | | | Mansur Abubakar, BBC News |
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| | Saminu Uba, who works in Kano city's Medile market, said the afafata side of his business is booming. "Most people can no longer afford normal rice and they come for this which is cheaper even though it tastes less good," he told the BBC. One of his customers, Hashimu Dahiru, admits people are having to find ways of adapting. "The cost of goods is alarming - in just two months the price of everything has doubled,'' he said. "Our wives spend hours removing stones and dirt from the rice before cooking and even at that it ends up tasting not nice, but we have to eat to survive." |
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| | | | Beyond the headlines | | Orban's biggest crisis yet | | | | There has been strict silence from Viktor Orban since some of his closest allies resigned. Credit: Reuters |
| | Viktor Orban's grip on power in Hungary is under its biggest threat since he returned as prime minister 14 years ago. Two of his movement’s most powerful women, including President Katalin Novak, have taken responsibility for the pardon of a man who covered up allegations of child sexual abuse against his boss. Nick Thorpe explains how the scandal is weakening Mr Orban's position. | | | | |
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| | | | Something different | | Aphrodisiac fantasy | | There is no evidence to prove that any one food heightens sexual arousal or desire. | | |
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| | | | And finally... | | We reported a while ago on Atherstone's Shroud Tuesday ball game, which sees hundreds of people fighting for a large leather ball - sometimes a bit too hard. Thankfully, there was no major incident during yesterday's game. There were, however, men heaped up in piles of biblical proportions, their faces contorted by existential struggle usually experienced by background characters in Renaissance paintings. Take a look. |
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| | | | | | US Election Unspun newsletter | | Cut through the noise in the race for the White House, every Wednesday to your inbox. | | |
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– Jules |
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