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      Thai Hunger Strikers Calling for Changes to Monarchy Are at Risk of Dying

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      The two young women have not had food for 44 days, part of a campaign urging the government to repeal a law that criminalizes criticizing the royal family.A stream of protesters outside the Supreme Court in Bangkok held up the three-fingered salute — a symbol of defiance against the government. “Fight, fight, fight,” they yelled to two young women who were taken out of a makeshift tent in stretchers, both so weak that they could not open their eyes.The women, Tantawan “Tawan” Tuatulanon, 21, and Orawan “Bam” Phuphong, 23, were taken to a hospital on Friday evening after their family members and lawyer said that they were on the brink of death. They were on their 44th day of a hunger strike, protesting the detention of Thai political prisoners, calling for judiciary changes and the repeal of a law that criminalizes criticizing the Thai monarchy. Their plight has been discussed by Thailand’s House of Representatives and has drawn urgent expressions of concern from international human rights groups, which have called on the government to engage with the activists. In 2022, both women were accused of violating the law against criticizing the monarchy after they conducted a poll asking whether the royal motorcade was an inconvenience to Bangkok residents. They were released on bail in March that year under the condition that they no longer participate in protests or organize activities that defame the royal family.The doctors are now most concerned about the women’s kidneys failing, according to their lawyer, Krisadang Nutcharut. “Their parents and I were consulting each other and saw that they wouldn’t make it past tonight, according to the blood results,” Mr. Krisadang said.The women’s protest has presented the Thai government with a political dilemma two months before a general election: Meet their demands and risk appearing weak among voters or do nothing and face a potential fallout that could trigger widespread unrest.Kasit Piromya, a former Thai foreign minister, has called on Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha of Thailand to address the women’s demands. Mr. Prayuth, through a government spokesman, has said he hopes the two women are safe but urged parents to “monitor their children’s behavior” and for all Thais to “help protect the nation, religion and monarchy.”The women began their hunger strike in January. Last month, Ms. Tantawan, a university student, and Ms. Orawan, a grocery store worker, were hospitalized and put on saline drips after their conditions became critical. They have stopped drinking water but are sipping electrolytes on doctors’ orders.Orawan “Bam” Phuphong after leaving the hospital in Bangkok in February.Rungroj Yongrit/EPA, via ShutterstockOn Thursday, the pair announced that they would stop taking electrolytes, too. In an interview with The New York Times on Thursday evening, Mr. Krisadang said the women’s spirits remain unbowed.In January, Thailand’s justice minister told Ms. Tantawan and Ms. Orawan that the government would consider reforming the bail system, though he did not address their core demands, which include reforming the country’s judicial system.Thailand’s opposition parties, Pheu Thai and Move Forward, submitted an urgent motion for a debate in the House of Representatives in February to propose measures to save the women’s lives. The debates stopped short of addressing the activists’ demands to abolish lèse-majesté, the law that makes criticizing the monarchy illegal, fearful of alienating royalists before the election. (The protesters are also calling for the abolition of Thailand’s sedition laws.)Thailand has one of the world’s strictest lèse-majesté laws, which forbids defaming, insulting or threatening the king and other members of the royal family. Known as Article 112, the charge carries a minimum sentence of three years and a maximum sentence of up to 15 years. It is the only law in Thailand that imposes a minimum jail term.Previously, Thai authorities confined the use of lèse-majesté against people who explicitly criticized the leading members of the monarchy. But after Mr. Prayuth seized power in a coup in 2014, the number of topics that constituted lèse-majesté expanded to include criticism of the institution, and even deceased kings.Thailand informally suspended the use of the lèse-majesté law in 2018, according to Chanatip Tatiyakaroonwong, Amnesty International’s regional researcher on Thailand. The move coincided with calls from the international community for Thailand to respect their commitments to the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.But after the 2020 protests, Mr. Prayuth, who has repeatedly vowed to remain loyal to the monarchy, instructed all government officials to “use every single law” to prosecute anyone who criticized the monarchy.The authorities have charged at least 225 people, including 17 minors, for violating the lèse-majesté law since 2020. Thousands more have been slapped with other criminal charges. As more activists were targeted, the mass protests slowly began to wane.Protesters attending a pro-democracy rally demanding that Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn hand back royal assets to the people and reform the monarchy, in Bangkok in 2020. Adam Dean for The New York TimesSunai Phasuk, the senior researcher for Thailand for Human Rights Watch, said the case of Ms. Tantawan and Ms. Orawan and their public survey was the clearest example of how the law is being arbitrarily enforced. “The use of the lèse-majesté law has become more and more arbitrary, in that even the slightest criticism of both the individuals and the institution can lead to legal action,” he said.On Thursday evening, dozens of supporters appeared outside the Supreme Court in support of the women. They held sunflowers and cards that read, “Abolish lèse-majesté law.” (Ms. Tantawan’s name in Thai means “sunflower.”)“These kids are so brave, my generation cannot compete with them,” said Yupa Ritnakha, a 65-year-old supporter who was holding a bunch of sunflowers outside of the Supreme Court. “They are willing to die for their cause.”This is not Ms. Tantawan’s first hunger strike. In April 2022, she went on a hunger strike for over a month after she was detained for violating her bail by posting details of the royal motorcade on Facebook. She was released on bail once again, but placed under house arrest.Friends of Ms. Tantawan and Ms. Orawan say they are disappointed that the women’s campaign has failed to sway the general public or motivate the government to introduce reforms.“It’s unfortunate for them that this is happening at a low point of the protest movement,” said Mr. Chanatip, of Amnesty. “After three years of an official crackdown on the protests, people are quite burned out.”Ryn Jirenuwat More

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      Cambodian Opposition Leader Is Found Guilty of Treason Ahead of Election

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      Kem Sokha, co-founder of the defunct Cambodia National Rescue Party, was accused of conspiring to overthrow the government and sentenced to 27 years’ house arrest.Kem Sokha, Cambodia’s most prominent opposition politician still in the country, was sentenced to 27 years of house arrest Friday on a charge of treason and banned from running or voting in elections.Cambodian courts are not an independent branch of government, and the sentence was the latest step that Prime Minister Hun Sen has taken as he crushes what remains of a political opposition in advance of a July election. Mr. Hun Sen, who has been in power for 38 years, has said he is planning to run in that election and has anointed one of his sons, Lt. Gen. Hun Manet, to succeed him in the future.“It is not right, unfair and can’t be accepted,” said Ang Oudom, one of Mr. Kem Sokha’s lawyers, after the sentence was announced. He said he would appeal but added: “It is a political case, and only politicians can decide.”Outside the courthouse, where several ambassadors had gathered to hear the verdict, W. Patrick Murphy, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, said the case was fabricated and a miscarriage of justice.“Denying Kem Sokha and other political figures their freedom of expression, their freedom of association, undermines Cambodia’s Constitution, international commitment and past progress to develop a pluralist and inclusive society,” he said.Mr. Kem Sokha, 69, is a co-founder of the now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party, known as the C.N.R.P., along with Sam Rainsy, who has been in self-imposed exile since 2015 to avoid arrest for defamation, among other charges. Mr. Kem Sokha was arrested in September 2017 in a showy late-night raid on a charge of colluding with the United States government to take power in Cambodia.That charge was based on a statement he made in a video about receiving advice from American pro-democracy groups. He has denied the charges, and Washington has dismissed them as “fabricated conspiracy theories.”From abroad, Mr. Rainsy said the charges against Mr. Kem Sokha were “based on a grotesque reading of a standard speech he had made years earlier in Australia.”Mr. Kem Sokha was moved from prison to house arrest just over a year after he was detained and then freed from house arrest in November 2019 but banned from politics. Soon after his arrest, the Supreme Court dissolved the C.N.R.P. after the government accused it of plotting its overthrow.The party posed the most serious threat to Mr. Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party, known as the C.P.P., and the C.N.R.P.’s dissolution cleared the way for Mr. Hun Sen’s party to sweep all 125 seats in the National Assembly in a 2018 election.Mr. Kem Sokha’s arrest and the termination of the C.N.R.P. were part of a wide-ranging crackdown on opposition politicians, activists and members of the press that has seen hundreds of people jailed or sentenced in absentia after fleeing abroad. In June, a court in Phnom Penh convicted at least 51 opposition figures of “incitement” and “conspiracy” as well as other charges.Among those convicted was Theary Seng, a lawyer and civil rights activist with dual American and Cambodian citizenship, who is now serving a six-year sentence in a remote prison in Preah Vihear Province.Human Rights Watch, which has strongly condemned each step of the crackdown in Cambodia, called on foreign governments Friday to reassess their approach to Mr. Hun Sen’s government.“It was obvious from the start that the charges against Kem Sokha were nothing but a political ploy by Prime Minister Hun Sen to sideline Cambodia’s major opposition leader and eliminate the country’s democratic system,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.He said the sentence “isn’t just about destroying his political party but about quashing any hope that there can be a genuine election in July.” Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director over Southeast Asia, emphasized the same point, saying, “This verdict is an unmistakable warning to opposition groups months before national elections.”Mr. Hun Sen put the point in graphic terms in a speech in January, in which he warned his political opponents to prepare for assault. He said he could “gather people belonging to the C.P.P. to protest and beat you,” and added, “Be careful. If I can’t control my temper, you will be destroyed.”Sun Narin More

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      The Serene Hypocrisy of Nikki Haley

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      Astonishingly, some people still see Nikki Haley as one of the “good” Trump cabinet members, the future of a more tolerant and accepting Republican Party. Like those anti-Trumpers who willfully interpreted each casual flick of Melania’s wrist as a prospect of rebellion, Haley hopefuls want to believe that a conscience might yet emerge from Trump’s Team of Liars, that the G.O.P’s latest showcasing of a Can-Do Immigrant Success Story can somehow undo years of xenophobia.This requires listening to only half of what Haley says.But if you listen to the full spectrum of her rhetoric, Haley clearly wants to capture the base that yearns for Trumpism — and to occupy the moral high ground of the post-Trump era. She wants to tout the credential of having served in a presidential cabinet (she was Trump’s U.N. ambassador) — and bask in recognition for having left of her own accord. She wants to criticize Americans’ obsession with identity politics — and highlight her own identity  as a significant qualification.There are plenty of reasons to approach Haley with wariness: her middle-school-cafeteria style of meting out revenge, her robotic “I have seen evil” presidential campaign announcement video, the P.T.A. briskness with which she dismisses a bothersome fact. But most alarming is her untroubled insistence on having her cake and eating it too. Even in short-term-memory Washington, rife as it is with wafflers and flip-floppers, the serene hypocrisy of Nikki Haley stands out. She wants it both ways — and she wants it her way most of all.Take a glance at the inconvenient record. Here is Rebranded Republican Nikki Haley, who told Politico she was “triggered” by the 2015 slaughter of nine parishioners inside Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, that she was disgusted by Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential candidacy, that she was “disgusted” by Trump’s treatment of Mike Pence. And here also is Red-blooded Republican Haley, who in earlier interviews for the same 2021 Politico magazine profile rolls her eyes at the possibility of Trump’s impeachment, warmly recalls checking in on the disconsolate former president — a man she called her “friend” — and emphasizes “the good that he built.”Haley is accustomed to internal contradiction, having been plucked from the South Carolina governorship to serve as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, a position Trump reportedly chose her for because it removed her from the governorship. Soon after Madam Ambassador arrived in New York in 2017, she appeared at the Council on Foreign Relations, an event I attended and remember well. Even members of the council, a nonpartisan group accustomed to hosting dignitaries both friendly and hostile, thrummed in anticipation of its first visiting cabinet member from the Trump administration.Despite a reputation for intuitive political acumen, Haley seemed wholly incapable of reading the room. “This is an intimidating crowd, I’ve got to tell you. It really is,” she said, otherwise placid in her unpreparedness for a role grappling with urgent complexities in Russia, Iran, China and North Korea. She proceeded to share folksy anecdotes about how family members were adjusting to life in the big city. Later, she wove past questions from the council’s president, Richard Haass, at one point breaking into giggles. “It’s like you want me to answer it a certain way,” she admonished him. “That was too funny in the way you worded that.”Here as elsewhere, Haley emphasized where she came from: “In South Carolina, I was the first minority governor and — a real shock to the state — the first girl governor as well.” As discordant as this blushing Southern girlishness was from a senior administration official, it fit in with Haley’s “You go, girl!” notion of female empowerment. Haley may be the last American woman to champion “leaning in” à la Sheryl Sandberg — and on Sean Hannity’s TV show, of all places — without even a smidge of irony.In a similar vein, the kicker to her campaign announcement speech was not only stunningly literal — “And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels” — it also came from the regressive stilettoed playbook of Melania-Ivanka-Kellyanne. As Haley declared in her 2022 book, “If You Want Something Done: Leadership Lessons From Bold Women,” when people try to tell her what she can and can’t do, her strategy is to push back harder: “Your life — the life you want — is worth fighting for.”Throughout her career, Haley has enjoyed the image of herself as an underdog and outsider willing to stand up to her party. But exposing and exploiting racism in the Republican Party isn’t the same as confronting it head on. Nor has she risked doing so except in rare moments. While governor of South Carolina in 2015, Haley called for the Confederate flag to be removed from the state capitol — but only after the murderous rampage of an avowed white nationalist. A 2010 video recently shown by CNN reveals this less as a moment of principled bravery than of political expediency. In that video, she defended the display of the Confederate flag and the observance of Confederate History Month. Asked how she would respond to those who objected, she replied, “I will work to talk to them about the heritage and how this is not something that’s racist.” She repeated this defense again in 2019 in an interview with Glenn Beck in which she described the flag as a symbol of “service, sacrifice and heritage.”With equal dexterous flair, Haley emphasizes her relative youth at 51 (“a new generation of leadership”), her identity as a woman and her Indian heritage as the child of immigrants while repeatedly condemning identity politics. “I don’t believe in that,” she said while campaigning recently in South Carolina, before neatly wrapping up with “As I set out on this new journey, I will simply say this — may the best woman win.”According to a recent poll, Haley is one point ahead of Pence, currently exciting about 5 percent of Republican voters. In all likelihood, she will wind up Sarah Palined into the vice-presidential candidate pool. But with her long-shot win of the South Carolina governorship, Haley has previously proved the unbelievers wrong. She may be hoping that a record of equivocation will be perceived as one of mediation, and her brand of hypocrisy mistaken for one of moderation. It’s on voters to decide, when choosing between her and those Republican candidates who are ideological to their core, whether they prefer a candidate with no core at all.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

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      Turkey’s Earthquake Will Not Delay Elections in Country, Erdogan Says

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      The Feb. 6 earthquake’s vast destruction will present a challenge when it comes to mounting a viable election. But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the vote would go on in May, “God willing.”ADANA, Turkey — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made clear on Wednesday that he does not intend to delay crucial elections in Turkey because of last month’s devastating earthquake, saying they would go ahead as previously announced on May 14.It was the first time the Turkish leader has publicly mentioned a polling date since the catastrophic quake on Feb. 6, which raised questions over whether he would seek to delay the presidential and parliamentary vote. The quake ravaged a large area of southern Turkey and northern Syria, killing more than 51,000 people so far. The number is rising daily.“This nation — the time is coming on May 14 — will do what is necessary, God willing,” Mr. Erdogan told members of his ruling Justice and Development Party. He had announced the same date before the quake hit.The vast destruction caused by the 7.8-magnitude temblor and a powerful aftershock have posed a new political challenge for Mr. Erdogan, Turkey’s paramount politician for two decades, while drastically complicating the logistics of holding elections with so many communities in ruins.Mr. Erdogan’s popularity had sagged over the last year because of a spike in inflation that ate into the budgets of Turkish families. And many quake survivors have criticized his government’s initial response to the country’s largest natural disaster in decades as slow and inadequate.The president has acknowledged in recent days that the government’s initial response was lacking, while emphasizing the quake’s magnitude.The election is critical to the political future of Mr. Erdogan, a towering political figure at home whose international profile has grown since the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year.Civilians search for their relatives under a collapsed building in the city of Kahramanmaras in February.Emin Ozmen for The New York TimesHe has frustrated other members of NATO by refusing to join Western sanctions aimed at punishing Russia for the invasion and blocking the alliance’s expansion to include Sweden and Finland.But Western officials acknowledge that his relationship with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has yielded diplomatic benefits such as a deal to allow the export of Ukrainian grain.Deadly Quake in Turkey and SyriaA 7.8-magnitude earthquake on Feb. 6, with its epicenter in Gaziantep, Turkey, has become one of the deadliest natural disasters of the century.Near the Epicenter: Amid scenes of utter devastation in the ancient Turkish city of Antakya, thousands are trying to make sense of an earthquake that left them with no home and no future.Another Quake Hits: A 5.2-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey on Feb. 27, shaking parts of the same area stricken by the devastating Feb. 6 quake.Builders Under Scrutiny: The deadly quake in Turkey has raised painful questions over who is to blame for shoddy construction and whether better building standards could have saved lives.Studying the Quake: Scientists analyzing the disaster in Turkey and Syria may bring new insights to a seismic zone that is strikingly similar: the San Andreas Fault in California.An election victory for Mr. Erdogan would give him a third presidential term, and a strong showing by his party would help him to keep pushing his policies through Parliament.But it remains unclear how the earthquake and the government’s response have affected Mr. Erdogan’s standing with voters.Emre Erdogan, a professor of political science at Istanbul Bilgi University, said he did not expect the quake to drastically affect the roughly 40 percent of voters who support the president’s party.“His electorate is conservative, with a strong belief in fate,” said Professor Erdogan, who is not related to the president. “They might rationalize any failure they witnessed, particularly with a fatalistic mind-set that disasters are inevitable.”So far, Mr. Erdogan has not directly addressed accusations that the death toll was increased by poor construction enabled by the weak enforcement of building codes. The government has announced legal investigations of hundreds of building contractors, and some have been detained.Now, the government must figure out how to hold a viable election in the wake of a disaster that wrecked more than 200,000 buildings and displaced millions of people. Exactly how that will work remains unclear.In areas hit by the quake, many public buildings that would normally serve as polling places are damaged. Many voters have fled the quake zone for other parts of the country, making it hard for them to cast votes in their home districts.Voter rolls will need to be updated to account for the dead and the large number of people who are still missing.A stadium converted to a camp where earthquake survivors took shelter in the city of Adiyaman in February. The earthquake displaced millions of people.Emin Ozmen for The New York TimesThis week, a delegation from Turkey’s High Election Council, which oversees the vote, has been visiting quake-stricken areas to explore whether shipping containers can be used as polling places and how displaced people can cast ballots for their home districts, according to state-run news media.Experts said that holding a viable election in such conditions was possible, but would take tremendous organization.“If the current law and regulations are upheld, I don’t see a big problem in holding elections,” said Volkan Aslan, a lecturer in constitutional law at Istanbul University.Names of the dead can be easily deleted from the voter rolls, he said. And photo ID checks and signatures at polling stations can help prevent fraud.Legally, the vote must be held on or before June 18, but Mr. Erdogan can set an earlier date. His announcement on Wednesday did not begin the official process of setting the election in place, but he still has time to do that.A coalition of six opposition parties has joined forces to try to unseat Mr. Erdogan, but they have yet to announce their candidate.Critics have accused Mr. Erdogan of eroding state institutions and pushing Turkey toward authoritarianism. Signs have emerged in recent weeks that his government is seeking to quash dissent as the vote approaches.Last weekend, fans of some of the country’s largest soccer clubs chanted antigovernment slogans during games, yelling “government, resign!” and “Lies, lies, lies! It’s been 20 years, resign!” One of Mr. Erdogan’s top political allies suggested that games be held without fans, and the supporters of one large club that joined the chants have been barred from attending a game scheduled for Saturday.Mr. Erdogan’s interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, has deemed the chanting a security threat.Mr. Erdogan on a poster in Istanbul in January. He is running for a third term as president.Erdem Sahin/EPA, via ShutterstockBen Hubbard More

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      Your Thursday Briefing: Nigeria’s New ‘Big Boss’

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      Also, a major tank battle in Ukraine and a deadly train wreck in Greece.Bola Tinubu celebrating at his campaign headquarters in Abuja.Ben Curtis/Associated PressVictory for a Nigerian political ‘big boss’Bola Tinubu was declared the winner of Nigeria’s presidential election on Wednesday, extending the governing All Progressives Congress party’s rule in Africa’s largest nation.Tinubu won about 36 percent of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff. But only 27 percent of voters participated, the lowest turnout in the country’s history.A political insider who ran on the slogan “It’s my turn,” Tinubu is a divisive figure. Some revere him for turning around the fortunes of Lagos during his eight years as governor; others deride him as a corrupt stalwart of the old guard.A multimillionaire, Tinubu made his money in real estate, but has faced questions over his wealth. His supporters call him “big boss,” while many detractors call him “balablu,” a reference to a speech in which he failed to pronounce the word “hullabaloo” and a shorthand to imply that he is too old to lead.The parties representing Tinubu’s two chief rivals, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, have already called for a redo of the election after reports of delays and violence at polling sites. Some Nigerians described being unable to vote despite waiting all day.Challenges: When Tinubu takes office in May he will need to work on solving electricity shortages, reviving oil production and improving security, including addressing the threats from extremist groups like Boko Haram in the country’s northeast and separatists in the southeast.Ukraine’s 72nd Brigade near Vuhledar on Saturday.Tyler Hicks/The New York TimesRussia routed in tank battleUkrainian officials said Russian forces were soundly defeated during the biggest tank battle of the war so far.During the fighting, which took place over three weeks near the coal mining town of Vuhledar in southeastern Ukraine, the Russians advanced in columns, while the Ukrainians fired from hiding places as Russian vehicles came into sight. It was the same mistake that cost Moscow hundreds of tanks earlier in the war: advancing into ambushes.The State of the WarRussia’s New Offensive: The Russian military is relying on tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts to carry out its latest maneuver, which has barely budged over the last month.Deploying High-Powered Aides: President Biden has dispatched Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a concerted diplomatic push to show support for Ukraine.A War of Words: Russia and the West have been arguing for months about which side is more willing to negotiate ending the war in Ukraine peacefully.In one skirmish, Ukrainian soldiers seeded the fields around a dirt road with land mines and hid anti-tank teams in the tree line around the fields. Once the trap was sprung the Russian tanks couldn’t turn around without detonating the mines, and blown-up vehicles soon delayed them more.Ukraine’s military said Russia lost at least 130 tanks and armored personnel carriers in the battle, though that figure could not be independently verified. Context: The Russian military has lionized tank warfare since World War II, and Russian military bloggers have posted screeds blaming generals for the failures of the tank assaults.Other news from the war:Ukraine said it had sent reinforcements to the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut.A Ukrainian drone that landed in a field southeast of Moscow this week was carrying explosives, Russian news media outlets reported.Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said the Biden administration saw “zero evidence” that President Vladimir Putin was considering peace talks.“Windows were shattering and people were screaming,” one survivor said.Angelos Tzortzinis for The New York TimesDeadly train crash in GreeceA head-on collision in Greece killed at least 38 people and injured dozens more in the country’s deadliest rail accident in memory. The Greek transport minister announced his resignation.The high-speed collision between a freight and passenger train was so forceful that two carriages “basically don’t exist anymore,” a regional governor said. The passenger train was carrying about 350 passengers, many of whom were college students, traveling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki.The cause of the crash remains unclear, but a railway official said that monitoring and warning systems along the track worked only sporadically. The head of the rail workers’ union told Greek television that the two trains raced toward one another for 12 minutes before colliding.Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that “tragic human error” had led to the crash, but gave no further details. Police arrested the station manager in Larissa, a city about 20 miles south of the crash site. Greek news media reported that the station manager had directed the freight train onto the same track as the passenger train.Context: Greece already had the worst record for rail safety in Europe, with maintenance problems going unaddressed for decades.THE LATEST NEWSAsia PacificAn assembly line at a Wuling Motors factory in Qingdao, China.Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFactory production in China has surged since the end of lockdowns, bolstering the country’s economic recovery.South Korea’s president called for closer ties with Japan to better counter North Korean nuclear threats, The Associated Press writes.India’s February was its hottest on record and heat waves could follow in March and April, the BBC reported.Around the WorldThe Gemini used to ferry vacationers from Turkey to the Greek islands.Sergey Ponomarev for The New York TimesA cruise ship has become a shelter for more than 1,000 people displaced by the earthquake in Turkey.The police in Tel Aviv used water cannons and stun grenades against thousands of protesters opposed to the Israeli government’s plan to limit the judiciary. Also, a Times video investigation shows how an Israeli raid in the West Bank turned deadly.Eritrean troops massacred hundreds of civilians in Tigray just before the end of Ethiopia’s civil war late last year, according to rights groups, aid workers and news outlets.Other Big StoriesMany undocumented immigrants are leaving the U.S. after decades.Eli Lilly, a major U.S. drug manufacturer, announced it would cap the price of insulin at $35 a month.U.S. intelligence agencies determined that a foreign adversary is “very unlikely” to be responsible for Havana syndrome, the mysterious ailment that spies and diplomats have reported experiencing.In this month’s space news, a rocket made mostly with 3-D printing could slip the surly bonds of Earth. And China’s Mars rover doesn’t appear to have moved since last September.A Morning ReadNicole Solero moved back in with her parents to save money after graduating from college.Todd Anderson for The New York TimesYoung adults in the United States are often encouraged to leave the nest as a rite of passage. But the high cost of living, student debt and family obligations keep some at home, helping them save for the future.ECONOMIC IDEASIndia’s digital payment revolutionTiny QR codes have become ubiquitous across India’s vastness. Roadside barbers, peanut vendors, street performers and beggars all accept money through an instant payment system that connects hundreds of millions of people.The Unified Payments Interface, an initiative of India’s central bank, dwarfs anything in the West. The value of the billions of instant digital transactions in India last year was far more than in the U.S., Britain, Germany and France.At the heart of the payment network is a campaign to deliver every citizen a unique identification number, called the Aadhaar. The government says that more than 1.3 billion IDs have been issued, and that the payment system is now used by close to 300 million individuals and 50 million merchants.“Our digital payments ecosystem has been developed as a free public good,” Narendra Modi, the prime minister, told finance ministers from the Group of 20. Now, India wants to export it as it fashions itself as an incubator of ideas for poorer nations.PLAY, WATCH, EATWhat to CookJulia Gartland for The New York TimesTips from around the world for a great beef stew.What to WatchIn “The Reluctant Traveler,” Eugene Levy discovers the (mild) joys of leaving his comfort zone.What to Listen toFive minutes that will make you love jazz piano.What to WearIntricate enamel pieces from a storied Indian jewelry family keep a dying craft alive.Now Time to PlayPlay the Mini Crossword, and a clue: Singer Simone (4 letters).Here are the Wordle and the Spelling Bee.You can find all our puzzles here.That’s it for today’s briefing. See you next time. — Mariah and DanP.S. Rich Barbieri, a deputy business editor, is heading to Seoul to oversee our business and economic coverage in Asia.“The Daily” is about abortion pills. We’d like your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to briefing@nytimes.com. More

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      South Africa’s Embattled Deputy President Resigns

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      Despite scandal and controversy, David Mabuza remained in office for five years, only leaving once he had lost power within the governing African National Congress party.JOHANNESBURG — David Mabuza, the deputy president of South Africa whose political rise became emblematic of the scandals and leadership crises that have eroded the credibility of the governing African National Congress party, has resigned. Mr. Mabuza was sworn in as deputy president in 2019. Despite longtime accusations of financial misdeeds against Mr. Mabuza, his enduring presence alongside Mr. Ramaphosa cast doubt on the president’s ability to root out corruption and restore the reputation of the governing party.In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Ramaphosa thanked Mr. Mabuza for his “exceptional service to the country over the last five years.” Mr. Ramaphosa is set to reshuffle his cabinet soon, moving around lawmakers to reflect shifts within the A.N.C. He will also appoint a minister of electricity, a new position announced last month to steer the country out of a “state of disaster” caused by prolonged, daily power outages.Mr. Mabuza rose from being a little-known union leader in a rural province to second in command of the A.N.C. As deputy president, he focused on land reform and the plight of military veterans demanding compensation, but he largely remained a shadowy figure among many voters.His long medical absences and trips to Russia for treatment raised questions among South Africans. In November, just weeks before the A.N.C. held its crucial party conference, Mr. Mabuza’s motorcade was involved in a deadly crash that left one of his security guards dead.Despite being Mr. Ramaphosa’s No. 2, Mr. Mabuza’s political influence had waned in recent years. Once nicknamed “the Cat” for his stealth political machinations, Mr. Mabuza failed to win a second term as the party’s deputy president at the A.N.C.’s conference last December, which meant he would have lost his national office. He was also left out of the party’s 80-person national executive committee.With the writing on the wall, Mr. Mabuza told mourners during a private funeral service last month that he would soon leave office. Despite his election loss, his announcement seemed to catch the president off guard, according to local media reports. He is likely to be replaced by Paul Mashatile, an ambitious Johannesburg politician who beat out Mr. Mabuza as deputy president of the party.A former mathematics teacher and school principal, Mr. Mabuza used his background in teachers’ unions and education activism to bolster his political career. After South Africa transitioned from apartheid to democracy, he rose rapidly, becoming A.N.C. chairman in 2007 and premier of Mpumalanga, a small province in the east of the country.A 2018 investigation by The New York Times found that Mr. Mabuza and his allies had siphoned money from Mpumalanga province’s education system. Some schools were built as an easy way to funnel money, while many more classrooms crumbled. His critics say the money was used to helped build a powerful political machine with Mr. Mabuza at the helm. Mpumalanga is largely rural and impoverished, yet Mr. Mabuza became wealthy during his time as premier. Mr. Mabuza only took office in 2019 once the A.N.C.’s internal disciplinary committee cleared him of any allegations, his office said. A recent sweeping judicial commission of inquiry into corruption also “started and finished without Mabuza’s name being mentioned,” Matshepo Seedat, Mr. Mabuza’s spokeswoman, said. He was never criminally charged.Outside of provincial politics, he has been unable to sustain power and influence. His own province eventually snubbed him: Mpumalanga backed another candidate at the December conference.“I am no kingmaker,” Mr. Mabuza said in response to The Times’s 2018 investigation, rejecting the report. “I abhor corruption. Any fiction to the contrary or ‘fake news’ is laughable.” More

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      Who is Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s President Elect?

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      The winner of Nigeria’s presidential election, Bola Tinubu, is a divisive figure in Africa’s most populous country.Mr. Tinubu is revered by some as a political wizard and the man who turned around the fortunes of Lagos, Nigeria’s labyrinthine megacity. His supporters are hoping he can repeat that performance on a national level.Others deride Mr. Tinubu, the candidate of the governing All Progressives Congress party, as “corruption personified” and accuse him of looting state coffers as the governor of Lagos.And many simply worry that Mr. Tinubu is a potential embarrassment to Nigeria, sometimes sounding incoherent and appearing unwell. He says he is 70, but his real age is a matter of dispute.This is a real concern in Nigeria, where several leaders have died in office, and where the current president, Muhammadu Buhari, spent a large chunk of his first term absent, receiving medical treatment in London, for an illness he refused to discuss.Many Nigerians believe that their country, as Africa’s biggest economy, needs an energetic leader.Mr. Tinubu ran Lagos as governor for eight years, and then mentored his successors, giving him a reputation as a political “godfather,” able to ensure that some people’s careers took off while others’ sank.He has also claimed that without his influence, Mr. Buhari, who lost the presidential elections several times before winning his first term in 2015, would never have become president.In the run-up to this election, Mr. Tinubu used the slogan, “It’s my turn” — flaunting his role as kingmaker, but also alienating many voters.A Muslim from Nigeria’s southwest, Mr. Tinubu may struggle to unite Nigeria’s diverse population. He ran for president with another Muslim on the ticket — Kashim Shettima, a former governor of Borno state in the northeast, which has been the epicenter of Boko Haram’s campaign of terrorism for over a decade.Nigeria’s Christian population is almost as big as its Muslim one, and traditionally presidential candidates pick running mates of a different religion.Mr. Tinubu has promised fiscal policy changes, and to fix the worsening security situation. An outbreak of kidnappings by armed gangs has affected people from all walks of life and parts of the country. In the northeast, militants with the extremist groups Boko Haram and a local affiliate of the Islamic State have killed thousands and driven millions from their homes.Ahead of the election, voters cited insecurity as their main concern.He has also pledged to improve Nigeria’s deteriorating infrastructure and to remove a crippling government fuel subsidy.Mr. Tinubu has faced allegations of corruption and questions over the source of his wealth. The U.S. government filed a complaint in 1993 accusing him of banking the proceeds from narcotics trafficking. The case was settled, and Mr. Tinubu has denied any wrongdoing.Susan Beachy contributed research. More