Notre-Dame, Indonesia, Beyoncé: Your Thursday Briefing

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Good morning,

We start today with updates from Paris, unofficial results from Indonesia’s presidential election and Beyoncé’s surprise live album.

Days after a fire devastated Notre-Dame cathedral, France is shifting its focus to reconstruction. President Emmanuel Macron set an ambitious timeline of just five years, and Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced plans for an international competition to design a new spire.

Individuals, companies and institutions have so far donated or pledged 845 million euros, about $950 million, to the cause.

But the spectacle of French billionaires trying to outdo one another with gifts that may win them tax breaks quickly intensified resentments over inequality that have flared during the Yellow Vest movement.

The investigation: Witnesses are still being interviewed to determine the cause of the fire.

But it is clear that fundamental safeguards — like firewalls or a sprinkler system — were absent by choice, to avoid altering the cathedral’s design or heightening the risk by introducing electrical wiring to “the forest,” the network of ancient wooden beams that supported the roof.

See for yourself: Our interactive graphic takes you inside Notre-Dame’s attic, where the fire started.


Unofficial results from Wednesday’s election showed that President Joko Widodo had a comfortable lead over Prabowo Subianto, a four-time presidential candidate who had sought support from hard-line Islamists.

Mr. Joko, who is seeking a second five-year term, led by 10 percentage points in early returns. He emphasized infrastructure development during his campaign while moving to shore up support among conservative Muslims.

What’s next: Official results in the far-flung island nation take weeks, but the winners usually become quickly apparent through so-called quick counts, in which independent polling firms tally ballots from a sampling of polling places nationwide.


A prominent businessman with no political experience is throwing his hat into the ring for his country’s presidency. Sound familiar?

The Taiwanese billionaire tycoon Terry Gou, whose company, Foxconn, is best known for manufacturing iPhones, announced his presidential campaign. The vote will be held in January.

His bid, he said, had received a divine blessing — from a Chinese sea goddess who approached him in a dream. “Mazu said I must take care of the youth,” he told reporters. “I must do everything I can to help those who are struggling.”

Stances: Mr. Gou is expected to leverage his ties with China, where Foxconn has large investments, in an attempt to improve relations between the two countries. He has also made appeals to Taiwan’s youth, whose prospects have been undercut by slow economic growth and a difficult job market.

The Trump connection: Taiwanese news reports say Mr. Gou became serious about running for president after Donald Trump’s election in 2016. He was feted by Mr. Trump at the White House a year later, after Foxconn announced a multibillion-dollar investment in Wisconsin — whose scale is now in question.


For nearly two years questions have swirled around the role that Russia played in the U.S. election and whether President Trump obstructed justice during the ensuing investigation. On Thursday morning in America, a redacted version of the special counsel’s nearly 400-page report will finally be made public.

Whether you’ve been following along closely or avoiding the news entirely, we’ve prepared a guide.

Congressional Democrats, reporters and many Americans will make a beeline to the section that addresses why the special counsel, Robert Mueller, decided not to draw a conclusion about whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice — a gap Attorney General William Barr filled with his own determination that the president had not.

Missing pieces: Lawyers for the special counsel and the Justice Department have blacked out portions of the report, including secret grand jury testimony, classified information, material related to continuing investigations and other delicate details.

What’s next: Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are unlikely to be satisfied with the redacted version and are expected to subpoena the full report. But even without it, they may find enough evidence of obstruction to, at minimum, raise new questions about Mr. Barr’s decision to clear the president.

Read for yourself: The redacted report is to be posted on the special counsel’s website.

During Susan Wojcicki’s tenure as chief executive of YouTube, she has had to contend with uploads of pedophilia and mass murder. Yet she has largely kept a low profile and escaped the public scrutiny that her peers on other platforms have faced.

To get a sense of what she was like as a leader, our reporter spoke to more than a dozen current and former employees, and Ms. Wojcicki herself — three times.

Sudan: Former President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has not been seen since he was deposed last week, has been moved to a prison in Khartoum, the capital.

China: Official figures show that the country’s economy stabilized in the first three months of the year, after Beijing flooded the financial system with money.

TikTok: The Chinese video app is no longer available in Google and Apple app stores in India after a court prohibited downloads.

What we’re reading: This piece from The Bulwark. “It’s a compelling counterpoint to the idea that being gay and running for president isn’t a big deal in 2019,” says Jeremy Peters, our national political reporter. “Tim Miller’s reaction to Pete Buttigieg kissing his husband onstage at a rally is a reminder that this is still very new.”

And we have recommendations on ditching one-and-done plastic straws, spoons and containers with affordable, reusable stand-ins.

Thailand’s king is Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun. That is not his entire name. But that is all we publish in The Times.

The leader of the Future Forward Party, which shocked the Thai military establishment in last month’s elections by coming in third in the popular vote, is Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit.

Family names — a 20th-century innovation in Thailand — are constructed to be distinct, and that often means extra syllables.

If foreigners find Thai names to be a mouthful, so, apparently, do Thais, who use nicknames in everyday life. Many people are called Lek (Thai for small), Nok (bird) and Poo (crab and, please, it’s pronounced closer to “boo”).

This writer’s younger son has played soccer against an Ice, a Python and a Barcode. A girl in our building is called DTAC, which is the name of my cellphone operator.

But the length of people’s names is nothing compared with the full name for Bangkok. It starts with Krungthep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya and continues on for 45 more syllables.


That’s it for this briefing. See you on the other side of the Mueller report.

— Stephen and Inyoung


Thank you
Katie Van Syckle helped compile today’s briefing. Mark Josephson, Eleanor Stanford and Kenneth R. Rosen provided the break from the news. Hannah Beech, our Southeast Asia bureau chief, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is the start of a two-part series about abortion.
• Here’s our mini crossword puzzle, and a clue: Ones trying to make fetch happen (4 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
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Source : Nytimes