April 7, 2015 edition

French novelist Victor Hugo blamed the weather for sealing Europe's fate. If it had not rained on the night of June 17, 1815, he argued, Europe would have been different. Just a few raindrops, he wrote in the third chapter of Les Miserables, cemented Napoleon's defeat in the Battle of Waterloo.
The aberrant rainfall has become a popular explanation for Napoleon's defeat at the hands of coalition troops under the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard von Blcher.

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More Special Report articles in other editions

January 1, 1970 edition

MINING is by nature a high-risk and high-return business. But, for the last few years, the problem facing Indonesian miners is that both risk and return trends have, for some time, been moving in opposite directions. Risks are steadily rising due to increasing regulatory requirements, while returns are shrinking as ore prices drop with the slowdown in the world economy, most notably in China, Indonesia's top export market. This puts considerable pressure on industry players to start reassessing their investment commitments and regulators their mining policies as they go forward.

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March 3, 2015 edition

Taufiq Des tells the passengers in the raft to ready themselves, because 20 meters ahead there are 1.5 meter high rapids. The people who live near the Ciliwung River in Beji, Depok, call the rapids the Kebo Garang, which means 'thin bull', a reference to their appearance.
Taufik, 58, founder of the Ciliwung Depok Community, asked us not to panic. "Lock your legs under the raft seats so that you don't fall out if the boat pitches forward," he said to Tempo, in mid-February. The rubber raft neared the stretch of rapids at a speed of 40 kilometers an hour. Our hearts began to race. And splash!

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January 1, 1970 edition

President Jokowi's 2015 revised government budget is his first, and, as such, is interesting to get a more detailed view of his policy spending priorities, how he expects to implement them and, more importantly, how to fund them. But, understanding where the government is spending its money this time is critical because the recent cut in fuel subsidies allows the government some real spending power to make a difference. A quick glimpse into the 288-page document, shows three areas that particularly stand out. They are infrastructure with a maritime bent, food security and social services.

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January 1, 1970 edition

WHEN the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla government turned 100 days old on January 27, the State Palace was in turmoil. The cause was the matter of who would be the new police chief. Jokowi's nominee, Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, was opposed by many, because of his suspiciously large personal bank account, given his modest salary of a police officer. Despite the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) indictment of Budi for graft, the president has not withdrawn his candidacy. There seems to be strong pressure from the political parties supporting him-the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the National Democrats (NasDem)-for him to install Budi Gunawan as the new police chief.

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