Play The Diplomat’s Quiz: May 21, 2017 Edition

In the end, it wasn’t even close. The much anticipated second round election for Jakarta’s governorship was a dud, with challenger Anies Baswedan easily outperforming pre-election polls and soundly defeating incumbent Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama by 16 points. The result has sent shockwaves across Indonesia and the world, with many comparing the result to the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency.

“Mainstream political elites [used] religious and ethnic appeals to de-legitimize a candidate, to… crush an opponent. This is new to Indonesia,” said Douglas Ramage, a political analyst and the Managing Director of the consultancy BowerGroupAsia in Indonesia.

Stunningly, it seems that most of those who voted for the third-place finisher in the first round, Agus Yudhoyono, swung to Anies. Ahok’s strong debate performances, his record as governor, and the support, albeit not as forthcoming as might have been hoped, from President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo were not enough when facing the power of a force few had considered potent until today: conservative Islam.

In an attempt to crystallize at least two years of recurrent dialogue on the controversial practice of triple talaq, or verbal divorce in certain Muslim communities in India through the utterance of the word “talaq” three times, the Supreme Court of India has convened a five-judge constitutional bench. The bench will attempt to examine the validity of the practice, thus entering the murky territory of government legislation on personal religious law. The hearing is expected to conclude by May 19, 2017.

On May 2, Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith visited Singapore at the invitation of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Though both sides discussed matters across several realms important to the advancement of their bilateral relationship, economic issues dominated the trip.

Singapore and Laos established diplomatic ties over four decades ago, and both are part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). But though Singapore is already among the biggest investors in Laos and has also been a significant contributor through other means like capacity-building, both sides have been trying to strengthen the economic dimension of the relationship even further in recent years.

North Korea hasn’t talked about that specific missile, but today, it appears that the U.S. government has gone public about what it might be. On Monday, U.S. officials told Fox News that the missile North Korea tested on Sunday — the day after the military parade — was something called the KN-17. That represents a brand-new KN missile designation by the United States, which just weeks ago unveiled that it would be calling the Pukkuksong-2 the KN-15. The KN-17, according to a U.S. official that spoke to Fox, is a single-stage, liquid-fueled missile that — critically — could be used to target ships.