Wednesday 21 October 2026 · Edition of the day

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The Skeptic's Daily

The day's biggest stories, taken apart. For each one: what is actually established, what is only asserted, the questions worth asking — and a plausibility score for the central claim, given everything currently known.

Stories
1
Average plausibility
66%
How to read the score
It rates how well the core claim is evidenced — not how important the story is, nor whether it is good or bad news.
RegionAllGlobalAfricaNorth AmericaSouth AmericaAsia-PacificEuropeMiddle East
TopicAllPoliticsConflict & SecurityBusinessScienceHealth
01HealthAsia-Pacific

Indonesia's prolonged fires linked to widespread illness in BBC report

Reporting from Borneo describes months-long fires and toxic haze, but supplies little detail on the health estimates.

The BBC reports that a 'Super El Niño' has fuelled months-long fires in Indonesia. Its account of South East Asia's toxic haze says hundreds of thousands of people have become ill.

What holds up

  • ✓The supplied BBC item explicitly reports prolonged fires in Indonesia.
  • ✓The same item reports widespread illness associated with the fires and haze; no independent corroboration is supplied.

What doesn't yet

  • ?The extract gives no source, case definition or measurement period for the estimate of hundreds of thousands becoming ill.
  • ?It does not provide the evidence used to attribute the fires' persistence to a 'Super El Niño'.

Ask before you share

  • →Who compiled the illness estimate, and which conditions and locations does it cover?
  • →What monitoring data support the reported scale and causes of the fires?

Sources & original reporting

  1. [1]BBC News · Published 20 Oct 2026 · bbc.co.uk