SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Bad Bunny look-alike contest at a San Francisco restaurant snowballed into a street party after hundreds of fans of the global superstar showed up to cheer his doppelgangers and sing along to his music ahead of his Super Bowl halftime show this weekend.
More than 30 contestants from across the Bay Area, including men with tight curly hair, women in wigs and fake facial hair and a kindergartener in a fedora, white tank top and bow tie, competed for a $100 prize at a packed Mexican restaurant in the Mission neighborhood.
They channeled the 31-year-old Puerto Rican singer through some of his signature looks, donning straw hats known as a “pava” and traditionally worn by Puerto Rican farmers, or a shearling aviator hat like the one the artist has worn at times since the release his 2025 album, “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos,” which translates to “I should have taken more photos.” It won album of the year at the Grammy Awards on Sunday.
Adam Fox, 24, and his friend Alejandro Kurt, 23, traveled from Belmont, a city about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of San Francisco, after both men with curly dark hair and dark facial hair were told they look like Bad Bunny.
Fox, an aspiring actor who wore a suit, bowtie, and dark sunglasses, said he is a fan of Bad Bunny’s music even though he doesn’t speak Spanish.
His music “is like art. You don’t have to totally understand it. It could just be something that’s beautiful,” Fox said.
The contestants imitated Bad Bunny’s “perreo,” or twerking, and repeated his criticism of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign with one wnnabe-Bad Bunny in a wig and a black tuxedo holding an “ICE Out” sign as she danced through the packed Tacolicious restaurant to roaring cheers from the crowd.
But the artist’s music remained the focus of the lookalike contest organized by Mission Loteria, a group that promotes Latino businesses, with people spilling out to the street where a DJ played Bad Bunny's most-loved tracks and some in costumes resembling the Puerto Rican crested toad, an endangered species that is featured in one of his music videos, danced with contestants.
Pamela Guo, 33, traveled from San Jose to compete in the contest dressed in an aviator hat, shorts and an athletic jacket. Guo, who had a painted-on beard, said she is such a fan of the singer that she traveled to Mexico City to see him in concert.
“I love to perrear and dance, so I do love that aspect of his music,” she said, adding that his last album has deeper lyrics that speak to her because they talk about our shared humanity.
The grand prize went to Abdul Ramirez Arroyave, a professional Bad Bunny impersonator from Colombia, who was dressed in a red shirt and straw hat on top a tight curly hair wig.
When asked to say a few words after his win, he said “thanks for everything” then broke into song with the crowd singing along Bad Bunny’s “Debi tirar mas fotos.”
Ramirez Arroyave then joined the party outside and took photos with his new adoring fans.
Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show performer Bad Bunny speaks during a news conference, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in San Francisco ahead of the NFL Super Bowl 60 football game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — It was designed to be as simple as buying airtime: a quick tap on the dispenser, a few shillings and a cooking canister refilled. Now, more than 3,000 Koko fuel supply points across Kenya sit idle, with no fuel and no clear answers for the households that relied on them.
For more than a decade, Koko Networks helped shift over 1.5 million Kenyan homes without access to public gas systems away from smoky charcoal stoves to bioethanol, marketed as a cleaner, modern way to cook. The steady blue flame became a symbol of Kenya’s push toward cleaner household energy.
That promise has dimmed.
After failing to win government letter of authorization that would allow them to sell carbon credits — permits that allow holders to emit certain amount of greenhouse gases — Koko abruptly shut down its fuel distribution network, bringing to a halt a model once hailed as a poster child of Africa's green transition.
In Kibera, Nairobi’s largest informal settlement, most Koko Networks outlets have closed, and some have removed the bioethanol dispensers altogether. Since 2014, Koko had imported bioethanol products. That ended abruptly in 2023 when the government withheld its import permit, forcing Koko to use local sources that were erratic and more expensive.
That reality is setting in for Fredrick Onchenge. He used to serve up to 50 Koko customers a day. Now his machines are silent.
“Initially, I was confused,” Onchenge said. “Then it dawned on me what had just happened. My livelihood was gone. I tried calling the salesperson, but their phone was switched off.”
For many customers, their access ended with a text message announcing the shutdown. Kitchens that once cooked meals without smoke now have idle double-burner stoves — reminders of a system that stopped overnight.
Grace Kathambi is weighing her options.
“This was a life changer for me,” Kathambi said. “I could not afford the $8 needed to refill a gas cylinder, and Koko was my best alternative. With about 30 U.S. cents, I could buy enough Koko fuel to cook.”
With the bioethanol supply cut off, households like hers must now choose between returning to charcoal or finding money for more expensive liquefied petroleum gas.
“I cannot afford to use gas,” said Margaret Auma. “Koko made life very easy for those of us who earn little from casual jobs. We feel abandoned, yet it’s not our fault.”
For weeks, Koko and the Kenyan government haggled over a crucial letter authorizing carbon credits and import permits for bioethanol made from molasses, a sugarcane by-product. The company needed those approvals to unlock millions of dollars in international financing that helped keep fuel prices low. Kenyan authorities held back, citing broader concerns about the credibility of carbon credits.
Koko — which counted the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, and South Africa’s Rand Merchant Bank as its investors, announced on Jan. 30 that without the approvals its business model was financially unsustainable and it was shutting down.
“Koko’s case is uniquely multidimensional,” said David Ndii, Kenya’s presidential advisor on economic affairs. Ndii cited issues including the Paris Agreement framework, questions around the credibility of cookstove carbon credits, Kenya’s climate policies, carbon market regulations, the transparency of Koko’s business model and diplomatic considerations.
He dismissed the prospect of state intervention, saying, “Even good doctors lose patients.”
Kenya's energy and treasury officials have declined to comment on the closure, which energy analysts say exposes weaknesses in how clean cooking is financed across Africa.
“The clean cooking situation in Kenya, and across Africa is a serious crisis,” said Amos Wemanya, a senior analyst on renewable energy at Power Shift Africa. “This is not just about emissions or climate targets. It is about development, health, dignity and household survival.”
Wemanya said models heavily reliant on carbon credits risk prioritizing markets over people.
“We are not going to solve the clean cooking challenge through carbon math or carbon credit spreadsheets,” he said. “Carbon markets allow polluters to continue emitting while households, who are supposed to be the beneficiaries, still pay for the stoves and bear the risks when projects fail.”
When such systems collapse, he added, it is households that suffer most.
“They are the ones forced to revert to harmful alternatives like charcoal and paraffin,” Wemanya said.
He said the Koko episode shows the priority should shift toward affordable electricity, especially in rural areas.
“Clean cooking will not be solved through carbon credits,” he said. “The reality is that gas-based solutions were never a long-term climate solution. They simply shift households from firewood to imported fossil fuels. So, the bigger lesson here is that we need to move toward systems that truly work, primarily electricity powered by renewable energy.”
For now, households like Auma’s must now choose between returning to charcoal or finding money for more expensive LPG.
“What are we supposed to do? Go back to using charcoal in our one-room houses?” Auma asked. “That is the smoke and sickness we were trying to escape.”
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Amos Wemanya, senior climate advisor at Power Shift Africa, poses for a photo during an interview with The Associated Press in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/ÅSA WALLIN)
Laurine Akhutu, a KOKO Cooker bioethanol fuel vendor, arranges fuel bottles at her shop in the Kibera informal settlement on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Atieno Muyuyi)
George Onsere, a KOKO Cooker bioethanol fuel vendor, poses for a photo outside his shop in the Kibera informal settlement on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Atieno Muyuyi)
A KOKO Cooker bioethanol fuel distribution booth with out of stock fuel is seen in the Kibera informal settlement on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Atieno Muyuyi)
Grace Kathambi uses a KOKO Cooker bioethanol fuel stove to fry and sell French fries at her shop in the Kibera informal settlement on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Atieno Muyuyi)
