In an unprecedented week for international geopolitics – during which Donald Trump praised the North Korean leader shortly after disparaging Canada’s prime minister – one group of people has been particularly shocked by the US president’s upending of diplomatic norms. Canada’s small community of North Korean defectors has been shocked and infuriated by Trump’s contrasting treatment of the two leaders: insults for Justin Trudeau after the G7 meeting in Quebec and flattery for Kim Jong-un at the summit in Singapore.

Julie and David – who both asked to use pseudonyms for fear of retaliation– are a married couple who escaped from North Korea in 2005 and now live in Toronto. Speaking through a translator, Julie could not contain her anger at Trump’s behaviour. “Attacking Prime Minister Trudeau but then, 24 hours later, going to Singapore and praising a dictator who is a murderer – it was unbearable to watch,” she said. She was particularly incensed by Trump’s failure to raise the subject of human rights abuses during his meetings with the Kim, who he described as a “very talented man” with a “great personality”.(theguardian)…[+]

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has launched an all-out assault on the rebel-held port of Hodeidah in a move that coalition leaders have claimed could be completed within a week. Sulaiman Almazroui, the United Arab Emirates’ UK ambassador, said the Red Sea port could be captured without disrupting vital humanitarian supply lines or directly endangering the lives of more than 600,000 people living in the city and surrounding areas.

Coalition warplanes and warships on Wednesday pounded fortifications in the Houthi-controlled city to support ground operations by Yemeni, UAE and Sudanese troops massed on its southern approaches. The information minister of the exiled Yemeni government, Muammar al-Iryan, warned Hodeidah residents not to “allow any sniper or gunmen from Houthi [rebel] militia on the roofs of your houses. Stay away from military camps … Do not store petrol products.”

Almazroui told reporters the coalition had contingency plans to replace any loss of aid caused by coalition airstrikes. Saying the operation, known as “Golden Victory”, was still in a preliminary phase, he explained “the way we see it going we don’t think it is going to take that long”, adding: “We are hoping it will take days not months. If things go as planned, there will be no shortage of food.”(theguardian)…[+]

BRIDGETOWN – The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has added an electric vehicle to its transportation fleet, as part of its commitment to advance a clean energy agenda in the Region. Energy security is a consideration integrated throughout CDB’s work—both within the organisation and throughout its Borrowing Member Countries, under the Bank’s 2015-2019 Strategic Plan.

The vehicle, a Nissan Leaf Tekna purchased through the Barbados-based company, Megapower Ltd., produces zero emissions and will reduce the Bank’s carbon footprint as it transports packages and officials throughout the island. In 2015, CDB adopted an Energy Sector Policy and Strategy that set out the CDB’s approach for tackling the Region’s energy challenges, including emphasising energy security and access; prioritising renewable energy and energy efficiency; and promoting a holistic approach to energy sector transformation.(CDB)…[+]

Some of Africa’s oldest and biggest baobab trees have abruptly died, wholly or in part, in the past decade, according to researchers. The trees, aged between 1,100 and 2,500 years and in some cases as wide as a bus is long, may have fallen victim to climate change, the team speculated.

“We report that nine of the 13 oldest … individuals have died, or at least their oldest parts/stems have collapsed and died, over the past 12 years,” they wrote in the scientific journal Nature Plants, describing “an event of an unprecedented magnitude”.

“It is definitely shocking and dramatic to experience during our lifetime the demise of so many trees with millennial ages,” said the study’s co-author Adrian Patrut of the Babeș-Bolyai University in Romania. Among the nine were four of the largest African baobabs. While the cause of the die-off remains unclear, the researchers “suspect that the demise of monumental baobabs may be associated at least in part with significant modifications of climate conditions that affect southern Africa in particular”.(theguardian)…[+]