Hong Kong International Airport is among the top polluting hubs in the world, a UK thinktank has found.

On Wednesday, new data from global affairs thinktank ODI Global ranked Hong Kong’s airport as the world’s sixth most polluting in terms of flight CO2 emissions, and second in Asia-Pacific.

The study, based on 2023 data from the International Council on Clean Transportation, concluded that the fossil-fuel dependent aviation sector would be the fifth-largest emitter if it were a country.

Hong Kong emitted 15.1 million tonnes of CO2, and saw 138,764 flights, in 2023.

Seoul was Asia-Pacific’s most polluting airport, responsible for 16.8 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2023. Dubai topped the global ranking with 23.2 million tonnes of CO2, followed by London’s Heathrow.

The research also showed that Hong Kong’s airport was a significant source of local pollutants – it ranks ninth in the world, emitting 4,572 tonnes of nitrogen oxides in 2023.

The thinktank warned against reliance on so-called “sustainable” aviation fuels to bring down emissions, citing “high production costs and price premiums, limited policy support, weak long-term offtake commitments, bankability challenges and constraints on feedstock availability and sustainability.”

It also said that jet fuel emissions are predicted to increase and eat up future carbon budget: “The sector’s own high-growth scenario projects passenger demand could increase by 3.3% annually, from 9.0 trillion revenue passenger-kilometers (RPKs) in 2024 to 21.9 trillion RPKs in 2050. Between now and 2050, aviation is projected to consume 15% of the remaining carbon budget associated with 1.7ºC of warming.”

HKFP has reached out to the Environmental Protection Department and the Airport Authority for comment.

Hongkongers sweated through the hottest day of the year on Friday, with the Observatory (HKO) recording a maximum temperature of 34.6 degrees Celsius at its headquarters.

The mercury neared 37 degrees Celsius in the northern part of the territory.

Meanwhile, the Observatory noted 1,263 instances of cloud-to-ground lightning on Friday, and 4,859 cases of cloud-to-cloud lightning.

The city is now set to see nine days of rain, the weather service predicts.

See also: How Hong Kong’s elderly face deadly heat inside cramped cage homes

“A broad trough of low pressure will linger over the vicinity of the coast of southern China to the northern part of the South China Sea during the weekend to midweek next week,” the Observatory said.

The amber rainstorm warning was raised at 10am on Saturday as violent gusts swept into the territory, raising the risk of flooding.

See also: NGO warns hot weather can worsen air quality, urges gov’t action on pollutants and cooling measures in hot districts

Climate crisis

Friday marked the hottest “Grain in Ear” solar term ever documented. The ninth traditional solar term, known in Chinese as Mangzhong, signifies a period when awny crops like wheat are ready to harvest.

This week, environmental NGO Friends of the Earth urged the Hong Kong government to prioritise the climate crisis and strengthen its climate adaptation policies, with the city expected to endure an extremely hot summer.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that the intensity and frequency of heatwaves have continued to increase since the 1950s due to human-caused climate change. The prevalence of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide – which trap heat in the atmosphere – raises the planet’s surface temperature, with hotter, longer heatwaves putting lives at risk.

See also: How extreme heat became the deadliest silent killer among world weather disasters

Hong Kong has already warmed by 1.7 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution, research NGO Berkeley Earth says. Heat and humidity may reach lethal levels for protracted periods by the end of the century, according to a 2023 study, making it impossible to stay outdoors in some parts of the world.

SAINT PETERSBURG, June 5 — The Kremlin’s economic envoy told AFP yesterday that Europe needed Russian oil and gas to “survive” the energy crisis triggered by the war in the Middle East.

Western nations have hit Russian energy with sanctions since the start of the war in Ukraine, but European countries have continued to buy Russian gas — LNG in particular — from their former key supplier.

Surging prices due to the US-Israeli war on Iran and Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz have even pushed some countries, including the US and Britain, to ease some of the restrictions on Russian oil.

“The world is on the brink of a very serious energy crisis because of the instability in the Middle East,” Kremlin economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev told AFP on the sidelines of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (Spief).

“In order for Europe to overcome this crisis, Europe needs to find options for partnership with Russia and to restore the flows of both oil and gas from Russia,” he said.

Analysts say the EU imported more Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the first quarter of 2026 than in any period since 2022, with Russia the bloc’s second-largest supplier.

Europe plans to ban the import of Russian LNG from next year and has ruled out any easing of existing sanctions.

The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, has urged more pressure to be put on Moscow.

“So far we haven’t seen the willingness from the Russian side to actually negotiate” to end the war, she told AFP in Brussels on Wednesday.

Nevertheless, Russia has sensed an opportunity to have the sanctions relaxed or overlooked amid the crisis.

At the start of the war in the Middle East, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready to supply European countries with oil and gas if they committed to “lasting and stable cooperation” with Moscow.

Russia has increased its energy sales to China and India since 2022, often selling at a discount to global benchmark prices. — AFP

KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 —  In a moment of unexpectedly human vulnerability, a gorilla at a Japanese zoo has gone viral for appearing to suffer an existential crisis following a spat with his mate.

The footage depicts Kiyomasa, a 13-year-old male gorilla, seemingly adrift in a sea of deep contemplation following a disagreement with his mate.

Rather than returning to typical primate antics, Kiyomasa is seen perched in solitude, his posture striking a chord with viewers who described it as a classic "thinking pose", evocative of Michalangelo’s The Thinker.

Kiyomasa is no stranger to the spotlight; he is the son of the world-famous silverback Shabani, whose own imposing presence has made him a celebrity in his own right.

However, while his father is known for power, Kiyomasa has captured the internet's imagination through this rare display of perceived vulnerability and quiet reflection.

MADRID, June 8 — Pope Leo told Spain’s parliament that escalating conflict, deepening polarisation and widespread disregard for human rights had pushed the world into a profound crisis, in one of his most expansive political addresses yet today. Leo, who has adopted a more forceful tone ‌recently against the direction of global leadership, also firmly repeated his opposition to increased European military spending, urging politicians instead to end the wars ravaging the globe and help migrants. “The world is undergoing a profound spiritual and cultural crisis, which is manifested in multiple forms of violence, polarisation, and mutual distrust,” the pope said in the address, which came hours after Israel and Iran renewed their attacks on one another in the most serious test of a two-month ceasefire.

“Weapons can impose a temporary silence; but they can never build an authentic and lasting peace,” he said.

Migration challenging world’s ‘ethical foundation’ 

Leo’s speech, which was delivered in Spanish and was received with a seven-minute standing ovation by lawmakers, was a rare papal address to a national legislature and the first by a pope to Spain’s parliament. It is part of a week-long visit to the country in which the pontiff has met with migrants and the homeless, and called on national leaders to stop dividing their electorates. The pope, whose Spain tour will culminate with the pontiff meeting migrants in the Canary Islands who braved dangerous Atlantic ‌waters to enter Europe, said a lack of help for the world’s migrants was challenging “the ethical foundation of the international order”.

He said countries must look ⁠for solutions that go beyond “the mere management of flows” and should address ⁠the causes that force people to leave their countries of origin, including war, poverty and climate change.

The pope ⁠told parliament that “the moral greatness of a nation ⁠is manifested above all in its ⁠capacity to accompany, protect, and love those lives that pass through the greatest fragility”.

More than 3,000 people died in 2025 trying to reach the Canary Islands, off the western coast of Africa, often in makeshift dinghies, according to NGO Caminando Fronteras. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government has opened a mass amnesty programme, allowing an estimated ⁠500,000 immigrants to apply for legal status.

Pope calls European rearmament ‘troubling’ 

Leo, who issued a fervent manifesto last month urging global governments to slow down the development of AI systems, called on Monday for “rigorous ethical vigilance” over how AI was used in warfare. He said that rising European military spending, which grew last year by the highest amount since the end of the Cold War amid pressure from US President Donald Trump, was “troubling.” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has refused to meet Trump’s demands for Nato member countries to increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, although the expenditure has tripled since he took office in 2018, ⁠rising from around €10 billion (RM46.8 billion) to more than €34 billion. The pope last month called European rearmament a betrayal of democracy.

Leo also offered some of his most in-depth remarks yet addressing the balance in the relationship between Church and state. He urged protection ⁠of religious freedom, saying that faith “cannot be relegated to silence as though it were irrelevant to public life”.

The pope likewise defended the privacy of the Catholic seal of ⁠confession, which obliges a ⁠priest not to reveal any information given to him by penitents.

Several countries, including France, have debated whether to compel priests to report sexual abuse disclosed in confessions, following scandals that have shaken the Church internationally.

Protecting the seal, Leo said, preserves “a sacred space of inner freedom, where the believer can open his or her soul before God”. A 2023 report ‌by Spain’s human rights ombudsman estimated hundreds of thousands of victims of clerical abuse there over decades. The Vatican has said the pope would meet with a group of victims during the visit, but has yet to offer further details. The pope did not mention abuse by Catholic clergy in his speech. — Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that he believes that “Cuba sees the end” and, as such, he will have “the honor of taking Cuba”. 

The American leader was likely referring to an “end” of Cuba’s current communist system, which has historically been at odds with the U.S. 

“I mean, whether I free it, take it. Think I can do anything I want with it. You want to know the truth”, the president added. 

Trump’s comments coincided with a total collapse of the Cuban electrical grid on Monday which left millions without power. The U.S. blockade of foreign oil supplies — which has meant that no oil shipment has reached Cuba in three months — to the island has left Cubans facing chronic electricity shortages and frequent power outages. 

The Cuban national energy provider — La Unión Eléctrica de Cuba — posted on X that it had restored power to several “micro systems” in the provinces and that power was gradually being restored municipality by municipality. 

Read More: Crippling blackouts leave millions in darkness in crisis-ridden Cuba

Responding to Trump’s predictions of Cuba’s imminent collapse, the Cuban Consul General in Italy José Luis Darias Suarez told Latin America Reports that he was unaware of Trump’s latest comments, but that “in 67 years of revolution, a United States president has never been able to do what [he] wants with Cuba.” 

“On the contrary, they have implemented different measures, especially measures of economic pressure, to topple the Cuban Revolution, a revolution that remains in power because of [the] popular support … of the people who stand with the revolution, of which there are indisputably many”.

However, the current economic crisis has contributed to a growth in political opposition to the Cuban government. Protests, once a rarity in Cuba, have gradually increased in intensity and scope. 

In the central city of Morón demonstrators even ransacked a local office of the ruling Cuban Communist Party (PCC) in a sign of growing discontent towards the island’s leadership. 

Trump’s warnings to Cuba contrast the conciliatory tone struck by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel last Friday, who revealed that the Cuban and American governments were engaged in official negotiations that sought to find “a potential solution to … bilateral differences” between the two traditional adversaries.  

However, those negotiations may require Cuba to make comprehensive political changes in exchange for the United States easing its economic sanctions against the island; the New York Times and The Miami Herald report that the U.S. government sees removing Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel from power as a key element of any future negotiation. 

The New York Times revealed that, if Cuba complied, the U.S. would then likely allow Cubans to choose their next leader, as opposed to having a U.S.-backed figure installed. 

However, Trump’s most recent comments imply that a negotiated solution remains anything but guaranteed. The Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela to capture President Nicolás Maduro and their killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei serve as a reminder that the U.S. is willing to use force to remove heads of state, such as Miguel Díaz-Canel, that it perceives to be hostile. 

Featured Image: Trump with military officers at MacDill Air Force Base in 2017. 

Image Credit: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff via Wikimedia Commons

License: Creative Commons Licenses

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Hong Kong sweltered on Friday, with temperatures exceeding 36 degrees Celsius in the northern New Territories by mid-afternoon.

Acting Assistant Director of the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) Choy Chun-wing told RTHK on Friday that minimum temperatures remained at, or above, 28 degrees Celsius over the past six days – matching a record seen in mid-May 2021. The longest continuous record could be broken by the weekend.

The HKO has suggested some relief from the weeklong heatwave is in store, with rain predicted for the weekend.

“The anticyclone aloft will weaken tomorrow, while upper-air disturbances will bring showers and thunderstorms to Guangdong. An easterly airstream will affect the coast of Guangdong in the next couple of days. High temperature weather will be alleviated,” the weather service said on Friday.

But it added that high temperatures may soon return. “With the easterly airstream being replaced by a southerly airstream early next week, the weather over the coastal areas will be very hot again midweek next week.”

See also: How extreme heat became the deadliest silent killer among world weather disasters

At a Thursday press briefing, the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association’s CEO Maura Wong said that it had handled over 7,700 heat-related emergency assistance cases requiring hospitalisation last summer.

“The Association urges the elderly to take precautions against the heat during the height of summer, and carers should also take a more proactive role in looking after the elderly by providing timely care and support,” she said.

At the same event, the HKO’s Choy warned that sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific are predicted to continue rising, with an El Niño event set to develop in the summer and autumn.

See also: How Hong Kong’s elderly face deadly heat inside cramped cage homes

Stronger El Niño events often increase the likelihood of abnormally high temperatures across different regions. Choy warned of a high chance that this summer would be among Hong Kong’s 10 hottest on record.

The Labour Department hoisted the amber Heat Stress at Work Warning on Friday, urging employers to conduct risk assessments for staff who work outdoors or in non-air-conditioned environments.

BANGKOK: Earlier this week, Thailand’s cabinet approved a 176 billion baht (S$6.89 billion) support package to help households and businesses deal with the rising cost of living amid the current energy crisis.

The conflict in the Middle East, which began on Feb 28 when the United States and Israel started bombing Iran, resulted in the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, an important chokepoint for 20% of the supply of oil and gas across the globe. Since a significant portion of this supply was bound for Asia, countries in the region have suffered disproportionately, with governments scrambling to obtain sufficient supply for domestic use amid higher prices.

Thailand’s support package is called the “Thai Help Thai Plus,” and is meant to help low-income citizens with direct financial support during this “second wave” of the worldwide energy emergency. The programme also includes a “co-payment” subsidy component where the government pays part of people’s daily purchases.

The first was the energy crisis, followed by the “crisis” of higher prices, as Thailand’s inflation rate grew to 2.9% last month, and is believed to may even reach 5%.

The country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Ekniti Nitithanprapas, said that the programme is intended to prevent public purchasing power from shrinking.

Registration for the “Thai Help Thai Plus” will be from May 25 to 29 via Krungthai Bank Public Company Limited, through the Paotang digital-wallet app.

More than 43 million people are expected to benefit from the programme. From June to September, 13.2 million holders of state welfare cards will receive 1,000 baht (S$39.20) each month for buying consumer goods in the first part of the programme, said Thailand’s  Permanent Secretary for Finance, Lavaron Sangsnit.

For the co-payment portion, the government pays 60% of purchases, and citizens pay the remaining 40%, up to 200 baht (S$7.84) per day, with a monthly cap of 1,000 baht per month through the same four-month period from June to September, as the government endeavours to stimulate consumer spending. /TISG

Read also: Thailand’s drop in tourism tied to disruptions due to Middle East war, arrivals from the Gulf region near zero in March

This article (Thailand to release S$6.89 billion package to help ease living-cost pressures amid energy crisis) first appeared on The Independent Singapore News.

Cuba has “absolutely no fuel oil and absolutely no diesel”, according to the country’s Energy Minister, Vicente de la O Levy.

His comments, made to state-run media on Wednesday, underline the severity of Cuba’s energy crisis, which has been intensified by a near-total U.S. blockade on fuel imports since January. 

The effects of the fuel shortages were felt immediately, with widespread power outages on Wednesday night sparking protests in Havana. Though the protests soon dissipated, large sections of eastern Cuba remained in darkness on Thursday. 

While Cuba has domestic reserves of natural gas and crude oil, it lacks the money to maintain or upgrade its refineries, which are necessary to convert high-viscosity crude oil into fuel oil, essential to electricity generation. 

“Cuba is open to anyone that wants to sell us fuel”, Levy implored.

However, Cuba has largely been cut off from international oil imports by the U.S., which threatened to impose tariffs on any country supplying oil to Cuba and severed Venezuelan oil supplies to the Cuban state.

Despite this, Russia sent an oil tanker to help alleviate the crisis in March and China has also helped Cuba mitigate its reliance on imported fuel by helping install solar parks across the island. 

Nevertheless, it is unclear if any country would be willing to provide Cuba with enough oil to sustain its national grid indefinitely. There is also no guarantee that the U.S. would allow new foreign oil imports to arrive. 

The U.S. is reportedly considering sending the island a humanitarian aid package worth US$100 million to ease the effect of its own oil blockade of the island, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe visiting Havana yesterday to discuss “intelligence cooperation, economic stability, and security issues”. 

Ratcliffe is likely the first CIA Director to visit the island since 1953, as the U.S. and Cuba have been staunch geopolitical adversaries since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. 

Although the two nations are involved in official diplomatic negotiations, tensions between Washington and Havana have been rising dramatically. The North American superpower has repeatedly threatened the Cuban leadership with political regime change and has ratcheted up punitive sanctions against officials and economic entities deemed to be linked to the Cuban regime. 

Although the U.S. claims its measures are solely targeted at the Cuban government, the punitive measures have contributed to an economic and humanitarian crisis that is harming many ordinary Cubans, with hospitals, schools and workplaces facing shortened operating hours because of power cuts. 

Critics of the Cuban regime, however, argue that the energy shortages and the humanitarian suffering in the Caribbean nation are a result of the political leadership’s authoritarianism, economic mismanagement and corruption.

Featured Image: An oil refinery near Regla, Cuba 

Image Credit: Marcel601 via Wikimedia Commons

License: Creative Commons Licenses

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