US calls for cooperation at Summit of the Americas

Mexico and other nations boycotted the conference after the US refused to invite Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela. [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [View in your browser]( [Top of The World]( --------------------------------------------------------------- What The World is following US calls for cooperation at Summit of the Americas [President Joe Biden speaks during the opening plenary session at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, June 9, 2022.] Credit: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Summit of the Americas This week, the US hosted the ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. President Joe Biden promised to confront [economic despair and mass migration]( in Latin America. But other nations responded by saying that the United States wasn’t doing enough. Biden also called on regional leaders to come together to deal with poverty, corruption, violence and climate change. The summit proved to be contentious after the US refused to invite the leaders of Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela. In response, several other countries, including Mexico — a major player in the region — along with Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia and El Salvador, chose to [boycott the conference](. Nicaragua Nicaragua has [authorized the arrival of Russian troops](, planes and ships into the country for training, law enforcement and emergency response purposes. President Daniel Ortega has been a staunch ally of Moscow for decades. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova [confirmed the decision](. “We are talking about a routine — twice a year — procedure for the adoption of a Nicaraguan law on the temporary admission of foreign military personnel to its territory in order to develop cooperation in various areas, including humanitarian and emergency responses, combating organized crime and drug trafficking,” she said. Russia-China Russia and China have opened a new [cross-border bridge]( between their two nations in an attempt to boost trade. Moscow has been reeling from Western sanctions over its war in Ukraine, and both China and Russia have been at odds with the United States and its allies. Russia’s Ministry of Transport said the bridge would help [boost bilateral annual trade]( to more than one million tons of goods. It links the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk to the Chinese city of Heihe, known in China as the Heilongjiang. Its construction began in 2016 and was completed in 2020, but the opening was delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions. --------------------------------------------------------------- From The World [‘It’s absolutely ludicrous’: Traveler up in arms after being forced to take Ryanair’s Afrikaans-language test to fly]( [A Ryanair plane parks at the airport in Weeze, Germany, Sept. 12, 2018.] Credit: Martin Meissner/AP/File photo Dinesh Joseph is a South African-born leadership and management trainer based in London. Returning from vacation recently, he was one of the people forced to take Ryanair's Afrikaans-language test to prove that his passport was real before being allowed to board his flight from the Canary Islands back to the UK. He [described the experience]( to The World's host Marco Werman. [A Tokyo train company moves to become net-carbon neutral]( [People walk across the famed Shibuya scramble crossing as the sun sets behind the skyscraper, Oct. 11, 2021, in Tokyo.]( Credit: Kiichiro Sato/AP/File photo Last month, one railway network in Tokyo [switched its entire network to electricity]( derived from renewable energy. It’s the first time a railway has become entirely net-carbon neutral. --------------------------------------------------------------- Help The World invest time and care in our journalism With every story we share, we invest time and care to ensure that we are centering the voices of those behind the headlines. This type of independent, human-centered journalism is more important now than ever before. Can we [count on you]( to keep our nonprofit newsroom going strong? --------------------------------------------------------------- Bright spot The “fantastic giant tortoise,” a rare species from the Galápagos Islands, was believed to have gone extinct a century ago. But one of them was [recently identified]( in what’s being called a “big deal” for the islands’ biodiversity. The animal was found in 2019, but it took DNA testing, done at Princeton University, to confirm the correct species. 🐢 [Screenshot of The Independent tweet]( Credit: Twitter In case you missed it on The World --------------------------------------------------------------- Don't forget to subscribe to The World's Latest Edition podcast using your favorite podcast player: [RadioPublic](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Stitcher](, [Soundcloud](, [RSS]( [The World logo]( [The World on Facebook]( [The World's Twitter account]( [Donate]( | [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [Edit your subscription]( | [Unsubscribe]( | [View in your browser]( Top of the World is written weekday mornings by the team at [The World](. [The World]( is produced by [PRX]( and [GBH](.