Secluded resort chosen for Trump-Kim summit in Singapore
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will meet at a luxury resort on Sentosa Island for nuclear talks next week in Singapore, the White House said Tuesday.
The historic meeting will be held at the Capella Hotel, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted.
"We thank our great Singaporean hosts for their hospitality," Sanders said.
Trump and Kim's highly anticipated meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. local time June 12 at — or 9 p.m. June 11 on the East Coast of the U.S. — after a flurry of on-again-offagain action.
Trump hopes to secure a nuclear deal with the North Koreans, seeking for Kim to give up his nuclear program, though he stressed last week that the process would likely take longer than a single meeting.
Located a quarter-mile off the coast of the citystate, Sentosa Island is known for its high-end beach hotels, golf courses and amusement parks. A U.S. advance team was spotted at the Capella Hotel last week meeting with North Korean officials in preparation for the summit.
The hotel is known for luxury amenities, impeccable service and, above all, privacy for business and leisure. Two of the hotel's buildings were built in the 1880s for British officers based on the island.
On Tuesday evening, workers were painting a fresh coat on the façade, extra security was in place and red carpets were being rolled out at the hotel's two entrances.
Officials had also considered the Shangri-La Hotel, which hosts an annual international security summit and was the venue for a 2015 meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou.
Trump is expected to stay at that hotel, which is near a major shopping district and less secluded than the island facility chosen for his meeting with Kim.
The report, with its release timed for UN World Environment Day, noted that rules limiting the use of plastic bags had decreased their use in places such as Morocco, Rwanda and parts of China, sometimes significantly. But elsewhere, things haven't gone so well.
A ban on disposable plastics in New Delhi, for instance, has had only limited impact "because of poor enforcement," the report said.
New Delhi has tried repeatedly over the past decade to ban the use of thin plastic bags, most recently announcing a heavy fine for rule-breakers. But the bags remain ubiquitous across the city, blowing in the wind, piled in ditches and readily offered in hundreds of thousands of shops. Elsewhere in India, including the states of Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh, there have been better results. India is hosting this year's World Environment Day.
"Plastic pollution is a huge issue everywhere," UN Environment chief Erik Solheim told The Associated Press in an interview. He praised India for its growing focus on environmental protection but also noted that while traveling in the country he'd seen "some of the most beautiful scenic places, but destroyed by plastic pollution."
"So the problem is big, but the ability to change is also big," Solheim said.
The UN made a series of recommendations to make plastics bans more effective, from encouraging more cooperation from businesses to offering incentives.
The report notes that by some estimates, as many as five trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year.
In drought-prone Cyprus, the president said Tuesday that he wants his country to play a coordinating role in the efforts of nations in the Mediterranean and Middle East to deal with climate change.
After chairing a meeting of environmental experts and top government officials on the topic, President Nicos Anastasiades said in a statement that he gave instructions for Cyprus to play a bigger role in a part of the world that's particularly susceptible to climate change.