Shortly after Trump announced he was canceling the summit with Kim Jong-un — and before Trump publicly signaled the summit might still happen after all — I received a prescient email from John Park, the director of the Korea Working Group at the Harvard Kennedy School.
The big picture: Park is impeccably connected in South Korea and his email is worth reproducing in full: "[South Korean President Moon Jae-in] has initiated a very bold game plan and has assumed a lot of the risk for Kim and Trump to have their summit and produce a joint declaration. Moon needs this particular outcome to move forward with implementation of the Panmunjom Declaration — i.e. have more control over fate of the Korean Peninsula."
The United Nations has warned that almost two million people in Afghanistan are at risk of severe food shortages thanks to drought across two-thirds of the country, the New York Times reports.
The big picture: The U.N. reported that — in the 20 provinces most directly impacted by the drought — almost 15 million people "rely on farming, livestock or [labor] opportunities in agriculture." The U.N. is trying to collect at least $115 million to give assistance to the 1.4 million people considered most vulnerable, on top of an earlier request of $430 million for humanitarian aid. But, per the NYT, only 28% of the original request has been filled.
Florida and Mississippi have declared states of emergency in the face of Subtropical Storm Alberto as South Florida and the Florida Keys could get up to 10 inches of rain, and Cuba is expected to see 15 inches.
The details, from Axios' Andrew Freedman: The greatest threats from Subtropical storm Alberto include heavy rain, coastal flooding, and high winds. Some areas of Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi could see up to a foot of rain through Memorial Day. The difference between a subtropical storm and a tropical storm is negligible in terms of impacts, and Alberto is expected to become a full-fledged tropical storm on Monday. While this comes earlier than hurricane season's start on June 1, it's not expected to be an overly active season.
