📊 Ethiopian EVs, Frontier Airlines, and El Niño

Fuel savings, Denver tragedy, and climate crisis.

May 10, 2026

Greetings! Happy National Sleepover Day to those celebrating.

Let’s get into today’s top stories.

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🌎 GLOBAL NEWS

🇪🇹 Ethiopia turns oil pain into an electric bet. Electric vehicles (EVs) are moving from climate promise to survival math in Ethiopia. Africa imported 44,358 EVs from China in 2025, up from 19,386 in 2024. Those shipments were worth more than $200M. Ethiopia now has more than 115K EVs on its roads. They account for about 8% of the national fleet. The country banned new gas and diesel vehicle imports in 2024. In 2025, it took roughly one-third of Africa’s EV imports from China. The Iran war has made the case brutally practical. Ethiopia spends about $4.2B a year on fuel imports. Trade and Regional Integration Minister Kassahun Gofe says subsidies now reach up to $128M monthly. He also said fuel shipments fell short by more than 180K metric tons. The Strait of Hormuz crisis turned range anxiety into national-security arithmetic. Ethiopia has an advantage many countries lack. More than 90% of its electricity comes from renewables, mainly hydro and solar. The obstacle is not appetite, but infrastructure, affordability, and last-mile power.

🇯🇵 Nintendo’s sequel console meets tariff reality. Nintendo Co. ($NTDOY) delivered the kind of year most companies would frame in gold leaf. Its annual profit rose 52% to ¥424B, or about $2.7B. Sales rose 99% to ¥2.3T, or about $15B. The boom came from Switch 2 hardware and software demand. Then Nintendo raised prices. In Japan, Switch 2 rises to ¥59,980 from ¥49,980 on May 25th. In the American market, it moves to $499.99 in September from $449.99. The company cited changing market conditions and the global business outlook. The Kyoto-based maker of Mario and Pokémon did not itemize every pressure. The backdrop includes President Trump’s tariff hikes and wider cost inflation from the Iran war. Nintendo now forecasts an 11% profit decline through March 2027. It expects Switch 2 hardware sales to fall to 16.5M units. That is down nearly 17% from 19.86M last year. Software is the cushion, with sales forecast at 60M, up 23%. Strong demand remains, but pricing comes with a tariff bill.

🇺🇸 LOCAL NEWS

✈️ Denver’s runway breach turns fatal. A person was struck and killed by a Frontier Airlines plane during takeoff at Denver International Airport. The aircraft was Frontier Airlines Flight 4345, operated by Frontier Group Holdings ($ULCC). It was headed from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport late Friday. Airport officials said the plane reported striking a pedestrian at about 11:19 p.m. The person had jumped a perimeter fence. A spokesperson said they were hit about two minutes after entering the airport. The person was not believed to be an airport employee. The collision sparked an engine fire and sent smoke into the cabin. The pilots aborted takeoff with 224 passengers and seven crew aboard. Passengers evacuated by inflatable slides and were bused to the terminal. Twelve passengers had minor injuries. Five were taken to hospitals. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was notified. Runway 17L closed during the investigation and reopened around 11 a.m. Saturday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the person deliberately scaled the fence and ran onto the runway.

🧳 Utah custody fight crosses into Cuba. A Utah couple now faces parental kidnapping charges in a custody fight involving a 10-year-old child. The defendants are Rose Inessa-Ethington and Blue Inessa-Ethington. Rose Inessa-Ethington is a transgender woman identified in court documents as the child’s biological father. Federal officials say the couple took the child to Cuba during a shared-custody dispute. President Trump’s administration sent a government plane to retrieve the child this week. Officials cited concerns that the child had been taken to Havana for gender transition surgery. Court documents do not establish whether such surgery was actually planned. Cuban law does not allow such surgery for children. The planned trip had been described as camping in Calgary, Canada. Authorities say the group instead traveled to Vancouver, Mexico City, and then Cuba. The child’s biological mother contacted police in Logan, Utah after they missed an April 3rd return date. Logan City Police spokesperson Sgt. Brandon Bevan said one relative raised the surgery concern. He also said no physical evidence was offered. A Utah judge later granted the mother sole custody. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents then sought warrants alleging international parental kidnapping. The defendants appeared in federal court in Richmond and were ordered detained.

🗂️ MISC

🌡️ El Niño warnings get louder. Seasonal models are pointing to an El Niño pattern that could become one of the strongest on record. Jeff Berardelli, WFLA-TV’s chief meteorologist and climate specialist, expects extreme conditions. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says an event may develop from midyear. It cautions that spring forecasts are harder to trust. El Niño is natural warming in the equatorial Pacific. It can rearrange rainfall, heat, drought, and storms worldwide. WMO climate prediction chief Wilfran Okia says sea-surface temperatures are rising rapidly. El Niño usually arrives every two to seven years. It often lasts nine to 12 months. Daniel Swain, a California Institute for Water Resources climate scientist, says subsurface warm-water anomalies look historically large. That does not guarantee a super El Niño. It does make the risk serious. Berardelli says more heat can intensify heat waves, drought, and floods. He also says Atlantic hurricanes may be suppressed as Pacific heat dominates. Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann says the longer-term threat remains anthropogenic, or human-driven, warming.

📖 New textbook widens the record. The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Asian American Studies Center has launched a free digital textbook. It is called “Foundations and Futures: Asian American and Pacific Islander Multimedia Textbook.” The project is designed for high school and college educators nationwide. It centers Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) history beyond stock textbook cameos. Karen Umemoto, the center’s director and a co-editor, framed it as a fight for visibility. Kelly Fong, another co-editor, said younger readers will see their communities represented. The project took years and involved 100 contributors. It cost $12M and launched during AAPI Heritage Month. Its chapters will expand over time. The first slate covers more than familiar stories of Japanese detention and Chinese laborers. Topics include Vietnamese, Hmong, Indigenous Hawaiian, and Asian American Southern experiences. The editorial team narrowed 150 chapter ideas to 50. It includes archival photos, embedded videos, and Filipino farmworker material narrated by rapper Ruby Ibarra. President Trump’s administration has challenged diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, including at UCLA. The project is seeking another $5M for expansion, marketing, and cloud storage.