WWF has released its G8 climate report cards (PDF) in the run-up to the G8 summit in Japan, and mom and dad will not be happy when they see the U.S. score. The United States is at the bottom of the class, followed by Canada and Russia, each of which seemed to have copied off of the U.S.'s paper. Here is a summary of the teacher's comments on the U.S. grades:

The United States score the worst of all G8 countries,being the largest emitter with the highest per capita emissions and an increasing trend in total emissions. At the same time the US have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. While substantial activities emerge at the state level, little substantive federal measures are in place to curb emissions in the short term.

Germany, France and the U.K. finished at the top of this class, but even they got a warning from the teacher that their grades could start slipping if they're not careful. Italy and Japan round out the middle of the bell curve.

Unfortunately, the class was graded on a curve, so even though Germany, France and the U.K. have high marks in emissions per GDP, they're failing in transport and struggling in past emissions trends (1990-2006) and Kyoto targets.

The U.S. is failing every subject except emissions per GDP, and even that's not a good grade. Canada, on the other hand, is failing all but CO2 per KWh of electricity, though that grade is actually pretty good.

Hopefully, the G8 summit will function as a study group, and the class can get together to try and improve their grades. If they fail, I'm afraid repeating will not be an option.

(Image from kolnkgin.com)

Via Monsters and Critics, Egyptian police apparently opened fire on a gang of human traffickers helping Eritrean and Sudanese refugees escape to Israel through the Sinai Peninsula. What's the significance? In recent months there has been a marked up-tick in the number of Eritreans entering Egypt illegally and seeking asylum. Egypt, in turn, has come under criticism from the United Nations High Commission on Refugees for forcibly repatriating Eritreans, despite their asylum claims. Meanwhile, UNHCR is trying to interview Eritrean asylum seekers to assess their claims for refugee status, but so far UNHCR officials have not be given access to all detention facilities housing Eritreans.

With Egypt being such hostile territory for Eritrean asylum seekers, a growing number have sought refuge in Israel. Writing in Ha'aretz Nurit Wuhrgaft tells the story of one intrepid young asylum seeker who made it all the way from Eritrea to Be'er Sheva in southern Israel.

It took him eight months to reach Sudan. He found his way there with the help of strangers and crossed the border without a problem. "I knew I was in another country only when I reached a village and heard the people there speaking Arabic," he says. In Sudan, he was taken in by fellow countrymen who fled Eritrea years before and settled there. During his month-long stay in Sudan, he contacted relatives who had fled years ago to Malta, and they sent him a little money for food. He used the money to pay a truck driver to take him to the capital city of Khartoum and to buy a train ticket to Cairo. In Cairo, he met some of his countrymen who warned him that he might be arrested there and even expelled back home. They suggested he join them on a trek to Israel, where, they promised, his life would be safer. P. agreed even though he had no idea where he was going. The difficult journey, traveled partially by foot, took only three days. When they crossed the border, they were detained by soldiers who took them to Be'er Sheva. "They were nice to us," he says of the soldiers, fired only in the air, were polite to us, took us in their car to Be'er Sheva and there they dropped us off and left." P. and his friends wandered around the city and asked how to get to the United Nations offices. A student put them in touch with Yohannes L. Bayu, director of the African Refugees Development Center. "I saw people after many hours of walking, exhausted, hungry and despairing," says Bayu. He mobilized the small community of Eritreans in Israel to help them find a temporary place to live, organize a collection campaign and raise money. They also gave the newcomers sheets and blankets, which were used to create makeshift beds.